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“Yep, my brother practically stalked her in that coffee shop for half a year before asking her out. Now they’re married, so I guess it worked out.”
Piper shook her head. “No, I meant really, you’ve never been inside?”
“Half of my meals are Top Ramen-based. You expect me to drop six bucks on coffee?” The question came out teasingly enough, but it still gave her a prick of shame. Leo held up the glass sunflower dome from her inspiration box. “Is this for your sunny disposition?”
“Yeah. It’s supposed to represent my smile.” Piper blushed. It was a bit uncomfortable to talk about herself so casually. She was just repeating back her mom’s words, but explaining the reason behind each piece in the box felt conceited. Every time Leo pulled out a piece and inspected it, it felt like he was inspecting her. Seeing her right down to her core without even looking at her.
“Makes sense.” Emma gave a considerate bob of her head.
“Your real smile, maybe,” Leo said flatly before placing the sunflower back in the box. It always unnerved Piper how he constantly called her out on the smile she had practiced a billion times. She had convinced herself that he couldn’t actually tell when it wasn’t real, that he just enjoyed calling her fake any chance he could. There was a difference between being fake and protecting people from your emotions.
“Okay, enough about the box.” Piper waved them off and ran a flustered hand over her supplies, picking up a yellow highlighter. “It’s time to study.”
It was late by the time they finished going over their notes and, at Emma’s request, set another study date. Emma had finally declared that her brain was eating itself with the influx of information and she needed to eat real food before cramming to memorize her lines for the musical. To Piper’s surprise, Leo didn’t use that as a segue into recruitment and only informed Emma of the pages they’d be running tomorrow before she scurried off. But Piper could almost see it in his eyes—the please—and she wondered what she would do if her dream hinged on Leo doing something for her.
“Do you think Professor Hornbill will test us on the marketing strategies he introduced last class, too, or just the ethics lessons we’ve been doing for the last month?” Leo dragged his finger down a page in his textbook as they packed away their supplies.
“The syllabus says ethics, but I wouldn’t put it past him to include the marketing stuff. That last test he gave us was a doozy.”
Leo shrugged. “I aced it.”
“So did I,” Piper ground out. Why he always felt the need to one-up her, she would never know. Even just trying to connect with him on a basic human level was hard.
“Well, I have the ethics lessons basically memorized at this point. I’ll have to work on the marketing strategies.”
“Really? I feel like you could use an ethics lesson,” Piper quipped.
“Funny.” Leo flipped several pages forward in the textbook. “We should focus our studies on marketing next time considering you’re already a walking, talking ethics textbook.”
“There’s nothing wrong with following the rules,” Piper insisted. Everything coming out of her mouth was clipped and irritated. It was late, she was tired, and Leo was doing what he did best: pushing her buttons. They were still in a library, though, so she needed to control herself before they ended up in a screaming match.
“And yet,” Leo snapped his textbook closed, “the people that make history are the ones who break the mold.”
“This isn’t politics,” Piper scoffed. “It’s about treating employees with respect and improving workplace dynamics. I’m not planning on running my company by breaking HR rules. My parents never had to do that to succeed.” Her parents had run their business so well that even after they died, Hartrick Designs still ran like a well-oiled machine. Cole and Paisley had rewarded their employees when they delivered on their assignments. They had granted leeway when someone was having a rough time. They were the kind of bosses that people dreamed of working with, and Piper had every intention of taking on the role with the same level of care.
“Who’s running the company right now?” Leo’s eyebrows rose, his interest clearly piqued.
“My uncle designated the business to be run by the manager and assistant manager. He has to sign off on things occasionally, but he’s mostly hands-off since he knows nothing about interior design or running a business. Talia makes up for the business side of things, but she doesn’t have much time for it with the grocery store. My parents have,” Piper cleared her throat, “had one hundred and thirteen employees, so shutting down the business when they died would have meant that everyone would lose their job. Plus, Walker knew that my dream was always to work with my parents. So, basically, when I graduate, Hartrick Designs is mine. If my siblings want in on it, I’ll share, but currently, the only one who seems mildly interested is my sister, Pearl, and she’s a sixteen-year-old who romanticizes the idea of everything. The job is mine.”
“Don’t you think current management is going to have a problem with the nepotism and you stepping in to take over after they’ve been running it on their own for several years?” Leo challenged.
“I…” Piper swallowed, trying to formulate her thoughts before she spoke again. Leo had just voiced every insecurity she had about taking over her parents’ business. What if everyone thought she was untalented and unworthy? The nagging voice in the back of her head agreed that she was incapable despite how much she loved the company. While the rest of her siblings had no desire to be involved in the business, Piper always had. Her parents used to bring her along to the office, and she had years of knowledge stowed away just from watching them work. Watching her mother talk to customers and agonize over design plans. Watching her father negotiate deals and harp over numbers. “I’m not planning on snatching up the responsibility all at once. And yes, they might think that when I first start, but I’m going to prove myself. I’m not doing this because I’m a beneficiary of the business. I’m doing it because it was my dream to work with these people and do this job. It was my dream to work with my parents, and if I can’t have that, I’m going to build their business into something even greater, and I’m going to do it with the people my parents entrusted their life’s work to. I don’t have to take things away from them in order to lead. I’ll keep everything above board.”
“Hm.” Leo gave a perfunctory nod of his head.
“What?” Piper sighed. “You have some opinions you want to share with the class?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think.”
“Your face seems to tell a different story. You think I’m not good enough.”
“I think, as a boss, it’s not your job to prove you know what you’re doing. Obviously, you have to know things, that’s a given, but to lead you have to be confident, and you’re too nice. You care too much about people’s feelings. If people argue with your capabilities, despite your qualifications and skill set, you’ll give in instead of doing what you think is right.”
“And, let me guess,” Piper drummed her fingers on the table in irritation, “you don’t care about other people’s opinions. You think your way is the right way, always.”
“I want to be a director. So, sure, there’s an element of creativity I’ll take input on, but in the end, what I say goes. I’m not going to constantly ask people if they think I’m doing okay at my job. It’ll make them think that I don’t know what I’m doing.” Leo shrugged. “I’m their boss, not their friend.”
“I think I can be someone’s boss and their friend.”
