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Nate took a bite of his sandwich and nodded. “I actually came by to thank you. I took your advice about the five minute thing.”
“The five minute—oh.” She’d forgotten about that. “And, it worked?”
“Let’s just say, it’s worked so far. Overall, we’ll see. I have to admit, I’ve kind of been enjoying it. I have three patients who’ve sent me links to dog training videos. Did you know that there’s some guy out there who calls himself the Dog Whisperer?”
“I think I’ve seen him on T.V.”
“According to one of my patients, he should be my go to guy with all of Hector’s behavioral problems.”
Lauren laughed and Nate grinned. And, oh, there went those dimples! He really did have a dreamy smile. She took a sip of her tea. “Um, I know this is kind of off topic, but have you heard from Jessica?”
He nodded. “She called me on Valentine’s Day. By the way, I forgot to ask Henry, how did his birthday party go?”
“A good time was had by all. At least by all of the twelve and under crowd. I didn’t get to sleep until almost three.” She noticed how artfully he had dodged the subject of Jessica. “So, how is she? Jessica, I mean.”
“She got the YouTube video taken down.”
“She did? That’s great!”
“She told me it was her Valentine’s Day gift to me, but I didn’t buy that crap for a minute.” He shrugged. “She was probably just as embarrassed by it as I was.”
“True.”
He didn’t say anything more about Jessica. Instead, he turned the conversation to his mother’s upcoming cruise. She’d met Nate’s sister, of course, but she found herself wondering what his mother Connie was like and if Nate favored her. She also noticed that he’d gotten a haircut recently. She sighed. Everything seemed so…friendly between them. But that was exactly what she wanted. Right?
She ended up telling him about her idea for the retro maternity line. “I think that’s great,” he said.
“Well, you know, you sort of inspired me to think about it more and I told some of my friends at Bunco. They thought it might be worth a shot, too.” She told him about the idea for using the storeroom as a workshop.
“That’ll take some startup money, won’t it?”
“Probably.”
“How much? Have you thought about that?”
“Dhara is actually working up a business plan for me. So, we’ll see.”
They finished off their lunch and he left to go back to work. Lauren found herself wishing they’d made follow up plans. Just friends! She reminded herself. She wished more time had elapsed since he and Jessica had broken up. The idea of dating him was…well, it was on her mind more and more. But despite his protests, there was no way he could be over Jessica this soon. Getting involved with him now would only lead to heartache.
Dhara came out of the office. “There’s a lot I need to look into here,” she said, sounding optimistic, “but, I think this could really work. Do you know how long we might be able to extend the lease on this place for? And…do you think maybe the owner might be able to make some renovations? I was thinking…if we tear down the wall between the storeroom and the main shop we could expand the storeroom to make it like a mini-factory. The shop could be more of a show room. I mean, yeah, we’ll still sell clothes onsite, but I really think the bulk of our revenue would come from online and catalogue sales. Online shopping is huge now. People just don’t have the time to do any real time shopping anymore. Plus, this is such a niche market. Our customers are going to come from all over the country. Maybe even all over the world.”
All over the world? “Whoa. I love all this enthusiasm, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Dhara raised a brow, but she didn’t say anything. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was thinking, however.
“What? You think I’m not being aggressive enough?”
“I just think that you have a really good opportunity here and it would be a shame to let it die because you were too afraid to take a chance.”
It was the first time Dhara had ever spoken so openly to her.
“I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but you have a lot of talent and this is a
really good idea,” Dhara continued. “Sure, it could flop. But it could also be really successful, too.”
She didn’t need a rock to fall out of the sky and hit her on the head to realize that what Dhara said made absolute sense.
Lauren grabbed her purse. “Do you mind watching the shop solo for a little while? I’m going to see someone at Waterbury Real Estate about my lease.” Before I lose my nerve.
