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“Who?”
I turn to face her, and she withdraws, her face an unusual shade of alarmed. “You couldn’t have.”
“I know,” I agree, laughing a little. “The second time, I approached her.” Or chased her. “It wasn’t her at all, just some poor woman with blond hair.” I swig some of the water. “I feel like I’m going crazy.”
“Well, that’s confirmed, Jesse,” Sarah says, watching me head back to my desk. She points a look at my hand. “Did you and Ava fix things?”
Why is she asking? She doesn’t care. I rest my head back. “What did you want, anyway?”
She sighs, loud and meant to be heard, going to the fridge and the pulling some ice from the compartment at the top, banging it into a napkin and bringing it over. She puts it on my hand, and I smile mildly, silently thanking her. “I have some early meetings tomorrow with suppliers.”
“And?”
“I’d appreciate it if you could be there.”
“Why?”
She sighs. “The supplies for the new rooms,whenthey’re done, are double what we paid last time.”
With such emphasis onwhen. But she has a point. The whole project is stalled because mygirlfriendcan’t bring herself to face my business. I need to fix that. We have endless members waiting with anticipation for the new wing to be complete, and after the police raid recently, keeping members sweet is quite crucial. “Why are they double?”
“All I keep hearing about is inflation and—”
“Find another supplier.”
“I have.”
I keep my head back. “And?”
“They’re a bit...fluffy.”
“I hate fluffy.”
“I know.” Something slaps on my desk and I peek down at it. “The catalogue of fluff.”
I reach for the first page and open it, giving the model who looks like a cheap version of our very own in-house dominatrix a dubious look. “Nice.”
“Terrible, I know.” Sarah plops into the chair opposite me. “Look, I know you’re turning all vanilla on us lately and have better things to do than buy stock for your elite sex club, like stalk the young interior designer”—she gives me a sardonic smile, and I give her a curled lip—“but this is important. High membership fees demand quality, non-fluffy equipment. Members don’t want cheesy fluff, Jesse. They want quality. It’s like putting a stud up against a donkey.”
“That’s a terrible analogy.”
She shrugs. “If the prices rise at our current supplier, we have to raise memberships.”
“Then raise them.”
“We just did.”
“Did we?”
“Yes,” John says, wandering in. “We talked about it.”
“Did we?”
He lowers next to Sarah. “You need to be at the meeting.”
“I can’t be at the meeting.” I need to take Ava to work.If she’s talking to me.
“Why?” John asks.
