She nodded, enamored with the photos. “I completely agree. I can’t compete with Michael Kors, but there’s something about a designer you get to know. Everyone wants to brag to their friends that they bought a dress that the designer handpicked for them.”
“Exactly.”
“When can we move in?” she asked, glancing up at me with her bright hazel eyes.
I smiled. “Next week if we incentivize the landlord. It’ll take a few months to renovate, so the sooner we’re in, the better,” I said.
“Let’s do it then.” She dropped the folder and stared up at me, her features infused with excitement for the first time in months. “Next topic.”
I nearly slept with your one and only employee and now I’m worried she’s going to quit and leave us high and dry.
“Julian?” Lorena asked, eyeing me with suspicion.
“Oh, um,” I scanned down our itinerary, unable to focus on a single line.
“Did you talk to Mom? Is that why you’re off?”
My gaze shot back up to her. “No?”
“You still haven’t seen her since you’ve been in town?”
She seemed surprised.
“Why would I see Mom?”
Lorena flattened her hands across the edge of the table, collecting her thoughts. I settled into my chair, prepared for a lecture. When she pushed her glasses up onto the top of her head, I knew I was really in for it.
“I am the first person to throw Mom under the bus. Believe me, I barely like her at this point.”
For good reason. Lucy Lefray was from New York royalty. She’d grown up around the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers in the upper echelon of wealth, lived the life reserved for the top one percent of the one percent. From a young age, she’d groomed me to run a Fortune 500 company and marry some suitable socialite by the age of twenty-five. Lorena? My mother could hardly look at her. A fashion designer? Lorena might as well have been a prostitute for the way my mom sneered at her. I can still remember the day Lorena dyed her hair for the first time. My mother didn’t leave her room for a week. She acted as if Lorena had killed the family pet. Lorena had added blonde highlights to her brown hair. The horror.
“So if we both don’t like her then it’s settled.” I smiled and scanned down the list of items left to discuss.
Lorena cleared her throat until I finally looked up and met her eye. “She’s older now, Julian. Her edges are starting to soften and I think it would mean a lot if you stopped by to see her, or at the very least, let her know you’re back in town. It’d break her heart to realize that you’re in New York and you don’t even care to see her.”
“I’ll shoot her a text message.”
“Julian,” Lorena chastised.
I held up my hands. “Fine. I’ll think about it, Lorena. I have a lot on my mind, least of which is whether or not I should try to schedule a tea time with Mom.”
Lorena smiled and picked up her itinerary.
“Perfect. Okay, on to topic number two. I think it’s about time for me to meet our Employee of the Month!”
Jesus Christ. Someone get me a beer.
Chapter Twenty-One
Josephine
It was the Monday after the “boating incident” where I’d almost let Julian ravish me below the deck—no pun intended—and I was not prepared to go into work. I had the same kind of dread in my stomach that built up right before I had to wax my hoohah before swim season.
I took my time applying my makeup, trying to relax myself. I’d called Lily the night before to get her opinion on the matter, but she’d only made me feel worse.
I think a part of her was shocked that I’d let it go that far.
“The plan was for you to move to New York so you could get a job and an apartment before I move up there in a few months. This plan did not include sleeping with your boss. Don’t you see how that could not only jeopardize your career at Lorena Lefray Designs but also EVERYWHERE else in the entire city? Seriously, Jo, is his penis made of pure gold? Ivory? Does it sparkle? Because sleeping with him cannot be worth more than your career in fashion. Think about it.”
“I know that! You don’t have to tell me that,” I huffed into the phone. “Don’t you think I’m already panicking enough as is? He was drunk and I almost took full advantage of him!”
Lily didn’t believe that for a second.
“You two have been circling around each other like a couple of bloodthirsty sharks. You did not take advantage of him.”
I groaned.
“Just focus on what’s important, Jo. I’ll be moving up in a month and then you won’t have to hang out with Julian anymore. You’ll have me.”
Just hearing her reassure me that she was headed to New York melted away most of my anxiety. I needed her in New York. I needed reinforcements. If Lily had been with me on that boat, I never would have let it go that far with Julian.
“Once I have the money saved for a bus ticket and first month’s rent, I’m there,” Lily said.
I made her swear to that promise.
After we’d hung up, I’d made a promise with myself not to screw up the opportunity that had fallen into my lap. There were any number of outcomes that could happen if Julian and I decided to pursue some kind of relationship. All but one of them ended in a break-up and my inevitable termination from the company. Truthfully, I knew I only had one option: I would continue on as Julian’s employee and his friend, nothing more. We’d be cordial, I’d get my job done, impress him, and move my way up in the world.