“And Cinderella makes it in right before the clock strikes twelve!” Archer declared as I jogged into the Svenssons’ office.
Greg didn’t look up. He simply held out his hand. I gave him the folder with the paperwork, and he looked through it with a frown.
“I know this isn’t the property I promised,” I explained.
Hunter looked over his brother’s shoulder.
“One of these buildings is a co-op,” Hunter said, taking the folder and scanning the list of properties. “That’s going to be difficult to remove the residents from. Oh, wait, this says that you now own all of the units except for one that we’ll have to buy out before we demolish the buildings.” Hunter closed the folder.
“I suppose it’s the best we’ve got. Welcome on board, Evan.” He shook my hand.
Archer danced up beside me. Hunter glared at him.
“What is wrong with you?”
“You owe me!” Archer said in a sing-song voice.
Hunter made a disgusted noise and pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. I looked between them.
“Hunter bet that you wouldn’t be able to pull this off,” Greg said, still flipping through the paperwork. “Archer, for some reason, had faith in you.”
“I’m trying to convince him to buy that Brookview clock tower penthouse and get it off my ledger.”
“Please do that,” Greg said to me. “Archer and Mike are never doing another renovation like that again. Next historic building with a tower, we’re just going to blow the top off.”
“Let’s go celebrate!” Archer announced, waving the hundred-dollar bill in my face.
“I would,” I said, “but I already have a cake event planned.”
“Take me too!”
Greg looked up at me. “Please take him. I’m going to throw him out a window.”
25
Ivy
Sophie was anxiously making sure the plates, each holding a different miniature cake, were perfectly lined up along the table for the wedding cake tasting.
“I hope Imogen likes these,” she fretted.
“Your cakes are delicious. There’s no way she won’t like one of these,” I assured her.
“Depending on how many tiers she wants, Imogen can probably have all of them,” Sophie said.
“Having a giant wedding cake is actually the only reason I’d ever want to get married,” I said with a laugh.
“Oh really?” Sophie teased as she went to grab a stack of small dessert plates and silver forks. “You don’t want a rich, handsome man to declare his life and love for you?”
“You make it sound like a romance novel,” I said, chuckling again.
“Speaking of,” Sophie said in a conspiratorial tone, “have any more half naked men found their way into your apartment?”
“Er—”Do not think about Evan. Besides, he had all his clothes on last night.
“Ivy!” Sophie said in horror. “You didn’t.”
“I didn’t do anything! Nothing happened!” I hissed.
