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I couldn’t help grinning at him then. “This job is an absolute dream come true.”
“I felt that way when I bought this place, but it’s gone on so long, and there have been so many problems,” he said. “To be honest, I kind of fell out of love with it all. But seeing it through your eyes, I’m feeling the spark come back again.”
“That’s so good to hear,” I told him. “This is such a beautiful old building, it deserves a new lease on life. I’m sure whoever leases these apartments from you will be very happy here.”
He smiled too. “And I hope it all gets finished and they’re rented out before the pre-season starts or my brain might explode. So how fast do you think we could pull these together?”
I tried not to like the fact that he said we, but I couldn’t help myself. We felt like a team, and I loved it. “I’ll mark up everything I can from the suppliers’ catalogs, so that your contractors can measure up and get it all ordered,” I told him. “I can start on that tonight once Maddy’s down. As for the one-off pieces, I’ll have to make a few trips to the antique markets and the vintage furniture stores downtown, and I can call my contacts in the trade direct too. You’ll have to give me an idea of budget.”
“The budget is, get it done, get it done now,” he said.
I laughed. “That’s a good figure to work with,” I told him. I felt a thrill go through me – shopping for beautiful perfect vintage pieces to make the apartments stunning was a dream job for me. I’d relish every single minute of it, and I’d love helping Alex out too.
Alex…
I wasn’t doing the best job in the world of forgetting about our sensational night together, to be honest. It didn’t help that I kept catching his scent and wanting to pull him to me and kiss him hard on the lips. Also, there seemed to be a magnetic force between us drawing us together. We kept trying to go through the doorways at the same time, or bumping shoulders as we crossed the vast, light rooms.
When things like that happened, we were quick to jump apart, though, and put some distance between us. I knew why I was doing that, but I stopped myself from wondering why he was. I especially banished any thoughts about me not being sexy enough, or hot enough, or whatever. My confidence wasn’t easy to build, and I wasn’t going to erode it with all that negative stuff. Mind on the job, I told myself firmly, taking pictures with my phone of the shade of the original wood paneling that lined some of the walls, and the beautiful windowsills. I planned to come back in both the early morning light and the dusk and see where the light fell, and how the paneling color looked then. It was so beautiful, I planned to work the color scheme around it.
The first fitting had been done, and so there was just skimmed plaster on the walls, and the bare floorboards. I crouched down to run my hands over them. “Imagine all the customers of the general store who walked here before us,” I said to Alex. “Think of the young women here, excitedly finding new things to try, spending their hard-earned savings on a new bonnet, maybe.”
Alex crouched down beside me and ran his hands over the boards too. “I think they went to a milliner for that,” he said. “I’ve got a few old photos of the place in its prime, but not many. Here in the store there was a haberdashery, though.”
I smiled, stroking the floorboards, imagining. “Ribbons and buttons and ruffles, oh my! And a strict matronly server who wouldn’t let the young ladies touch anything.”
“Yes, her true love went off prospecting for gold after her family vetoed the match, and she became a bitter old spinster,” he said.
I laughed. “Great storytelling.”
My fingertips accidentally brushed his then and sparks pretty much jumped between us. He pulled his hand away and my whole mood shifted suddenly, like I’d fallen deep down a black hole. “Okay, okay, you don’t have to leap away so fast,” I found myself saying, defensive and snappy. “I’m not trying to get you into bed again. You don’t have to worry about that.”
He stood suddenly. “I’m respecting you and our working relationship,” he said, a defensive tone to his voice too. “Thanks for your appreciation of that.”
I stood suddenly. “You don’t have to make it quite so clear that you find me utterly unattractive.” I had no idea where it was all coming from, and even less idea of how to stop it. “It is not easy to get your confidence back after having a baby, you know. In my case, after a not-very-pretty break up and then having a baby, actually…”
“Jesus,” he grumped. “Calm down. I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
I hardly heard him. “…and being aware that I look so exhausted all the time is horrible, you know. I don’t need you literally leaping away from my touch to help me get the message that you’re not interested.”
“You’re twenty-four years younger than me, and I’m your boss and you’re my best friends’ daughter,” he said then, savagely, with a really moody look on his face.
“Thanks for pointing all that out,” I shot back. “I’m sure it’s very convenient for you to focus on all that – they’re all good excuses for why we can’t be together. But there’s no need to act all that out. Nothing else is going to happen between us. It was all a mistake. Let’s just move on, okay? Now, how about blinds?”
He just stared at me, looking bewildered and pissed in equal measure. I clinked away across the room to the huge lead-glass windows with as much dignity as I could muster and started taking photos of the frames. I wasn’t going to give him the chance to confirm what I already knew. He wasn’t into me. I’d got my sass back, thank goodness. So that was it – conversation over. Business only from now on.
12
ALEX
There were three more apartments to look at after Mary-Beth had suddenly changed personality on me, and gotten all defensive and then all hardcore businesslike, as if we were in charge of a multi-national shipping company or something. We worked through the rooms in near-silence, as she assessed the space, the light and the original features. That’s what softened her up again in the end, appreciating the beautiful spaces – nothing I said or did.
I just held the notepad, and looked after the big bunch of keys, and followed her around like a very hurt and very bewildered puppy. I tried not to, obviously. I tried very hard to assert my manhood. Several times, I strode into a room, owning the space like the alpha male sports god that I am, and made a comment about something in a strong and commanding manner. But she either just flat out ignored me or shot some withering reply back, not even looking at me.
I was mad with her at first for acting that way, but then I started to find it kind of sexy, to be honest. The fireplaces and the wood paneling made her drop her defenses gradually, though. Another hour or so later, and we were in the last apartment, in what had been the main ground floor trading hall. She was staring up at the huge original chandelier light fitting in absolute wonder. So much so that she finally forgot she was mad with me. “Alex, wow, this is incredible!”
“I’m glad you think so,” I said. “It cost a fortune to have it restored and to make the fitting safe and compliant with current regulations.”
She favored me with a smile then. “See, you do really care about heritage, and about doing the old place justice,” she said. She took the notepad and pen from me, careful not to brush my hand this time. I bit back the urge to say something defensive about that – bringing it all up again and trying to show how right I was, and how out of order she was. I knew it wouldn’t achieve anything. Huh, maybe I was growing – my psychologist would have been impressed. Clarissa would have been downright shocked and disbelieving.
