“Fine.” I yank it out of her hands. “Fucking bullshit,” I mutter.
“God, Luke. What’s your problem?”
“My problem?” I glare at her. Her freckled face is red, and there’s concern written all over it. I shouldn’t be giving her such a hard time, but damn it, I’m not going there with her. “I don’t have a problem.”
Her hands go to her hips. She’s got on a pretty dress for her presentation. Her hair is all done up in a librarian bun—I know it’s not called that, but she reminds me of a sexy librarian so I’m going with it. She looks amazing. Hell, she’s even got on heels. “Yes you do.”
No matter how good she looks, I’m still angry. “Stop trying to change me.”
“You know what?” she snaps and starts to leave my room. “Wear whatever the fuck you want, Luke. Wear your pajamas. I don’t give two shits. This is only the most important presentation of my college career, but you go ahead and be a little bitch and wear your grubby tee and jeans.”
Little bitch?
“I’m not a little bitch. I just don’t like it when—”
“Your girlfriend gives you a suggestion on what to wear?”
“Girlfriend?” I’m not ready for labels.
I think I’ve really shocked her with that question, because her mouth is opening and closing like she’d like to say something. Nothing’s coming out, though.
What did she expect? You can’t just throw out the G-word like that without consulting a guy.
“I’m…. I’ve got to go. I’ll see you there.”
“Hey,” I say, following her out of the bedroom. “I thought we were going over together.” I don’t know where to go once I get to the college.
“Room 584.”
I watch her slip on her long coat. Picking up her large portfolio and her backpack, Tayler walks out of my house and to her car without looking back once.
I fucked up. Now what do I do?
But the real question is do I want to do anything?
* * *
She’s nervous.I’ve never seen her like this before. Where’s the confident girl who walked out on me this morning? This girl, well, I don’t recognize her. Her voice is shaky, her skin is blotchy, and I swear her hands are shaking.
I look to her left and see she’s got two large boards sitting on easels in the front of the room. One of them has drawings and photos of my bar. Another one has different materials attached to it, like wood for floors, paint swatches, and some metal pieces that look like cabinet hardware. There’s also a presentation displayed on the wall in front of her, showing more pictures of the bar and some computer-generated renderings of Cy’s before and a bunch showing her new design. In her hand is a small device that she’s using to change the images on the wall.
“As you can see, the first thing I’ve done is eliminate the narthex at the entrance, opening up the space a great deal. With that done, I’m able to move the bar to the opposite side of this main room.”
I want to scoff or at least snort. Do you know how much it would cost to relocate the entire bar? A ton, that’s how much. And what the fuck is a narthex?
“By doing so, the kitchen could be enlarged, adding more prep space as well as room for more than one cook at a time.” Tayler looks over at me and smiles. I do my best to smile back, but it ain’t easy. This plan of hers looks like it’ll cost me about a million bucks.
While it would be nice, redoing my kitchen at the bar is not cost-effective, especially since I’d lose money shutting down the restaurant while the work was done.
“I’d reconfigure the booths and tables for more seating, but the thing I’m most excited about is this.” She uses the thing in her hand to flip the image to a rendering of an outdoor space.
“By moving the bar, we could add a doorway that leads to the alley adjacent to the building. Since the city has already closed off the alley, it’s no longer a thoroughfare, so it’s possible to enclose the space, with city approval, to create an outdoor seating area for the bar.”
I stare at the screen. The computer-generated image has turned the alley into a courtyard with booths, tables, a small bar, and ivy growing up one of the walls. The Cy’s Roost logo is painted on another wall. In a different image, this one from the vantage point of someone sitting in one of the booths, you can see how she used cool outdoor lights to give the place a backyard feel. It’s pretty nice, actually.
“What about a fire pit?” I say without thinking.
“That’s a good idea,” she says with a bright smile. “A fireplace on this brick wall might be better. I can check with the city about that.”
