“You didn’t have time to look at it?” she guessed.
“No, sorry.”
“No matter. That’s why I’m here tonight, so we can look through it together.”
Yeah, that’s right. She was here to work on the fucking budget, not for me to ogle her or have dirty thoughts. That was a different part of my life, long gone. Now I was a father and nothing else.
But as we sat down at the table, I immediately crossed a line. “You smell amazing.”
She glanced at me in surprise. “It’s the perfume your grandmothers made for me.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her if it contained lilac. I wouldn’t put it past Isabeau and Celine to sneak some in. Instead, I said, “Let’s see the budget.”
Her entire body language changed. It became rigid, but in a way that completely suited her. The angles of her jaw even seemed to become more pronounced. She opened her laptop and turned it so we both could see. Almost instinctively I pulled my chair closer to hers, and she sucked in a breath.
“Right. So, we can produce this commercial three ways. I made the calculations in a spreadsheet, but I put the information in a PowerPoint presentation with examples of what we could achieve at each budget level, and so?—”
“You did all this in four hours?”
“Three and a half,” she said proudly.
“Piper, that’s amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone this efficient.”
“Josh says it’s why he keeps me around. Even though my billable hours are enormous, I do the work of three people at once.”
“I’d say so.”
She split the screen so we were reviewing the spreadsheet and the presentation at the same time.
“That is a very ambitious budget,” I said, pointing to the first scenario. It was about 30 percent more than I’d mentally allocated for.
“I know. We can leave that out. That’s like a pie-in-the-sky one. Or we can look at it after you see the other two.”
I laughed. “You want to show it to me at the end so it’s the last thing on my mind?”
She smiled sheepishly. “You caught me there.”
“Very smart. Okay, let’s go.” Who knew, maybe I’d be happy with the other options, and I wouldn’t even have to look at the most expensive one. I didn’t mind investing in marketing, but if a similar result could be reached with a lower budget, I was all for it.
It didn’t take us long at all to go through the different options. Not only was Piper efficient, but she was also excellent at presenting the information in a quick and succinct way. We did end up looking at the most expensive scenario as well. Fuck me, it was good.
“You’re sold on it, aren’t you?” Piper asked, sounding very self-assured.
“I have to sleep on it. It’s fucking fantastic, but it also costs 30 percent more than what I’d envisioned.”
“That will be a tough call.” She closed her laptop. “Take as long as you need to decide, but… the quicker I get the info, the better. Um…” She looked down at her hands and her closed laptop. “I could get out of your hair.”
“Piper, I promised you dinner. The jambalaya is ready. I’m not going to let you leave without eating. You must be hungry.”
“How did you know? I didn’t even have a snack in the Quarter.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You haven’t eaten anything since this morning?”
“No, because you promised dinner,” she murmured. “I just figured this would take us longer. But now there’s no need?—”
“That’s your fault for being too efficient,” I replied before she could finish her sentence.
As I got up from the chair, Charlotte started to wake up. Ilifted her from the Moses basket and put her on my shoulder. “She needs her bottle.”
