Page 30 of Under Her

She puts her hand in the pocket of her skirt and pulls out a piece of red silk. She hands it to me. It has a flower stitched into it. “It’s a handkerchief that Niran, the owner of Ananda, gave to me as a gift. It’s a few years old, so the quality’s not as good as it was. And don’t worry; it’s clean. I haven’t wiped my nose on it today.” She laughs softly.

I meet her eyes and laugh. “Good to know.”

I run my fingers over the material, rubbing it between my fingers. “You said this is a few years old?”

“Yes,” she replies.

“This is really good silk,” I say to her.

“I know.”

I look up at her, meeting her eyes. They’re twinkling and smiling.

And, now, I’m getting hard again. At the thought of the new business and increase in sales but mostly because of her. Just her.

“I think you have something here,” I tell her.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “I’m impressed. You’ve come up with a great business idea, and you’ve only been here just over a week.”

“I’m awesome. What can I say?”

She gives a playful shrug, leaning back in her chair, and I chuckle.

“But, seriously, I was thinking of more cost-effective ways for bringing in materials when I was still at Oscars. I just brought that mindset here with me, and after looking at the supplier information over this past week, it just stood out to me, knowing about Ananda.”

“It’s brilliant.”

“If it works.”

“You losing confidence in your idea already?” I tip my head to the side, my lips lifting at the corners.

“No, just playing it safe until I have the deal in the bag. I don’t want to get excited about it in case it doesn’t happen.”

“I get that.” I nod, handing her the handkerchief back.

She tucks it into her pocket. “I’m guessing we need to present this idea to your mom and dad.”

“Yeah, we should run it past them. They’re technically still here in a chief officer capacity until the end of this week. And it is their company. I’ll call them and set something up.”

“Great.” She picks up her iPad, pushes her chair back, and stands. “Well, just let me know when and where, and I’ll be there.”

I’m dismayed to see that she’s leaving already. I feel like I need to keep her here even if just for a little longer.

Funny how I was dodging to see her, and now that I have her here, I don’t want her to go.

“So, you’re heading to another meeting now?” I stand, too, and walk over to my desk.

“Yep. Just with accounting.”

“Tim or Justin?”

“Tim.”

“You’ll probably need another coffee then to keep you awake. The guy is boring as hell.”

She giggles, and I fucking love the sound.