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“Sebastian’s wife cracked the whip,” his friend said, laughing. “He had a curfew. Apparently, he broke it. Now he’s grounded.”
“Very funny,” Sebastian groaned. “She didn’t crack the whip. She just wanted me to get back to the hotel while I could still walk. That’s not a bad thing.”
The guys gave him shit while I pretended to be completely normal. Meanwhile, I thought about her. I hated that I was thinking about her. She didn’t deserve my time. She had made it pretty clear what she thought about me.
I was nothing but a quick fuck. I wondered if she had even given me her real name. I wouldn’t be surprised if she lied about that as well. Nothing about the night had been real.
Except how I felt about her.
“Earth to Jon,” Peter said.
“What?”
“Don’t you have that meeting tonight?” he asked.
I checked my watch. Once again, it was another memory of her. Fuck me. I felt like a silly teenager. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to start plucking the petals off a flower, wondering if she loved me or loved me not.
Being sappy was not my thing. It would never be my thing again. She burned me. She burned me bad.
“I do have a meeting,” I said. “We need to get to the airport. I can’t miss my flight.”
“Are you going to do it?” Peter asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” I said. “The deal looks good, but I’m not going to jump in bed with an investor without making sure I’ve read through everything. I’m not going to let him snatch the company I built away from me.”
“What’s going on?” one of the guys asked.
“Jon’s going public,” Peter said proudly.
“I don’t know if I’m going to or not,” I said. “It’s a big leap. I’m not sure I’m ready to lose full control of my company. I don’t know if I’m ready to listen to the opinions of people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”
“If you go public, doesn’t that make you rich?” one asked.
“Richer,” Peter joked. “He’s going to be rolling in the dough.”
I wasn’t exactly struggling as it was, but going public would solidify my future. Hell, it would solidify my unborn grandchildren’s future.
My father had started the company with nothing. He fixed pocket watches. Then he started fixing typical watches. When I was a teenager, I got involved, but I didn’t want to fix broken watches. I wanted to make watches that lasted forever.
My dad knew all the inner workings of a watch and ran with the idea. I was working full time before I even graduated high school. It was always the intention I would take over the company, but it had happened much sooner than any of us thought it would.
“If,” I said, emphasizing the word. “IfI go public, the investor wants to grow my little boutique business. It’s no longer going to be just me and my team in a little shop making watches. This guy is talking big business. I’m worried I will lose some of the uniqueness. If anyone can buy one of my watches, it’s easy. Everyone will get one.”
Peter scoffed. “Not everyone. Not even a fraction of everyone. Your watches are just a little on the pricey side.”
“You can’t put a price on quality,” I said with my usual cocky grin.
“You certainly figured out how to do it,” Peter shot back, grinning.
I grinned back. “Jealous?”
“Not even a little,” he said. “You work way too hard. It’s going to be tough to find a woman to love your ugly ass if you never leave the office.”
“I’m here,” I said.
“Vegas is not where you go to find a wife,” Peter lectured like he was the authority on the matter.
I had found my wife. She had just decided I wasn’t her husband. “Let’s go,” I said and walked away.
