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She shook her head. “It’s more than that, and that’s okay. You and Charlie…fit. I get it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She’s sophisticated and tall and beautiful and a more suitable companion than someone like me. If you walked into one of your fancy events with me on your arm—”
“I’d be proud. Charlie’s great, but she’s no Brooke Alexander.”
“It’s not just Charlie. It’s the way you acted after the kiss. It just all makes sense to me. You don’t have to sugarcoat things to avoid hurting my feelings. I’m fine. We’ll just keep things professional.”
“I don’t want to keep things professional. If you have problems working for someone you’re in a relationship with, I can get you a great job somewhere else, but you’re the common denominator here. I want to be with you. That is, if you want to be with me.”
As he said the words, he realized how they’d come across if she wasn’t into him at all. It sounded like some kind of threat.
“That’s not to say that we couldn’t keep things professional if you aren’t interested in me,” he rushed to say. “I’m just saying I don’t want this to be an obstacle.” He gestured to indicate the surrounding area, meaning the business itself, not the bathroom.
Brooke shook her head, confusion knitting her brows together. “Relationship? Interested in you? I don’t understand.”
He stepped closer to her, realizing, for whatever reason, that he was going to have to lay it all out on the line here. Otherwise, this conversation could go in circles all afternoon.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I met you. That’s the truth. I don’t know where this is going or how we’ll navigate the work stuff, but my point is, whatever it takes, I can’t walk away from this.”
This was the part where he just had to shut up and wait for her response. He’d always thought himself fairly good at gauging when someone was interested in him, and the way Brooke had looked at him—the feeling she’d put into that kiss—all of it indicated he wasn’t wrong. But he’d been such a mess since she’d come along, it wouldn’t surprise him to learn his radar had been way, way off.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, either,” she said after what seemed like a lifetime. “I tried. Believe me, I tried. Nobody’s ever looked at me the way you do. I just worry—”
“The Charlie thing?”
“No. Well, I guess I worry that we won’t be compatible. I’m a ‘fast food in the food court at the airport’ type of person and you’re… you’re a billionaire.”
He took her hand, loving the way she immediately entwined her fingers with his. “I eat dinner out of takeout containers almost every night, usually after working until way too late. I’d one thousand times rather go to a sports bar with my high school friends than eat in some fancy restaurant with a fellow tech founder. This—” Again, he gestured to indicate his surroundings. “Whatever people think of me, this isn’t me. Give me a chance to show you. I promise I won’t let you down.”
Brooke’s mouth spread into a slow smile, and he suddenly felt like everything in his life was right again. None of the victories of the past few days had meant a thing when she wasn’t speaking to him. Now, it could all fall into place.
“I think we have a party to get to,” she said, rising up to tiptoe to give him a light kiss on the lips. “We’ll save the romantic moment for later, when we aren’t in the ladies room.”
He looked around. “You do have a point there.”
It was a clean bathroom, and fairly fancy, what with all the marble and such. But there were definitely better places to start a relationship with someone. He’d have to work on finding a better location.
Meanwhile, they had some celebrating to do.
11
Brooke looked out at the helicopter sitting on the runway at the small airport and wondered how she possibly could have gotten here. Just a few weeks ago, she’d been sure she was about to be jobless, and now she was about to hop on a helicopter and fly to Los Angeles for dinner.
Dinner.
“Ready?” Justin asked.
He settled his hand on the small of her back, looking down at her. She felt shaky about getting on a helicopter, but she was trying to put on a brave face. He wanted to take her somewhere special, and she knew she’d look back on this as one of the most romantic things anyone had ever done for her, but right now, she was worried about leaving the ground in a helicopter he’d chartered and flown by a pilot she’d never met.
“I think so.”
Justin held up a hand to signal the pilot to give them a second. The pilot was sitting behind the wheel, but at that gesture, he nodded and went back to staring at his phone.
“What’s wrong? We don’t have to do this if you’re uncomfortable.”
Brooke took a deep breath. “No, it’s not the dinner or flying to L.A. It’s getting on that.”
