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Damon
Only the heels.
A schoolgirl giggle escapes me, my cheeks flushing with warmth. And my body is already on timer for its next fix of him.
“Oh my God.” Lacie practically jumps out of her seat. Her arms engulf me in a tight hug. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“You’re a busy lady.” I take her in. She’s all tanned from her week on the East Coast seeing clients. “So, business first, catch-up after?”
Shaking out her copper waves over her shoulder, she rolls her eyes. “Honestly, I’m not sure what you expect me to tell you.”
She sits, opening up her monogrammed leather document folder. She takes out a couple of papers with handwritten notes.
“Here’s the thing, Monroe wants less. Schultz wants less too. Coldwell is taking a big cut…” She shrugs like it’s a no-brainer.
“We’re taking a bigger slice from a bigger pie, Lacie. And it’s so we can put more into it. You can’t compare what we’ve presented to anything Monroe or Schultz or any other publisher out there has.”
“Ava…”
“No. I know Monroe. I know their projections are nowhere close to ours, because they’re not willing to put everything into this, but the reality is that you can’t expect a lion to take the same bite as a mouse.”
I pause as my analogy sinks in. I’m starting to sound like Damon. Mice and lions. Bites and cuts…
“It’s my job as Callum’s agent to make sure that every risk pays off, that every investment has a return. It’s my job to be the bad guy so my client can be the great guy. And Callum…he’s not about the money or any of that superficial shit. He’s a normal guy that had to grind to get to where he is, even with his talent. He invests in people…”
“Lace, you can’t look at any of this as my friend. As someone who knows how Damon and I started out…”
“What?” she blurts, eyes narrowed on me as she sits straight in her seat.
Shit.
I take a deep breath and continue. “This is business, and we both know that Coldwell is the only publisher with the resources it will take to keep up with Callum’s profile…to expand it even.”
She glares at me, tapping her pen on her pad. She’s playing hardball, like I knew she would.
Eventually she pulls out the contract I sent her earlier in the week. Placing it on the table in front of me, she spins it to face me.
“He would’ve signed it without even reading it, that’s how much he’s bought into you.”
“What?”
“It’s yours, and not because you’re my best brat friend.” She rolls her eyes again. “Because you deserve it. You worked the hardest, and giving it to Marsh would’ve made me twitch into a seizure or something.”
I look through the document, page by page, still in disbelief that it’s signed because it’s the biggest deal I’ve ever made.
“Business over, now time for catch-up!” she announces, signaling the waitress for a top-up of our coffees. “What’s going on between you and asshat?”
Of course, my face glows and my excitement turns into nerves. “I’m meeting his mom today. Like really meeting her and not running from her home.”
“Well, I guess I already knew you were fucking, so it doesn’t matter that you skipped over that part.”
“You knew?”
“Babe, he pretty much told Callum to keep Holly away from you.”
“He did?”
“Not in so many words, but the message was clear with the way he barely kept himself from pouring your drink over her…” She pauses. “That was my fault, because Holly hates me and…anyway, the point is that for a jerk, he totally didn’t care whether or not Callum would be pissed. He cared more about you, ergo, he’s either getting pussy or he wants to get pussy.”
