48

Any negotiation book will tell you that.
Keep nodding, and they’ll nod along, and when they think back on the meeting, all they remember is how they felt, and that it was positive.
I end my little speech with a smile that could make the Empire State Building look like a night light.
She beams back in response. “Well, we certainly had a good night. The music was phenomenal. I hadn’t ever heard the band before.”
I lean back, nodding. “Oh, if you’re here for the music, well, I’ll let the owner tell you. I’m sorry, I’m just so excited.” I laugh and gesture toward my new fake fiancee. “Darling, tell her about tomorrow night.”
Clarissa grins, the mood of the conversation infectious, and she clasps her hands together. “We have a really special guest tomorrow. You actually might have seen him around. It’s Tyson. With a T.” The name is ridiculous, there’s no arguing against that, but it fits him. What else would you expect of a guy who rides around Manhattan pulling a full-size piano behind him?
Annette claps her hands together, speaking for the first time. “You’re kidding me! Not the guy who has singalongs in the park.”
Clarissa nods. “One and the same, but that is only one aspect of his talent. He is going to blow your mind. His voice sounds like he was raised in a club in New Orleans, so, so soulful.” “We look forward to it,” they both say in unison and then laugh.
“We’ll reserve a spot for you,” Clarissa delivers smoothly. “We’re actually all booked up but my table is still free. That is, if Matthias doesn’t mind sitting at the bar for a bit.”
I pretend to be shocked, and then break out into the friendliest smile I can muster. “Of course. But only if I can buy you a round of drinks.”
“Of course,” Marissa twitters, and the two ladies share a look as if they’re in on a joke that we’re not privy to. What they don’t actually know is that we were the ones telling the joke the whole time. “We can’t wait to come tomorrow. This place is amazing. It’s just so nice to see someone run this place who has a true vision.” We have them.
I get up and press a kiss to Clarissa’s temple, whispering into her ear, “Good job.”
She turns toward me, gratitude in her eyes, and it fills me with an emotion I can’t name. Time to step back.
“Well, ladies, I’ll leave you to it. I think there’s a cognac sitting on the bar that needs to my attention. I’ll see you later, darling.” I walk away feeling six eyes on me.
But I only care about Clarissa’s.
“James. Impress me,” I say, sitting in my seat, twenty feet away, but I can still hear her voice through all the noise.
She falls asleep on my shoulder in the back seat of the car as soon as Kevin turns into traffic. Somehow, I’d convinced her to leave the cleaning to her crew. After a night like tonight, she could afford to tip them a big bonus, while she gets some much-needed rest.
Even then, she’s chattered excitedly, at a mile a minute, as she emptied the till and added the money to her locked bag to take to the bank tomorrow.
“And even with the extra ice order, we had to get four more bags! I never thought that I would own a business that would go through sixteen forty-pound bags of ice in a night! James said that with that much, it might actually be worth it to get an ice machine! He said he had someone he might be able to talk to! Oh, wait, that person is the person you introduced him to. Do you really think that Jaxon can help us get an ice machine for a good deal? And then the girls sold almost twice as many cigars as we did on opening night and I thought that was pretty exciting. And I think with the ladies from Heard It Here coming tomorrow night then-”
I’d cut her off, laughing. “Darling, take a breath.”
She’d stopped and given me a grin. “Sorry. I’m just so excited, I don’t think I’m going to get any sleep tonight.”
Thirty seconds in the car proved her wrong.
But this time, her sleep is peaceful, a soft smile on her lips.
I wrap an arm around her, pulling her tightly against me so that her head doesn’t bobble from the car’s movement.
She murmurs, “Are we there?”
I brush the hair from her face. “No, darling, we’re not. Just get a little more sleep.” “I wasn’t sleeping,” she murmurs, most definitely sleepily.
“Sure,” I chuckle. “Go back to not sleeping.”
She opens her eyes long enough to say. “It was a good night, wasn’t it?”
“It was the best night ever. I’m so proud of you.”
A soft kiss on her forehead elicits a sleepy gurgle from her before she’s silent again.
“Can you drive around the block a few times?” I say to Kevin, trying not to wake her up.
He nods silently to me in the rear-view mirror.
The city flies past the window with her body against mine. It looks so different tonight. This place that I know like the back of my hand, my city, my home.
With my girl.
I groan inwardly at my own idiocy.
This can’t continue. It has all the makings of a volcanic eruption that is going to level everything in its path.
But if I can sit right here for another moment with her, then it might be worth it to raze the planet to the ground.
A text message comes through and I watch the letters scroll past the screen.
Damien: Let me guess, you’re not even going to show up to our meeting? Ditching us last week, and already late tonight? Are you even our brother?” Fuck.
I’d totally forgotten about the weekly meeting after all the excitement of the night.
And I was going to tell them tonight about Clarissa. If they don’t find out from me, they’re going to read about it online tomorrow.
Kevin slides into the curb.
I cherish the last few moments of just her and me in our bubble and gently touch her face to wake her.
“Home now, Rissie. Wake up.”
She growls and rubs her eyes. “I wasn’t sleeping. I was resting my eyes.”
“Sure, Rissie,” I say as I help her out of the car and into the building. I prop her against the wall of the elevator and she leans her head back, eyes closed.
“More eye resting?” I tease her.
“Yup. See? I’m not asleep. A sleeping person couldn’t answer you.”
Her lightheartedness is like a balm to my heart. “You can sleep when we get home and I get some food into you. Did you even drink anything all night?”
She opens her eyes, looks shifty, and clamps them closed again. “Actually, I am sleeping. I can’t answer that.”