Ross raised his eyes in time to see Mia passing the large storefront window on her way to the door.Shit. His productivity today was at a historic low. Her visit would, no doubt, lead to even less work getting done—due to her talkative nature,notdue to kissing. He made this quite clear to himself.
“She’s here for business,” he informed his employee, hoping to set her expectations at the exact point where they should be. Nowhere.
“Hi, Aanya,” Mia greeted with a bright smile. Her eyes slid to his and, in a lowered tone, said, “Hey there. Are you available for some private time in your office?” For some reason, she thought it necessary to emphasize the wordsprivate time.
His mouth jarred open before he snapped himself back together. Ross strode to his office with a simmering agitation. As soon as she was safe inside, he allowed the door to slam shut. “What the hell, Mia?”
“What?”
“Private time? In my office?”
Her face settled in confusion. “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about your photos, and I thought we’d do it in your office. Do you want Aanya to be part of this discussion? Should I get her?”
“No. Just…” He took a deep breath. “Can we just move on, please? You bug the hell out of me, do you know that?”
Mia provided a sweet smile in response. “Aw, Rosso, you bug me, too.”
He didn’t want to risk getting close enough to strangle her. Not when there was a chance he’d make out with her instead, and kissing was off the table—or at least itshouldbe. It kept sneaking onto the table, like a persistent line of picnic ants. He cemented himself to his desk, crossing his arms and barked, “Moving on!”
Mia approached while holding up the jump drive she retrieved from her pocket. “Your photos.”
“That’s close enough,” he replied, his palm out, cautioning Mia as he would a dangerous creature. He was Prometheus chained to the rock. She, the bespectacled eagle, was sent to consume his liver—or his heart. Not that he was using his heart, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t want to take any chances as far as she was concerned.
Her brow furrowed together. “Good lord, Ross. What’s the matter with you? I’m not going to jump you if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
“I’m not.” He wasn’t. Of course, she wouldn’t. Ross was being silly. What happened in the parking lot was a blip.
“Okay, good. Can I borrow your computer so I can upload your photos and show you what I did?”
Mia swooped in, taking ownership of his area behind the desk. Why did she swoop so much? Was it because she was part eagle? And why did it always mean invading his space? Ross shifted a stack of boxes to fit his body inside the same area as hers. Mia inserted the jump drive into the computer while raking her fingers through the locks of her hair, releasing the delicious scent of her shampoo. A flower mixed with another flower? What the hell did he know, except it didn’t smell like coffee.
“So, I’ve created separate folders for each of your pieces. I gave each a name, but you can change the folder names to whatever you wish. For example, let’s click on the pearl ring folder. Each folder has four or five of the best images. And I made them high res, so you can use them however you want or maybe pay for a professional print job and put up some damn photos in your store.”
“What?”
“You need something on the walls, Ross. It’ll look nicer. But you can do whatever you want with the images. So let’s click on one.”
The image opened on a closeup of the pearl ring. The setting and gold glistened in the light, providing a bright contrast to the muted, gray river rocks and white background. He could see why this ring was Mia’s favorite. It was one of his favorites as well. But, in this case, it wasn’t merely the ring but also the beautiful image. He couldn’t deny Mia’s photography skills; it was one more thing she excelled at.
“What do you think?” Mia lifted her eyes to him.
“Yeah, you did a good job.”
She smiled, clearly pleased with his compliment. “Are you ready for a surprise?”
“There’s a surprise?” Ross wasn’t sure he liked surprises, especially from Mia. Whatever was going to happen, he’d prefer to see it coming from a mile away.
“Well, hopefully, a good surprise.” Her fingers tapped the keyboard bringing up a webpage. “Welcome to El Dorado Jewelry on Etsy!”
He didn’t say anything as his eyes took the page in. He should have been irritated with her overstepping her boundaries in his business, but, at the same time, it wasn’t shocking considering teacher’s pet always went above and beyond. The banner at the top of the page was a collage of the images she took inside his workshop. The avatar was pristine white with the store’s name in swirling, gold font. All of it looked simple but elegant.
“You’re not mad at me, are you? I know you don’t need my help, it’s just…I-I like doing this type of stuff. I might have gotten carried away, but I wanted you to see how it could all look together. Are you mad?” For once, Mia’s tone lacked confidence, as if expecting his wrath was coming at any moment. “Please don’t be mad at me. Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done—”
“I’m not mad,” Ross murmured as he leaned forward, taking control of the mouse to scroll the page. The virtual store had several jewelry listings. He couldn’t be mad when he was busy being blown away.
“Anyway, if you want anything changed, I can show you how to do it. And you’ll notice the prices are a little different. I calculated the costs of Etsy’s fees, so you won’t be losing any money on this. And to make it easy for relisting…” Mia reached for the mouse, her hand landing on his, causing his heart to skip a beat. “Oops, sorry. Can I have the mouse for a minute?” Mia re-clicked the tab bringing her images to the forefront. “You’ll see I’ve created a document under each folder that’s for Etsy posts. I listed all the fields you’ll need to fill out when you post the item, like description, measurement, material, keywords, that sort of thing. But if you sell something, you can easily re-list it without starting from scratch. This way you’re not wasting a lot of time doing something you don’t like to do.”
He cleared his throat, attempting to clear his head along with it. “How do I know if I made a sale?”
