The Gideon Hotel was one of our quarterly cornerstone projects—the type of thing we took on not out of the goodness of our hearts, but out concern for the solvency of our bank accounts.Gideon was one of those pure-profit endeavors that we needed in order to keep doing the rest of the work that we did.It was a chain hotel brand, and we were developing their newest location in Brooklyn.We’d just gotten the green light from the city last month, and the project had roughly three months ahead of it before it was complete.
“Long story short,” Archer went on, “the city revoked our permit.”
I blinked a few times, hardly able to understand the words.“Excuse me?”
“They revok—”
“There has to be some other definition of the wordrevoked,” I said.“We waited for that thing for six months.It went through.”
“It was conditionally approved, apparently,” Archer said.“And now it’s been yanked.No explanation, no warning.Just a sorry fucking certified letter informing us that any continued work on that property is subject to legal proceedings.”
I closed my eyes, thinking of the hundreds of millions we'd already invested in the project.And the hundreds of millions that awaited us once it was done.“So they’re going to fucking sue us if we stay on schedule?Or put us into, what, developers prison?How is this even possible?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out.”Archer groaned, and I could hear the depth of his frustration.“This is such poor fucking timing.We were on a tight schedule as it was.If we delay too long, we're looking at massive penalty fees from the company and potential lawsuits from our investors."
I shook my head, feeling a migraine begin a slow creep across the back of my skull.“This has to be a mistake.Where’d the letter come from?”
“The city planning office.”
Archer’s words jolted a cold fear into me.I thought back to the Developers Summit, when I’d stood in front of Commissioner Torres and Sebastian Cross with Clara at my side.Torres wasn’t in control of the borough that housed the Gideon project, but other commissioners who were there that night sure were.
“I’ve never seen something like this happen before,” I muttered.“In almost ten fucking years…”
“I know.It’s ludicrous,” Archer seethed.
“I’ll go there myself and talk to them,” I told him.“I’ll fix this.Somehow.”
“I fucking hope so,” Archer said.“Because if we can’t get his squared away…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, and he didn’t need to.I redirected Marco to our new destination, but I couldn’t pull myself out of my own anxiety pit.
Only one thought kept circling the drain of my brain—could Sebastian Cross have something to do with this?
CHAPTER TWELVE
CLARA
Three days passed without seeing Nash or hearing much from him.
And as his current staged girlfriend en route to being his legal-yet-fake wife, I was going crazy.
Nearly every half hour I thought of him and those soul-stealing kisses he’d given me in the foyer after our lunch on Wednesday.Howhardhe’d been.I wanted to see if he’d give me another one of those dazzling, genuine smiles again, the kind that squeezed my heart and threatened to knock me head over heels.
He’d sent a text on Wednesday evening explaining that he’d had some major project complications arise and he’d be focusing on that for the next few days.Which meant that the dinner he’d planned for Friday was now moved to Saturday.Fine by me.Whatever Nash wanted, Nash would get.
Especially if it was more of those kisses.
I lingered around my kitchen on Friday afternoon before I went to go pick Mia up from daycare.I’d been focusing on deep cleaning and reorganizing my space.It was incredible how many things I’d been trying to get to—and never ended up doing—throughout the years.Now that I was financially stable and mildly unemployed, it was time for a life refresh.
But damnit, I couldn’t stop thinking about Nash.
I reached for my phone, wondering if nowwould be the right time to send that cute and coy check-in text.
But you’re not actually in a relationship with him.He’s not expecting you to reach out.Are you already getting too attached to this man?So soon?How are you going to make it to the end of the nine months if you’re already acting like this?
I set my phone down with a sigh.It was probably better not to reach out.Even though I had so many questions.What type of project complication?Was he okay?Could I help?
But what if the committee needs proof that I care?
