Tied Together (The Cade Siblings Duology #1)

1. Alana

CHAPTER 1

Alana

One Year Later

“Alana, do you have the presentation ready for the meeting?” the managing editor, Ian, shouts at me as he rushes by my desk.

The office is always insane during the last push before we release the issue. Impress is quickly becoming one of the top fashion and lifestyle magazines in the world and with the growing success has come growing pressure. Everyone runs around like the building is on fire.

“Yep,” I shout back at him. “I’ve got everything ready.”

I know Ian is particularly stressed about his meeting with our editor-in-chief, Heather, at the end of the week. The meeting we are having today is to discuss topics and spreads for the next couple of issues.

Typically, the editors meet with Ian before each issue and hammer out ideas, but it’s never been this formal before. Normally, I jot my ideas down on a post-it note and call it a day. The real brainstorming happens in the meeting with everyone.

I groan when my phone chirps with a notification for the third time today. I pick it up, having a good idea of who it is, and slam it face down on the desk when my suspicions are confirmed.

“Brad again?” my best friend Cami asks as she slides her chair back to look into my cubicle.

A year ago, I walked out of the Italian restaurant and left him behind. I hadn’t spoken to him since. Unfortunately, as I was walking to work yesterday, I bumped into a wall of muscle and looked up to find his baby blues looking right at me.

We exchanged a moment of weighted silence, and once I gained the ability to move again, I pushed past him and continued toward the office.

He has since sent me two text messages, and it seems like he isn’t done. I guess he got a new phone number, because the block I put on it a year ago isn’t in place today.

Unknown

It was nice to see you, Alana.

Unknown

Im sorry for the way things ended.

Unknown

It really would be polite of you to at least respond.

Hah. It took three unanswered text messages for him to slip back into the worst version of himself.

I hit the block button after I read the third message, cringing a little as I do it.

The truth is, the night I broke it off with him, I had a rare moment of boldness. I had been pushed to my limit and I snapped. Normally, I work pretty hard to make sure the people around me are happy, even if that means I’m not. I’ve gotten better about this since I vowed to work on myself, but I’m certainly not perfect and still struggle with it sometimes.

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and rub my fingertips in small circles on my temples. I can already feel the stress headache coming on.

“He won’t leave me alone, Cam. I didn’t even speak to him and now he’s texting me like we had some kind of conversation.”

After I ended things with Brad, I swore off men altogether. No dates, no dating apps, no hookups. I made a pact with myself that I was going to focus on my career and work hard to climb the ladder and find what made me happy. So far, I have worked my way up to one of the top editors in our group and I’m hoping for a promotion in my near future. I’m not sure that my position at work is contributing much to that goal of happiness, but success and happiness are hard to come by, so I’m thankful I’ve got at least one of those things in the works.

Alex, another editor at the magazine and one of my work friends, peeks his head around the walls dividing our desks and looks at me with a stern look.

“Are you having trouble with someone, Lan?”

Alex was already working for Impress when I started about a year ago. He was warm and welcoming and we quickly became good friends.

On my first day I got lost on the third floor trying to find the copy room and he came across me looking dazed and confused. He showed me to the room I was looking for and offered me a square of chocolate he had in his pocket. He told me it cured first day jitters and he was right, it did the trick.

Ever since then, he brings me a chocolate square each morning. Sometimes he hands it to me, sometimes he puts it on my desk with a little note, but he never fails to bring me one.

He is absolutely someone I would go for if I wasn’t on a dating hiatus, but he hasn’t shown any interest in me other than friendship. Our relationship is one that lives inside the four walls of this building. We know each other’s favorite foods and drinks and he could probably anticipate how I’d react in any given work situation, but beyond that we’re pretty surface level.

Despite the fact that he hasn’t given me any reason to believe he isn’t trustworthy, I can’t get myself to move past the basic levels of friendship with him. He’s extremely kind and respectful, he makes me laugh and he’s absolutely gorgeous, but previous experience tells me that I never really know what hides behind the charm and the looks.

Thanks, Brad.

“Ah, nothing I can’t handle,” I reply quickly, giving him a smile that I hope is reassuring.

“Well, you’ll let me know if someone is bothering you, right?” he replies, eyes not leaving mine despite my effort to break contact. I like Alex and we’re good friends, but I haven’t shared many personal things with him. He definitely doesn’t know about my ex, and he doesn’t need to.

“Um...yeah, sure. I’ll let you know if I need any help,” I respond.

Alex gives me a stiff nod and turns back to his desk.

Cami looks at me with wide eyes and mouths, What the hell was that about?

Alex has always been a good friend, but the exchange felt way more protective than I’m used to from him. I shrug and turn back to my desk, focusing on the work in front of me.

I enjoy being an editor. There’s something extremely satisfying about looking at a first, second or third draft of something and picking it apart to make it perfect. Maybe because it reminds you of your parents , the cynic in my head suggests.

She isn’t wrong, that is pretty accurate to what my childhood was like. It’s a bit ironic for the people pleasing daughter to be paired with the parents who are impossible to please, but I made peace with the fact that they would never be fully happy with me a long time ago.

I clear my thoughts and take a deep breath, trying to focus on the beauty spread in front of me. Abstract photos of different shades and textures of blush line the top of the page, followed by a detailed guide on finding your perfect shade.

Being a section editor means that I do a lot of different things when it comes to editing. Sometimes I’m arranging photoshoots, rewriting articles or handling logistics for interviews. My favorite part of the job, though, is managing it all.

I love the scheduling and ticking off of to-dos. Marking something out on your to-do list is equivalent to the strongest drug. I will stand by that.

Aside from the management piece, I love the satisfaction I get when I look at a spread that has been carefully crafted and put together by talented photographers, designers and writers. It’s like the last pass of the pressure washer on those rug cleaning videos you see at two in the morning when you’ve been scrolling social media for way too long. It reveals something brand new that looks nothing like it once did.

With that reminder, I turn back to my computer and continue weeding through this spread, making changes and comments.