Simmer Down by Jessica Conant-Park, Susan Conant Read Free Book Online Page A

uncomfortable as these situations are, you have the skills to handle difficulties such as this.”
    Social work wisdom was not what I needed right now. I needed a best friend. Oh, how I wished Adrianna were here with me! She’d know exactly what to do. I had no idea, and all I could think was that I was being punished for some unknown sin.
    Hannah scanned the room in time to catch Josh, Naomi, and me all staring dumbly at her.
    “Josh? Is that you?” she mouthed with exaggeration.
    “I suppose I have to say hello,” Josh said with resignation. He took a few steps forward, and Naomi and I immediately followed.
    “Hannah,” Josh said blandly. “What a surprise.”
    Hannah Banana cocked her head to the side and flashed my boyfriend a smile. “I never thought I’d see you again.” She reached out and lightly thumped his chest with her hands. And left them there, touching him!
    Josh took a step back and pulled me next to him. “Yeah. I didn’t think I’d see you again, either. This is my girlfriend, Chloe Carter. And this is Naomi Campbell. They’re here running the sexual harassment booth.”
    “Oh, yes. Nice to meet you, Chloe.” Hannah gave me an icy handshake. “And, Naomi.” Staring pointedly at Naomi, she probably had the same reaction most people did to the name that my Naomi shared with the notoriously unpredictable celebrity; the fear that Naomi might reach out and bite her or hurl a cell phone at her head.
    “So what brings you to Boston?” Josh asked.
    “I was hired by the Full Moon Group to head a marketing campaign for them to kick off the new year. I’ve been here for about six weeks, and I have another two to three months of work to do for them. Have you seen any of the publicity I’ve done for them? I’ve been killing myself, but the money is worth it.”
    “Then back to New York?” I wondered hopefully. I couldn’t get her out of Boston fast enough.
    “You know where I’m from? I see Josh has told you about me.”
    Dammit! “I guess he must have said something in passing,” I said as casually as I could. I could’ve kicked myself for giving her any sign that Josh had even considered her worth mentioning.
    “I’m not sure what my plans are.” She eyed Josh. “It depends on a lot of things.”
    I obviously had to get rid of her as quickly as possible. After tonight, Josh and I would never have to see her again. As if to reinforce my hatred, Hannah reached into her purse and pulled out a small bag of what looked like dried snap peas— with Josh’s beautiful food right in front of her. The barbarian!
    “God, I’m starving,” she said, crunching into a green crisp. “I can’t get enough of these. Want one?” she offered us. Her fingers were covered in pale green dust, and I was afraid she’d stick them in her mouth and suck on them in shameless flirtation.
    “Okay, well, nice to meet you,” I said in the hope of ending conversation. Forever. Bad enough that she was still interested in Josh, but what kind of sick human being would choose dried snap peas over his food?
    Even Naomi didn’t like Hannah. I could tell. Naomi hadn’t said anything to Hannah, which was very unlike my talkative supervisor. In fact, she seemed to be staring at Hannah with curiosity, wondering which evil planet had shot Hannah through space and beamed her down here. Naomi was on my side! I hadn’t known she could feel such loyalty to me as I faced off against a horrible rival. I hadn’t been the best social work intern, but I’d apparently been good enough to endear myself to her. Under other circumstances, I realized, Naomi would probably have gobbled up those snap peas, which were just the type of flavorless, natural food she liked. But she wouldn’t take them. Not from Hannah.
    “I should get back to work,” Hannah said, as though I hadn’t just kicked her out of our social circle. “Nights like this are all about networking, aren’t they? Josh, let’s catch up soon, okay? Here’s my