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“Because I’m getting the impression that you don’t like me very much.”
Her lips twitch almost imperceptibly. “Really.”
It’s not a question. She knows she’s been caught and…I think that pleases her. She’sgladthat I can tell she doesn’t like me.
“Yes, really.” I cock my head to the side and frown. “If there’s something I said or did to get on your bad side, I apologise.”
I half expect her to deny it or even apologise for being so obvious, but she does neither.
“Why does it bother you so much?”
Now that’s not the questionIwas expecting. Her brutal honesty and refusal to hide behind pleasantries inspires me, so I tell her the truth.
“I’m not used to having a beautiful woman dislike me. Most seem to find me charming.”
“Ah,” she says, clearly biting back a smile. “So it’s a case of a bruised ego.”
“Something like that.”
“Have you ever considered that you’re not as charming as you think you are?”
“I can honestly say that the thought has never crossed my mind.”
She laughs at that.Actuallylaughs, like the kind of laugh that makes her throw her head back and her shoulders shake.
It’s beautiful.
“Well, Hawthorne, you’ve yet to charm me.”
She’s still refusing to use my first name, but at least she’s dropped themister.
“I don’t think that’s true,” I say with a grin. There’s been a shift. I can feel it. Her hackles are still up, but she’s definitely not as wary around me as she was before. “I think you’re plenty charmed, you’re just pretending otherwise.”
She hums and then gives me a little shrug before she turns back to her drink. “Guess we’ll never know.”
I want to say more, to see how far we can go with this interesting back and forth we’ve developed, but her friend suddenly appears by her side. Her gaze, inquisitive and guarded, rakes over me before she jerks her head toward the back of the room.
“A girl I know has a booth back there. You want to go join them?”
Amber nods and slides off her stool. She glances briefly in my direction and gives me a perfunctory head tilt before she disappears into the crowd. They’re still close enough that their voices float over to me as they make their way to their new booth.
“Who was that?” her friend asks.
Amber’s response hits my ears as clearly as if she were standing right beside me. “Nobody important.”
6
AMBER
One perkof having The August Roomas my only client for the next three months is that I don’t have to go into the office as often as before.
For the most part, my projects tend to be in residential spaces, and I can’t exactly set up camp in a client’s living room to work, so I usually spend a lot of time at the Zensi Designs office. Located in the loft of a converted warehouse, our office isn’t particularly spacious, and even though there are only a handful of us, it can get pretty claustrophobic fast. Especially with Cynthia only a glass partition away on the days she actually bothers to come in.
But now…Now, I have an entire property to myself. My plan is to establish an office area on the fourth floor in the backroom where the sun hits just right in the afternoon for that extra serotonin boost. It makes sense, since Hawthorne’s already earmarked this room as the office for when the club launches.
It’ll be nice to have space for myself, where I can concentrate and throw myself into this project without worrying about distractions or people hovering over my shoulder nit-picking every last choice I make. My to-do list is already a mile long, and with only three months to the launch date, I don’t have any time to waste.
Firstly, I need to firm up the design concepts. Along with his confirmation of the budget, Hawthorne sent a small list of suggestions over the weekend, and they’re not half bad. For the most part, it seems like he just wants to bring in more of the atmosphere from the New York location so there’s some continuity between the two spaces. That’s an easy enough fix — a few darker shades of paint here and there and low mood lighting in the corridors — and, if I’m being honest, a fair request. But I hope it doesn’t become a habit. There’s nothing I hate more than having to go back and forth with a client on things we’ve already agreed on.
