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“To answer your question, no. It didn’t upset me. Look, I meant what I said earlier. You did good work. You made a product that genuinely helped people. You can say that wasn’t what you meant to do, that all you were doing when you created it was filling a need for cash. But the end result helped people.” He’s quiet for a moment. “I’m going to assume that guy was an ex.”
I groan. Of all the things we need to discuss, this is the one I don’t want to. “I’m sorry you were put in that position tonight. I promise I’ll be perfectly professional from now on.”
He seems to think about his next question. “Did you invite me so you didn’t have to go alone?”
I want to lie to him, but the truth is the truth. He hadn’t been necessary to this evening’s task. In fact, having CeCe meet him put me in the bad position of having to explain why he was there. “I was fine attending alone until I found out Nick was going to be there. I knew he’d either have a pack of bros with him or a new girlfriend. He never goes anywhere alone.”
“Were you planning on introducing me as your boyfriend?”
I shake my head. “No, but I wasn’t going to correct anyone if they got that impression, and now that I’m saying the words, I feel like an idiot. I’m not some sad chick who always needs a boyfriend. Nick was actually only my second long-term relationship. I’m perfectly content on my own. I don’t know what came over me. I can tell him the truth.”
“And waste my knight riding in moves? That feels harsh. Was the kiss that bad?”
“You know it was not. It was a perfectly fine kiss.”
“It was a pretty good kiss.” There’s a wealth of masculine arrogance in his tone, and I wish I didn’t find that charming coming from him.
It had been my only kiss in the last six months, and probably the most passion I’d had from a guy in a couple of years, and that was so sad. “It was a kiss we both need to forget because we’re going to be working very closely together for the next couple of months. We’ve got to hire at least one, maybe two contractors.”
“Where are we going to put them? I don’t know if you noticed, but neither one of us has a whole lot of space. I was worried about where I was going to put you.”
“They can work remotely if we can’t find someplace cheap.” The remote work might be a necessary thing since I intend to have one of the coders working on what I want them to work on—an interface for a social media/commerce app. I can give Heath a little, but I know what CeCe wants. The AI and Heath’s unique framework is what will sell this project.
“And if we get full funding?”
I like that he’s an optimist. One of us needs to be. “Then we find a small office probably somewhere in Jersey because that’s what we’ll be able to afford and we spend the next three or four years working our asses off only to fail because some asshole swoops in two months ahead of our launch date with something too similar. Then we can decide if we want to spend the money on the inevitable lawsuits, but that’s only if we get the choice. There’s also the possibility that someone out there gets word of what we’re doing and preemptively files for a patent that will block us even though the fucker doesn’t have enough to prove concept. Then, it’s back to the lawyers and we decide if we have deep enough pockets to fight, and that answer is almost always no.”
Heath stands, and I can’t help but notice how tall and fit he is. I need to take some me time because my brain is spending too much energy on how hot he is. He starts to lift one long leg over the railing.
I pop up. “What are you doing?”
His head turns slightly, lips curling in a mischievous grin. “Ending it all. I’ve seen the future, Ivy. It’s not worth it.”
He’s teasing me. I’m not sure why it rankles. Or maybe I am. “It can happen, and it does all the time. This is the big leagues, and it’s a battle every single day.”
He looms over me, so close I can practically feel the warmth of his skin. “Is it war or baseball? I need to know because you are the queen of mixed metaphors, and I want to be sure I’m all kitted up. So glove or rifle?”
He’s really not ready for this. “Both.”
“All right, then.” He glances down at his watch. “I should go. Apparently I’ve got both a game and a war to prepare for. I’m going to need some sleep. Now I know you said we shouldn’t kiss again, but we already went there so…”
