The man smiled and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Mr. James. Call me Mike.”
I nodded as he turned to Nick. “Nice to meet you, Nick. Gloria has been telling me about your pre-proposal. It all sounds very interesting. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.”
Nick smiled and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. Mr. James and I did a lot of pre-design research, so I hope Preston is pleased with it.”
He had no idea how pleased I was. They could have been drawn with a crayon, and I would have loved them.
“How do you know each other?” he asked, looking from me to Nick.
I knew I didn’t like him.
Nick smiled and answered. “Through my boss, Alejandro Sanchez. He and Preston are best friends.”
Michael smiled and nodded. “Oh, okay, that’s great. He did a renovation downtown not too long ago, right?”
Nick lit up. “Yeah, he did. He purchased the building next door and reconfigured both into one. It’s amazing. You should come see it sometime.”
“Yeah, I definitely will.”
Professor Anderson took her seat, and we followed. “Okay, before we get started, let me remind everyone that this meeting is for the design alone, and Nick will present the complete plans in late January. That includes heating and air, plumbing, electrical, and any structural changes. With that said, let’s get started.”
I shifted in my seat next to him and waited for the plans to be unrolled. We’d ultimately chosen a three-story factory building from the 1950s that had the bones we needed to incorporate everything. Once we’d decided on it, I made a cash offer, and it was ours. The best part was that it was closer to both of our apartments and Alejandro’s.
When Nick unrolled the plans, I got my first look at what he’d been creating over the last two weeks. And I was gobsmacked. No one said anything as I looked them over. The elevation plans were first and showed the exterior views from all sides of the building.
I looked at him as he stared at me with wide eyes.It was all I could do not to kiss the fuck out of him. He looked terrified, like he knew what I wanted to do. So I smiled instead. “You nailed it. This looks amazing. Can you take me through it?”
He nodded quickly. “Yeah, sure. Let’s start from the top.”
I stood close to him as he went through and explained every element he’d included. I got my rooftop dining with retractable glass and a greenhouse, my wine bar with a dedicated kitchen for the second floor, and both the bakery and another retail space for whatever I wanted to use it for.
He’d taken all these mismatched concepts and integrated them seamlessly into one design.
I sat back and watched him with unmitigated pride as he took the ball and ran with it. They hovered over the plans and asked technical questions that really didn’t concern me. All I cared about was how he’d taken the places we visited on our trip and turned it into exactly what I asked for.
When they were ready to move on, we looked at the floor plans that showed the layout of the kitchens and bars. There were a few things that needed to be changed, but only because they were things that worked for me and my restaurant.
“What do you think, Preston?” He actually looked nervous.
I looked at the plans, then back up to him. “It’s amazing, Nick. You’ve given me everything I wanted. I couldn’t be happier.”
He was struggling not to show too much emotion. “Good. I was worried that it might be too much.”
“No,” I said, looking him in the eye. “It’s perfect.” I wanted to finish that sentence with ‘like you’, but that would have to wait until I had him alone.
Nick held my gaze for a moment before we were interrupted.
“Well, I think you’ve done a tremendous job on these, Nick,” Michael said, then looked at his watch. “I’ve got an hour or so before my next meeting. Do you have time for us to spread everything out in here and go through some of the changes? Did you bring your computer?”
Nick lit up until he remembered. The smile wasn’t quite so bright when he looked over at me, suddenly remembering our lunch date. It was obvious he was torn about what to do, and I was the only one with the power to make it okay.
“Well,” I said, standing from my chair, “if we’re finished here, I’ll be heading out. I have to get to the restaurant.”
Nick looked at me and tried to disguise his panic. “You could stay and join us?” he asked, almost pleading.
I smiled at him. “I appreciate that, and thank you for the invitation, but I really need to get to the restaurant. I’ll look forward to our next meeting.” I shook hands with Michael, Gloria, and then my boyfriend.
“It’s okay,” I whispered and tried to reassure him. “We’ll talk later.”
