McKenna made a noncommittal noise.
“Didn’t you say he had some hot brothers? Maybe you could swap him out for one of them.”
“I really like him,” I said softly.
McKenna sucked in a breath and winced.
“Is it because I was a virgin when I got with him?” I tangled my hands in my hair.
“Or the amazing sex generally, not to mention all the money,” McKenna suggested.
“You think I don’t like him for him.”
“I don’t think anything,” McKenna said. “But just in case things are about to go south, you might want to go ahead and apply for a couple more credit cards just in case you need a little extra safety net.”
58
GRAYSON
Iwas going to see my father.
Or maybe an asteroid would hit, or the warden would tell Lexi that Stuart Richmond had just been denied visitor privileges and wouldn’t earn them back for another decade.
Look at me, engaging in the power of positive thinking.
I took a break from reviewing contracts, not that I was that effective. I should have been able to compartmentalize, but I was dreading seeing my father.
Opening my desk drawer, I took out the folder of potential job openings.
I should give Lexi options when I broke the news to her, come with solutions, not a problem she had to solve herself. I would give her three options: work with me at a job I created, and … I flipped through the file.
I didn’t want her to work with any of the Svenssons, so these three companies were out. And I had met the CEO of that particular company, and no, Lexi wasn’t working for him. Therefore, the only real solution, the only one I could accept, was that she had to continue working for me in some capacity. Just not at Richmond Electric.
I closed the folder and stood up, buttoning my suit jacket. I should ask Marius the best way to structure the new job offer for Lexi at my covert investment fund. While I was at it, I should probably ask him about visiting my father. Maybe he would tell me it was a terrible idea legally speaking, then I’d have to tell Lexi my hands were tied, and wasn’t it a shame, because she’d put so much work into organizing the visit.
Yes, Marius would think it was a terrible idea.
When I walked down to the legal department, Marius was in his office, laughing with someone on the phone. He waved me in.
I stood just inside the doorway.
“I know right? Like I wasn’t going to reread that contract before sending it over. I mean, what can you expect.? He went to Yale … Yeah, I have to run. Catch you at the next alumni meeting. Grayson! The god has descended down from the mountain. So who are we suing?”
“Do you want to get lunch?” I asked.
Marius seemed a little shocked.
I didn’t know why, because it made more sense to talk about potentially damaging topics off site, for plausible deniability.
“Sure,” he said when I didn’t elaborate. “Let’s grab lunch. There’s this new seafood place on Thirty-First.”
Since we’d arrivedoutside the typical lunch hours, the place was busy but not packed. Marius sat across from me in a booth.
“I can’t tell if this décor is supposed to be ironic or not,” he said, poking at a giant plastic lobster propping up the salt and pepper shakers. “Like, are they going to bring out plastic bibs?”
“Lexi would like this place,” I observed.
Marius smiled up at the waiter. “How’s it going? I’ll have a scotch. Scotch, Grayson?”
