Page 8 of Open To Negotiation

“Business partner,” his reply was short. “Are you good with Mexican?”

“I don’t know who would answer no to that question and whoever they are I don’t want to meet them.” That got me a small quirk of his lips and I looked away.

I was not going to flirt with this man.

For one, this was a work lunch. Two, he was giving me nothing. And three, I had sworn off relationships for at least a year after my last one ended terribly.

The man I had been with started out charming and attentive, quick to shower me with compliments. I was infatuated instantly by him, pulled into his circle and let him spend all his time with me. And then when I gave in, the chase ended and then so did his intense interest in me.

I was naïve. The switch was so sudden it gave me whiplash, but I was so far in I didn’t know what to do. It was comments on my outfits, or how I needed to spend more time with my own friends and not so much with his, how I needed to talk less.

I hated that he made me doubt myself. To the point where when he ended things with me, I convinced myself it was my fault, and I mourned what could have been.

Six months later I could see the manipulation for what it was but I couldn’t at the time. I didn’t like the person I became in that relationship. I wasn’t going to be fooled like that again, I wasn’t going to let the charm hide who people really were.

“So, you must be important to get to deal with us,” Noah said as we continued walking, pulling me out of my depressing memories of my last relationship. I had never heard of the place we were heading, but they clearly knew where we were going so I followed along blindly.

I laughed at his comment, making him frown. He was clearly confused about what I found funny. “Nope, you got stuck with someone low in the ranks.”

“Doesn’t happen to us often,” Oliver mused.

“Sorry to disappoint,” I said with a small smile.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t.” Noah sent me a cocky wink that was clearly honed with years of practice.

“Still doesn’t answer the question,” Theo grumbled in a blank tone as we turned another corner onto a quieter street. Off the main roads there was less lunch hour traffic, it helped that we were heading away from the core.

“I think it does,” I said back, earning a laugh from one of them. I wasn’t sure who it was since I was looking at Theo. “My boss told me to meet you and take you for lunch,” I shrugged, “so here I am.”

“I’m surprised he doesn’t want to schmooze us himself,” Oliver pondered thoughtfully.

“Well, don’t be offended. Dick Walters doesn’t go out of his way for many people. Unless his boss is standing over his shoulder. He passes his work off on the underlings, including these meetings, since he thinks they don’t result in him getting any money. I’m honestly not sure he knew who you were, he was told to take you out and he sent me. Sometimes he takes these lunches just to get a free meal but not often, he tends to think a woman is ‘better suited’ for the work.

“I was actually surprised he was in this week, normally this time of year he’s out of town on ‘business’ but I’m fairly convinced he has a girlfriend in every city he frequents.” The words spilled out before I could stop them. I slapped my hand over my mouth when I realized what I had said and stopped walking. The men stopped too and turned to look at me.

After a moment, Noah broke into a laugh, clearly thrilled with my word vomit. Oliver smiled, but Theo just had an eyebrow raised, which seemed to be his go to. He was the hardest to read of the three. I didn’t know if he found my word vomit charming.

Not that I cared.

Not at all.

“Can you forget everything that I just said?” I asked, pulling my hands slightly away from my mouth. “I don’t really know who you all are and I would rather not get fired if this got back to my boss.”

“I like you,” Noah said coming to my side and slinging his arm over my shoulder, pulling me alongside him.

Normally I didn’t like strangers touching me, but nothing about the way Noah was doing it made it feel sleezy, it was like I had known him for a while. A completely friendly and platonic gesture. Plus, playboy was literally written all over his face and for some reason the honesty in that made me relaxed.

“Secrets safe with us, Q,” Oliver said as he pulled a door open for me.

Noah let me go as we stepped into the restaurant. I could feel Theo’s gaze between my shoulder blades, I tried not to look back at him. That man was intense, but his friends were great.

“It smells amazing in here,” I commented as I looked around the restaurant.

It was small and open with a smattering of tables in haphazard directions. The walls were painted a vibrant teal color but there were posters and pictures covering almost every inch of the walls. There was a large window that led into the kitchen, where you could see people cooking. It felt like walking into the kitchen of someone’s home rather than a restaurant.

“Gracias!” a woman in her late fifties yelled at me in excitement as she came barreling toward us from the back. “Boys, who have you brought with you today?”

She came to a stop in front of me with a smile on her face as she wiped her hands on her apron and rested them on her hips. She screamed grandmother and was looking at the tall men behind me like they were part of her family.