Theo opened the bottle with the expert twist of someone who was no stranger to expensive alcohol and poured them each a glass. They toasted each other, then took a sip. The drink was cool and bubbly, and the alcohol went straight to Nina’s head.
“Is Jack excited?” Theo asked, setting his glass down.
“A little,” Nina said. “I think he’s nervous, too.” She put her glass down too.
Theo nodded. “I get that. New schools can be scary, especially since he’s joining a little late. But I read that there’s a welcome brunch this weekend for parents and kids to get to know each other. Maybe that’ll help.”
“Maybe,” Nina agreed. “And it’ll give you a chance to network.”
Theo raised his glass to her. “True.”
“Have you ever done anything like this before?” Nina sat back on the couch, tucking her leg beneath her.
“Like what?”
“Like having some strangers pose as your family members to land a deal.”
Theo chuckled. “No, this is definitely unusual, even for me. But I have gone to great lengths to land deals before.”
“Give me an example.”
“I once agreed to judge a corgi beauty pageant, because a potential client loved corgis — and one thing led to another.”
Nina burst into laughter. “Okay, that’s pretty funny. What did you have to do as the judge?”
“Well, I had to judge a race, a talent competition, an agility course, and the overall grooming of the dogs.” Theo raised his brows at her. “The agility course was particularly amusing, because corgis have such short legs and aren’t especially agile.”
Nina smiled at the thought of one of the long, short-legged dogs dodging between cones or jumping over obstacles. “Do you like dogs?”
“Not particularly.”
She giggled again. “So, your shmoozinghasgotten you into trouble before.”
“Not really. That time, I spent one very unusual day with a bunch of very long dogs, and then I landed the client I’d been chasing. And I gained a new appreciation for corgis. They are pretty cute.”
“Aha.” Nina raised her glass to him. “There’s that arrogance.”
“Arrogance? Because I said corgis are cute?”
“No, because you refuse to admit that schmoozing can ever lead to trouble.”
“Mine doesn’t. It isn’t arrogance if you know you’re right.” Theo grinned, but Nina shook her head.
“When I first saw you, I thought,there’s one arrogant guy. Things just come easily to him.”
“Well, that isn’t true,” Theo protested. “I’ve had to work hard. Building a company like Epsilon isn’t something you can do in a day.”
“Like Rome.”
“Exactly.”
Nina nodded. “I’m not saying you haven’t worked hard. But you’ve gotten to a point in your life, if you weren’t already there, where all your problems have solutions.”
“All problemsdohave solutions.”
“Not really. For instance, if I wanted to have a better life for Jack, I needed to work more hours, which meant less time with Jack and more time that he was on his own. That was always an impossible choice. And if I wanted to spend more time with Jack, reading to him and playing with him and all those things that create a rich childhood, that meant less time working and more chance of not being able to pay the rent.”
“There is a solution to that,” Theo said. Nina bristled, but he hurried on. “I mean, get a rich guy to hire you to pose as his wife and kid.”
