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I snickered and pulled on a cute skirt. "Yes, Hottie McDimples is here in Oahu." But was I really in love? Last night felt like love, but was that the same thing as being in love? "It's so complicated, Allie. You can't even imagine."
"Try me."
"I don't know if I have enough time to explain everything." I checked the clock, wondering when Kai would show up at my door. "I'm meeting him again this morning."
"Well, you'd better talk fast then, because you're not getting off this phone until you've told me everything."
I carried the phone into the bathroom and laid it on the counter while I started wrangling my hair into a low messy bun. "It's horrible."
"Kai? Wait, I thought we loved him."
"No, he's perfect," I corrected her. "It's this job. My first day, Mr. Peters told me I had to shut down Kai's family business if I wanted to keep working for him."
"And you told him to go suck a lemon."
I froze, giving myself the same look my mom used to give me for stealing cookies from the jar. Only this time I hadn't planned to slink away to satisfy my sweet tooth. I'd considered stealing Kai's family legacy.
I deserved a lot more than my mom's stink eye.
The fact that I’d hoped to fit in with the sharks turned my stomach now that I’d gotten to know the prey. "Yeah, I… I turned him down." The words slid slowly from my lips as I secured my bun with another twelve bobby pins.
"I know that tone. Beth, what did you do?" Allie’s voice was laced with suspicion.
"I told you. I turned Mr. Peters down… last night… in the voicemail."
"What took you so long?" Sometimes I detested Allie's way of getting right to the heart of the matter. That wasn't a question I wanted to face, but like it or not, there was no doubt I'd be facing it today when I talked to Kai.
There would be no more secrets between us by the end of the day. But what would he think of me once he knew the whole truth?
"I don't know what took me so long. At first, I was caught up in all the excitement of the new job and was ready to do anything to protect it. But then…"
"Then you fell in love."
Yes. I couldn't deny it. I wasn't dealing with a vacation crush anymore. I was in love with Kai and that was scary. Scary because the relationship forming between us was still brand-new. I wasn't sure it was strong enough to weather this storm.
I had to admit I hadn’t known him all that long, and I had no idea what his reaction would be.
I never should have let my heart get so tangled up in a relationship that had its roots in business. But that was easier said than done when Kai was around.
"Yeah, I fell in love. I've spent the past few days trying to figure out how to keep my own job and protect Kai's. All while Mr. Peters was breathing down my neck for a report that's supposed to lay out a battle plan for market domination."
"Can you put Peters off?"
"No, he's even sending a woman from the office in Cleveland to help write the thing. Besides, for all I know, I won't even have a job anymore by lunchtime."
Allie winced into the phone. "The voicemail was that bad?"
"It was worse. I went on a rant about ethics and how it wasn't okay to be so rotten to such good people."
"That's not so bad," Allie said in her most comforting voice. "That doesn't sound like something that would get you fired."
"I also told him I'd be ashamed of myself if I went through with the plans he had for the Hawaiian branch."
"Okay, so you came on a little strong. But a decent boss will always be happy to know that their employee has a solid moral compass." Allie sounded less confident this time she spoke.
"I also might have insinuated that he should be ashamed of himself for ever coming up with such a miserable idea in the first place."
Allie hummed into the phone. "Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. That might earn you an uncomfortable meeting."
