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“Una Magazine,” I replied. “I think your company acquired it two or three years ago.”
“Four.”
I blinked. God, he never stopped being on top of it.
“Right. It’s named after The Una, which was one of the first women’s periodicals back in the day.”
“The eighteen hundreds, correct?”
“Eighteen fifty-three,” I said slowly, cocking my head at him. “You keep knowing more than I think you would.”
“Thank you, I’m sure.”
I laughed. “It’s a compliment. But anyway, that’s pretty much my dream magazine. It had a very significant impact on me during my most formative years, and if I could work for them and help change even one other girl’s life then I’d be incredibly grateful.”
Julian nodded as he studied me. We were briefly silent as a vested bus boy came by to refill our waters. When he was gone, Julian sat back.
“I’ll be sure to find you a position there when we’re done with the Roths.”
I choked on nothing. “Really?”
“Did I not promise you that when you first agreed to work for me?”
“You did, I just…”
“Didn’t believe me.”
“I’m pretty sure I believed you, but I really didn’t know you at all at the time, and I wasn’t entirely sure anything coming out of your mouth was true.”
The ends of his lips remained curved as his brows pulled together. “That angers me.”
I bit my nervous grin. “It’s not meant as a slight toward you, Julian. I just didn’t know you at all back then. I still don’t know that much about you now.”
“What do you want to know?”
His intensity was briefly daunting as I searched myself for the answer. But I had too many.
“What don’t I want to know is probably a more appropriate question,” I replied with little shame, returning the crooked smile to his lips.
“Start small.”
I inwardly rejoiced at the two-word invitation, but smoothing my napkin over my lap, I kept my poise.
“Okay.” I leaned back to let two servers gracefully set down our first course. “You mentioned you have a brother. Tell me about him.”
“Emmett? He’s the one who barged in on us the night we met.”
“You’ve mentioned that before,” I teased. “And with deep irritation, might I add.”
“He lives to irritate me deeply, so that would make sense,” Julian said, quiet for a moment as he watched me take a bite of my Nantucket bluefin. “He’s five years younger than me, and were it not for the fact that we share many of the same features, no one would believe we were related.”
“Now I’m curious to see a picture,” I said, smirking at the look Julian gave me. He held it even as he reached into his pocket for his phone.
“I don’t have many pictures,” he warned when he started scrolling. “This is about the best you’re going to get,” he said, handing his phone across the table. I took it carefully, cradling it in both hands as I looked down at the photo.
“Wow. Look at that smile,” I said, beaming myself at the unbridled joy on both Julian and Emmett’s faces. They did in fact have the same eyes and lips, even the same smile, but otherwise, they didn’t look very similar. “You look so happy. When was this?”
“Last year, when the Empires won the American League pennant. First time since the eighties, and the first time in my era of ownership, so that was nice.”
