“Maybe you’lllikethe changes,” Nina suggested.
“I doubt it. No offense, but I designed my house this way for a reason. I know we need to change it for the interview, and we can keep it while you live here, but eventually, I’ll be back to this style.”
Nina was annoyed. It seemed like he was imagining some over-the-top explosion of kiddy décor and pink walls, when all she wanted to do was soften things a little. Theo Hillman didn’t seem particularly accepting of change. That was going to make things difficult. Still, she had free rein to fix things up, so she would.
“Fine,” she sighed, and speared a berry.
“After breakfast, we can go get some things,” Theo continued.
“You’recoming?” Nina didn’t know why she was surprised. It made sense that Theo would want to be involved, though part of her had imagined he’d be too busy for this kind of thing. After all, he’d spent most of the previous evening working — when he wasn’t hovering.
“Unless that’s a problem.”
“Of course not.” Nina took a bite of her pancake. “I’m sure it’ll be fun. Right, Jack?”
“Yeah!” Jack said, though he probably hadn’t been listening. He quickly got bored ofgrown-up talk.
They finished eating, and Nina got herself and Jack ready to go. The first stop was her and Jack’s apartment, so she gave the directions to Theo, who was driving. She lived only twenty minutes away, but it felt like a whole different world. As they left Theo’s affluent neighborhood and approached the more run-down area where she lived, Nina began to worry that Theo was going to judge her.
He didn’t say anything, though. He just followed her upstairs and helped her gather up a few things, including more of Jack’s toys, bed linen, and some posters. He didn’t comment on the small but tidy apartment or ask where Nina slept, given that there was only one bedroom. (The answer was on the fold-out couch, though she wasn’t eager to tell him that; a guy as rich as him would never understand.)
The next stop was a large furniture store on the outskirts of town. Jack begged to play in the kids’ area, which Nina agreed to, so it was just her and Theo shopping.
“I’ve never been here before,” Theo said as they grabbed a cart and got started. The store was laid out in different sections for different areas of the house, including small “apartments” with full furnishings.
“Really? Most of my furniture comes from here,” Nina told him.
“I didn’t buy any of my furniture myself,” Theo said. “I had an interior designer do that.”
Nina stopped and turned to him, leaning against the cart. “Do you hire someone for everything?”
As soon as she spoke, she realized that she might have offended him. But Theo just chuckled.
“Yes. I do.”
“But… why?” Nina shook her head. “Ilikecooking and buying furniture and all that. You must enjoy some of those things too.”
“Sure, I do. Well, not cooking, but interior design and that kind of thing. The problem is, I love my work so much more. It isn’t worth it for me to spend time on almost anything apart from work.”
“Right.” Nina started walking again, pushing the cart in front of her. They entered the first section, which had displays of kitchens and dining rooms. “You’re the CEO of Epsilon.”
“And the founder,” Theo added, which Nina found both impressive and a little arrogant.
“And what does Epsilon… do?” Nina twirled a hand through the air. “I’ve heard of your company, but I have no idea what it actually does.”
“We do a little bit of everything,” Theo explained. “Mostly, we create programs to analyze and learn from large sets of data. For instance, we can help a car brand discern why they have great sales in one region but are lagging in another, or identify ways for air-traffic controllers to streamline take-offs in order to be safer and more cost- and time-effective.”
Nina nodded slowly. “So, you do a little bit of a lot of things.”
“Yes, in a way. Or, I’d say that Epsilon’s services are applicable in a wide range of fields.”
“And that’s very time-consuming for you,” Nina concluded.
“Exactly.”
There was more Nina wanted to ask. She wanted to know why Theo had chosen to essentially hire her and Jack instead of actually starting a family of his own. She wanted to know why this client was so important to him that he was willing to go so far out of his way. She wanted to know if he’d always been thisarrogant, or if that had come from founding such a successful company.
Instead, she said, “I like the look of this couch.”
