by Alexa Davis
“Of course, sounds great.”
With that, I said goodbye to the young girl and followed Roy outside and back to the car. While we bid each other farewell, I thought of a million and one reasons for why I was about to do what I had already decided upon, so that as soon as he was gone, I could put in the call. I wanted…no, needed to see Annie again, and while I wasn’t sure why, I knew that I was going to do it, anyway.
“Hello?” she sounded a little harassed this time as she picked up the phone. “Can I help you?” Now that I could put a face to her voice, hearing her made me smile to myself. I could just picture her in the store, trying her best to keep everyone happy.
“Hello, it’s Justin Gains. I am in town now and wondered if you might have time to see me today?” The meeting that I was about to put off until the last minute was now utterly essential to me. I didn’t want to put it off for even a second longer.
“Oh, of course, I can.” As she spoke, I realized that I probably should have put this off until her kid’s babysitter was better, but it was too late now. “Erm…can you come after the shop is closed? About 6 p.m.?”
“Sounds great to me.” That would give me time to get settled here for the time being, which was exactly what I needed. “I’ll see you at your store then.”
“Do you need the address?”
“No, don’t worry,” I reassured her. “I did my research, I know where you are.”
Once she hung up, I felt that odd bolt of excitement racing through me again. There was something about this woman that had me feeling like I never had before, and I couldn’t wait for more.
Chapter Six
Justin – Thursday
“Okay, Rae,” I said breathlessly to my daughter. “The shop is closed now, so we need to get everything cleaned up. The important man is coming soon, all right? Do you think you can help Mommy?”
“Yes!” I heard her jump up excitedly from behind me. “I would like to help—” Crash! “Oh no!”
“What happened?” I span around, concern plastered across my expression just to see Rae’s drink had been spilled all over the floor.
“Oh no, Mommy, I’m so sorry,” she cried out with a shaky voice, clearly afraid that she was about to get into trouble. “I didn’t mean to…I wanted to help out, and I knocked it…”
“Don’t worry,” I said gently, grabbing a nearby cloth. “We can just clean it up. It doesn’t matter.”
“But the man is coming. You want it clean…”
“We have plenty of time,” I insisted, pulling her in for a hug. “Please don’t panic.” I certainly didn’t want Rae to be upset over an accident. I know that she didn’t do it on purpose, so I couldn’t be mad, however little time we had. “Come on, let’s get cleaned up.”
As we wiped down the floor together, I eventually managed to get Rae laughing. If I wanted to get through this very important meeting with my head screwed on, then I needed Rae to be okay. I couldn’t talk about a potential investment with my little girl upset. Of course, it wasn’t Nancy’s fault that she’d caught a bug, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I had just been lucky so far that it didn’t seem that Rae had caught it.
“Ooh, that must be him,” I said to Rae as my heart began to pound in my chest at the knock at the door. “Can you just go and read in the children’s corner, or maybe do some coloring? It should take too long.”
I had wanted to make myself look a lot better, but I didn’t really have the time now. The blouse and pants that I’d thrown on this morning, plus my slightly messy hair from a full day of activity, would just have to do. I hadn't even had the chance to fix my make up, but it was much too late now.
“Of course, Mommy. I’ll be quiet, too.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.” My chest swelled with love and pride as she said those words, showing me just how mature she was for her age. “I love you, and we’ll go and get some ice cream afterwards.” It wasn’t every four-year-old who could sit in a shop all day and behave, plus entertain all of the older customers, so I knew how lucky I was.
As I swung the door open to see the man standing behind it, my heart stopped dead in my chest. This was a face I recognized, not one that I knew well, but one that I would know anywhere. It was the man Roy Larkin had brought into the shop earlier, the very handsome one who made my heart skip a beat even then. Of course, my heart stopping was for a different reason now. Now I was afraid and a little confused.
What the hell is going on here?
“Erm, hi, Mr. Gains?” I drawled slowly. “It’s nice to see you…”
“Again,” he half laughed. “Yes, it was me in the shop earlier. I came in with Roy to check the place out from a customer’s point of view.”
“Right, of course.” That felt a little sneaky to me, but I didn’t think it was a good plan to vocalize that. Maybe it was just his way, and hopefully I’d managed to impress him. “Well, please come inside.”
“Hello again,” he turned and spoke to Rae, which had me even more intrigued. Of course my daughter hadn't told me that she’s spoken to a particular guy today because she’d spoken to lots of people, but still, it left me feeling really out of the loop.
“Hi there. I’m just going to do some coloring,” Rae replied quietly, still managing to keep her promise to me.
“Well, you’ll have to show me your pictures afterwards, when you’re finished.”
I allowed them to talk for a moment whilst making Mr. Gains another coffee. He was far too gorgeous for words, the sort of man that I would love to date if I was in the right place in my life for that, which was going to make this very difficult. How the hell was I going to hold a business meeting when this man sending wildly inappropriate thoughts racing through my brain? On top of being cute, he was well-spoken, charming, and very nice to my daughter.
I took in a few deep breaths, trying to steel myself before taking the drinks to the table to conduct what I hoped would be a life-changing meeting – if I could hold it together.
“Thank you for coming to see me, Mr. Gains. I really do appreciate it.”
“Well, I would too if I was talking to one of the most successful investors in the country,” he turned back to me and laughed, as if he thought that was a joke. “I bet that’s quite intense for a small business like this, isn’t it?”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to allow his ego and bad attitude to roll off my back. What the hell is he playing at? Is making me feel small all a part of his plan? Maybe he hoped it would throw me off and confuse me. Well, he was about to meet his match. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.
“I have spoken to many investors in my time,” I told him briskly. “I think I can just about cope with speaking to you.”
“Okay,” he nodded, looking a little bit impressed by my answer. “So, we have spoken a little bit over the phone about your business plan, and now I’ve gotten to see your store, but what makes you think that it can be franchised? I assume that’s the plan, right?”
“Yes, that’s one business model I’ve looked at—” I started, but he jumped in quickly.
“See, I know a lot about franchising, having worked with two of the most famous fast food business in the country and a lot of technology-based companies, and I’m struggling to see how this will work. There are hundreds of bookshops, and thousands of coffee shops—”
“There are also millions of places that sell fast food,” I shot back quickly. “And you put your faith in them.”
I would not be belittled, not by this asshole. His attitude was bad, like he had absolutely no intention of investing in me, which made me very angry. Why bother coming all the way down here if he doesn’t really want to know? Why get up my hopes just to dash them? What the hell is the point of all of this?
“Touché,” he smiled, whilst leaning back in his seat and giving me a look. In that instant, I got a distinct impression of him – one of a playboy douche bag who didn’t actually give a shit about helping people at all. This man wasn’t
anything like Roy. He was arrogant and annoying as hell. “And, do you really think that you’re different enough to stand out?”
“Everything about Boffees is different.”
“And, how do you intend to replicate that across the country? If you aren’t there, running every store personally, then how can you be sure that Boffees’ uniqueness will come across?”
“I will hire every manager personally. I will make sure that they understand. I will run meetings constantly—”
“If you’re running a franchising model, you might not always be able to do that. If you simply need to make money, then you might have to give it to the highest bidder.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I shot back fiercely. “I am very proud of Boffees; I wouldn’t sell it away like that.”
“And, that might be the problem,” he mused thoughtfully. “I need to make money, I need to see a profit, and I’m not sure that I do here.”
My heart sank. Of course, I’d known it was going to go that way, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear. I was annoyed at myself for allowing my heart to hope again. I got sucked in by Roy and his genuine niceness, believing his friend might be the same way. That was idiotic of me.
“Okay, well—”
“But,” he interjected before I could kindly ask him to get the hell out of my store. “I would like to have a think about things, to see if maybe my business brain can come up with a way to make this work. Would you maybe like to have dinner with me tomorrow night? That way I can tell you what I’ve come up with?”
“Erm…” I didn’t want to go through with it, not really. I didn’t want an outsider having any kind of impact on my business, but it made a bit of sense, too. Mr. Gains was a smart guy who, despite his arrogance, did have a lot of successful companies. I didn’t have to go along with what he said. I could just hear him out. I had to give it a shot, after all. After I heard him out, that could be the end of it…if I wanted it to be. “Yeah, sure okay.”
“Great,” he stood up, having not touched his coffee at all. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. I will be in touch with a plan.”
“Sure.” It was difficult to keep the sarcasm from my voice, but I forced myself to do so. “Thanks.”
As he swanned from the building and the door closed behind him, Rae slid to my side in a heartbeat. My body was still freaking out, my mind still racing, so I pulled her in for a hug just to calm me down. She was my constant, my reason for doing this; I didn’t have to like it all.
“He’s nice, Mommy,” Rae started, shocking me. “I like him. He’s cute, too, right?”
I chuckled to myself, unable to believe that my daughter could actually find way to make light of such a shitty situation. “He may be cute,” I was forced to admit, “but nice I’m not so sure about.”
That didn’t matter, though. Nice wasn’t what I needed him to be. I needed him to help me with Boffees, to take me to the next level. I might not like him, and his attitude might stink, but the fact that he was giving me a second chance told me he saw something within me. If I could just focus on that, rather than the crappy way that he’d treated me, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe I could go to this dinner without a negative black shadow hanging over my head.
“Anyway, sweetie,” I smiled and rubbed her hair. “Come on, I promised you ice cream because you’ve been such a good girl all day long, so let’s go and get some.”
As she went to grab her belongings, a big smile on her face, I felt deflated and exhausted. It was safe to say that the meeting hadn't gone the way I wanted it to, leaving me a little numb. I wasn’t sure what I would do if this all went belly up like I suspected it might, but I didn’t feel like I go through all of this again. It was too draining; it left me feeling too despondent for words. I didn’t want to consider giving up, that wasn’t like me at all, but I couldn’t keep going on and getting rejected by investors.
Maybe it was time to just be happy with what I had. Maybe it was time to focus on another dream.
Chapter Seven
Justin – Friday
I didn’t want to tell Roy that I didn’t actually book into the B and B that he recommended. Instead, I found the most luxurious hotel I could, one that looked out over the water. As I woke up to the most amazing view, it all felt totally worth it. It might have been much more than he would be willing to spend on a room for the night, but I deserved it. After all the stress I’d been under recently with my brother, I wanted the best.
For a moment, I stared out of the window and thought about the way I’d behaved with Annie last night. I had instantly gone into Alpha Male mode: the cocky, arrogant rich shit that gets me where I want to be in business. Usually, it blew people out of the water until they felt like they owed me everything, but with Annie…well, she just looked a little disappointed in me.
Admittedly, when I felt like a hook up, I would also go to that mode because it always worked. It seemed to drive women wild, whilst also letting them know that I would not be in it for the long haul…exactly what I needed.
But with Annie, if that was my intention with her, then it really wouldn’t have worked. Not that it was my intention. She was beautiful, absolutely stunning, but not the sort of woman I would usually just sleep with and never call again.
I grabbed my phone, half wanting to call her, just to hear her voice again, but I couldn’t. Not if I didn’t want to seem strange. So I sent her a text instead.
Hi, Annie, it’s Justin. It was great to meet you last night. Did you want to go to dinner at the Italian at 8 p.m.?
While I waited for her to reply, I put in a call to my brother. The one thing I didn’t like about being away from home was leaving him unsupervised. Sure, there wasn’t a lot I could do for him and he never listened to me, but at least when I was there, I felt like I could keep an eye on him.
“Nghgh?” he answered quietly, clearly hungover to hell.
“It’s Justin,” I told him sharply. “What’s going on?” In my mind, I was imagining all kinds of things, all kinds of horrors occurring under my roof right now. The worst part was I couldn’t put anything past my brother.
“Urgh, nothing. I’m just…I haven’t yet woken up,” he replied, clearly trying his best to think on his feet. “Are you back today? I don’t think I can go in to work this morning.”
I rolled my eyes, unable to believe how idiotic my brother was. He didn’t even know what day of the week it was, and he was already making excuses. How screwed up was that?
“No, I’m not back today, but don’t start thinking that you’re going to make excuses come next week. Once you start working for the company, that’s it. You’ll need to sort yourself out.”
“Stop going on about it, Justin,” he all but yelled at me. “I don’t need this right now, okay?”
I rubbed my forehead for a moment, realizing that I was about to be reeled back in to the same fight again. It didn’t seem like anything was ever going to change with Garrett, and I needed to accept that. I couldn’t keep putting my hope into something that was never going to happen because I’d only end up disappointed over and over again.
“Okay, well, just be careful, be safe, and I’ll see you when I get back.”
As I hung up the phone, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed with everything. I’d really been hopeful that things were going to improve this time, but now…well, now I wasn’t so sure. I guessed I would have to forget about it now and focus on my date tonight.
Okay, so I hadn't exactly considered it a date when I asked her out, but now it was totally obvious that was how I saw it. Sure, I’d had millions of business meetings, but not with women that I didn’t really have any intentions of investing in, so what else could it be?
I guessed that I would just have to wait and see what happened.
***
As I strolled into the restaurant, I found myself oddly surprised to see Annie already sitting there, surrounded by paperwork. Clearly, she saw this as a business me
eting even if I wasn’t totally sure. That was one mystery solved.
“Hey there,” I grinned as I pulled out the chair on the other side of the table. “You look nice.”
That was an understatement: she looked absolutely breathtaking. Sure, she was wearing a dress that was far too formal and not nearly slutty enough to be date worthy, but it fit her body well and it made her rosy cheeks stand out even more.
“Thanks, you. You don’t look too bad yourself,” she said stiffly, looking me up and down. I didn’t look any different to normal; it was just another designer suit, but I enjoyed the way her eyes widened a little as she drank me in. “Now, shall we get down to business?”
I hadn't met any other woman like her, anyone with such drive and focus. She cared more about the business than me, which was shocking. I met a lot of gold diggers, so I was far more accustomed to that type more than anything else. Annie was a welcome, refreshing change, and I couldn’t wait to get to know more about her.
“Don’t you think we should order first? Maybe get a glass of wine?” I teased. “I mean, I know that you have a lot to tell me, but shouldn’t we enjoy ourselves a little, too?”
“Sure…” she replied slowly, eyeing me curiously. “But I do want to go through all of this. I didn’t come here just to eat food and drink wine.”
I smirked to myself, enjoying that remark. She was serious about her company, and I had to respect that because I was exactly the same. “Of course, of course, I came here for that exact reason, too.” Sort of, ish. “But I will need a drink first.”
As the waiter came over and we placed our orders, I could tell that Annie was struggling with herself. There was a big part of her that wanted to let loose, to throw caution to the wind, and to actually have some fun. But the more predominant part of her was all business, and that part would ultimately win out.
“Now, give me your documents, and let me read through them.”