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“Sure. If you have him always coming back for more events, then you’re made. Recurring clients, that’s how you want to do it in your business. That’s where you make big bucks, and you keep your client circle small.”
I nod, taking a mental note. Having Michelle as a friend is handy in more ways than one.
Blake and his response to me the next morning still plague me.
“Have you ever gotten involved with someone you work with?” I ask. “Maybe one of the other designers or something?”
“Me?” Michelle asks. “No way. I would never take that chance.”
“What chance?” I ask with a frown.
“Raven’s wrath,” Michelle says with a laugh.
When I raise my eyebrows, she expands.
“Raven is a wonderful person. We’ve been close from the start, and she’s always there for me when I need it, not just as a business partner but as a friend. But she’s also hella serious about her company. She’ll have my head if she finds out I slept with anyone I should have. All work and no play, Raven doesn’t ever mix business with pleasure. So, I stick to that rule and make my life easier.”
“She’s that bad, huh?” I ask, my stomach twisting and turning.
“She can be a real firecracker. She fired one of her best office managers back in the day because he slept with one of the pattern makers. It was ugly.”
My stomach drops and I feel sick.
If anyone finds out that Blake and I slept together, what will Raven do to me? I’m not directly employed by her but the name of the business is still linked to my name and Raven referred Blake to me herself.
“Why do you ask?” Michelle asks.
I shake my head. “I was just curious. When you work as closely as I saw you guys do at the office, I wondered if the lines start to blur.”
“They can,” Michelle says with a shrug. “But we just keep ourselves in check.”
The coffee arrives and we busy ourselves adding sugar and cream.
“So, now that you’re back, are you visiting any old flames?” Michelle asks and waggles her eyebrows at me. “I hooked up with my high school sweetheart after I decided to stay, just to get it out of my system.” She giggles.
I smile and shake my head. “The only people I’m still in contact with are my best friend and her twin brother. But he’s not my type. He’s like a brother to me.”
“You left in school, right?” Michelle asks.
I nod. “It’s easy to lose contact with kids in your class. But that means I get to make new friends.”
“And fine new flings,” Michelle says with a grin.
“Right,” I say and force a smile, although thinking about Blake being a fling just makes my stomach turn all over again.
When he told me it was a mistake, it hurt. I can’t say I had an idea in mind of where things were going to go with him—it justhappened. But it still hurts when someone says in so many words that something like being that intimate should not have happened.
Being with Blake was different than anything I’ve had before. The way he takes charge makes me melt into my panties just thinking about it. But it’s not just about the authority and the power that’s so damn attractive. He’s such a nice guy.
And I get the feeling there’s a lot about him I don’t know and don’t understand yet. I get the idea he’s hiding a lot of who he is from the rest of the world.
That only makes me want to get to know him more. I know what it’s like to be lonely—I never really settled in Paris and felt like I was at home.
I can relate to Blake maybe not feeling like that, either.
But he’s insisting on keeping me at arm’s length.
“Rach?” Michelle says and I realize she asked me something.
