The Tie's The Limit

by Megan Bryce

  “I think we should test-drive it.”

  “Ugh. This car has been here for how long? If no one else wants it, why should I?”

  He laughed.

  “No one else is you.”

  “Something must be wrong with it.”

  “We already know what’s wrong with it,” he said, moving to stand next to her and gaze at the car, too.

  Gia said, “It’s ugly.”

  “You’ll hurt her feelings. Let’s just say she’s one of a kind.”

  “Hey, you can’t pull those kinds of tricks on me. I invented them.”

  Mac held up both hands, fingers spread wide.

  “Pros and cons. Give them to me.”

  Gia pursed her lips, hoping there was going to be pizza after this and deciding to get it over with.

  “It’s more car than I currently have.”

  He folded over one finger.

  “It’s ugly,” she said, and he folded over a finger on the other hand.

  She reached over and folded over a second finger on the cons hand.

  Mac said, “It’s in good shape,” and another finger turned down.

  “The cargo space is decent. For hauling stuff, I mean. I won’t be able to take a nap.”

  “You never took a nap in the Escalade.”

  “But now I know it’s an option. And I can’t do it in this.”

  “Can’t do it in the Escalade either since you’ve been banned.”

  “Fine. Give the pros another finger.”

  “And you can afford it.” He held his hands up higher. “We’ve got four fingers to two. I say if you can park it, game’s over.”

  And it turned out that Gia could park it with no trouble.

  She almost thought she could turn left in it.

  And from the inside, it wasn’t bad looking.

  Gia got out, running a hand over a protuberance and muttering, “Could it be so ugly it’s cute?”

  No, it could not, and she turned to Mac.

  “When you buy your cars, are they ugly?”

  “Yes. Unloved, unwanted. Rusting into the ground.”

  “And you turn them all into your Camaro?”

  “Yes.”

  “But they’ve got to have good bones to start with, right?”

  Mac patted the top of the car.

  “She’s got good bones, she’s just a little bit out of fashion at the moment.”

  Gia’s eyes widened and her heart started thundering.

  Just a little bit out of fashion…

  Her mouth fell open and she whispered, “Yes. Just a little bit. The eighties? No, no. The seventies? What about… The fifties!”

  Thick-rimmed glasses. White short-sleeved shirt. Thin black tie.

  And a black leather jacket.

  “Yes! Yes, Mac!”

  She grabbed his arm, jumping up and down.

  “I know how to dress you!”

  She’d update it for a modern look but he’d be cars and drive-thrus, drive-in movie theaters and carhops wearing roller skates.

  The late fifties and early sixties, a time when the car was king.

  Mac was going to love it.

  He let her bounce around in excitement for a little bit, smiling crookedly at her, then said, “What about Annie?”

  “I’ll take her! Poor Orphan Annie, no one wants her. But it’s my job to take something hopeless and make it great, isn’t it! She’s perfect for me.”

  He laughed, putting his hands on her shoulders to try and stop the bouncing.

  “Okay, don’t be too excited. We have to negotiate, sign papers, pay for it—”

  “Nooo… Can you do it? I’ll come back for you.”

  He laughed, tugging her toward the sales office.

  “No. But play up that you want to leave for the salesman.”

  “I do want to go! Right now.” She reached for her phone. “I saw this one tie, what store was it at…”

  She let Mac negotiate, and signed where she was told to sign, all the while searching on her phone and making notes for stores to visit and items to get.

  She emerged from her creative rush enough to sign the check with a big gulp.

  “Here’s to Florida,” she squeaked. “I’m going to need some more clients.”

  Megan BryceThe Tie’s The Limit

  Twenty-Four

  Gia couldn’t go right to shopping, she had a car to show off, and Mac had to head back to work.

  She drove home—still no left turns, give her a minute—and parked in the driveway.

  She walked around Annie, opening doors and climbing into the cargo area, and that’s where her mother and grandmother found her. Lying in the back with her knees bent and staring at the overhead light.

  Loretta poked her head in.

  “What’s this?”

  “My car.”

  “What!”

  Nonnie climbed into the driver’s seat and honked the horn.

  “I like it. It’s red!”

  Gia grinned. So that’s where she’d got that from.

  “Her name’s Annie,” she said and her mother replied, “How could you just go out and buy a car?”

  “I needed one. I guess you haven’t talked to Teresa…”

  “Of course I have. She mentioned you were going to babysit on Friday for her.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Good. Well, she also needed the Escalade back so I went and bought a car this morning.”

  “All by yourself?”

  “Mac helped me. You know how he likes cars.”

  Loretta narrowed her eyes.

  “You’re sure spending a lot of time with him.”

  “We’re friends,” Gia said, looking away.

  Loretta’s eyes widened slightly.

  “He’s not-Italian.”

  “About that… How big a deal would it be if maybe he turned out to be more than a client?”

  “Macintosh Sullivan? Is he Irish?”

  “I have no idea. And it really is just Mac.”

  Loretta’s lips moved silently and Gia thought she was saying, “Just Mac.”

  Her mother suddenly decided that now was a good time to take a walk around the car and Gia went back to staring at the overhead light.

  She liked it. She could like this car. It was a little eccentric but she could make that work.

  Loretta made one complete turn around Gia’s new car and nodded her head.

  “It’s a good car, I think. You’re father will approve. And Mac is a nice boy. Even if he’s not…Italian.”

  Nonnie honked the horn again.

  “Italian. Not-Italian. He’s got a cute butt.”

  Megan BryceThe Tie’s The Limit

  Twenty-Five

  Gia was so excited, her stomach was flip-flopping and her hair was sweating.

  This was it. She knew it.

  Because if Mac didn’t like this, she was giving up.

  Well, she couldn’t give up because she’d already spent the money, but she’d dress him normal and generic like he’d wanted her to all along.

  But she had to be right. She just had to be!

  He was going to love it!

  Raw! Positive thinking! She could do it!

  She waltzed into his office with a professional nod and set up the mirror.

  She waltzed in a second time holding the garment bag in front of her and draped across both arms.

  He was going to love it, he was going to love it.

  She was going to throw up.

  Mac stood, reaching for that damned tie and pulling it off.

  “Are you okay,” he asked and she gave a sharp nod.

  “Just… I hope… Here you go.”

  She carefully laid the bag down and turned to wait outside his office while he changed.

  She stopped at the door and said over her shoulder, “Oh, my parents love Annie, by the way.”

  “Good. Do you?”

  “I took a nap in her yesterday afternoon,” she said, nodding, and he was laughing when she
quietly closed the door behind her.

  She leaned against the wall, chewing her thumbnail, her mind blank.

  Waiting, waiting…

  The door popped open and she sprung up, nearly running back into the office to find Mac looking in the mirror.

  He didn’t say anything but he put his hand on the tie and smoothed it.

  And then he turned to the side and looked at his silhouette, and then the other side.

  He cocked his head and Gia bit her lip.

  “Well?”

  “I think…”

  He turned, and again. And then he stopped, full on facing the mirror and folding his arms.

  He nodded at his reflection.

  “I really like it.”

  Her breath exploded from her chest.

  She’d cracked him.

  Ha! She’d cracked him!

  She wobbled to the chair, nearly falling into it.

  “I take it back. Put dressing someone who doesn’t want to be dressed under pro. What a rush, my knees are weak!”

  She laughed at him still preening in front of the mirror, and she jumped up to help him smooth his shirt and tug at the light leather jacket.

  “You’re the Fonz. I mean, you know, if the Fonz had been an accountant.”

  “No,” Mac said, shaking his head at her. “That’s not who I am.”

  “That’s who you want to be,” she said and Mac looked back at his suit.

  Gia said, “That’s what fashion is. What we want to be, who we wish we were, how we hope others see us. It’s where who we want to be meets who we are.”

  “I really, really like it.”

  She sniffed.

  She’d thought this moment would make her whoop and dance and laugh.

  Mostly in his face.

  But she sat down again, trying to get her bottom lip to stop wobbling, and she blinked, trying to stop the tears she could feel forming.

  She said, “You do?”

  “I really do.”

  She sat there some more, telling herself she wasn’t going to cry, until he crouched in front of her.

  “Thank you, Gia,” he said. “Thank you for going to all the trouble of finding me something I would like. Something I would love. I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “I know. You wanted me to make you invisible and not Mac.”

  He kissed her lightly on the cheek, then stood to go stand in front of the mirror again.

  Twisting this way and that, loving what he was seeing, and Gia smiled wetly, her tears sliding down her cheeks silently.

  Megan BryceThe Tie’s The Limit

  Twenty-Six

  Mac invited Cara to meet him for dinner.

  To see the new clothes, the new him, and because Gia had suggested it with an incredulous, “She’s your sister! Go to dinner, talk about something other than work!”

  And Mac had thought maybe that would be nice.

  But of course they’d talk about work, too.

  He stood for Cara, moving to hold out the seat for her, and she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  “Let me see. Very nice.” She smiled. “I like the leather.”

  He touched his ultra thin black tie. “And multiple ties.”

  “And multiple ties. Excellent. But you could have shown me this at the office.”

  “I know. I thought it would be nice to have dinner with my sister.”

  It made Cara pause for a fraction of a second before relaxing into her chair.

  “That’s nice. We should do this more often.”

  They ordered, the silence afterwards making Mac compare, however unfairly, dinner at the Abellis.

  But there were only two of them. And that made him suddenly sad.

  He reached across the table for her hand, squeezing it before retreating back to his side of the table.

  Cara said, “Okay, what is going on. You’re not changing your mind about CFO, are you?”

  “No. I’m concerned about it, of course.”

  “And you should be. It’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of sacrifice. A lot of work.”

  Mac didn’t mind work, or even responsibility.

  It was the sacrifice he was concerned about, and he said before he could chicken out, “I’m afraid that this is it. Once I become CFO, there’s nowhere else for me to go.”

  She huffed a laugh and patted her lips.

  “Yes, exactly. I feel the same way. What could I do, where could I go, should I suddenly decide I don’t want to run the family business anymore.”

  Perhaps that was the main emotional draw of family. They could understand the decisions you made because they’d walked the same path, they’d questioned the same choices.

  Mac said, “I don’t want to go anywhere else. Maybe it’s the nepotism speaking, but I do like it here. I just don’t like the thought that I won’t have any options.”

  Cara chuckled, leaning forward and nodding.

  “I understand exactly. That’s actually part of the reason I wanted you for the job. Because now it just won’t be my company, it will be ours. And you’ll be in a position to choose the direction we head in. Even if that direction is to shutter the whole thing.”

  He nodded and she offered her hand over the table. Mac reached for it, saying, “We’ll shake hands, and then we’ll hug. That seems like a family business thing to do.”

  She laughed, standing for his brief hug.

  “I expect we’ll have some disagreements. Neither one of us is easy to please.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m very easy to please.”

  Cara choked, sitting back down to her dinner.

  “No, you’re not. If you were easy to please, you would have taken the first outfit your fashion consultant brought you instead of taking weeks to try on everything in the Tampa Bay area.”

  “That’s not the same thing.”

  She nodded. “Yes, it is. You wanted what you wanted.”

  “I wanted what I already had. That’s different.”

  Cara looked down at his tie. “You do look good though. Even if it’s not what you wanted.”

  He looked down, smoothing the material.

  “Gia figured it out. She figured me out.”

  He liked to think he figured her out as well, he just hadn’t realized he might miss her.

  Miss her waltzing into his office and disrupting his life.

  But it was okay.

  Because he’d taken the time to do a cost-benefit analysis for their relationship and he knew exactly the direction to head in.

  Megan BryceThe Tie’s The Limit

  Twenty-Seven

  Mac drove to Gia’s right after meeting Cara for dinner and knocked on the door before he could wonder if her grandmother was still up.

  But it was Gia who answered the door and she only glanced behind her quickly before stepping outside.

  “So? Did it pass the sister-boss test?”

  “Yes. She likes it, she’s excited that we’ll start working closer together in the company.”

  “Excellent. I want a glowing referral, okay?”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about painting your condo. We still have to pick a color. Colors, if I can talk you into it.”

  “About that—”

  “I’m still going to help you. Just because you’re dressed and I have a car doesn’t mean that we’re over.”

  He smiled at her.

  “I don’t—”

  “No, Mac. I mean it. We’re friends. We’re staying friends, and you’re not getting rid of me. I don’t know that many people in Florida,” she said and he raised an eyebrow.

  He was pretty sure she knew more people in Florida than he did.

  She wobbled her head.

  “I mean, who I’m not related to.”

  He reached for her hand, staring down at it.

  “I already chose a color. For the bathroom, at least.”

  “You picked a color without m
e?”

  Mac nodded and she said, “It’s brown, isn’t it?”

  “It’s the lightest teal I could find. A Hint of Teal.”

  “…teal? But…you hate teal.”

  He met her eyes.

  “I don’t think we’re friends. I don’t want to be friends.”

  He dropped her hand to pull a box out of his pocket and hand it to her.

  She opened it cautiously, pulling out two miniature figurines.

  “What are these? Are these…salt and pepper shakers!”

  One black, one white.

  “They’re penguins!”

  Mac nodded.

  “They’re very stylized. You almost can’t tell they’re penguins,” he said, “I tell myself they’re not and I almost believe it.”

  She cuddled them, one in each hand, and said, “I love them.”

  He gulped.

  “This way you’ll always remember your first boyfriend in Florida. Just make sure they’re in front of the cows. Or above them. Or instead of them.”

  Her eyes twinkled at him.

  “Mac Sullivan. I think you’re smoother than you let on.”

  That wasn’t a yes but she stepped closer to him and his thundering heart started thundering for a different reason entirely.

  She whispered, “Be honest. Is it because I smell like lasagna?”

  He closed the rest of the distance between them to sniff behind her ear.

  “You don’t smell like lasagna today,” he murmured. “And it’s because I miss you when you’re gone. I think of you when you’re not around. I can’t imagine not seeing you everyday.”

  She melted against him, turning her face to kiss his cheek.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist and tipped his lips to hers.

  But she paused, just out of reach.

  “I can’t just say ‘Yes, Mac, I’d love to have your penguins.’”

  She could. He’d be fine with that.

  “I need a grand gesture too,” she said, and he suddenly realized he’d seriously misstepped with his grand gesture.

  Gia would take any idea he had and, well, speed right past sixty.

  “I know exactly what to do,” she said and he might have groaned.

  She waited a beat before whispering, “Should I surprise you?”