by Mia Ford
“Mary, I need you to call Nick’s assistant and butter her up,” I said. “I need to know where he is going to dinner with Ronni.”
“You got it, boss,” she said, hanging up the phone.
Getting more work done for the rest of the day was completely out of the question. The rest of the day, I quarreled with myself, trying to convince myself that Ronni was not my responsibility. In the end, though, I knew my motivations for wanting to interfere with this date were not completely innocent in nature. The truth was, I was attracted to Ronni, but at that moment, it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to see her get hurt.
I sat there for the rest of the day, fiddling with paperwork and jumping every time my phone went off. I also tried to decide whether I should go to the restaurant where Nick and Ronni would be. My secretary had gotten all the details, and I even knew exactly where they would be sitting. But what if I went and Ronni got angry at me? Nick could be a really convincing guy, even though I figured Ronni was too smart to fall for his bullshit. The only thing was, I knew she’d had a crush on Nick since she moved in with us all those years ago. He was her first real crush, and that was hard to walk away from.
I went back and forth with myself for hours. On one hand, Ronni was a grown woman now, but on the other hand, she was still young, just getting started in the real world, and there was a very high likelihood that Nick would break her heart into a million pieces. Just the thought of Ronni upset irritated me to the point that I made a firm decision. I would go there and see what I could do to diffuse the situation and keep my dumb ass brother from hurting Ronni. She didn’t need anymore pain in her life after what she had been through.
I stacked my papers on my desk and started to pack up. I was going to use the excuse of a meeting, but I wanted to go and change my clothes. Nick would never believe I had a Tuesday meeting in a polo and khakis at one of the hottest restaurants in San Diego. I went down to the garage and threw my stuff in the passenger seat, jumped in, put the top down, and made my way to my house on the beach. I lived in Coronado just outside the city so it only took me a few minutes to get there.
I jumped in the shower, did my hair, and put on one of my best suits, figuring if I was going to save the day, I might as well look good doing it. I decided to take a cab back to the city since it would be easier than finding a place to park. When the cab pulled in front of the restaurant, I paid him and walked in to claim the table that my secretary had reserved for me at the last second. I glanced over to where they were sitting and saw Ronni, looking bored as hell as my brother rambled on about something, probably talking about himself. As I walked, I kept my head down but coughed loudly, hoping to get her attention. Luckily for me, it worked, and I quickly heard her voice.
“Nathan?” She sounded happy and confused at the same time.
“Oh, hey guys,” I said, walking over to the table. “Crazy seeing you here. I had a meeting, but it was canceled, and I figured why not get some food anyway.”
“That’s interesting,” Nick said in a monotone voice. “I thought Tuesdays were your no meeting days.”
“Well, Nick, when you run a company, sometimes you don’t get to pick your meetings,” I said in a confident tone that I knew would strike to the heart of him.
Nick was the kind of guy that could dish it out but not take it. Knowing he was here to put the moves on Ronni, with no intention of sticking around afterward, I didn’t feel bad at all in embarrassing him. He thought our parents’ money and hard work gave him the right to be a complete asshole, to ride on their shoulders and claim everyone else’s hard work as his own. As long as I had the ability to change that, I would never let him get away with it in front of me.
I was the person that actually worked hard. I was the person that was there for Ronni when she was learning English, when she was orphaned, and when she would come back every year to give thanks for what she had been given. I was the one that helped her pack up her things and get them to her car. He knew all of this, but he took the way my mother and I acted toward Ronni and rode on those coat tails. I never even gave a shit about his audacity until he decided to use it to hurt someone that was close to us.
“Well, why don’t I just join you guys,” I said, smiling at Ronni. “No reason to waste a table.”
They both answered at the same time, Nick said “no,” and Ronni smiled, saying “of course.” She looked over at Nick and wrinkled her brow, irritated by his asshole response. She looked back at me and pulled out the chair next to her. She patted the seat and nodded her head.
“Of course, you can join us,” she said, smiling. “Have a seat. We’ll have the waitress come take your order.”
I smiled kindly at Ronni and turned to Nick, trying to stifle a chuckle at the look of anger on his face. I was cock blocking him, and I was making no attempts to hide the fact. There were millions of women in this city, and there was no reason that he should be sinking his claws in someone as innocent and sweet as Ronni, especially knowing how our mother felt about her. As far as I was concerned, Nick had brought this on himself, and I was going to make sure he was miserable.
Chapter Four
Ronni
I never thought in a million years that I would be on an actual date with Nick. After so many years daydreaming about him, wishing he would look at me that way, we were finally on a date. Too bad it was a terrible one.
I was actually pretty shocked at myself when I realized how relieved I had felt to see Nathan at the restaurant. I immediately said yes to him crashing our date, desperate for a change of subject. I mean, Nick was sexy as hell and hadn’t aged a bit, but he was easily distracted, jumping from topic to topic, which all had the same thing in common, him. I’d never actually heard someone talk so much about themselves. At first, I thought he was trying to impress me, but in the end, I realized he didn’t give a damn how I felt. He was talking because he liked to hear himself talk. Before Nathan showed up, I had turned to leaning my head in my hand and just staring at him, seeing his lips moving, but zoning out to whatever was playing on the speakers in the restaurant.
When the conversation turned to business, I perked up, wanting his advice on my best friend, Maria, and my business proposal. I sat there patiently, listening to him talk about the real estate company, obviously frustrated with his inability to have Nathan take him seriously. When he paused to take a bite of his salad, I chimed in.
“So my best friend is a designer,” I said nervously. “And she has a line of bikinis that she has been working on. We are planning on getting everything together and starting that as a business. We figure we live in San Diego, everyone wears bathing suits, and—”
“You’re too young,” he said, interrupting me and waving his hand dismissively. “Besides, the market is absolutely inundated with swimwear lines. Someone like you wouldn’t stand a chance against the big boys out there. You should focus on whatever it is you went to college for. Get that job, land yourself a rich husband, and then play with whatever business proposals you want. I mean I’d let you do it.”
I scrunched my nose up and looked the other way as he turned the conversation back to himself. It had been a long time since I wanted to slug someone, but that was exactly how I was feeling about Nick at that moment. I was hurt by the fact that he didn’t even want to hear me out, laughing my idea off as some child’s pipe dream. We had put a hell of a lot of work into our business proposal, and now, we were waiting for the perfect time to launch. Maria was a genius, her bathing suits were gorgeous, and with my knowledge of business, plus what I could learn from other people, we would be unstoppable. I straightened my face, not wanting Nick to realize I was upset.
I had taken the invitation for a date with the thought, and hope, to have an amazingly romantic experience with my lifelong crush. I had imagined the flowers, which he didn’t bring, the linen table cloths, which were not on the table, the bottles of wine, that he didn’t order, and his charming smile. In the end, his charming smile was the only th
ing he brought to the table, and it was starting to not be so charming.
When things started to turn south, and he began boring me to death with his arrogance, I calmed my disappointment with the idea that at least I’d be able to talk to him about business, something that his family was known for. I had been listening to him for over an hour, and finally, I jumped in, just to be shot down. It was times like these I wished my father were still alive. He would have known exactly what to tell me about business and never shoot me down like that.
But there I was, sitting there smiling at the passing waitresses and listening to Nick talk about all the people he knew, the money he’d made, and his plans for future investments. In reality, after actually listening to what he was saying, I realized that none of his ideas or plans seemed well-thought-out at all. The people he knew were because of his family, the money he had made was from investments his father made for him, and his plans had huge holes. Of course, I wasn’t going to be the girl that pointed that out, but I found it humorous that he thought so highly of himself and was so absorbed in hearing his own voice, that he forgot I grew up in the same household as him.
When Nathan arrived, I could tell Nick was pissed, but I didn’t really care. I was just happy for the distraction. I smiled kindly at Nathan and excused myself to the bathroom, needing some fresh air away from those two. I figured whatever was going on, they could work it out while I was gone. However, when I got back, both of them looked angrier than hell, wearing matching scowls. I sat back down at my seat and took a bite of my dessert. My eyes flashed back and forth between the two. It was painfully awkward, and I was starting to get tired of dealing with it.
I attempted to ask Nick more questions about his plans, but it was obvious he did not want to talk in front of Nathan. I took a deep breath and laid my napkin on the table. I looked back and forth between them and shook my head.
“I think I’d like to go home,” I said quietly. “I have a really early day tomorrow.”
Nathan smiled kindly and pushed his chair back, standing up and helping me from mine. Nick threw cash down on the table and walked over, putting his arm around my shoulder. The feeling was so forced. I didn’t even like the fact that he was touching me. He pulled me past Nathan and stepped in front of him, sliding his hand down my back. I reached back and lifted it from my ass but kept walking. He was being utterly impossible, and all I wanted to do was get out of there. He leaned in close to my ear and whispered loud enough for Nathan to hear.
“I’m sorry my brother is such a clock blocker,” he whispered, making me scrunch my nose. “Why don’t you come for a ride in my Lamborghini?”
“That’s a very nice offer,” I said, faking a laugh. “But no thanks.”
“Your loss,” he said, pulling his hand from around my shoulders and nodding to the left at someone in the bar. Before I knew it, he was off, distracted by someone he knew, leaving me standing there by myself. I shook my head, looking down in my purse to find my keys. What the hell had happened that I was now standing here with Nick’s brother, and Nick had totally ditched me? Nathan stepped forward and smiled kindly, reaching out his arm for me to take. I dropped my keys back in my purse and shook my head, laughing as I hooked my arm in his.
“Well, that didn’t go like I thought it would,” I said, chuckling.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” he replied. “I didn’t realize Nick would still be pissed about yesterday, and it made things really awkward.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“He got angry about some investment he wanted the company to make,” he said, shaking his head. “It was a bad business move, but he took it personally.”
“Well,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “It wasn’t a total waste of a night, I guess. I got to run some of my business ideas by him, and he gave me some advice.”
He stopped in his tracks and looked around for a second, obviously formulating what he wanted to say. That was one thing about Nathan that I really appreciated, his ability to think about things before he said them. I started to understand why his father picked him to run the real estate business over Nick.
“I don’t want to sound mean,” he said carefully. “But please don’t take anything Nick says about business to heart. He has zero knowledge of the business world and no experience to back anything up. I’m not trying to talk shit, but I don’t want to see you make a mistake because you listened to something Nick said. He still thinks shaved ice stands would bring in millions like he did when he was a kid.”
“Oh,” I said, laughing. “I was starting to get that impression as he talked. I think he forgets I grew up in the same house as him.”
As we strolled down the street in the warm San Diego air, I realized I was walking with the head of one of the largest real estate conglomerates in the world. Nathan wasn’t just a nice guy, he was a repository of knowledge that I knew could help Maria and I jump on the road to success. Part of me wanted to jump right in and ask him to help, but the other part of me felt like I shouldn’t be so bold. I thought about what my father used to tell me about being a business woman. He told me that those that were bold were always the most successful. So, without another thought, I went for it.
“Hey, do you think that I could sit down with you and pick your brain about business?”
“Sure,” he said with a surprised look. “I’d love to help in any way that I can. How about we go somewhere and grab a drink? Somewhere quiet where we can talk.”
“That sounds great,” I said excitedly. “I actually know the perfect place, and they are open pretty late. I’ll drive us.”
We walked up to my car, and realizing it was no Lamborghini, my cheeks turned red. I had worked my butt off in college to buy a car, and although it was a new car, it definitely wasn’t anything luxurious. Nathan smiled as I unlocked the doors, not letting on that he noticed I was driving a Honda Civic and not a BMW, something I knew Nick would have scoffed at.
I often wondered how Nathan had turned out so normal being surrounded by people his whole life that were like Nick, including his father. I drove us over the bridge and into Imperial Beach, a small beach town a few exits from the Mexican border. It was one of my favorite places, with its small-town coffee shop and surfer dudes. Plus, you could look across the inlet and see the lights of Tijuana.
“So,” I said, sitting down at the table. “My best friend is a bathing suit designer. She has some really amazing pieces that I know people would love. With my business knowledge, that I am trying to grow even further, and her amazing line, we figured we could get these suits into some of the local surf shops, if not the bigger stores where the tourists shop.”
Nathan considered my pitch for a second. Then he started rattling off things I needed to do to make this work. I sat listening to Nathan talk, impressed by the copious amounts of knowledge that he had. I soaked up everything he was saying, realizing that his solutions were exactly what I was missing in our plans. On top of that, he didn’t think our idea was stupid at all, and he even complimented me for the ideas that I put forth. As I sat there sipping my margarita and listening to Nathan talk, I realized that the night hadn’t turned out so bad after all.
Chapter Five
Nathan
While Ronni was in the bathroom at the restaurant, sparks flew between my brother and me. Nick was livid that I showed up, and he saw right through my story. After seeing how much of a dick he was being, though, I didn’t feel bad at all for breaking up his date.
“You need to leave Ronni alone,” I hissed. “Mom loved her like she was her own and wanted us to see her as a sister.”
“You’re just jealous that she wants me and not you,” he said angrily. “You’ve always been pissed about that.”
“No, what I’m pissed about is the way you treat women,” I said. “You act like a little-spoiled brat, the biggest issue being you didn’t earn any of the recognition you try to take credit for. You are constantly riding on the backs of others. It�
�s pathetic. Leave Ronni out of this. She has been through way too much to have you do what you do to women.”
That was where it really started, with my crazy need to protect her from Nick. As we walked to her car, I couldn’t help but feel warmth in my chest with her arm wrapped around mine. Even when we got to the restaurant and started talking business, I was having a hard time remembering that I should have a brotherly frame of mind. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. On top of all that, Ronni was extremely intelligent. Her ideas for the business were brilliant, and all she needed was a few pointers to fill in the blanks.
Her business instincts reminded me of my father’s. I went through everything I could think of, giving her advice about starting the business, getting the suits in stores, marketing, and all the rest. I really thought hard about the things that I struggled with at the beginning and tried to help tell her what I learned. That way, she wouldn’t have to make the same mistakes. Talking to her about business was a breath of fresh air, and she soaked every word up like a sponge.
I could tell this swimwear line was extremely important to her, but I did warn her against putting all her eggs in one basket. Of course, it had worked for my father, but it was a different time when he started the company. Now, with so much competition, and so many large organizations, it's hard to be a private business owner and turn a profit. When you order production of a product on a small scale, you have to pay more, and that expense gets passed on to your customers. Suddenly, people are searching for your design but in a cheaper location, causing you to lose out. It was important to provide innovation and quality in a way that the customer has to buy from you, and not go to the larger chain stores.
