Lovely: A Passionate Contemporary Romance

By Marianne Lowe

“You were always in my head. And I could never get you out.”
Elena is almost looking forward to the company winter retreat—until she finds out that Hector Fisher and his division will be going, too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marianne Lowe
• Release date: Jul 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005101244

Book preview

Marianne Lowe

Lovely

Copyright © 2020 by Marianne Lowe

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Also by Marianne Lowe

Chapter 1

Chapter Separator

Oh, and Fisher and his division will be joining us, too.

Joe announces it off-handedly, like it’s no big deal, making Elena very nearly choke on her chai latte. Which is why she almost asks him to repeat himself. Excuse me. It sounded like you said that the Software Engineering team would be coming to the winter retreat? Lisa and Richard and James and Roman and the rest of that whole incredibly unpleasant gang, too? And Hector Fisher, to boot? Can you confirm it? Can you confirm that this disaster of cataclysmic proportions will in fact be happening? But there is no need to ask anything, because everyone around the table is already groaning with varying degrees of discontent, which means that Elena definitely heard it correctly the first time.

Oh, man. Next to her, Kevin looks a lot like he’s about to throw his ‘English is important but engineering is importanter’ mug across the room. Just… why?

Joe spreads his arms. Unclear. Orders from corporate. Team building and group development and stuff like that, I’m guessing. You know, synergy.

But we’re different teams. Rose is scowling harder than Elena has ever seen her.

Yeah. Well, we collaborate all the time.

But we suck at collaborating with them. Because they suck.

Right. Joe scratches the back of his head. I suspect that might have something to do with the company sending us on vacation with them for five days. The goal is that moving forward we can develop a positive working relationship. Joe seems to think about it for a second, and then winces uncomfortably. Okay, civil. A civil working relationship.

God. What if they want to… to hang out with us?

Joe sighs. I could point out that that’s the whole point of the retreat, but the truth is, I doubt they will. And the cabin is supposed to be huge, more like a hotel—they will probably just mind their own business. And we’ll mind ours. Easy peasy.

Jess slams her laptop shut a touch too forcefully. What if we get snowed in with them? That seems unlikely.

Oh—what if they go all Shining on us? Kaydel sounds legitimately worried. I can totally picture Lisa running after me with an axe. Hector Fisher, too. And even—

They won’t.

But what if I end up in the hot tub with James, and she pees in it out of spite, and—

Okay, that’s it. Joe turns off the projector and disconnects his iPad, clearly doing his best to look stern. We will go to the retreat, we will spend a week breaching the divide that exists between the Software and Hardware engineering teams—or, more realistically, we will ignore each other and avoid physical accidents, keeping in mind that any altercation would mean instant termination for yours truly. He points at himself with his thumb. We’re gonna ski a bit, and sit in front of the fireplace with some expensive booze, and then we’re gonna come back home and forget it ever happened. Fisher’s team will do the same, and we’ll all live happily ever after. End of the meeting. Everyone, get back to work. He claps his hands. Chop-chop.

It’s to Joe’s credit, how impervious he is to the dirty looks he is subjected to as people file out of the room, dragging their feet and muttering things like evil corporate overlords and easy for him to say, everyone knows that he’s fucking Richard and I’m gonna team build their asses. Elena lingers on her chair, chewing on her bottom lip and trying to adjust her mental image of what was supposed to be a very pleasant, relaxing vacation on the company dime. It’ll be fine. Certainly. Probably. Maybe. It’ll be—

Elena? She almost startles at finding Joe standing next to her chair. You doing okay?

Of course. I’m great. Elena pastes a huge grin on her face, grabs her laptop and springs to her feet. Everything’s just peachy.

…

Everything’s shit. Everything’s the worst. And nothing, absolutely nothing is peachy.

The problem, of course, is that Hector Fisher is vile. And that he hates her.

Every member of the team he leads is, quite frankly, horrible. Richard’s perennially disgusted expression, like someone just farted in his personal space; Lisa and her daily, passive-aggressive ‘per my last email’; James, who was totally the one who tattled to corporate that Elena and Kevin were stealing snacks from the break room and bringing them home; not to mentions all those other bro-y guys who always wear cargo shorts, and call Elena ‘dude’, and look like they’re straight out of an Ivy League lacrosse team. The entire division is a nightmare—but Hector Fisher.

Hector Fisher of the huge biceps and the aggravated expressions. Hector Fisher, who goes through PAs at the same speed Elena goes through skittles, who rolls his eyes during marketing presentations, who never bothers to say hi on the elevator.

Hector Fisher, who clearly doesn’t like Elena. And Elena knows, because he said as much. She overheard him ask Joe to take her off the Starkiller project only a few months ago. Someone else would be better suited, he’d said, his tone crisp and cutting. Not sure who, since Elena’s my best engineer, Joe’d answered with a shrug. Hector’s jaw had stiffened. Then you should hire better engineers, he’d replied before stalking