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Asher removed his glasses, cleaned them on a sleeve, and placed them back on his nose. “Amirah Pratt is a high-profile client. I agree with your assessment there. But losing her business will not sink our company. Financially, we are in a very good place right now.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Why weren’t they getting this? “I’m not thinking aboutright now. I’m thinking about tomorrow. Next week. Nextmonth. You heard Cardannon. He got the Lakers contract. That’s a big blow. If something happens to Amirah Pratt, then we don’t just lose her as a client. We suffer public humiliation. It will send shockwaves through the industry. Nobody will hire us.”
“It’s also bad for, you know,Amirah,” Brady said. “If some psycho stalker sneaks into her bedroom, that’ll scar the poor girl for life.”
“Of course,” I said. “That goes without saying. We want to protect our clients because it’s our job, but Amirah especially is important for the long-term success of this company. I’m going back to her place tonight.”
“Then shit, let me go,” Brady suggested. “You can trust me more than any normal Joe Schmo who works for us. And you look like you need a good night sleep. No offense.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “You can rotate in and watch her tomorrow night, if her social media threat level is still high.”
Brady shrugged. I turned to Asher. After a moment, he reluctantly nodded.
“I need more coffee,” I said, excusing myself from the conference room.
Asher caught up to me down the hall. “I couldn’t help but notice you haven’t been affectionate with Heather since she moved in.”
“I was gone last night, remember?” I said. “We literally just had a meeting about it.”
Asher gave me a patient look.
I stopped in front of the coffee maker and sighed. “Sorry. I get grumpy when I’m tired.”
“I did not sayhave sex with,” Asher clarified. “I saidbe affectionate with.You’ve had several opportunities to be affectionate with Heather, and you have abstained.”
I filled a coffee mug from the pot and then dumped in way too much cream. “I’m putting the needs of the group above my own needs. Like we talked about.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Asher said. “You two can do whatever you like in the residence. I was serious about that.”
“And you can do whatever you like with Heather,” I said. “I was serious about that too.”
Asher frowned behind his glasses. “I’ve been considering that. We shall see.”
I drank my coffee and finished up the rest of my work. Nowadays, with seventy-four employees under our umbrella, most of the work I did was administrative. Monitoring the budget, dealing with payroll, hand-holding some of the needier clients. I had three digits worth of emails to respond to.
In the blink of an eye, it was after six. Asher’s and Brady’s offices were dark. I closed my laptop and went up to the residence.
I spent a few minutes playing with the kids—that always brightened my mood, no matter how tough of a day I’d had—and then changed into street clothes. Jeans, a T-shirt, and a light jacket because rain was in the forecast. Remembering what Asher had said, I asked Heather if she had a minute to talk.
She followed me downstairs and out to my SUV. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”
“Something is very wrong.” I pulled her into a deep kiss, holding her warm body against mine for so long that I started to regret that I wasn’t staying in tonight.
“I haven’t donethatto you in a few days,” I said. “That’s what is wrong.”
Heather grinned up at me. “If only every problem was so easy to solve.”
“If only.”
She stood on her toes to kiss me one last time. “Be safe tonight. Text me if you get bored. I’ll be up.”
Amirah Pratt lived twelve miles away in the valley, which ended up being an hour drive thanks to the congested Los Angeles roads. My mind drifted while I sat in traffic. I had only seen the kids for ten minutes today. Fifteen if you counted the quick trip upstairs when Cardannon was here.
I knew I worked too much. We all did. We loved our kids—the kind of love that was deep, and desperate, and unwavering—and we wanted to spend more time with them. These early years felt special, and we were missing out on it.
“Another year or two,” I said out loud, as if that would make it come true. In another year or two, the company would be so big that the three of us could scale back our hours and let other managers take over. We’d still own the company, but we wouldn’t need to be as involved. We could do whatever we wanted.
That would be nice.
