“Name your price,”he demanded. “I’ll pay it.”
“Ezra, stop,” Ipleaded breathlessly. “You can’t just throw money at me. You’ve only seen oneof my paintings and I don’t even know if I can do what you’re asking me to do.I’m not a painter. I’m not an artist. I have a hobby, that’s it. I’ve onlytaken a handful of classes and I’m way underqualified to make anywhere nearthat kind of money.”
He seemed toconsider my words. His head tipped to the side thoughtfully, but he was like adog with a bone. There was no getting this man to back off once he’d decided hewanted something. “There’s this wall at Bianca. It’s always felt awkward to me,because of how smooth and uninterrupted it is. We’ve tried to dress it up anddecorate it, but nothing has ever fit quite right. I want a mural or whateveryou call it. Something emotional. I want every person that leaves my restaurantto remember it.”
My lungs stopped working.Like straight up quit on me. I couldn’t breathe. “That’s a lot to ask ofsomeone who is one step above paint-by-numbers.”
He pulled up infront of my apartment building, idling on the curb. He turned again, leaningtoward me so that I inhaled him, cologne and the coconut sorbet and somethingthat was achingly him. “Name your price, Molly. Whatever you want is yours.”
The wine andperfect evening muddled my thoughts. I couldn’t think straight with him thisclose. I couldn’t remember all of my intelligent reasons for telling him no.
“You give mecomplete control of your EFB account.” I heard myself name my price, but Istill didn’t believe I’d been the one to speak. That was a bold demand.Especially from an overbearing dictator like Ezra. And I wasn’t bold. I wasmeek and mild mannered. I didn’t demand things from anybody, especially notsuper successful business tycoons like him.
“Excuse me?” Hislips pressed into a frown.
I patted my tipsyself on the back. There, I’d found the one price he wasn’t willing to pay. Thatwould teach him to ask ridiculous things of me late at night. This was a badhabit I needed to break asap.
“You back off thewebsite and social strategy and all of it. I want complete control.”
“You can’t beserious.”
“Oh, I am.” Gainingconfidence, I laid out my reasoning. “You’re impossible to work with, Ezra. Ican’t make any progress with your fingers in every single aspect. I spend mostof my time convincing you to let me do what I know is best, which leaves verylittle time to actually work on the project. If you want me to paint thismural, then you have to back off the graphic design side and give me completeautonomy.”
His jaw ticked. Hecouldn’t do it. “Anything else?”
“And you can’tinterfere with the painting project either. If you hover over my shoulder theentire time, I’ll be too nervous to get anything done. I’m not a professionaland I don’t want to be treated like one. If you really want me to paintsomething for you, you have to trust my process. Which is isolated. I workalone. You can’t come anywhere near it until I’m finished.”
“And how much doyou want to get paid?”
Was he seriouslyconsidering this? My stomach filled with angry butterflies, flapping poisontipped wings. I hadn’t believed he would take me seriously, but now that I wasin the middle of negotiations I wasn’t sure I could back out. Not if I got Ezrato concede to leave me and his account completely alone.
I waved off theidea of getting paid. “I have no idea,” I admitted honestly. “I’ve never doneanything like this before. I’m sure there is a standard rate or whatever, butI’ll have to look it up.”
He raised oneeyebrow. “You’ll let me know if it’s over ten thousand?”
I rolled my eyes,finding the entire idea ludicrous. “Yes, Ezra, if I plan to charge you morethan ten thousand dollars, I’ll warn you. Right before I commit myself. Don’tbe crazy.”
His full lipstwitched with the smile he held back. “I’m starting to think it’s too late,Molly Maverick. There is just something about you that makes my common sensecompletely disappear.”
That shouldn’t havefelt like a compliment. But it did. It so did. “Thanks for the ride, Ezra.Don’t worry about not getting any work done tonight. I’m on it.”
This time he didsmile and it was perfect. Confident, genuine and so, so stunning. “Will you atleast give me updates?”
“You mean before Iupload everything to all your sites and totally revolutionize your business andway of life as you know it?”
His smile widenedand my heart tried to jump out of my body altogether. “Yeah, before all ofthat.”
“Let’s just say,good behavior will go a long way. We could come up with a reward system? A goldstar chart?”
“I think all thispower is going to your head,” he murmured, his voice pitching low and smooth.
I sucked in mybottom lip and suppressed a victorious smile. “That doesn’t sound like me atall.”
His eyes glitteredwhen he laughed. “From everything I know about you, it sounds exactly likeyou.”
His words hit me insome secret, hidden part. Was that true? Did he somehow see something in methat I didn’t know existed?
But to be fair, Iacted differently around him than the rest of the people in my life. I wasassertive and antagonistic and… outspoken. I didn’t hold back my thoughts or mywords. I argued with him. I even picked fights with him on purpose.
