29
ELOISE
“Hey, you’re up early,” I say, seeing Alistair setting up his laptop on the sofa. He looks up at me, his sandy blond hair is disheveled, and a frown is pulled across his face. He looks stressed.
Alistair reaches for me and pulls me to his side. My fingers slide through his hair as he kisses my stomach.
“I’m sorry, babe, something’s happened at work. Then I find out a deal is in jeopardy on a new space I’ve wanted for years. I’m going to be here for a couple of hours sorting it out,” he tells me. The pained look on his face tells me exactly how sorry he really is.
“No need to apologize. You do what you’ve got to do. We have all day,” I say, looking down at his handsome face as I run my hand along his tight jaw.
“You sure?” he asks, looking like he doesn’t quite believe me.
I would never keep him from his work. He owns numerous businesses and each one would come with their own set of problems, and it must be bad if they are pulling in the big boss.
“Of course, I’m going to go catch up with Lauren. We can talk about all the things we spoke about yesterday. And I need to check in with Sierra and her broken ankle,” I tell him.
He looks relieved, but his shoulders sink as if my answer releases some of the tension in his body. “Thank you. I’ll make it up to you when I’m done.” He grins wolfishly.
“I’m sure you will,” I say, leaning down and kissing him.
As soon as I leave his arms, he’s back to work. I get dressed and text Lauren that I’m popping over for a couple of hours, then head to our villa.
“Oh my god, I miss you,” Lauren says while pulling me into her arms as I enter our villa.
“I miss you too,” I agree, hugging her back tightly.
“Let me look at you,” Lauren states as she pulls away from the hug and looks me over. “You are glowing, girl. That D must be good,” she says, then bursts out laughing.
“It’ssogood,” I reply, which has us falling into fits of laughter.
Lauren makes me a coffee, and then we sit on the sofa together.
“Tell me everything,” Lauren says, blowing the steam off her coffee.
I tell her what’s been happening since leaving the villa. She tells me that Sierra is doing fine, bored but good. Then I tell her about my chat with Alistair and the business. How I showed him my prized Pinterest board, and he gave me great feedback on what would and wouldn’t work and the general benchmark of costs, which made me rethink my grand designs. We talked about what kind of space I would need for a commercial kitchen and bakery display and if I wanted the added bonus of a café. I haven’t even looked at all the commercial kitchen options. I’ve been so focused on saving money that I never planned all the other things. He made me think about issues I hadn’t even thought about. He explained to me about staff and the law involved around that, then social media and advertising. It was a lot to take in, but I feel so much more prepared than I did before chatting with him.
Honestly, I thought I knew what I was doing, but there are so many little things I hadn’t even thought of, and I’m so glad I had Alistair there to advise me. Then I told her about Alistair asking me to come back to London to be his date for his brother’s wedding. Of course, I told her about what happened between Alistair, his brother, and the ex, and she was shocked like I was.
“Are you going to go?” she asks.
“I don’t know. It’s in three weeks, but I don’t know if we’re going to be finished here in time.”
“Are you crazy?” Lauren shrieks at my answer. “You’re going to miss out on something great with this guy for what? A couple of weeks of work?” She looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind.
“I can’t just quit. I have to give notice.”
“Then give notice now. Right this minute. Are you telling me once that man is gone, you’re going to be okay going back to fucking other people?” Lauren questions as she narrows her eyes at me.
I don’t know.Probably not but it is my job.
Over the years, I’ve dissociated from sex being sex and sex being a job. But I’ve never had someone I care about like Alistair before.
“You were heartbroken six months ago when you thought he had fucked someone else. You think you’re going to be okay watching him walk out that door and away from a woman who’s willing to not stop sleeping with other people?”
“This is my job,” I argue with her, a little pissed that she’s calling me out like that.
“Wasyour job. You and I are becoming bakery owners. We don’t need all this anymore, Elle. We are about to take over the London bakery scene. That is what we need to be focusing on right now. If it means you get the guy too, then that’s a fucking bonus.”