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“Uh, yeah, sure.” I spin around with him on my heels. “My living room.”
I stand back, and he walks over to the picture wall. I have pictures of all my godchildren, the guys, weddings, parties. I have a few of my mother, stepfather, and my siblings. And one with my grandfather when we were inseparable. But most of the wall is dedicated to what I consider my heart family.
“Tell me who I’m looking at.”
I make my way across the wall. This is one of the most endearing attributes about Mateo. He loves his family. It was something I envied. But it seems the more I tried to understand my mother, stepfather, and grandfather as an adult, the more I felt like an outcast. That’s when I decided to embrace the family I had in the guys.
"From ten, you now have a clan. Look at us." He notices a picture of us from college. He removes it from the wall. The serene smile on his face is infectious. He places it back on the hook turning to me. "How are your parents?"
“They’re in good health. Business is good.”
"You guys are still distant." He faces me, dropping his hands in his pockets.
"I go when they call, but it's better when we have our own space. Can we talk about something else?"
“Certainly.”
The tour continues. My three-bedroom house isn't a mansion, but it's mine. We stop at my dining room table. He glances down at my mess and reaches for a stack of papers.
“I thought I’d prepare for our meeting today. We can talk in here or the living room. I don’t have a home office.”
"Here is fine." He removes his jacket and my mouth waters. He must be hitting the gym now. "Alexandria, you can't look at me like that and expect me to remain unaffected."
I nod. “Would you like some coffee?”
"I'll get the coffee, and you get the table. Talk me through it."
“Everything is in the drawer below the coffee maker.”
He walks in the kitchen spinning around as if getting himself familiar with the space. He stops in front of the coffee maker and pulls out the drawer.
"Bingo." He throws his hands up in a touchdown fashion. I laugh, shaking my head. "Tell me about Platinum Prestige."
"You'd get a kick out of it. We started because Hunter's father threatened to take away her inheritance. Then he gave her an ultimatum. She created a business plan with her then boyfriend, and when her father agreed to invest in the company, she asked us to join her."
“The mugs?”
“Above you.”
He opens the cabinet with his index finger. “Aren’t you an organized one?”
“I live on coffee. So, clients work with us on a subscription base. We have celebrities, executives, political officials. We’ve even started establishing corporate accounts.”
“Still two cream, two sugar?”
I stop. “Yes.”
He walks to the refrigerator, stopping at the trash can. “What happened?”
“I almost set the place on fire. I got distracted reading about the great Mateo Rodriquez.”
“The great? I like the sound of that.” His head disappears into the refrigerator. “What are the next steps for Platinum Prestige? You mentioned international expansion.”
I sit at the table, watching him move around in my kitchen. He gathers the mugs and strolls into the dining room.
“I guess we’d like to consider duplicating what we’ve done here in other countries. We currently in the consideration phase. I plan to research and present my findings to the rest of the guys. And we’ll take it from there.”
“And my role?”
