Indeed, it wasn’t long before Jude came out of Mark John’s office. She walked into the kitchen, where Daisy was pouring a second cup of coffee. Jude looked flushed--her cheeks were red and her lips looked a bit puffy. Her hair was just the tiniest bit out of place.
“Is everything okay, Jude?” Daisy asked.
“What?” Jude looked distracted. “Oh. Yes. I’m fine. Mark John told me about your new assignment.”
So much for not wanting her to know about it right away.
Daisy watched as Jude took a bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator, unscrewed the cap, and took a long drink of it. She leaned against the counter when she was done, looking into the glass bottle as if it held some fascinating secret.
Jude, tall, slim, and well-proportioned, typically wore a uniform of a dark pencil skirt, expensive white blouse, an elegant yet understated necklace, pumps with two-and-a-half inch heels, and tortoiseshell glasses. She wore her glossy chestnut hair either down in a long bob or up in a chignon. She was gorgeous. Daisy, on the other hand, was tall in a lanky way, wore her hair in a loose ponytail, preferred loafers to pumps so she wouldn’t tower over everyone, and liked to wear wide-leg linen pants and peasant blouses. And whereas Jude’s glasses gave her a sexy, alluring look, Daisy knew that if she didn’t wear contacts, she would end up looking scholarly and geeky in those same glasses.
Daisy cocked her head and gave Jude one last glance. Jude wasn’t paying any attention to her. Daisy, who normally saw a cold, aloof woman whenever she looked at the senior editor, tried to look at her as others might see her. And what she saw surprised her--this time she saw an elegant woman who exuded professionalism as well as, perhaps, a hint of vulnerability in the set of her mouth.
She wondered which Jude Mark John saw when he looked at her.