Cee-Cee laughed. “No, it’s not that. I’m going out tonight, and I’ve had all evening to worry over an outfit, and after a mental perusal of my closet, I came to the conclusion that none of your old business suits will work. I need something fresh.”
Winny’s eyes sparkled. “You’re going out on a date?” Cee-Cee snorted in response and Winny shrugged, disappointed. “Not a date, then.”
“Nope. Even better. Business dinner with the mayor. I’m going to show off NowIn. He’s sending a car around for me in two hours, so we have to hurry! Mom, I’m really nervous...”
Winny perked up again at the news that Cee-Cee would get to show off her program. “Well, let’s see what we can come up with on short notice.” She beckoned for her daughter to follow her to the house, walking ahead with a swish and click of the colorful glass beads around her neck. Two silvering braids framed her unlined face, which made Cee-Cee think of her mother as an aging hippie.
She blew off Winny’s disappointment that she wasn’t going on a date-date. Cee-Cee guessed she was an anomaly in the family. With her creative, crafty mother, everything was about her husband and kids. Winny had given up a dream of being a fashion designer in Paris to raise them and marry their dad, the philosophy professor. Cee-Cee’s little sister was the hopeless romantic, already on her second pregnancy at just twenty years old and talking about marrying her new boyfriend. Meanwhile, Cee-Cee was focused on her career instead of relationships.
Of course they wondered why Cee-Cee didn’t bring home love interests. It was simple; she didn’t have any.
Cee-Cee followed her mother up the stairs that led to her parents' bedroom. When they passed Josey’s room, she peeked in on her younger sister and noticed her two-year-old nephew asleep on Josey’s bed while she leaned over the desk, concentrating on what looked like homework. She glanced up and waved. Cee-Cee smiled and waved back, and Josey pressed her finger to her lips. Cee-Cee tiptoed away.
Her little sister had moved back into the family home only after her fling with Baby Joe’s daddy fizzled to the point of no return. Until the baby’s birth, Cee-Cee had felt connected to her little sister like a twin. Lately it was like they were from two different planets. She tried not to be judgy, but she just couldn’t understand why her sister wasn’t more responsible.
Instead of moving out (or moving in with boyfriends), Cee-Cee had stayed home and attended school, and now grad school, to save up and build her credit so she could buy a home. She wasn’t sure why that was so important to her. She liked to say it was because her mom had made their house such a home that she could never stomach living in a typical twenty-something apartment, but in fact it had been a dream since she was a tiny girl. She’d been drawing floor plans and imagining décor when her sister was content with dolls and stuffed animals. And she was close enough to her goal now that her room was littered with real estate circulars. She had her sights set on a sprawling Victorian downtown, but it was out of her budget, which was why she needed her app to be a success. She needed the money.
Cee-Cee had a plan for her future, and she wasn’t about to let anyone or anything get in the way of it. Once she had a house, she could work on making it perfect. She could amass enough money to be secure, not to have to worry as so many people did about mortgages, health insurance, job loss, retirement accounts. She wanted to be safe. Although she wasn’t one to analyze herself, she remembered the screams of her second grade teacher on that day in September 2001. Her teacher had lost a son as impossibly tall buildings slowly collapsed. It had left a mark on Cee-Cee. Maybe she couldn’t protect herself against life’s random tragedies, but she could make sure the obvious risks didn’t catch up to her.
She’d be rich, she’d be independent, and she wouldn’t be indebted to anyone. “I can’t imagine letting a relationship deter me like it did Josey,” she whispered to her mom.
Winny brushed her nose and looked away, not entirely agreeing with her assessment of things. “Is that what you think relationships do?” She opened her bedroom door, the scent of her favorite cinnamon potpourri drifting out into the hallway.
Cee-Cee inhaled nostalgically. That smell would always be associated with her mother. She gazed around at the dark wood furniture and floral prints, envisioning how she’d lay out her future bedroom. Muted pastels instead of flowers, more modern decor. She saw her dream home in her mind’s eye, and the vision was promising.
Not comfortable gossiping about her rebellious sibling, Cee-Cee changed the subject. It wasn’t any of her business anyway. Josey had her life, and she seemed comfortable living it. “Mom, what about that beige dress you wore to the New Year’s party last year? Think you can modify that for me?”
“The ankle-length lace? Oh, no…I’ve seen Mayor Briton, and he’s a hottie. I think you should go for something a little sexier.”
“He’s a ‘hottie’? Mom,” Cee-Cee groaned. “Business dinner. Stay focused.”
Winny chuckled. “You seem to believe business and pleasure can’t mix, but it does far more often than you want to believe. Tell me something. How’d this dinner date come about?”
She ambled over to her mom’s bed and plopped down as Winny disappeared into her walk-in closet. “Uncle Bryan invited him down to the firm, and I was about to show him the app, but we ran out of time.”
Cee-Cee smiled to herself as her mom shouted back, “Right. A man like the mayor clearly isn’t in charge of his own time. He couldn’t spare a second to look at that app. He just had to see it over dinner.”
“You’re reading way too much into this, Mother Dearest. Mayor Phoenix Briton is a smart man who recognizes a brilliant innovation when he sees it. He just didn’t want to breeze through an overview of the app in a handful of seconds. Uncle Bryan’s been telling him about what I do, so I’m sure he’s curious about that.”
“I’m sure he wants to see the app, but I’m equally sure that he’s just as curious about my strikingly beautiful daughter.”
Cee-Cee dropped her head back with a laugh. “Yep. Always about love and romance with you guys.” She grinned at Winny, who stepped out of her closet with a black frock that didn’t look like much on the hanger. “You call that sexy?” she asked skeptically.
“It’s always about love, period,” she murmured. “Try this on.”
Cee-Cee grabbed the hanger and eased into the master bathroom. While she undressed and changed into the frock, she heard her dad enter the bedroom. She listened to her parents talking softly to one another. It gave her a warm, comfortable feeling. This house was full of memories like the sound of those lovebirds chatting, and every time she thought about moving out, she considered all the things she’d miss.
And she wondered if she’d ever have something like what her parents shared. Cee-Cee knew the odds. Women had a choice of either focusing on their social lives or focusing on their professional lives. Once one passed a certain age, whichever focus wasn’t chosen had slim pickings to offer.
A woman could work on her career and say goodbye to the healthiest fertility period of her life, only to discover that dating in her mid-thirties or forties was a joke compared to dating in her early twenties.
Or she could give her youth to hearth and home and try starting a serious career in her mid-thirties after being a stay-at-home mom for a decade. She didn’t know which joke had the worst punchline. That wasn’t the life for Cee-Cee.
The energy and effort she had put into obtaining two degrees and working on a master’s while she perfected her NowIn app was not going to be wasted on a relationship. Even if it meant she’d always be the pretty awesome aunt with no kids who lived in a big house alone with all her cats.
Cee-Cee looked down at how the black dress looked on her skinny frame. There was an oval mirror above the deep-basined tub, and her reflection showed the dress hanging off of her shapelessly. The strap slid off her shoulder, and she pushed it back up, brow furrowed. “Mom? I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Winny threw wi
de the door and looked her over. “Of course it will. I’ve got the pins.”
As Cee-Cee stood there letting her pin the dress down to size, her dad talked to her from the bedroom. “Your mom says you’re going on a dinner date with the mayor tonight. Maybe you can talk to him about the cuts he’s allowed to the university budget.” Cee-Cee heard the crackle of the newspaper and leaned out to see him sitting in his favorite chair by the bed, reading.
“Um, I’m not sure I’d know what to say about that.”
“He’s up for reelection. He’d have my vote if I could get a guarantee we won’t keep having to deal with those budget cuts.”
“Leave her alone, Marty. This is Cee-Cee’s thing.” Winny spoke past pins tucked between her lips as she knelt before her. Cee-Cee smiled.
“I can mention it, Dad.” The dress was starting to take shape with the pinning almost done.
“That’s my girl…You know, he’s one of the town’s most eligible bachelors. Isn’t he around your age?”
“And?” Cee-Cee grimaced. Winny accidentally stuck her with a pin when she shifted her weight from one leg to the other and she let out a yelp.
“Sorry, honey.”
“And you’re the town’s most eligible bachelorette,” Marty reminded Cee-Cee.
“You made that up. I’m not on the market, Dad. I just want to launch this app.”
“My social media star has no social life.” He chuckled.
Suddenly Baby Joe let out a wail down the hall and Marty refolded his reading material. He dropped it on the nightstand with a quiet rustle of paper as he put slippers on. “Time to play baby whisperer.”
“You guys spoil him,” Cee-Cee teased good-naturedly. She did, too. Everybody spoiled Baby Joe.
“We’ll spoil yours, too. That’s our job. We’re grandparents,” he said, halfway out the door.
“You’ve got a while,” she muttered, but he didn’t hear her. He was already down the hall, coddling the baby and chatting with Josey about school.
Winny rose and smoothed a hand down the bottom half of the significantly shorter black dress. “There.”
“You don’t think this is a little too flashy for a business dinner? That’s a lot of skin on display.”
“Trust me. Smart businesswomen use every asset they’ve got to get what they want.” Winny winked. Cee-Cee giggled at the idea as her mom helped her shimmy out of the pinned dress so she could run it down to the sewing room and make the alterations. Cee-Cee loped off to her bathroom to get ready for the date. Business dinner.
As she showered, she went over everything she had learned from Phoenix Briton’s file. She knew he was very image-conscious and had even made it into a regional magazine as the year’s most stylish man. But he wasn’t just a good-looking clotheshorse.
He was a philanthropist who gave to multiple charities and ran fundraisers for many reputable causes. There had not been a single scandal associated with him in all the years of his first term. And she knew, thanks to eavesdropping on gossip between her parents and her uncle, that Mayor Briton had only hired PR-ISM because another one of the frontrunners for the election, Buddy Steele, had come out swinging and fighting dirty. To no one's surprise, his first political television ad was a character attack against another opponent.
With the NowIn app, Cee-Cee would show Phoenix Briton that he could pull the curtains back and safely let the town see how he ran things. She could teach him to release carefully controlled disclosures. He had clearly done a good job as mayor so far or he wouldn’t be leading in the polls. Buddy’s smears wouldn’t stick if Phoenix Briton made things as transparent as possible. That’s what she had to prove tonight.
She climbed out of the shower and toweled off, skipping down the hall to her bedroom. She knocked a free real estate pulp off her bed as she sat and pulled on her underwear while she waited for the dress. But when she caught a glimpse of the tighty-whities and plain cotton bra, she realized she looked like she belonged in Seventeen magazine. Sniggering, she dug around in her bureau for something more grown-up.
Out came the black lace boy shorts she had bought on a whim during a sale. She paired those with a matching black satin and lace bra and reexamined herself. “Now we’re cooking with hot grease!” A few minutes later, her mom knocked on the door and handed her the dress and some shoes Josey had contributed. They were so her sister’s style—high heels and a patent leather shine.
“You guys are too much,” she laughed.
Winny replied, “You’ll thank us when you knock him dead with that presentation and this glam look.”
Cee-Cee quickly dressed and stepped under the mist of a few squirts of expensive perfume. After clipping on a pair of pearl earrings, she heard the horn blow downstairs and scurried to the window. Eyes snapping open wider, she looked down at the sleek black Rolls parked in front of their house. “Oy, draw as much attention as possible, why don’t you?”
“Don’t do anything I would do,” Josey teased in a whisper when she got down to the front door.
Cee-Cee rolled her eyes. “There will be none of that. Kiss Baby Joe goodnight for me. I might be in late.”
Winny and Marty shared a look, which she ignored. This was strictly business. Never mind that Mayor Phoenix Briton, the most eligible bachelor in town, was even more of a hottie in person than he was on television. Cee-Cee squeezed her sweaty hands together and took a deep breath before she walked out the door.
As she approached his car, waves of uncertainty assailed her. After the chat with her mother about the mayor having ulterior motives for specifically choosing a dinner date for the meeting, she vaguely wondered if Briton had the same idea Gina had had—that Cee-Cee was trying to sleep her way to the top. He was probably used to women throwing themselves at him, but if that was his expectation, he’d be disappointed. She crossed her fingers and hoped they were on the same page.
When the driver opened the door of the Rolls, Phoenix Briton smiled up at her from inside. Cee-Cee leapt a step back. “I thought you’d be meeting me at the restaurant!” She laughed self-deprecatingly for being startled at his presence.
“Don’t you look ravishing! I thought it would be cold and standoffish to send a car instead of showing up personally. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do. Hop in.” He made room for her to sit, and she stepped a shiny shoe into the vehicle. His eyes traveled the length of her leg. She blushed, climbed in and pulled the dress down some. “I hope you don’t mind. I got you flowers. Call me old-fashioned. I just think a woman deserves a treat every now and then.”
She bubbled with appreciation and surprise when he handed her a small bouquet of pink peonies. “They’re beautiful. How thoughtful of you!” He’s turning up the charm, Cee-Cee noted. The door was shut behind her, leaving her alone with a man she couldn’t deny she was attracted to but wouldn’t dare try to get. Her career goals wouldn’t allow it.
And one thing Cee-Cee had was superb self-control.
Chapter 3
“Now, let’s get started,” she confidently commandeered things.
Cora-Lynn Carson took out her tablet soon as the pair was seated in the swanky restaurant he had chosen. The Coach House was hushed and dim, with soft leather booths, white tablecloths and servers in black pulling corks out of bottles. He had chosen it not only for the food but the privacy; the tables were set far apart and he’d been looking forward to the feeling of being alone with this very interesting young woman.
Until she pulled out her tablet, that is. Phoenix’s eyes skimmed the cold plastic rectangle, and he reached across the table to push it away. “What would you like to drink?” He looked her over.
Young, beautiful and reserved. Her lustrous black hair feathered around her face in a layered cut that was longer at the front. Her face was all wide-set exotic eyes. They were electric blue, and her lips were colored with a bronze tint. She had a look a man would be hard-pressed to forget.
Her mouth rounded in a surprised O. She stammered soundlessly until sh
e found her voice. “I thought this was a business dinner.” Dove-like white hands fluttered restlessly to the tabletop to unfold her napkin, and she locked her fingers together on the table between them when she was finished. He leaned closer, a habit. She leaned away.
Phoenix smiled and felt the tension between them tighten. He murmured, “It is, but I’m not the best at talking around a mouthful.” His dark brown eyes were shaded by his heavy eyelids as he watched her, noting the way she blushed and squirmed at his comment. Phoenix was a flirt, but she was fighting the magic.
“Not the best at something? You don’t seem like a man with a lot of limitations.” Her lilting voice had a teasing quality. He chuckled in surprise at the veiled compliment. She was loosening up to him. He liked that.
Her blousy black frock was belted at the waist, simultaneously hiding her curves and exposing her legs. She was his type, but it was clear she wasn’t interested in hanky-panky, and Phoenix wasn’t in the mood for a dinner filled with shoptalk—not with this woman—so they were even.
He waited for the vein beating nervously at the side of her milky neck to slow its racing before he asked her again what she’d like to drink. She was visibly calmer when she scanned the wine list and gave her selection. Cee-Cee settled back in her dining chair to study him the way he had looked her over.
He was making this more intimate than it needed to be. Phoenix Briton’s cerulean blue suit was a pop of color in the sea of safe black, charcoal and navy blue menswear sported by the other male patrons of the restaurant. His muscular physique filled out the coat, and his dark hair was combed rakishly to the side, parted on the right.
“Mayor Briton, I want to make sure that we’re on the same page. I don’t want to take up too much of your time tonight. I just want to show you what NowIn can do for you and your campaign.”
MMF BISEXUAL ROMANCE: Phoenix Running Page 2