She opened the laptop, fired it up, and then clicked on the file that held the samples. She turned the screen toward him and held her breath for his response.
He narrowed his eyes. “You did all of these?”
“I did.” She bit the inside of her cheek, anxious about what he was thinking.
“You said logos weren’t your thing.”
She swallowed and nodded. “It’s true, they aren’t.” He hated them. Obviously. He was just trying to let her down easy.
“You lied.” He grinned. “These are great. They’re simple, but classy and easily readable. Good job.”
“Yeah?” She exhaled. “I actually have one more, but I think it’s too much. Do you want to see it anyway?”
“You bet I do.”
She opened up the new file. “Totally over the top. I know. But it’s fun to play.”
He shook his head. “If it’s over the top, so am I. I freaking love it. I want that. That’s my new logo, right there.”
“Seriously?”
He laughed, still staring at the screen. “Yes. Look at it! It says food and energy and freshness. It’s inviting and bold. And…it’s perfect.”
She wasn’t so sure about that, but wasn’t there a saying about the client always being right? “Can I clean it up a little? That’s not a finished version you’re looking at it. It was just me…doodling.”
“Sure, but don’t lose the effervescence of this. It looks like the letters are exploding out of the fruit and veg and that’s a big part of what I like.”
“I promise, I won’t lose any of that.” She grinned. “I’ll have it done by tomorrow.”
“Fantastic. What do I owe you?”
That logo had taken her less than two hours. All of the logos combined probably hadn’t been more than five or six hours, but that was developmental time. She didn’t want to seem greedy, either. “How about two hundred?”
His brows knit together. “Frankie, that’s not enough. This is going to be seen everywhere. I’m going to merch the daylights out of this. T-shirts, cups, aprons. I’m going to need verbiage from you that allows me that kind of usage. You can’t charge that little.”
“I can’t?”
“No.”
“Five hundred?” That seemed like a lot.
He sighed, barely hiding a smile. “I’m going to give you twenty-five hundred. Some of that you’re going to have to use getting an attorney to draw up the fair-use agreement, but at least once that’s done, you’ll have it as part of your paperwork.”
Twenty-five hundred was an enormous sum of money. She had no idea how much an attorney would charge her for this agreement Lucas wanted, but even if it was half of that, she would easily be able to pay for Willa’s plane ticket when the credit card bill came. She could pay down another bill, too. “Thank you,” she breathed out. “That’s really generous.”
“It’s well worth it.” He shifted the car into Drive. “Now let’s go have a nice dinner to celebrate. At least I hope it’s a nice dinner. It might be awful, in which case I won’t be offended if you decide to charge me more.”
She laughed as they drove off. He was so much fun. So easy to be around. So different from Tom. But then she reminded herself that this was a business relationship, nothing more. She was just fine with that. Having a friend like Lucas to hang out with was almost as good as having him for a romantic companion, which was a complication she didn’t need.
In fact, she’d much prefer a platonic friendship. And really, there was no point to getting romantically involved. Or even thinking about it. She’d be returning home in another week or two.
The restaurant was small. Eighteen tables, booths included. The savory aromas of tomatoes, basil, and garlic wafted through the small space. Music played softly in the background, all Italian singers, so Frankie didn’t understand the words, but the tunes were familiar.
The owner came straight from the kitchen to greet Lucas with a big smile and a hearty handshake, treating him like a rock star. He led them to a booth, got them seated, then handed them each a single sheet of paper with the evening’s menu on it.
“I’m sorry it’s so limited but this is our soft opening, as you know, and we want to perfect our dishes before we expand.”
“That’s fine,” Lucas said.
