He approached, taking her hand in a light grip, and held it up as though inspecting his work. “We accept cash or credit cards. Social media exposure is not an accepted form of payment, but nice try.”
“Ross.”
He met her eyes. “What?”
“You make beautiful jewelry.”
They held each other’s gaze for a moment, Mia’s breath catching inside her lungs, before Ross slowly slid the ring off her finger. “And it’s priced accordingly.” He returned the ring to Aanya. “I assume you’re here to collect the camera.”
The door to the shop opened, and a middle-aged couple walked in. Aanya, with real customers, welcomed them and moved away from Ross and Mia after locking the ring inside its case.
“Come on,” Ross said to Mia, who followed him to his office. “How’s the ankle?”
“It’s fine.”
At the office threshold, he paused and called for Hermes. The dog lifted his head but remained in his spot, resuming his nap.
“Is he okay?” Mia asked.
“Yeah, he’s fine.”
They entered the office with Ross shutting the door behind them. On the other side of his desk, he reached to the floor, retrieving a black bag. The camera was on his desk, and he went through the process of packing it inside the bag.
“You know, I was thinking,” Mia started. “I know our deal was for me to take your jewelry images—”
“Are you changing the terms of our agreement already, Russo?”
She smiled. It gave her a warm feeling when Ross used the old nickname. “Well, it wouldn’t be that hard for me to help set up some social media or an e-commerce account and get those started. It’ll make it possible to reach a larger market and give people from all over the country or world a chance to own your pieces. I don’t mind giving Aanya a few pointers on writing some posts and using hashtags, that—”
“Icanwrite.”
“N-no, I-I wasn’t…” Mia’s face flushed, her fingers slipping a strand of hair behind her ear. She was here to make progress between them, not make things worse with misunderstandings. “That’s not what I was implying. Really.”
With the camera packed, he released it into her possession, his expression muted.
“Thank you.” She took the bag but sank into the chair, going through it and making a note of its contents.
Ross leaned against his desk, watching her while crossing his arms. “So, what exactly were you implying then?”
Mia used the camera bag as a distraction, giving herself a moment to think about the best way to proceed without aggravating the chip on his shoulder. With a deep breath, she reset the moment. “First, let me ask you something. When you think about coming into work, what is it you look forward to doing the most?”
“What do you mean?”
“Which part of working here is the most fun for you?”
Ross shrugged. “I guess working in the back, creating.”
“Making the jewelry.”
“Yeah, I guess. Where are you going with this?”
“Okay, then. That’s what I was implying. My impression of you is that you’re a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. You create and then let your creations speak for themselves. You’re most likely not happy working on the sales floor. And you don’t seem to be excited about taking your store to the online world. You need to do the things you’re good at and find other people to do the things you’re not good at. In fact, you’ve already done it. Aanya was a good hire. Not as good as me, but we’ll let bygones be bygones for now.”
He rolled his eyes. “When have you ever let a bygone go by?”
Mia enjoyed prodding him and grinned. “As I was saying, she’s a better salesman. She’s friendly, people like her, so you use it to your advantage, and that becomes the voice you want customers to hear. Unless you feel your cousin is that person. And then you have me.” She waved a confident hand toward herself. “A brilliant person who has exceptional taste in jewelry and is also willing to help you with what I’m good at, and Iamgood at this stuff. Use it to your advantage while you can. That doesn’t make you weak, it makes you smart.”
Ross didn’t say anything at first, taking his time to study her. As usual, Mia grew nervous at his intense scrutiny. Sure, she could put on a good show, but she didn’t want him gaining real insight and noticing her foundation had a few holes of insecurity in it.
