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“The whole concept?” I asked.
Caleb looked around the space, taking his time like he was seriously considering it. “I don’t hate it.”
I lowered the tablet. “Caleb.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why have you rejected every rendering I’ve sent you?”
His brows lifted. “I didn’t reject them.”
“You replied ‘nah’ to the last one,” I reminded him.
“That was feedback.”
I stared at him and he smiled again. I hated how good-looking he was when he did that. Actually, I hated that I’d noticed he was good-looking at all. Clients were clients and I’d learned that lesson early. Most male clients with money believed hiring an attractive woman meant purchasing temporary access to her attention. A compliment here and a dinner invitation there.
I’d gotten very good at shutting that shit down, but Caleb hadn’t tried any of it. Which somehow made me notice him more.
“I want it to feel expensive without feeling like it’s trying to look expensive,” he finally said.
I stopped. “Okay, we are getting somewhere. Keep going.”
He glanced at me. “I want someone to walk in wearing a ten-thousand-dollar suit and feel like this place was made for him. But I also want someone celebrating their first six-figure year to walk in and feel like he belongs here too.”
I started typing into my tablet. “Warm colors?”
“Yeah.”
“Masculine?”
“Yes, but not so masculine women don’t want to be here.”
I added another suggestion. “Intimate?”
He thought about it. “Private.”
My fingers paused then I typed again. “Okay.”
He looked at me. “Okay what?”
“I see it.”
“You see what?”
I lifted my eyes from my tablet. “Your problem.”
He laughed. “Damn.”
“The design problem.”
“That’s less disrespectful.”
I shook my head. “You don’t want luxury.”
“I don’t?”
“No.” I glanced around the massive unfinished space, finally able to see what he’d been trying and failing to explain to me. “You want exclusivity.”
