AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sell you, my stake?” I asked, making sure I’d heard her correctly. Rather than respond verbally, she simply nodded, a nervous smile on her face. Not for the first time, I found myself charmed by that smile. She really was a beautiful woman.
“Yes,” she finally eked out.
I glanced over at Mark, who was peeling at the label of his beer. He glanced up and met my gaze before looking back at the bottle and going back to work with his thumbnail, delicately getting under the paper.
“Look, I can understand your point of view,” I said. “I get it, really. I do. But selling my share of the company to you right now is simply not reasonable. I invested with good intentions. I invested because I believe there is a lot more that can be done to help the store and the community. I think we could work together to build something special here, to make the store as successful as possible. But I am not just willing to sell it to you.”
“Maybe,” Carmela said, interjecting herself back into the conversation as she came around the corner from the kitchen with a stack of plates, “you two should have dinner. Get to know each other a little bit before you talk business again.”
“I just remembered I have something I have to do tonight,” Melanie said. “So, I’m afraid I have to get going.”
“What about tomorrow?” Carmela asked, not missing a beat. “Perhaps you could go grab a bite to eat downtown. There are a couple of new places open down there.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Vic, give it a shot,” Mark said. “You two have to figure out how to work together on this. Don’t you always talk about all these dinners you take your business partners to?”
Sighing with a bit of frustration, I looked at Mark, who was grinning. He was enjoying this. Whether it was to rib me or to entertain his wife, I wasn’t sure, but either way, it was getting annoying.
“Fine,” Melanie said, surprising me. “There’s a place down the street from the store I’ve been meaning to go to anyway.”
“Mero’s?” Carmela asked.
Melanie nodded.
“Really nice place,” Mark said. “What about it, Vic?”
I was being put on the spot, and I hated it. That said, the idea of being out for dinner with the woman was enticing, no matter what the circumstances. It had been almost a year since I was alone at a restaurant with anyone other than myself or my divorce lawyer. Considering he was seventy and resembled AndyGriffith inMatlock, this would have to be seen as a step up even if she hated my guts.
“All right,” I said. “Mero’s. Seven?”
“Eight,” she said. “I work at the store until six.”
“Eight it is. I’ll make the reservation,” I said.
“Good,” she said awkwardly. “Carmela, it’s been lovely, but I need to go. Mark, nice to see you. Kiss Cassie for me.” She turned to me, nodding curtly. “Victor.”
“Melanie,” I said, nodding at her.
As she left, I let out a big breath and turned to Mark.
“What?” he said defensively.
“She might be gone, but you owe me dinner after that,” I said.
“Why do you think I had Carmela make pasta?” he said. “Nobody can be mad at anyone after pasta.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
When I got back home from Mark and Carmela’s, I was still thinking about Melanie. She’d looked amazing and I couldn’t stop staring at her the entire time she talked. It was almost hard to concentrate on what she was saying she was so distracting. But the problem was what she was saying was ridiculous. Sure, I might have had an idea that possibly we could work something out down the road, but not right now. I hadn’t even begun yet.
Telling her that I had that thought would only weaken my ability to negotiate and my authority to get anything done. I had to play that close to the vest.
I had ideas for what I wanted to do, and I’d come back to Murdock with the express purpose of doing them. I’d moved here and settled into the rental house, restarting my life in my hometown because I felt like this could be not just a short-term deal but a long-term commitment. I wasn’t just going to give it up because she got screwed over.
I felt bad for her, though. She was right about how the board had sold the company out from under her, and it was entirely possible that if she did take it to court, I might have a problem. But at the end of the day, I wasn’t just going to give up, so if that was the route she took, I would just have to take my chances.
I walked in the door and tossed my keys in the bowl on the buffet table, one of the few pieces of furniture that had ended up staying from the pre-furnished stuff. Kicking my shoes off, I padded over to the bedroom and undressed, getting into a pair of loose shorts. My phone dinged from where I’d tossed it on the bed, and I checked it to see a notification. An email.
