The next day Charisse intended to call a lunchtime meeting with her lady luvs and tell them that Conor was their boss. But it didn’t happened. Instead, she had lunch with just Letti at her favorite sandwich shop and told her about dating Conor, the set-up with the captain and Conor rescinding his offer to sell her the salon.
“He should’ve just given it to you as soon as you started dating,” said Letti. “What a jerk.” She took a bite of the sandwich they were sharing: chicken salad on a croissant.
“Well,” said Charisse, reluctantly. She popped a grape in her mouth. She’d barely touched the sandwich.
“Well, what?” asked Letti.
“He did offer to give it to me, but I refused him. It sounds so silly. But I felt it was my fault he had it to begin with.”
Letti groaned and swallowed. “Charisse, when a guy like Conor Grishin offers you a gift, you take it. He’s got money to spare. And it’s not like he can stand on moral high ground. He bullied your father into giving it to him.”
“I know, I know, I’m an idiot. I just wanted there to be one thing in my life that I could say, ‘I did that. That’s mine.’” She stared up at the strands of white lights across the ceiling. The owner of the sandwich shop was about ten years older than she was. Maybe Charisse had rushed into something she hadn’t been ready for. Obviously since she hadn’t even read the contract. Maybe she’d just have to suck it up and try again in a few years.
“So let’s look at the contract and see if there’s a loophole or something.”
Charisse shook her head. “It looks pretty tight. I could hire a lawyer, but Daddy’s really good at things like that. I’m stuck. But I wanted to know what you think I should tell the others. Conor’s going to make changes. He said as much yesterday.”
Letti sighed and leaned back against the red booth. She had her curly hair parted on the side and tied back loosely at the nape of her neck. “I’m more worried about you. I can tell you still like him. And what happened Tuesday?”
Charisse bowed her head. The unfinished sandwich seemed to taunt her like she’d never be hungry again. “I sort of fell apart Tuesday. I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s still too fresh. But Conor was so sweet. It’s like he has his business persona where he orders everyone around and then he has his private persona where he’s really kind and understanding.”
“Then maybe you can reconcile. Enough at least to where you’re still in charge. The lady luvs don’t care who owns the business so long as you’re running it.”
Charisse rolled her lips together. Reconcile with Conor. That’s all she wanted to do, but not just because of the salon. She wanted to fall asleep in his arms and wake up to his gentle kisses on her shoulder and hard erection against her back.
“Maybe I’ll call him when we get back. I’m surprised he hasn’t barged into the salon today, demanding this and that.”
“Maybe he wants to reconcile too,” said Letti.
Charisse lifted the sandwich and took a bite.
Evelyn Aster 