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“Missy miss,” Julian said, and Tess could picture him rolling his eyes. Probably clad in poplin and a bow tie. “I’ll have him call you. Don’t have a hissy.”
Tess grumbled a “fine” and then hung up. Settling back to wait, she watched the people coming in and out of the coffee shop. Her city was such a diverse one—the doors swung open to a teen girl with piercings and a tattoo wrapped around her neck, a soccer mom in Lululemon, a businessman barking into his Bluetooth, and a gaggle of kids who’d obviously been tap-dancing in the quarter after school. They paid in wadded up dollars and change, counting it out carefully and sucking down the sweet, icy coffees.
Finally, her phone rang.
“Ma chèr,” Miles crowed into the receiver. “I’ve made you a happy woman, eh?”
“Yes, Miles. I appreciate your liking my designs so much,” Tess said, cradling the dainty cup she always requested for her tea.
“Good, good. So why the frantic call? You had Julian doing flips trying to get me off a conference call with a disgruntled, and might I add, burned, employee of Happy Burger.”
“Sorry, I had a few questions,” Tess said, unsure as to how to basically ask if he were aware her boss double-crossed her. “The first proposal Monique submitted wasn’t mine.”
“I know,” he said, with a smile in his voice. “That’s why I called her and asked her to take a meeting with me. I didn’t understand why she would hire the best float designer in town with the best name in Mardi Gras and not use her the way God intended.”
Because Monique couldn’t give up the slightest bit of power to anyone? Because she was scared? Because she was a bitch? Because she was a blooming idiot? Pick one. Any one.
Tess didn’t say that, of course. “How did you know the design wasn’t mine?”
“I didn’t. The first proposal was fine, but to be honest, I had decided to continue with your dad’s company. I’ve been with Ullo a long time and what Monique gave me wasn’t enough to make me want to switch. They were very competent and professional, but I needed fantastic to make that switch, you know? So this morning, I met with Graham Naquin and prepared to sign on the dotted line.”
Graham again.
The man popped up everywhere—in her thoughts, dreams… her life.
“So…,” she prompted.
“Well, in the course of my conversation with Naquin this morning, he said something about your design that didn’t mesh.”
“He talked about my design?” Something not so warm climbed within her. He’d been poking through her things, had seen her designs, giving himself a leg up on what the competition planned.
But then the rational part of her remembered who Graham was. He wouldn’t have trashed her. Wouldn’t have good reason to mention her at all.
“In a good way. He said something to the effect of having seen your designs and sweating our contract negotiations. Something about that didn’t sit right with me.” Another long stretch of silence.
“Miles?”
“Yeah. Okay, here’s the deal. You know I’m a man of my word, and you know I’m not underhanded in the slightest. Well, at least not much. But I showed Graham the designs Upstart had submitted. Now, don’t you go telling Monique. I don’t need her riding my back, implying I’m unethical. I’ve never done nothing like that before, but I can smell when something ain’t right.
“So, I hand over the proposal to Graham, and he gets this funny look on his face. Finally, he tosses the proposal on my desk and says it isn’t your work.”
Tess sat back so hard in her chair she scared the man reading the paper sitting behind her. “What? He… uh… I can’t—”
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it, either, but he said they weren’t yours, and that I couldn’t ask him how he knew, but he knew. Then he did the damnedest thing I ever saw in the business world.”
Tess knew what Miles was going to say before he said it. “He told you my designs were better than his.”
Miles laughed. “Yeah, the bastard did. He said I should call Monique and tell her to send your stuff over. He said you deserved a shot at my business.”
Tess dropped her head to her chest as a huge wave of mixed emotion washed over her—guilt, shame, pleasure, gratitude and love were only a few of them. “Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. He’s either the most honest man in the world, or he had a really good reason. But he was right. Your designs are better than any of the others I’ve received. I don’t understand why Monique didn’t sub them. Well, I’ve met her a few times and actually I do.”
Tess couldn’t comprehend what Graham had done. Why had he destroyed his chance to secure the krewe of Oedipus’s business? It didn’t make sense for him to hand over the golden apple, a very lucrative, point-of-pride golden apple. Integrity was one thing, being stupid in business another.
Maybe her father had been wrong.
Or maybe Graham had a different motivation. Maybe Graham was more like her father than what she wanted to admit.
