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An hour later, they sat at the dining room table, food containers, an iPad, laptop and a manila folder stuffed with reports between them. They’d eaten a little of everything before cracking open a few beers, and that’s when Flynn brought out the work accoutrements.
Tonight reminded her of late-night study sessions when they were in college. She’d been reflecting on those days more often than before lately and on how simple life had been back then.
“It’ll work,” he concluded.
Chin resting on her hand, elbow on the table, she yawned. “I think you’re cruel and should offer me a refill for making me work late on a Friday.”
“I fed you.” He frowned. “Do you want another drink?”
“Do you have Perrier?”
“Perrier is not a drink.” But he turned for the fridge and came back with a bottle of sparkling water for her. He even went to the trouble of spinning off the top and then proffering a highball glass. “I’d appreciate your thoughts.”
His hands landed on her shoulders, kneading the tired muscles. She was torn between moaning in pleasure and freezing in place. Luke really had gotten into her head with that “booty call” comment.
Flynn’s hands left her shoulders and she shakily filled her glass and took her time sipping the sparkling water before she told him what she thought—about his idea. “It won’t work.”
Even his frown was frowning.
“If there were ten of you working eighty hours a week, maybe you could make up for losing half your staff. As it stands, even if Gage and Reid and I double our workloads along with you, I don’t see how Monarch would survive everyone walking out.”
“So I should let them force me into walking out?”
“It’s a vacation,” she reminded him on a soft laugh. “You’ve heard of them, right? You take a few days or weeks to relax and do something that’s not work.”
“My father built this business from scratch. I don’t see why I can’t put my head down and plow forward and end up in a better position.”
“The staff is resisting change. Maybe when you’re not there—but your changes are still implemented—they’ll come to see you’re right. If they need to flex their muscles and try to put you in your place, it’s not like they’ll succeed. It’s for show. You’re still in charge.”
“My father would have died before letting anyone tell him how to run his business. Including me.”
“He did die, Flynn.” She reached across the table to palm his forearm. She understood why Flynn was angry with Emmons. Flynn had tried to impart his ideas at Monarch but had always been shut down by his father. Now was Flynn’s chance to shine and he was being shut down by his father’s ilk. It was insulting.
Flynn had lost the jacket, loosened the tie, but left on the starched shirt. There was a time he’d have his sleeves rolled up and would’ve laughed and lounged through both the meal and the beer. They’d had plenty of after-hours staff meetings, just Sabrina, Flynn and the guys, and Flynn was usually a hum of excitement. Now, that hum was gone. There wasn’t any excitement, just rote habits. He was as cold as his current environment.
“You’re not him, and you don’t have to become him,” she said. “Not for Mac or Belinda or anyone else who believes that Monarch can only be run the way Emmons ran it.”
Flynn’s mouth compressed into a silent line.
“I hate seeing you like this. I know you’re sick to death of me lecturing you, but if you don’t loosen your hold, you’re going to have a breakdown. Or a heart attack. Or—”
“Get cancer?” he finished for her. “I’m thirty years old, Sabrina. Hardly in the market for the thing that’s going to kill me.”
She flinched. Imagining Flynn dead was a fast track to revisiting her dinner. She tried again with even more honesty.
“I miss you. The old you. The you that knew where work stopped and fun started. Now you’re like...” She waved in his general direction. “...a robot.”
His features didn’t soften in the slightest.
“Remember when we used to stumble out of college parties or go to the pub for Saint Patrick’s Day? Remember playing poker until all hours of the night?”
“I remember you losing and refusing to pay up.”
“It was strip poker and I was the only girl there!”
“Reid’s idea.” He let loose another smile and it resembled one that was carefree. “I don’t know why you balked. I’d seen you in your underwear before.”
“Yes, but not...not them.” Her cheeks warmed. Yes, Flynn had seen her in her underwear. In her dorm room when he’d come to wake her up, or when she was changing to go out to a party. But that was different somehow.
