“Uh, I…” Josephine stood and froze, unsure if she should leave with her friend or stick by Julian.
Lily didn’t bother waiting to find out. She turned and spun toward the front of the restaurant with Josephine and Casey on her heels. I felt like a royal ass watching them leave.
Lily brought out my worst qualities. I couldn’t remember ever having driven someone to leave a dinner, but she was gone and I was left at the table with that damn rickshaw staring back at me. Condensation gathered on the side of the glass, taunting me until I picked it up and downed it in one long sip.
Damn.
It was good. Better than my old fashioned.
“That was a disaster,” Julian said quietly, rubbing his fingers across his chin.
I shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad.”
He grunted. “You weren’t sitting in my seat. Watching you and Lily fight like that isn’t fun. I’ve never seen you like that.”
I flinched. “Are you kidding me? Don’t put this shit on me.”
He shook his head and leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. I reached for Casey’s unfinished rickshaw, downing it too. I had three empty glasses in front of me, but I still wasn’t calm. Julian and I sat in silence for a few minutes, and when I finally spoke up, I steered the conversation into more neutral territory.
“We need to have our first meeting for the new restaurant soon. Y’know, start going over expectations and timelines.” A few weeks back, Julian had agreed to be a major investor in my next restaurant. I’d presented him with the numbers from my past projects and walked him through the basic steps of opening up a new restaurant. It’d only taken a few minutes to convince him to buy in.
He frowned. “You’re putting me in a tough position here, man. Look, I’m not in the restaurant industry. Opening up a new restaurant with you was supposed to be a fun side project. I wanted to work with you as a friend but I’m already catching shit from Jo about this Lily situation. It’s just not worth it to me if it’s going to cause problems between Jo and Lily.”
“Are you serious?” I asked, gripping the edge of the table.
He’d walk away and pull his funding because Lily and I didn’t get along? That’d delay the project. I was already putting up 50% of the capital. I’d have to scramble to find more investors if Julian walked.
Before I could plead my case, our waiter stepped up to the table and started clearing away the empty glasses. “Could I get you gentlemen anything else?”
“Just the check,” I replied, already reaching for my wallet in my back pocket.
His smile fell. “Uh, actually sir, your guest, the blonde woman? She covered the check on her way out.”
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
He swallowed and nodded. “She, er, she actually told me to tell you that it was paid with her severance.” He whispered the last word as if it was offensive. “I wasn’t going to mention it, but…”
I held up my hand to silence him. The night needed to end. I stood and pushed back from the table, thankful that I’d valeted my car around the corner. I wanted to get behind the wheel and press my foot down on the gas until I could feel control fill my veins once again.
“Julian, you can do whatever you want. I’d love to have you on board for this project, but I’m not going to beg. The numbers are there. You’ll make back everything you invest by the end of the year. After that? The sky’s the limit.”
He stood and shrugged on his leather jacket. “Yeah well, you’d make my decision a lot easier if you could just get along with Lily.”
I thought back to the way she’d looked at me earlier. Full lips tugged into a frown. Wide, bright eyes narrowed into slits. A rosy tinge marring her tan cheeks.
“It’ll never happen.”
Chapter Eleven
Dean
I was on hour ten of a fifteen-hour workday when Zoe waltzed into the manager’s office at Provisions.
“Of course, please, let yourself in and start disrupting me. I was hoping to stretch this into an all-nighter.”
My words dripped with sarcasm, but they didn’t deter Zoe. She plopped down on the leather seat opposite mine and kicked her feet up onto the desk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She leaned forward and grabbed the heavy metal paperweight she always liked to toy with. “I just like to watch how the master works.”
The air conditioning kicked on and half a dozen papers flew off my desk. I didn’t even blink. “Pick those up, put the paperweight back, and get your feet off my desk. They smell.”
She grunted as she bent down to retrieve the spreadsheets I’d just reviewed. “I think that stench is actually your attitude. It’s been rotten ever since you got back from Nebraska.”
“Iowa,” I corrected, licking my finger and flipping through the resumes in front of me.
She frowned. “There’s a difference? I thought it was all just corn fields.”
I smirked. “Good point.”