Finally, Tenor closed the tablet and extended his hand. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
“Of course.” Brock tried to be smooth, but his voice was tight. He accepted the handshake and stalked out.
Tenor and I were alone at the bar.
“You were ruthless,” I said, pride gushing from me. “You were completely professional and absolutely cold.”
He leaned against the counter and folded his arms. He wasn’t slouching again. Was he at ease around me? “Is that a bad thing?”
It was hot. Utterly smoldering. “When it comes to him? No. He needs to be knocked down a peg.”
“I’ve found less is more with people like him. Plus now I have video proof he was here to go over the terms of the contract in case he and Cara want to retaliate for whatever reason. I’ve gotta protect the company.”
“Not many others see through people like Cara and Brock. I didn’t at first.” Cara had been my best friend. I’d continued giving her a chance, believing her that I had been too sensitive or that she had just been kidding until I finally admitted that she didn’t make me feel good about myself. And she was likely doing it on purpose.
Brock had been my boyfriend. I had handed him my heart and he’d left it on the curb. Three times.
“I’m holding out hope Cara, at least, has matured since then, but she’s with Brock so...”
“Some are insidious with their insults.” He pushed his glasses up. “Others are blatant. The insidious ones are just as hurtful.”
I hugged myself. “They weren’t exactly wrong. Neither of them ever lied to me.” Their brutal honesty was what had hurt the most.
“If Brock didn’t say ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’ he’s an asshole. People don’t have to be cruel when they break up with someone. Just like friends don’t demean friends.”
“Brock definitely gave me a long ‘it’s not me, it’s you’ speech.”
“He’s an idiot.”
Apparently Tenor had his own history with people like Cara and Brock. Brara? Crock? I giggled. Tenor lifted a brow.
“I combined their names to make it easier to think of them,” I explained. “Since they’re a pair now—Crock.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I can’t even say it, or I might accidentally slip around them.”
“And then we’d lose all that primo content!” My curiosity refused to abate. “Can I ask about the media release and discount?”
“I discussed your idea with Wynter.” My alarm was soaring before he shook his head. “I left you out of it. But the night before our meeting, I ran the numbers. We’re down this quarter, the lowest retail sales numbers in the last five years. The retailers are putting in smaller orders, and that trend can’t continue long before we’re scrambling. We can blame a lot of things—the economy or the cool start to summer—but the fact is we’re down, and we shouldn’t just be counting on holiday sales to boost us.”
Pleasure wrapped around my heart like a vine. He’d taken my suggestion to heart. “Who’s going to get the images?”
“You. We’re going anyway. Wynter said she’ll cover all the dos and don’ts with you.”
I wanted to grin from ear to ear, but I played it cool. “Pretty soon, I’m going to get an image of you and Teller in the feed and then Copper Summit’s engagement metrics are going to explode. I can see the views racking up now. There’ll be so many shares—exponential. All that free marketing!”
“Good try, but this face does not need to be on anyone’s feed.”
“You’d stop the scroll. Trust me.”
He grabbed a rag. “I’ll help you close down.”
Teller wasn’t against being featured, but putting him in any graphics went against Wynter’s wishes. With Tenor, it was something else. He truly didn’t think he was enough to get anyone to care.
Didn’t he own a mirror?
I’d do the world a public service and stare at him as much as I could.
After we’d finished closing duties, he let me out of the bar and locked it behind us. Time to leave. With him. What I’d been waiting for all week. Tingles spread through my body. The fake sleepover. Only I really would be under his roof.
