Chapter 35: Mr. Perfect
** Harper **
"He's an editor." Harper tried to pretend that she didn't get the innuendo. "Of course he's good at polishing up books."
Chelsea tilted her head to the side, a signature thing she always did when she was in her gossip girl mode. "Oh yeah?" Her eyes gleamed with a sly light. "Only books though?"
"Eli is truly good at his job," May chimed in at the perfect time, seemingly oblivious to the direction that Chelsea was trying to go. "He might only be part-time, but he gets through his clients more efficiently than a lot of us full-timers. That was the main reason why I picked him to hand Harper's book over."
"Thank you, it worked out really well for me." Harper latched on to that digression immediately. She wouldn't miss such a great opportunity to both escape Chelsea's interrogation and steer the conversation toward gossips about Eli. "You two have been working together for a while?"
May took a second to do the math. "Only for about a month, I heard he's new in town. But a man like that makes an impression fast. It's hard to not notice someone who's both so capable and looks like the cover model for The Hottest Man Alive."
That assessment successfully diverted Chelsea's attention. "So this guy really is smoldering, even without filters from Harper's beautifying lens?"
"Oh, definitely." May chuckled. "Perfect body, perfect face, with that wicked type of smile teenage girls go crazy for. And surprisingly, a nice personality too. His clients all gave rave reviews." She eyed Harper. "I'm assuming another one from you is coming soon."
Harper smiled a bit sheepishly. It was oddly satisfying to hear other people talk about Eli like this, and she couldn't help but feel a bubbling sense of pride. Then she noticed Chelsea was glancing her way with a lethal dose of suspicion, and she quickly schooled her face back to casualness.
"I heard a couple of the younger editors on our team are even using him as a blueprint for the ideal main character now," May continued. "So if you start seeing too many books in the next few months that all read like they have the same Mr. Perfect in it, you'll know why."