The Billionaire Game 3(8)
“Thanks,” I said, making a beeline for the fitting rooms. “Keep up the good work, you’re a dream!”
Nicole was the assistant I’d hired to help work the storefront; girl couldn’t work a Lil’ Sew and So, much less the behemoths the seamstresses and I used in the back, but she knew more about fashion than most runway models, could balance a spreadsheet in her head in half a second, and possessed the most amazing superpower I’d ever encountered: the ability to keep smiling at a customer until they stopped screaming, grew ashamed, threw money at her, and slunk away.
I pointed one customer towards the peach silk peignoir with butterfly embroidery on the hem, gently guided one away from scarlet and more towards the turquoise that would bring out her eyes, coaxed a third into attempting a more daring—read, skimpier, and coincidentally more expensive—teddy, and had just finished discussing the benefits of an outfit combining multiple textures with the fourth, when I heard one of my favorite sounds in the world.
“Katie!” Lacey came sailing into the shop, practically screeching to a halt as she took in the hustle and bustle around her, gaping in amazement. “Damn girl, you are on fire! Is it like this every day?”
“This is actually a little slow,” I confessed, rearranging a mussed display. “Yesterday was a lot busier.”
“You’re doing so well!”
“Almost too well,” I said, running my hands through my hair as I tried to remember if I’d sent the e-mail to the warehouse about the restock yet. “We’re sold out of half of my designs, and I’ve got a waiting list of private clients that I can’t afford to disappoint or make wait.” I gestured at the crowd of customers.
“So hurry up and make more!” Lacey said excitedly. As if it were all so simple.
“I can’t keep up with this demand, is the thing,” I explained. “I need to double inventory, stock up on raw materials, pay my seamstresses overtime, but we don’t have enough capital yet, and on top of that I don’t have time to start any new lines!” I waved my hands through the air as if I could magically summon up another storeroom full of lingerie.
“What does Asher say?” Lacey asked, her brow creasing.
I clamped down on my emotions harder than a bull alligator chomping down on an unwary swimmer. “I’m not talking to him right now. Maybe ever.” Something was irritating my eyes, so I looked away and tried to blink it away. Lacey wasn’t fooled.
“Oh, Katie.” Lacey’s eyes went wide with empathy and she took my hand. “I’m such an idiot. I really thought you were fine. But you really liked him, didn’t you?”
There was no denying it, and to tell the truth, I was tired of keeping up the perky tough-girl act in front of Lacey. I nodded slightly, my eyes brimming.
Lacey whipped out her phone. “That’s it. I’m calling my personal assistant. She’s had training in customer service positions; she can help out Nicole here while you and I have a very crucial heart-to-heart. Even with all this wedding crap to deal with, I can’t believe I’ve had my head so far up my own—”
“But I can’t leave now—” I started to protest.
“And you can’t go on like this either,” Lacey pointed out. “This is an emergency, and we are going to solve it. That’s what best friends are for.”
#
Having a heart-to-heart about the guy who’d broken yours didn’t get any less awkward when you’re having it surrounded by mannequins and lingerie, but Lacey should have counted herself lucky that I’d let her talk me as far as the storeroom before digging in my heels and insisting I couldn’t leave the store.
“Okay,” Lacey said, getting more comfortable on her seat of a pile of sea-foam green panties. “So to sum up: you guys had sex the night before, and then at the opening—which, damn girl, that was audacious—and right afterward you get this whole bet thing thrown in your face, and he doesn’t apologize.”
“I can’t believe I slept with him.” I scrubbed my eyes and tried to laugh. “Twice, even! Damn my animal magnetism.”
Lacey rubbed my hand sympathetically. “It truly is a force to be reckoned with.”
“The worst part is,” I said, “if he apologized? Really apologized, not just dismissed my concerns or told me I was overreacting or getting it all wrong or whatever?” I took a deep breath. “I think I might forgive him.”
Lacey grinned wide and jumped up in excitement. “And what’s wrong with that?”
“He doesn’t deserve it!” I snapped. I kicked at the foot of a mannequin, imagining it was Asher. It didn’t have his ass, though. Dammit, why was I even now thinking about his ass! “Aaaaargh! What do I do? I can’t keep going on like this, my business is going to tank!”