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“Sure, but I only have two employees, twelve if you count suppliers and the driver who drops off my orders.”
“Two or two hundred makes no difference to me. Each person has their role to play, and each is as important as the next to keep everything running like a well-oiled machine.”
He stops long enough to pull open the door to an area marked private parking and gives me the full weight of his stare. That is when I realize something about Alden.
“You care about people, but you don’t want that to be common knowledge.”
Alden’s normally bright, blue eyes are unreadable and shadowed by the angle of the light, making them seem black.
“You’re quite observant,” he says, and I swallow hard. “Shall we? Or have you changed your mind?”
I still haven’t walked through the door.
Yup, it’s official…I can make a bigger idiot out of myself.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ALDEN
There is something…different about Emily. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but I’m intrigued.
We pull up to the valet at Le Bernadin and Emily’s eyes go wide.
“Alden…I can’t go in there. I’m not dressed for a place like this, and I can’t pay for my meal.”
“I’ll pay,” I say, and she turns her eyes to me.
“No, I can’t let you do that.”
“Why? I invited you out for this business dinner.”
She licks her lips.
“You know what…I’m sorry, this was a bad idea.”
Before I can say anything else, she gets out of the car and starts walking down the street. Daniel, the valet, looks as confused as I am. I can’t even remember a time when a woman refused a meal with me, let alone a free one.
I wave Daniel off and follow Emily. When I get closer, I put down the window.
“Emily, what is going on?”
“It’s fine, Alden. I’m going to call a taxi. I’ll have the proposal for you tomorrow,” she says as someone honks at me and then passes, giving me the finger.
“Please, get in the car. I can’t in good conscience leave you here on the side of the road. I’ll follow you all the way home, wherever that is, if I must.”
Emily stops, crosses her arms, and looks at me. Taking a deep breath, she climbs back inside.
“What’s wrong? Was it the restaurant? We can go somewhere else.”
“Alden, I really don’t want to talk about it. Can you please just drop me off at your office so I can grab my car?”
“Something you’re going to learn about me is that I’m extremely stubborn.” I check my gas tank. “I’ll drive until we’re stranded at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. So you may as well just say it and we can move on.”
She glares at me, her light eyes filled with fire.
“You’re infuriating,” she snaps.
“I’ve been called worse.” I smile back.
