Body Shot (Last Shot)(24)
She sighed. “I know, I know. Okay. Something quick, then I really have to get home.”
He knew a little burger place close by that was super casual. They ordered at a counter. Hayden picked up the old license plate with their order number on it while he carried their plastic cups full of draft beer out to the patio.
“So I get the feeling you’re not really into doing things that aren’t planned,” he said once they were seated.
“I do like to plan my spontaneity,” she admitted.
He laughed and took a gulp of his beer. “Now, tell me more about your company that’s going to cure cancer. When did you start it?”
She smiled. “About three years ago. When I was in college, I started working on research into messenger RNA made of nucleotide analogs, trying to trigger the body’s natural processes to produce proteins inside the human cell. My senior design project was sponsored by Santé Inc. When I was in grad school, I kept working on my research, and after a year, Santé was convinced it had enough potential for them to fund my start-up company. That was huge for me. I was able to rent space for my lab and offices, and hire staff. It’s been a crazy three years, but we’ve made great progress.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“Thanks. My meeting tomorrow is with the National Health Institute. We’re hoping to sign a deal with them to develop and commercialize messenger RNA therapeutics for the treatment of some cardiovascular, metabolic, and renal diseases, as well as selected targets in oncology.” She bit her lip. “We’ve been in discussions for some time and this could be millions of dollars.”
Beck lifted an eyebrow and gave a low whistle. “Millions of dollars? Wow. That’s impressive.” He could write her a check for that amount of money right now. But he didn’t say that.
“It’ll be impressive if we sign the deal.” She gave a wry smile. “I’ve learned only too well that nothing is ever certain in the business world. We’ve come close to landing big deals like this and then something goes wrong—investors chicken out or they decide to put their money somewhere else. So even though our talks have been going well, I’m trying not to get my hopes up.”
“That’s what you were preparing for?”
“Yes.”
“Great.” He sighed. “Now I feel guilty, dragging you to the beach and making you have fun when millions of dollars and a cure for cancer are on the line.”
Her face softened. “Don’t feel guilty. My friend Carrie and my aunt and uncle are always telling me I work too much. And they’re probably right. I could have stayed home and obsessed over my presentation for tomorrow, but I probably wouldn’t be much better off.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
“That’s why we were at Conquistadors last night,” she added. “Carrie convinced me to take a Saturday night off and go out. She heard about your tequila tasting evening and signed us up.” Then she dropped her eyes and her cheeks went adorably pink. “I didn’t expect what happened.”
“Neither did I. But sometimes the unexpected can be pretty damn great.”
“Yes.”
A server arrived with their burgers in baskets lined with waxed paper, accompanied by fries.
“This looks amazing.” Hayden reached for the bottle of ketchup on the table and poured ketchup neatly on the edge of her basket, then handed the bottle to him.
“Thanks.” He squirted ketchup all over his fries.
She stared at his food. “I’ve never understood how people can do that.”
“Do what?”
“Pour ketchup all over like that.”
He regarded her neat puddle of ketchup where she dipped one French fry and grinned. “OCD much?”
She shrugged. “I’m very aware of my OCD tendencies.”
“How badly does it bother you that my French fries are a mess?”
“I can handle it.”
“Okay, good.”
“Look at me dealing with the fact that my food is touching.” She nodded at her hamburger and fries. “When I was a kid, this would have freaked me out.”
She said it with self-deprecating humor that gave him a strange warm feeling in his chest. He frowned and picked up his hamburger.
There was silence for a moment as they both ate.
“Oh, this is good,” Hayden said, looking up at him wide-eyed. “So good.”
“My fave burger place.”
“Tell me about Conquistadors. How long have you worked there?”
“About a year. I own the place.”
She blinked. “Oh.”
He smirked. “Marco, Cade, and I own it. We were all SEALs, and decided to leave around the same time. None of us knew what the hell we wanted to do with our lives after that. Marco made a joke about starting a tequila bar, since the one thing we were all good at was drinking tequila, and we decided to go for it. We found the place, bought it, came up with the name, redecorated, and we were in business.”