The Goy Next Door (Girl Meets Goy #2)

Chapter 1 Easy as Ex, Y, Z

Leah’s heart was pounding so loudly that she was sure Mark and Alex could hear it in the cubicles next to her. She sat up tall to look over the cubicle walls to see if they were looking at her, but neither was. Mark had his headphones on and was typing way to the rhythm of whatever he was listening to and Alex was bent over a notepad doing what looked like math. Good, Leah thought. Her heart wasn’t as loud as she thought it was.

But then again, maybe she wanted them to notice her. Maybe she could get one of them to make the call for her. Surely they would help! That’s what friends are for. Once she explained the situation to them and showed them the name on the paper in front of her, they would completely understand.

Leah stretched her back so her eyes were above cubicle level and took a deep, over-exaggerated breath. Alex looked up from the notepad in front of him and caught Leah’s eyes. She then looked at Mark and gave a slight tap on the cubicle wall. So much for being subtle.

“I need help with my article,” she said when both of them had eyes on her.

“Leah Rosenberg, girl genius, the Lois Lane of Club Business, the editor’s pet, asking us, the senior reporters, for help?” Alex mocked. “How could this be? Whatever could stump Tony’s protégée?”

“Are the numbers not adding up?” Someone whispered and Leah turned to see Malcolm, Club Business’ top data analyst next to her. She hadn’t noticed him approach, but that didn’t surprise her. Neither did his plaid pants or the carnation he kept in the pocket of his short-sleeved button-down shirt.

“No, the numbers make sense,” she said to Malcolm. “But thanks! This is more of editorial nature.” She smiled and hoped Malcolm would understand. This wasn’t about data or statistics, it was about her ex-boyfriend. And when it comes to exes, she didn’t need help from a data analyst, she needed help from her friends.

“Editorial nature?” Mark asked. “You’ve piqued my interest. Is this about the story Tony assigned you about the fast-food chain hostile takeover?”

Leah nodded. Earlier that morning during her department’s daily stand-up meeting, their boss, Club Business’ editor-in-chief Tony, had assigned her the big news story of the day. After a diatribe about why Spring Break is detrimental to society— It doesn’t prepare you for the real world! —Tony reprimanded his two senior reporters for their lack of creativity and then he gave Leah what she hoped would be her big break.

After the meeting she talked to Club Business’ new researcher who had recently replaced her when she got promoted to junior reporter and asked him to send over anything suspicious from his data entry work from the Troubled Company Reporter, a giant packet of financial data they received daily, and it was the researcher’s job to input the data into a database. Leah had been doing the job for several months before her promotion. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been extremely relieved to pass that job on.

The researcher nodded and then several hours later plopped a brief on Leah’s desk. WinterRock Capital placed a bid to purchase all the debt owed by a fast-food chain and who was the lead associate working on the deal? Gabe Russo. Also known as Leah’s ex-boyfriend. Or as her friends liked to call him, her ex-goyfriend.

“Gabe is the lead associate on the deal,” she whispered across the cubicle walls. Mark and Alex looked at each other and then back at Leah, neither seeming to understand what she was trying to convey to them. “Gabe? My ex?” She reminded them. Subtly just didn’t work with these guys.

“The goy?” Alex blurted and Leah rolled her eyes. Did she have to explain everything to them?

Gabe had been the first non-Jewish boy she had ever dated. Heck, he was only the second real boyfriend she had ever had. He was handsome, romantic, intelligent, ambitious, and everything she had ever wanted in a boyfriend, except that he wasn’t Jewish. Leah thought she could get over that. But at her cousin’s disastrous New Year’s Eve wedding (disastrous for Leah, not for her happily married cousin), Leah learned that her family would never accept Gabe and she wasn’t quite strong enough to fight them.

When Gabe confronted her for not standing up for him against her family, it had been easier to just let him go. Especially since Asher, her nice Jewish ex-boyfriend, was already waiting for her on the sidelines. Asher was great, but he didn’t answer all the what-ifs about Gabe that were still rumbling around in Leah’s head. Asher didn’t give her butterflies nor did he excel in romantic gestures like Gabe had. But maybe butterflies and romance weren’t as important as things like religion and family approval. Leah had to keep telling herself this every time thoughts of Gabe swept through her head.

She tried to focus on Asher. He was reliable. His unpaid internship had recently turned into an entry level job. He was trying and he was nice to her. He’d taken such good care of her after she’d broken her arm ice-skating right after New Year’s. He deserved credit for that.

“Yes the goy!” Leah almost shouted to Alex as she rolled her eyes. “Can you please call him for me? You can ask questions, and I’ll take notes on the line.”

“Are you kidding me?” Alex laughed. “Do you think I’d miss watching you call your ex-goyfriend to get the story? Anyone have popcorn?” Mark let out a loud chuckle.

Leah rolled her eyes again. What kind of friends were Alex and Mark? She would make the call for them if it had been to one of their exes, but neither of them had exes in this industry. Heck, she wasn’t sure either of them had an ex.

“Just be professional,” Mark offered. “Act like a serious journalist and he will treat you like one. You always said he was a good guy, right? If he is, he will be professional too. Easy as A, B, C.”

Gabe was definitely a good guy, but she wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to be professional with her now. After the way he stormed off during the wedding right before midnight on New Year’s Eve and how she never responded in their silly email chain where she tried to be funny by using financial terms to get him back and he said he was considering; she didn’t see any reason why he should be nice to her.

She had been a shmuck. She hadn’t treated him nicely and now that she needed something from him, she didn’t see any reason why he should help her.

But did she have a choice? If she didn’t get the story, Tony might not take her seriously anymore. She might no longer be his pet (and she agreed with her friends that she was their editor’s pet for the moment) and he might not assign her any good stories anymore.

With one more eyeroll, she learned forward at her desk. She put her head down and started researching her story. When lunchtime rolled around, she told her friends she had other plans and when they left, she picked up her phone. With a deep breath, she dialed the number.