"Can I ask you something, Eddie?" I said. "Why are you wearing that Santa suit?"
He looked at me as if I was crazy. "It's furry and warm. Have you seen how cold it is outside? We're in the middle of December." He shook his head, muttering to himself, as he walked off the elevator.
"Because clearly I'm the crazy one," I said to the empty elevator.
Chloe still seemed busy, so I went back up to my penthouse to collect Milo and take him for a walk. While I let him run around in the park, I called Greg to tell him about Mark Holbrook’s offer.
"A Holbrook, huh," Greg said. "If he pays, he can stay."
"He had one condition," I told Greg.
"What's that?"
"He wants Chloe and her restaurant to occupy the retail space."
"I mean, I guess she can have a little bakery cart," Greg said. "It can't hurt anything."
"No, Mark said he wanted her to run a full-service restaurant."
"Absolutely not," Greg said.
"Mark said he wants one, like the Japanese restaurant in the Platinum Provisions tower."
"I don't care," Greg snapped. "I'm in talks with the New York Bread Company and Starbucks."
"Those are chains!" I protested. "I don’t want a chain in my tower."
"Your tower?" Greg sneered through the phone. "My company invested in the tower, so really it'smytower, and I have the power to negotiate tenant deals inmy tower."
"Chloe is a good cook," I said through gritted teeth, resisting the urge to throw the phone against a nearby tree.
"Chloe is not a viable solution," Greg said in a clipped tone. "She has no experience running a restaurant. You can go back to Mark Holbrook and tell him Chloe is not opening a restaurant."
The phone clicked. Greg had hung up.
I wasn't going to give up this easily. I was so close. All I had to do was convince Chloe she could run a restaurant, then we would come up with a business plan and present it to Greg. Greg would see the genius of the idea, Mark would sign the lease, my tower would be saved, and Chloe would be with me forever. Easy, right?
Right.
55
Chloe
"We made it to the finals!" Nina crowed after we finished our interviews. I hadn't been able to clean all the frosting out of my hair. I sighed when I thought about trying to wash it out in our tiny bathroom.
"I'm going to meet a friend for drinks," Nina said as she changed.
I grabbed some clothes. "And I'm going to Jack’s to use his shower."
Nina grinned at me. "The only thing that would make Hartleigh's exit more satisfying is if she knew that you had free access to Jack's penthouse."
"I'd rather not poke the bear," I replied.
Jack and Milo weren't there when I went into his penthouse. I decided to go ahead and take a shower. As I was pulling a wide-toothed comb through the tangle of curls to loosen the frosting, Jack surprised me in the shower.
"You're the sexiest baker I have ever met," he breathed.
I was already relaxed and half aroused from the warmth of the shower. His hand stroked me, and then he was inside me. I moaned, feeling lightheaded from the heat and the sensation of him.
