Operation Heartbreaker Read Online Free Page A

just your flight that’s cancelled. I’m afraid we’ll have to put your blog on hold for now until we’ve clarified if, given the state of affairs, you can actually continue to work for us at all.”
    State of affairs? She wasn’t an illegal immigrant. She had only made herself one and a half years older. How complicated could that be?
    To her relief the melodic ringing of the telephone saved her a reply. A variety of feelings were punching themselves through the cotton wall she’d put up with the help of one of the little pink pills. It seemed they were effective after all. Only in this case they were fighting her own emotions. Nevertheless, her disappointment brought tears to her eyes. She blinked them away. She wouldn’t cry in front of her boss and give her even more ammunition. Only a child cries when getting caught with the hand in the cookie jar.
    When Renée ended the conversation and looked at her expectantly, she still didn’t know what to say.
    Julie made the decision for her. She jumped up and theatrically leaned over the office desk. “Please, Mrs. McKenzie,” she whined in her best Scarlett O’Hara begging tone.
    If she pulled that one out, she was determined to wrap somebody around her finger. Mostly it worked. Julie’s father was practically helpless when his daughter hung onto his arm with that tone: Her blue eyes opened wide while pleading for gasoline money. But Daddy, otherwise I’ll have to take the bus, and who knows what could happen to me!
    Yeah, right. She was good at that.
    Anyway, Ally was pretty sure that this number wouldn’t go over with Renée. The chief editor was definitely made of harder stuff.
    To her horror, her friend was making her way around the desk, grabbing her bosses shoulders.
    Just perfect. If Julie was going to shake her, Renée would probably call security.
    “Ally worked her ass off day and night for this job. In this short time she’d won more fans than any other resort of your newspaper. Her blog had almost a thousand clicks today!”
    “That’s generally true,” Renée replied and pushed Julie carefully, but resolutely away from her so that she was practically sitting on her desk.
    “And think of Viktor Iwanow.”
    That’s a good one. A small spark of hope lit up and she took a deep breath.
    “In order to remedy my concerns she would need ten times as many clicks, but that’s not the point. The Seattle Times is neither a student newspaper nor an institution where you can steal your way in under the pretense of false…”
    She didn’t get any further, because Julie suddenly broke into tears.
    Oh. My. God! She was stuck in the middle of her personal nightmare and nobody came to wake her up. Time to show some initiative. Much to Renée’s relief, Ally pulled her friend off the desk and pushed her down into the visitor’s chair. Julie had buried her face in both her hands, her body quivering under suppressed sobs.
    Sobs? Ally’s brows narrowed. She knew her friend–or at least she’d thought so until just a few moments ago. This wasn’t a hysterical bundle sitting in front of her, crying her eyes out. Julie was laughing.
    “Uh…” What the hell was going on? “I apologize for…uh… modifying my age.” According to her calendar, modify was her word of the day, she should use as much as possible. And this was an excellent opportunity. “I know that wasn’t right. But I hoped if I do a good job and prove myself, you would condone it.” At some point at least. Ally cleared her throat,  this was the hard part. She wanted this job more than anything else. But how could she keep it without begging? Besides, ten times as many clicks were a joke. How in the world could she rustle up that many fans in a few days?
    The phone rang again.
    Renée took the call, and gave Ally the chance to throw Julie an inquisitive glance. Julie bit her tongue, but not to prevent another sob, but to suppress a giggle.
    Why did her friend have to lose her mind just