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“Then this—” he gestured to the door of the bar, where his partners were inside “—is important. My partners need to know you, and they need to trust you as much as I do. They need to know that any aspect of the business can be turned over to you without question. And the first part of that is for them to meet you, preferably casually, so they can see who you really are. So if it helps your psyche, then look at what we’re about to do as work.”
He was right. We might be having a drink, but these men would have the power to promote me—or fire me. I might be Aidan’s assistant, but my job meant that the other partners had to trust me, too. A question occurred to me. “Why don’t the others have assistants? Why only you?”
“Because Dane is too grumpy, Alex is too secretive, and Noah thinks he already has everything figured out.”
I really needed to meet these guys. I crossed my arms and looked at Aidan. “Okay, boss, you’ve convinced me. I’ll have a drink.”
He smiled. My knees went wobbly, but I didn’t think he noticed, because I covered it up pretty well. “Thank you, Samantha,” he said. “Let’s go.”
The first person to approach Aidan when we walked in was a tall, broad-shouldered, gorgeous man with short, dark blond hair. He was wearing jeans, a white button-down shirt and a dark brown leather jacket, and he flung one arm over Aidan’s shoulders as if they’d already been drinking for hours. “The Man in Black has arrived,” he said. “Now we can really have fun.”
I’d never seen anyone touch Aidan, let alone grab him like that, but Aidan didn’t seem to mind. “Samantha,” he said to me, “this is Noah Pearson.”
“I know Samantha,” Noah said before I could answer. He dropped his arm from Aidan and held out his hand for me to shake. “She’s the only one who answers my emails.”
I felt myself smiling. I could see this man, as Aidan described, dating gorgeous actresses nonstop. Obviously he was making the most of his life in L.A. But he was charming, and he certainly was handsome. His handshake was warm and firm, too. “It’s nice to meet you in person,” I said.
“Come in and have a drink,” Noah said. “The others are here.”
He led us back to a table. The bar was narrow but deep, reasonably busy even for a Monday afternoon, and it smelled of crisp beer and something salty. I suddenly wondered if they had good food. I’d had nothing but airplane snacks all day.
At a table at the back were two more men. One was big and rough-looking, bearded, corded with muscle, his brown hair tied messily at the back of his head in a man-bun. The other was leaner but deadlier-looking, with dark hair and a black T-shirt from which tattoos snaked out of the sleeves and down his arms. Neither of them looked like they belonged on the board of a venture capital firm. One of them must be Dane Scotland, the genius computer programmer who had built the original software that launched Tower VC. Neither of these men looked like a computer geek either. Then again, Aidan had described Dane as “rough around the edges.”
“Gentlemen,” Aidan said as the two men looked at us. “This is Samantha Riley, my executive assistant. Samantha, this is Alex Blake.” He gestured to the dark, tattooed man. Then he gestured to the big guy with the man bun. “And this is Dane Scotland programming wiz.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Alex said as I pulled out a chair and sat. He had a shadow of dark beard on his jaw. With his tattoos, black tee, and dark hair, he looked a little dangerous, but his eyes were kind. The hand that shook mine was adorned with silver rings. “Dane,” Alex said. “Say something nice to the lady.”
“I can be nice,” Dane said to Alex. He looked at me. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I said.
“Dane’s manners need work, but don’t worry,” Alex said. “That means he likes you.”
“My manners are fine,” Dane said. He looked at Aidan. “Where’s Ava?”
Aidan had pulled out the chair next to me and sat in it. I felt the heat of him, his vitality, his familiarity. “Ava is my sister,” he said to me. “She lives in Brooklyn.” He turned back to Dane. “She didn’t come. This is a business trip. Or at least that’s what Noah said.”
“It’s absolutely a business trip,” Noah agreed from his place at the end of the table. “I have an investment you’ll all be interested in. But we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Tonight, we catch up.”
“I haven’t met your sister,” I said to Aidan.
His features went a little soft at the mention of her, which told me she was a favorite person of his. It made me curious about her immediately. “You might meet her,” he said. “She comes into the city often enough, but she hates coming to the office. Be warned, though, that if she meets you, she’ll dress you. It’s nothing personal, or a commentary on how you dress. She’s a fashion blogger and stylist. It’s just what she does.”
“Does she dress you?” I asked.
That made Aidan smile. “I’ve learned plenty of tricks from her, but I dress myself.”
“Can’t you tell?” Alex said, grinning at me.
“The Man in Black,” Noah said. “Haven’t you ever wondered why black is all he wears?”
I looked around the table, then back at Aidan. He shrugged good-naturedly. “Yes, I wonder,” I said. “Everyone wonders.”
“It’s so that he always knows what color to buy,” Alex said. “That way, he doesn’t have to coordinate.”
I turned to Aidan, shocked. “Is that true? That’s the reason?”
Aidan scratched his chin. “I hate clothes shopping,” he admitted. “If everything I buy is black, it’s just easier.”
