by Roxie Rivera
Chest constricting, he studied her face. "Does that bother you?"
She put her hand over his heart. "Not for the reason you're probably thinking, Dimitri. I spend so much time here with my bakery family that nothing is ever private." She bit her lower lip. "I wanted this to be something special, something just for me."
Feeling a bit playful, he lowered his head until his breath tickled her ear. "I've got something just for you and I promise it's very, very special."
"Dimitri!" She hissed with mock outrage but she couldn't stop smiling. "Will you get out of here?" Blushing, she glanced at the doorway leading to the locker room. "Adam will hear you and then I'll really get it from Lupe and Celia!"
He kissed her cheek and reluctantly backed away from her. "I'm going to get that breakfast I promised you."
She nodded and got back to work. They still had so much to discuss but it could wait. After he got her breakfast squared away, he was going to dig up some information on UpStreet Properties. If they chose to play dirty with Benny, he was ready to drag them right into the mud. The kind of information he wanted wouldn't be easy to find but he knew just where to go—Yuri.
Chapter Five
"Benny, Lena is here."
I finished swirling bright white frosting on a chocolate cupcake and glanced up at Celia. "Tell her I'll be right there."
She nodded and left but not before shooting a silly smile my way. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. All morning, I'd been getting strange looks. Just as I'd predicted, Adam had shared his gossipy discovery with Lupe who then told Celia who told everyone.
It annoyed the crap out of me that I couldn't even have one day to enjoy my secret all by myself. I also couldn't shake the worry that things between us wouldn't work out and then what? I'd have the entire bakery in my business when Dimitri dumped me? The very thought made my stomach churn.
I finished frosting the tray of cupcakes and slid them down the line to be spattered with sprinkles. After tossing my gloves, I untied my apron and hung it on an empty peg. I caught Marco's attention with a little wave and let him know I was leaving the kitchen for a short while.
Out in the bakery, I spotted Lena at one of the tables closest to the door. She looked out of place in the laid-back atmosphere of the small café. With that bold, deep blue dress and nude peep-toe pumps, Lena embodied the image of a career woman on her way to a power lunch. She'd pulled her sleek black hair up and wore simple earrings. I sort of envied her polished look and upwardly mobile career path.
I marveled at the way my friend had changed since we'd known each other in college a few years back. Lena's drive to be successful, to make something of herself and rise above her impoverished beginnings in one of Houston's harshest neighborhoods hadn't lessened any. She'd blossomed with confidence and had proven herself more than capable at her job.
That blog of hers that chronicled the highs and lows of the Houston social scene had grown from a silly little pastime our freshman year to an internet hotspot that allowed her to earn advertising revenue and build her own personal brand. A social media maven, she'd recently branched into charging for tweets broadcast to her thousands of followers. She was careful to highlight only places she actually endorsed or enjoyed to maintain the authenticity of her nightlife stamp of approval.
But with that pretty face and knockout figure, Lena had to work twice as hard to get people to take her seriously. Graduating with honors and a degree in only three short years had been a good start. Snagging a job at the top Houston PR firm had been even better.
"Hey!" Smiling, I slid into the seat across from her. "How are you today?"
"Great." Lena cocked her head and studied me. "Something's different about you. Did you cut your hair?"
I shook my head and self-consciously touched the tip of the braid dangling over my shoulder. "No."
"Hmm," Lena murmured and continued to stare at me. "You just…you look different."
I swallowed nervously and shrugged. "Okay."
She narrowed her dark eyes. "You know I'm not going to let this go, right?"
With a little sigh, I glanced around to make sure no one would overhear us. Leaning forward, I confessed, "I sort of spent the night with Dimitri."
"What?" Her hands flew to the table and she moved closer. With a scandalized expression, she asked, "Why am I just hearing about this now? You should have texted me this morning!"
"And said what?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you could have spilled all the incredibly dirty details of your sexy night with the blond Adonis?" A bit conspiratorial, she asked in a hushed whisper, "How was it? Like so hot you almost set the bed on fire? How big is his you-know-what?" She glanced down at her lap. "Huge, right?"
"Oh God." I couldn't stop laughing as I buried my red face in my hands. "I'm really not going into specifics here."
"Then come over tonight," she said. "We'll get Vivi to cook for us and have Erin bring over a few bottles of obscenely expensive wine from Ivan's cellar. You can regale us with all the delicious little details of how it went down."
A few months ago, before crossing paths with Lena again, I would have said no. to a girls' night out. Dimitri's voice rattled around in my head. What had he said? That I deserved to have a life?
"Okay. I'll come over."
"Eight o'clock?"
"Sure but I can't stay too late. We have the Tasting Houston thing tomorrow."
"Girl, don't I know it!" With a dramatic shake of her head, she reached into her oversized leather satchel that she used for business and produced glossy red folders for me. "I've got everything ready for your station. I stopped by the print shop on my way over here. They'll make their delivery to you in a couple of hours. Just bring all the boxes down to the fairgrounds. I'll sort them out when we set up your spot."
Nodding, I opened one of the folders and examined the materials. "This is really nice."
We chatted about her plans for rebranding the bakery. She'd studied all the family-owned bakeries in Houston and discovered our little panaderia was something of a gem. Not that anyone knew it because we hadn't been out there, hustling to grow the brand and broadening our customer base. She wanted to appeal to foodies who sought out the authentic Mexican bakery experience and to Latinos who wanted a taste of home.
"So I think the goal is to make a splash tomorrow at Tasting Houston. We do the newspaper interview and you talk up your family history. Make sure to lay it on thick when it comes to your grandparents coming here build a new, better life. We want to play up the opportunities this place has given so many employees. We want to talk about how it enriched the neighborhood."
"I hope you're going to give me some note cards or something because I'm pretty sure I'm going to screw this up."
Lena laughed. "You won't. And, yes, I'm going to give you some talking points." She gestured to the window. "We want to make sure we talk about how this place is standing strong and fighting to preserve the history of Houston. People like those kinds of underdog stories."
"I'm not sure if I'll be one of the successful ones."
Her expression morphed to one of concern. "Why? What happened?"
"UpStreet Properties sent this guy to talk to me this morning. He didn't threaten me outright but he insinuated that this wasn't going to end well if I didn't accept their offer. He came in through the side door, from the alley, and scared me to death. I was the only one in the place but Dimitri was upstairs thankfully."
"Ooh," Lena said, her eyes wide. "Did Dimitri get physical? Because I've seen how protective Ivan is of Erin. He wouldn't think twice about socking someone in the face for threatening her."
"No, but Dimitri wasn't very happy."
"Boy, those UpStreet guys aren't very smart. There's a giant Russian ex-soldier living upstairs and they think it's a good idea to send around one of their goons to strong-arm you?"
"They may not be very smart but they're ruthless. I'm one of the few businesses standing in their way. Carl, the goon," I cl
arified, "said that the generous offer they made would expire on Monday."
"Dickheads," she muttered.
I smiled sadly in agreement. "He basically threatened to go behind my back and buy Johnny's share of the business to force my hand."
"Assholes!" She nervously teethed her lower lip. "Do you think Johnny would sell out to them?"
"Lately, all he talks about is making money." I ran my finger over the edge of the table. "He wants that flashy lifestyle of the drug runners in his gang, you know? Cars, nice clothes, jewelry, hot girls—but that stuff costs money. God knows he's not about to lift a finger to find a real job."
"After the crap I've watched you and Erin go through with siblings, I am so glad I'm an only child." She reached out and touched my hand. "What are you going to do? Have you talked to Johnny?"
I shook my head. "I tried calling him this morning but he didn’t answer. He's been hanging out with this girl and I'm pretty sure he spent the night with her."
"Uh-oh." With a wicked smile, she asked, "Does she have Sharpie eyebrows and wear lip liner this thick?"
I laughed as she drew a wide line around her mouth in the way so many of those girls preferred. "No on the lip liner but yes on the eyebrows."
"I knew it!" She giggled gleefully. "Can you believe there was a time when I thought those tough cholas were so cool? I wanted to be one of them."
"When did you wise up?"
Her smile vanished. "My friend, Mireya, thought that the only way she could get respect was to join one of the gangs in our old neighborhood. They beat the shit out of her as part of the jump-in ceremony but that wasn't enough. Later, they made her pull the train. We were in eighth grade, Benny."
Lena's anguished expression tore at me and I squeezed her hand. Pulling the train was street slang for having sex with multiple guys in a gang. I'd heard some of the girls had to throw dice for their number. It was horrific and awful and so degrading.
Inhaling a long breath, she said, "After that, I wised up and realized the only way I was getting out of there was to work hard and go to college. I was going to stand on my own two feet and make my own way."
"And you have," I said, releasing her hand. "You're amazing, Lena. Look at you! Twenty-four years old and you've got a great job. You have friends who love you. You're going places."
"Alone," she replied softly. "I guess the trade-off to being strong and independent is that it scares off a lot of men."
"The wrong men," I countered. "The right guy? He's going to see how totally wonderful you are and snatch you right up."
"Like Dimitri finally snatched you?"
I sighed as the troubling uncertainties returned. "I don’t know. I'm not sure what he wants with me. Like was last night the start of a real relationship or is this just a sex thing?"
"So ask him. He's a straight shooter. He'll tell you one way or the other and then you'll know."
I hesitated before telling her about the offer he'd made. "He wants to buy Johnny's share of the business."
"Whoa!" She sat fully back in her chair. "What did you say?"
"I asked him not to do it. I don't want money between us. That's weird, right? I mean, nothing good can come from that."
Lena didn't answer immediately. Finally, she said, "Benny, it depends on the couple. Look at Ivan and Erin. She lives with him now. He supports her while she's in school but he makes it perfectly clear that she's not in any way indebted to him. He helps her out because he loves her and he wants her to follow her dreams. From the outside, it looks unbalanced but on the inside?" She shook her head. "They're on equal footing. They're partners."
"Dimitri said he wanted to be my partner before we got interrupted by Adam."
"Okay, I have to hear this. Interrupted where? How?"
I rolled my eyes. "It's not what you're thinking. We were hugging in the kitchen." I reluctantly added, "He wasn't wearing a shirt so it looked sort of—"
"Hot?" she interrupted with a smile. "Sexy? Delicious?"
I laughed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"Oh, honey, you have no idea. I need something to distract me from the crap storm in my own life. This is just too yummy to pass up!"
Concerned, I asked, "What's wrong? Can I help?"
Lena hesitated before exhaling roughly, the whoosh of pent-up air carrying her frustrations. "So you know how I've been at the firm for a while now, right? I mean, I was an intern during my senior year of college and then they hired me on full-time before I'd even graduated. I took 716 from launch to Houston's best nightspot by working my ass off and giving everything I had to make it a success, but did my jerk-face manager ever give me any recognition?"
"No?" It wasn't a hard guess to make.
"Hell no!" She tapped her richly manicured nails on the tabletop. "I'm constantly out there working my contacts, surveying the readers of my blog and listening to the feedback I get on social media. I listen to what the people who go to clubs say. I try to innovate and come up with new ideas using that research. I knew that once Yuri Novakovsky opened his new place that 716 was really going to have to up its game to keep traffic flowing through the front door. Guess what the jackass Harry did?"
I winced. "Stole your ideas?"
"Yep." Anger laced her voice. "And he didn't just steal them and present them as his own. No, no, no. He gave them to the team at that Russian's new club so he could get a job. So now my club is getting spanked and I'm getting threatened with losing my job if I don't turn things around like this fast." She snapped her fingers. "And on a shoestring budget, of course. How they expect me to compete with that Russian and his endless pockets I will never understand!"
I felt awful for her. It seemed like an untenable situation. "What are you going to do?"
"I don’t know." She sounded so conflicted. "On one hand, I really enjoy the firm. I feel like I've learned so much there and I had a great mentor until she moved to Atlanta. Lately, I feel like I'm floundering though. I'm not growing. I feel…stagnant."
"So make a change," I counseled. "Why not strike out on your own? Or maybe do something on a smaller scale. You have a huge advantage with your social media presence and your contacts and your network."
"It's something I've been thinking about," she admitted. "There are a handful of us at the firm and a rival place that are on the same wavelength. We're young. We're tech savvy. We're comfortable taking some risks. The idea of forming our own group has been floated but it's a big, complicated step, you know?"
"Oh, I know."
With a snort of derision, she said, "Can you believe that Russian jerk tried to headhunt me after he fucked me over like that?"
"Who? Yuri?"
Lena nodded. "Hell yeah. He had one of his drivers waiting for me when I came out of work on Monday. I'd never ridden in a car like that so I thought screw it. I met him at his skyscraper downtown. He offered me a nice salary and benefits package but the contract had some clauses in it that didn't sit well with me. I'm not that naïve!"
"I can't believe he would offer you a job after stealing your ideas."
"Right?" Her lips settled into a tight line. "Fool me once, you know?"
"So you told him no?"
"Hell yes! And then you know what he did? He came onto me and asked me out to his yacht for the weekend. Who does that? I mean, did he want to hire me because he respects my work or because he thinks I have a hot ass? How you can work for someone like that?" She shook her head. "It felt so grimy. I told him off and got out of there. I'm not stupid enough to be the next PR girl who ends up flat on her ass without a job after Yuri has had me flat on my back."
"Wow! Lena, this is like the plot to a soap opera!"
"Between you, me, Erin and Vivi, we could write one hell of a screenplay!" She checked her watch and frowned. "I have a meeting in twenty minutes. I should hit the road." She tapped the folders she'd brought me. "Remember about the delivery coming later, okay? There's a map of the fairgrounds in here. It should be easy to fi
nd your spot in the morning."
"I'll be there, bright-eyed and bushy tailed."
Lena slid her purse onto one shoulder and grasped the handle of her satchel. She eyed me critically. "Wear something a bit flirty, okay? No jeans." With a teasing smirk, she suggested, "Let Dimitri pick something out for you. I'm sure he knows what looks smoking hot on you."
I groaned and denied my desire to flip her off for teasing me so badly. Laughing, I said, "Get out!"
She snickered and headed for the door. "Eight o'clock, remember? We'll be waiting for you!"
I waved and watched her disappear around the corner of the building. I didn't immediately get up and return to the kitchen. No, I sat there and watched the lunch time hustle and bustle.
The bakery and the small café in the front room were a meeting point for so many people in the neighborhood. The bus stop a block down drew in workers who relied on public transportation. They stopped in for an affordable hot breakfast or a quick lunch. Many of them worked long hours on their feet and seemed to enjoy a quiet rest while reading the paper and enjoying their meal.
Everything Lena said about preserving history and the integrity of the neighborhood really hit home with me. My heart ached at the idea of losing all this. I just didn't know if the business could be saved. This location, this neighborhood, was in its death throes. Even if I managed to hold off Jonah Krause for a few months, he'd find a way to push me out of the building. He'd used his contacts at city hall to bury other businesses. I would be one in a long line to fall to that ruthless, money-grubbing man.
Dimitri's offer to buy Johnny's share had been a nice gesture but it wouldn't stop the inevitable. Shooting down his offer probably wasn't the kindest thing but the idea of putting money between us made me nervous.
His mention of us being partners still intrigued me. I just hoped he didn't mean only in the business sense.
* * *
There weren't many waiting rooms Dimitri enjoyed but the one outside Yuri's downtown Houston office was one of them. His old friend had recently moved his headquarters to Texas and now owned the city's most beautiful skyscraper. His international holdings only occupied the top ten floors. The rest he rented out as office space to law firms, accounting firms and the like.