The restaurant seemedto be filled with unspoken words as soon as the brothers left. Simone moved around awkwardly, passing comments about trivial shit, which was unlike her. I’d never heard her do anything other than cut straight to the point when she was at work and this version of her where she was unsure was killing me.
“Sit down.”
She was moving around near the bar area, trying to work out which gins to get in stock, a moot point given that we were a couple of weeks away from anything that involved alcohol.
“What?”
“Simone, cut the crap. Something’s bothering you. We’ve spent last night and this morning as close as two people can get so I think we’re at a point where you can tell me pretty much what you want.” Even if it hurt, because I got that the place I was in right now was one where I was putting myself out there.
“This.” She gestured around the room. “The shit that can go wrong. My ex, because his new fiancée wants him to sell his shares in Toad Hall to invest in her gallery. You, because I don’t know what the fuck to do and how to manage this and we’ve only spent one night together. One proper night.”
“The graffiti’s gone. You have security in place. Tell me what else there is about here.” Logic, routine, items one at a time.
“I don’t have a chef. I haven’t planned a menu because I don’t have a chef.”
“Me.” The word was out of my mouth before I’d thought about it. “I can do tapas. Give Charlie a chance at Mount Street and free me up to be here with the guy you interviewed the other day – Pavel. I can switch between the two.”
“Is this what you want though?”
It wasn’t a no.
“Not long term. But isn’t this being part of a team? Once this place is up and running, we’ll be able to fit someone in that will work long term.”
I saw the hesitation; the pause I’d noticed so many times before. I’d thought it was arrogance, her way of catching herself before she put someone down, but now I saw the human, the woman who worried.
“Let’s work with that.”
“Next. The graffiti won’t happen again. Those two won’t let anything go down here.”
She nodded. “I know. Same at my house. And yours. I’m still pissed off.”
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, half surprised when she didn’t move away. Instead she melted into me, her body relaxing. “I know. And that’s fine. Your ex.”
“I need to buy him out. Sophie suggested that before we spoke.”
And then I was on a level twenty floors below her. The ex she spoke of was a multi-millionaire. Eliot was the son of a man whose fortune was speculated to be more than that. I had whatever was in my bank account to last me until the next payday, with a small amount of savings that was for Lauren and her dance. Googling Simone’s dad had told me that he’d made a decent living as a chef and although she hadn’t spoken warmly about her childhood, she’d not wanted for anything apart from his time.
“Can you afford to?” It was a test.
She nodded. “Yes. I like having the investments from other people though. It’s a motivator when it’s not all about me.”
I didn’t just run my fingers through my hair, I pulled at it as well. “You like earning money for other people?”
She nodded. “I have a responsibility to them. If it was just me, I’d probably sit in bed all day and binge watch Netflix.”
“Maybe having a day like that every so often isn’t a bad thing?”
She smiled, looking at me with those brown eyes I saw every time I closed mine. “Maybe it isn’t if I’ve got someone to share it with.”
I was fucked. Whichever way I looked at it I was fucked. She was my boss; she had money, talent, power. I was just an employee in her empire and if anything developed of this, people were going to question what else I was getting out of it.
“Like dancing and eating breakfast in bed.”
She nodded, smiling still. “Thank you for last night, letting me stay. Was Lauren okay about it?”
“She was fine. She knows I like you.” May as well be open about that at least. “Do you want to go through ideas for the menu while we’re here?”
“How about we do it at Blue? I need to be around this afternoon as a new supplier is going in there and I want to meet them. We can leave your car here and walk?”
