An Exclusive Guest Post from Rachel Lynn Solomon, Author of Today Tonight Tomorrow—Our August YA Book Club Pick

Today Tonight Tomorrow is a romance novel within a romance novel. Rowan, the protagonist, is an aspiring romance author and yet, she has no idea she’s living out one of her favorite tropes. For the past couple years, she’s been working on an enemies-to-lovers book—and if she had a bit more of the self-awareness she gains later on, she’d realize this is probably her way of expressing her feelings for Neil, her longtime rival.
I’m thrilled to present this short romance piece that expands on the excerpt Rowan shares in the book:
Hannah had despised Hayden for two years, one month, four days, and fifteen—no, sixteen—minutes.
She remembered the exact moment he’d strolled into the office, his suit impeccable, not a hair on his head out of place. She knew because she’d been glancing—okay, staring—at the clock that hung above her desk, counting down the min­utes until her boss’ next meltdown.
She’d already heard more than she wanted to about this new hire, a graduate from Yale Law who also held an MBA from Penn. No one else at the firm had multiple advanced degrees and Hannah knew this thrilled the partners, the trio of salt-and-pepper-haired men in the swanky corner office.
Hannah, however, was a little less thrilled. She was on track to be made partner and she wasn’t about to let this multiple-degreed hotshot get in her way. Not when she’d given the firm sixty, seventy, eighty hours a week for the past five years of her life. She hadn’t gone on a vacation or a sec­ond date since law school, but it would all be worth it when she had a swanky corner office too.
If Hayden Walker didn’t get in her way.
So, she watched as he flicked raindrops off his jacket and made his way toward his desk, which happened to be right across from hers.
He gazed down at her with electric-blue eyes. “Are you my secretary?” he’d asked.
Of course, he had a British accent.
He could have recovered from that remark had he not insisted upon acting vile to her every chance he got. One day in the office kitchen, he’d mansplained to her how to properly steep tea—never mind the fact that Hannah’s mother had spent a decade running a tea shop and all things tea were second nature to her. Hannah had always prided herself on being the first in the office and the last to leave but, apparently, so did Hayden. More than a few times, they’d stayed in the office past midnight, their hardened eyes daring each other to tuck their tail between their legs and head for the exit. She was really starting to miss sleep.
Worse than all of that, though, was how the partners favored him. She used to have her pick of exciting, challenging cases, but now the best cases went to him. Everything that made her blood spark in the way that had initially inspired her to go to law school—gone. Misogyny at its finest.
Two years and some change later, Hannah had remained thoroughly uncharmed by his British accent, unaffected by the way his hair grew artfully mussed when he raked a frustrated hand through it.
And now her boss wanted them to work together.
“I can handle this case just fine on my own,” Hannah said.
Hayden leaned against the closed corner office door. He was always doing that — leaning, as though it were imperative he show all of his body off at once. He was already north of 6 feet tall. Leaning was excessive.
“No one’s doubting your abilities, Ms. Goldberg.” Her boss, Orville Shaw of Shaw, Shaw, and Perkins, sat at his desk, hands clasped in front of him. “This is a big case. The media is going to be all over it. We need every pair of hands on it that we can get.”
“Yes, Ms. Goldberg.” Hayden put an emphasis on her name that dripped with condescension. “Come on, be a team player. It’s always better to have more hands-on something like this.”
They were acting like she didn’t want to play softball at the company retreat. (Which, incidentally, she didn’t—no one looked cute in those uniforms.)
She gave Hayden her most innocent expression, “One pair of hands has always been plenty for me.”