“Okay.”
“And also, get your cocktail menu ready. I want at least one signature drink on there, but I’ll leave the particulars to you, as that’s more your area of expertise than mine. If you can get it to me by Thursday morning, I’ll have drink menus printed for the opening on Friday.”
“Got it.” Josie looked around at the crew already disassembling the bar. “Wow, this is all really happening, isn’t it?”
“It sure is.” Eve stood, resisting the urge to grimace at the pain in her back, not wanting to revisit her conversation with Josie on the roof the other night. “Get anything you want out of the bar now. I’ll have my team put everything else in storage during renovations.”
Josie nodded. She brought a crate out from the back room and began putting various liquor bottles inside it. “For creating signature drinks, not because I’m planning to go on a bender,” she explained.
Eve nodded before picking up her briefcase. She went down the hall to Josie’s office to keep herself out of the way while the crew worked. Today would mostly involve demolition. Swanson’s old tables and chairs were already gone, and now the team was starting to tear down the bar itself. Josie poked her head in a few minutes later with what looked like half of Swanson’s liquor supply in her arms before heading upstairs to her apartment.
Eve spent the rest of the day working quietly in Josie’s office. When five o’clock rolled around and the crew headed out, she hesitated. Part of her wanted to go upstairs and check in with Josie. In fact, every part of her wanted to walk up those stairs. Which was exactly why she wasn’t going to.
Because she didn’t have any more business to cover with Josie today. She didn’t even need to get the kittens, since Josie had offered to watch them for the week. Eve was free to go home, and that was exactly what she planned to do. She’d had precious little free time since pulling those kittens out of the trash a week and a half ago, and she was going to enjoy the hell out of a night to herself.
So she packed up and went out through the front door, locking it behind her. She rode the subway home, picking up a sandwich from the deli down the street on her way. In her apartment, she poured herself a glass of wine, put on some relaxing music, and settled on the couch to eat her dinner. Her mind kept calculating feeding schedules, wondering why the alarm on her phone hadn’t gone off yet. But tonight, there were no kittens to feed, and the alarm wouldn’t be going off until it was time to get up for work in the morning.
When she’d finished eating, she turned on her Kindle. She’d been trying to find time to finish reading this book for weeks. And if she caught her eyes wandering to the spot beside the couch where the box of kittens usually sat, it was only because she was a creature of habit. They had consumed so much of her life over the last ten days. It was only natural she’d feel somewhat off-balance tonight without them.
After successfully finishing her book, she did a few stretching exercises for her back. Then she poured herself a second glass of wine and went down the hall to take a bath. As she relaxed into the hot, scented water, her thoughts drifted to Josie. What was she doing on her night off? Was she feeding the kittens right now? Working on a signature drink for the bar? Taking advantage of the opportunity to go out with friends? A date, even?
Alone in her bathroom, Eve allowed herself to remember the heat of their kiss, the electric thrill of Josie’s fingers beneath her shirt, the way Josie’s tongue had painted an erotic landscape on her neck. Where else could she use that talented tongue? A warm ache spread between Eve’s thighs.
This was a problem. She didn’t make a habit of fantasizing about her clients, but her attraction to Josie had been there from the moment they met, long before she’d agreed to work with her, and now that they’d kissed…
It was almost inevitable that they’d wind up in bed together after filming wrapped. She could only hope it would be enough to burn out the flames simmering between them, because Eve never allowed herself more than one night, not anymore. Even one night with Josie might be more than her heart could handle.
She cleansed the thought from her mind, soaking in her scented bath until the water had cooled. Then she got out and wrapped herself in a robe, noticing it was only a few minutes past eight. What was she going to do with the rest of her evening?
She opened her laptop, debating whether to work for another hour or two, but there wasn’t anything pressing waiting for her, and she’d vowed to enjoy this night off, after all. Self-care and all that. She checked her personal email and the social media accounts she never used, and then—refusing to let herself considerwhy—she opened YouTube.
Josie had uploaded three new videos since the night Eve first discovered her page. All three of them featured the theater kittens. The most recent video had been posted about an hour ago. She clicked Play. There was Josie, in the same outfit she’d worn for herDo Oversegment that morning, a shimmery purple top and black jeans. She smiled for the camera, revealing her dimples, and Eve was so screwed where she was concerned. So fucking screwed.
“Hi guys! I wanted to give you an update on our theater kittens. Look how big they’re getting.” Josie held up Phantom, squirming and mewling loudly in her hands. “They’re staying with me for the week, and I set them up in a playpen so they’d have more room to move around.”
Josie turned the camera, showing the kittens in a clear-sided enclosure. They were crawling all over the place.Holy shit.They couldn’t have changed that much since Eve left them that morning, which meant she simply hadn’t been giving them the opportunity to move around like that. Her jaw clenched. They were better off with Josie. Eve had known this, had insisted on it from the start. Now, she had visual confirmation.
She closed her laptop and sat there for a long minute, disconcerted by the empty feeling in her chest. Once Dragonfly opened and Josie was running a fully staffed bar, she should be able to keep them. There was no reason for them to come back to Eve’s apartment. And there was no reason for her to feel disappointed about this. No reason at all.
* * *
Josie pacedher apartment on Tuesday morning, desperately wanting to see what was happening downstairs but knowing she wasn’t supposed to interfere. Still, it was her bar, so maybe she should quit second-guessing herself and walk down there like she owned the place. No doubt, it was what Eve would do.
So she followed the sounds of power tools and the scent of fresh paint down the stairs. She found Eve seated at the desk in Josie’s office, working on her laptop. “Morning.”
Eve looked up, an almost-smile on her lips. “Couldn’t stay away, hm?”
“Nope.”
“Well, you’re welcome to have a look, but there’s really nothing to see yet.”
“Thanks.” Josie went down the hall and peered into the bar. The floor was covered with tarps, and several men on ladders were painting the walls with white primer. The area behind the counter had been stripped to its original exposed brick, which, as she’d seen on Eve’s mockups, would remain visible in the new bar.
It would be an adjustment to get used to something other than Swanson’s rich earth tones and heavy wood, but already the space felt lighter and brighter. She’d reserve judgment until she’d seen the finished product, but she was almost certain she was going to like it. She went down the hall to her office. “How are you surviving in here with all those paint fumes?”
Eve’s nose wrinkled. “Well, to be honest, I was about to do some shopping to escape it.”
“Okay.” Josie stepped back into the hall, irrationally disappointed Eve was leaving, even though she could hardly blame her. The fumes had to be giving her a headache.
