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“Hi Gabriel.” She sets her laptop on my desk and points to the screen. “Do you two want to go to Chicago tomorrow?”
I shunt out a laugh. “Nope. I’m behind on a lot of things.”
“Gabriel, I’m texting you the link right now. There’s a conference that connects corporations with charities and non-profits,” she says. “Classes, workshops, plenty of networking opportunities. You’d get to bring a guest.”
“Gabriel, you should go. Isn’t there a woman in your life that can be your plus one?”
He clears his throat. “This looks like an amazing opportunity. And I have been seeing someone. Her name’s Britney. But she can’t take off work.”
“I can’t take off work, either!” I counter.
“Look,” Elianna leans her backside up against my desk, and her proximity has me distracted. “It would be really good for you and Tate International to be at one of these things. And it’s only two days. Gabriel, can you be there to hold his hand?”
“There will be no hand-holding of any kind,” I say.
“You said ‘will,’” Gabriel says. “Which means you’re going. You would have said ‘would’ if you weren’t sure.”
“Dissecting my grammar now, Gabriel?”
I sigh. With the way this conversation is going, I’ll be boarding a plane heading for O’Hare in the morning.
“Sebastian,” she says, her eyes wide. “You have to go. Let’s get cracking with the charitable donations. I promise it’s going to help all the things.”
“Rearranging my schedule for the next two days at this late notice is going to be a nightmare.”
“Yes, it will be,” she says, whirling around to grab her computer off her desk. “But that’s what I’m here for. And I’ll hold down the fort.” She stops scrolling through The Calendar. “I promise you I won’t let it burn down while you’re gone.”
I get a chill down my spine just thinking of my resort going up in flames. She is not selling this well.
Her gaze travels over the screen, and she’s nodding her head and talking to herself. “If we move this here and shorten that one to a half hour . . .” she trails off. “Okay,” she says after some deliberation. “There’s nothing going on in the next two days that can’t be switched around. I’ll finalize it all this afternoon.”
“Wait,” I say. “When is Home Away from Home Hotel Group coming for final negotiations?”
With so much going on, I’ve barely had time to prepare. But it’s a big deal. We’re flying them in because they want to meet me in person and see how we run things. They don’t want to sell it to just anyone, since those properties have been in the family for decades.
Elianna glances at her screen. “That’s not until next week. So, Gabriel, it looks like you’ve got yourself a date!” She grabs the phone and puts it on mute. “And a very handsome one at that,” she whispers, leaning over and brushing her fingers over my cheek. I know she’s teasing, but I lean into the way she caresses me like a kid leaning into his favorite blanket.
Chapter 29
Elianna
Nerves, cold and unforgiving, spread through my limbs as we walk up to the door of Sebastian’s aunt’s house. It’s almost nine at night, later than any dinner party I’ve been to before. But Sebastian’s on high-alert mode when it comes to work, and he even stayed longer to get things done while I went home for an hour to change and take care of Destiny’s Child.
I agonized over what to wear. And I redid my hair twice, first pulling it up in a French twist to show off my dangly earrings, but when I changed my mind about the earrings on account of changing my mind about the dress, the hair came back down.
Even now, as I’m holding giant bags of Korean Barbecue takeout in either hand, I glance down at my vintage ‘90s shimmery, blue slip dress and cropped, loosely knit olive green sweater. And now I’m second guessing myself.
I shouldn’t. I like this outfit. And I caught Sebastian taking it in the whole ride over here. Still, this is my first Tate family event. And I’m going as Sebastian’s . . . what? Coworker? Friend? More than a friend but we don’t want anyone to know that? There’s a lot of pressure.
Sebastian has to set down one of his bags of takeout to ring the doorbell of Aunt Stella’s rambler. Before he does, he turns to me.
“Hey,” his eyes roam over my face, his brows jamming together. “I want you to know I don’t think I’ve ever liked anyone the way I like you.” He shunts out a breath. “I want to be free to date you, without hiding.”
“Sebastian, I get it. I don’t know what I’m ready for, either.” The pulse in my throat is sayingtick tock, tick tock.“I really, really like you,” I offer, knowing it sounds inadequate.
“For years, I’ve been telling my family and all the people who’ve worked for me to not get involved romantically with the people they work with. It’s messy. It doesn’t send the right message.” His bottom row of teeth traps his upper lip. “But now? I feel differently. I need to come up with a way to explain that. I can’t say one thing and do another.”
“I know,” I say. “We’ll figure out how to do this the right way. We can talk when you get back from Chicago.” I brighten, smiling wide. “Let’s have a nice time with your family tonight, okay?”
