“I’m sure the London partnership will stream down to the other offices within the next two years. So why not get more involved in the New York office like you are in LA? They’ve wanted you in New York permanently for a while now, since the fashion scene is larger. You’re traveling to New York all the time anyway, and eventually my new role will place me there permanently.”
Aiden ran his fingers across his face. “Living in Jersey, I basically grew up in New York. LA was a nice change, but London will be even better.”
The line grew silent. “Dax, are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Look, as your business manager, I have to question you more than usual about this exhibit because you’re up against some stiff competition. But as your friend, I have to ask you if this is really what you want.”
They’d talked about it before, so Aiden knew where the conversation was headed.
“Yes, I want the position.”
“Okay, man, if you want it, then I want you to have that position just as much as you do. I just always thought that, by now, you’d have moved on from Palmer Lane.”
“You haven’t moved on.”
“I’m in sales. You’re on the creative side. Our worlds are completely different and I know you’ve been approached with opportunities from other companies. Photographers with your talent usually don’t do the same thing for too long. I won’t go there with you right now, but don’t think I don’t notice things.”
Aiden opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the balcony. “And what things do you notice?”
“Well, for starters, did you honestly think I wouldn’t find out that Summer Dupree is the owner of the new Bare Sophistication store that’s opening soon? The same company that happens to be the main inspiration for your exhibit?”
Aiden laughed. “So you do remember when I told you about her.”
“Man, you date even less than I do, and that’s saying a lot because I rarely have time to date. Summer is the only woman you’ve ever mentioned to me.”
“What about Adriana? You actually met Adriana and we dated for two and a half years.”
“You mean the Adriana who left the Palmer Lane office throwing vases at my head even though you’re the one who’d just broken up with her? That Adriana?”
“Any grown woman who throws a temper tantrum in a public place has a lot of growing to do. You should have seen my office.”
“Childish or not, she never stood a chance with you. You’re one of the most down-to-earth guys I know, but around her, you weren’t yourself. You were closed off. I’m not even sure she truly knew you.”
Aiden thought about Daxton’s words. Adriana hadn’t expected the breakup, but he knew it had been the right thing to do. “It wasn’t fair to date her for as long as I did. I know that now.”
“My sister tells me that all men are slow, so don’t blame yourself. Our gender never had a chance at easy breakups. Have you seen Summer yet?”
“I saw her a few days ago at her boutique and I helped her organize a few heavy boxes.”
“That’s good. Hopefully, you can rekindle your friendship with her. I know she means a lot to you.”
Means a lot was an understatement, but Dax didn’t need to know all that. “Thanks, man. If I think of any additional details for the creative portion of the exhibit, I’ll email you later today.”
“Sounds good.”
After disconnecting his call, Aiden stretched his arms before leaning over the balcony to view the red-orange sun setting over beautiful Biscayne Bay. Although the view was fantastic, Aiden had stayed in enough hotels to last a lifetime. He’d contact the realty company for the temporary home he wanted soon.
Movement in his peripheral caught his eye. There was a couple a few balconies over who’d clearly had a much better morning than he had. Not that his morning had been unpleasant. But judging from the looks on the man’s and woman’s faces, their morning had included some extracurricular activities.
He thought back to his conversation with Dax about Adriana. A year after they’d broken up, she’d apparently found someone else and had called him to let him know that she now knew what true love felt like. He’d told her he was happy for her, and her response had been that he should really figure out what or who was blocking his heart. She’d claimed he only shared a part of himself with her, but she always knew he had more to give. He hadn’t said anything to her at the time, but instead, he’d remained silent while she hashed out her feelings. Feelings that he was all too familiar with. She’d said that, at times, it seemed like he didn’t really care about her at all. That wasn’t true. He had cared about her, even if his heart had been blocked. He told her such, but she didn’t seem to listen. He didn’t push the issue because, unfortunately, she wasn’t the first woman to tell him that.
Seventeen years ago...
“I’m so excited we’re here,” Rochelle said with a squeal when they walked into the dance. Aiden only smiled and tried his best not to get annoyed by the way she was tugging on his arms.
“It’s the last dance we’ll have before high school starts. Aren’t you excited Aiden?”
“Thrilled.” He hoped his voice didn’t sound as nonchalant as he really felt.
“Why can’t you at least pretend to be happy that you’re at the dance with me?”
“I am happy to be at the dance with you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Then why are you looking around the room like you’re trying to find someone else? You better not be looking for Summer.”
“Why can’t I look for Summer? Aren’t you going to look for your friends?”
“My friends are all girls. No boy and girl should be best friends. It doesn’t make sense.”
He sighed. “I have guy friends, too, so how about you look for your friends and I’ll look for my friends.”
When he stopped looking around the room for Summer and looked at Rochelle, he noticed how sad she looked.
“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “Do you want to dance now and we’ll find our friends later?”
“Yes,” she said with a big smile, before grabbing his hand and leading him to the dance floor. He really did like Rochelle, but he didn’t understand why she always got so upset about Summer. They were just friends.
“This is nice,” Rochelle said when they were on their eighth song. Aiden discreetly looked around the room as she talked. Summer should be here already. Last time he’d talked to her, they’d agreed to arrive with their dates around the same time.
“Yeah, it’s nice.” Aiden spun them around so that he could look at the other side of the room. Still no Summer. “Rochelle, I have to go to the bathroom. Why don’t you find your friends until I return?”
She only looked skeptical for a moment. “Okay, but hurry back. There’s only an hour left of the dance.”
As soon as Aiden stepped out of the gym, he glanced down the hallway before stepping outside to look for Summer. Just as he’d suspected, he found her by her favorite oak tree in the school’s front yard.
“Hey, pretty girl. What are you doing out here?” He sat down in the grass beside her and noticed her eyes were watery. “What happened? Why are you crying?”
She sniffled before wiping her eyes. “Remember that blue dress Winter made for me?”
“Of course. You looked beautiful in it.” Only then did he notice she was wearing one of her old dresses.
“I guess I looked too beautiful in it, because when I got home from school today, I saw it in pieces. My mom told me that she needed to make herself a new outfit and needed the material Winter had used for my dress.”
Aiden shook his head in annoyance before pulling Summer closer to him. “Where are your dad and sisters?”
“My dad was arguing with my mom about it and I left the h
ouse with Autumn and Winter. They walked me to the dance and I waited until they left before I walked back out here. I can’t walk into the dance in this dress. I’ve worn it so many times before and I don’t want Sam to see me in it again.”
“If Sam really likes you, he won’t care what type of dress you’re wearing.” He brushed her hair out of her face. “Your mom is always doing something mean and you usually never care what people think. Are you crying because you don’t want Sam to see you in this dress or because of something else?”
“Guess I’m not good at hiding my feelings, huh?”
“Maybe to some people you are, but I pay more attention to you than most people. So what’s really wrong?”
Summer pulled out a folded piece of paper from her jacket and handed it to him. “I didn’t come straight out here. I went to my locker to get my blue jean jacket to try to hide the fact that I’m wearing this dress again, and I found this.”
As Aiden unfolded the paper and started reading the letter she’d received, he got more pissed off by the second.
“Who wrote this?”
“If I knew who wrote it, I’d confront them.”
The letter was making fun of Summer’s friendship with Aiden. It called her a pathetic loser who couldn’t get a girl for a best friend, so she had to get a boy to pretend to like her enough to be her best friend. However, Aiden knew that wasn’t the part that had Summer leaning against the tree crying. The letter also had cartoon illustrations of a woman wearing tight clothes surrounded by a bunch of men and her three daughters watching from afar. The illustrations continued on the back page.
Everyone in the small town that they’d grown up in knew of Sonia Dupree, and her infidelity wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret. More like town gossip.
“I’ll figure out who wrote it.” Just as Aiden was balling up the letter, he studied the way the words were illustrated instead of written normally. Then he focused on the drawings themselves. There were only a few people in their grade who were talented enough to draw cartoons like that and he was one of them.
“I know who drew this.” Aiden stood and marched back into the school with Summer hot on his tail.
“Aiden, would you slow down? Where are you going?”
He didn’t listen to her and continued to walk at a fast pace until he reached the person he was looking for.
“I know you did it, Sam,” Aiden said grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. “You put that letter in Summer’s locker. You owe her an apology, so either you give it to her or I’ll make you apologize.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sam said with a smug smile. “I’ve been waiting at this dance for Summer for two hours, so if anyone needs to apologize, it’s Summer to me.”
“She doesn’t owe you anything.”
“Oh, yeah?” Sam stepped closer to Aiden. They were around the same build, but Aiden was an inch taller. “I don’t owe her anything and I heard my dad talking to his friends about her mom. Doesn’t her mom have enough men in her life without going after my dad? With a mother like hers, I don’t know what I was thinking asking her to this dance anyway. And judging by the way she follows behind you, like mother like daughter.”
Aiden had always been taught that violence wasn’t the answer, but at the moment, he didn’t care. He’d never been in a fight before. He’d never even felt an urge to punch someone before now since he was friends with most of the guys in their class.
None of that mattered the longer he listened to Sam criticize Summer. His fist connected with Sam’s face faster than he could process what he was doing. Before he knew it, they were in a brawl on the dance floor with Aiden on the winning side. He wasn’t sure how long they would have continued fighting if one of the teachers hadn’t broken up the fight.
When he finally looked over at Summer, he could tell she wasn’t too happy with him.
“Aiden Patrick Chase, did I ask you to fight my fight for me?” She didn’t give him a chance to respond. Sam was barely off the ground before Summer walked over and punched him square in the face. She shook the hurt out of her hand and smiled at Aiden before giving him a wink. That was Summer. Her relationship with her mother may have been one of her emotional triggers, but Summer never let anyone walk over her. Amid the chaos, he heard someone crying.
“Are you okay?” he asked Rochelle.
“Did you think about the fact that you would be ruining the end of our last eighth-grade dance before you hit Sam?”
“He said some really cruel things to Summer.”
“I heard some of the argument so I know that, and I’m sorry he hurt her feelings. But what about my feelings? Why did you even ask me to this dance? I could have gone with someone who actually likes me.”
“I do like you.” He didn’t get a chance to explain because Rochelle left the gym just as the teacher who broke up the fight approached him. Sam hadn’t really been hurt, but both he and Summer were told that they would be suspended for a week and couldn’t walk in the eighth grade graduation.
His dad was extremely disappointed when he picked him up after the dance and asked him if he regretted what he’d done. Aiden chose not to respond at the time. He knew fighting was never the answer and he would apologize to Sam at school the next Monday. However, if given the choice to redo the night, there was nothing he would have done differently. He could handle people making fun of him, but he couldn’t handle seeing Summer hurt from getting teased about her mom.
Summer was right. She didn’t need him to fight her battles. Still, what type of best friend would he be if he didn’t stand up for her and fight alongside her every once in a while?
Chapter 5
Summer glanced at her phone to check the time and to see if Aaliyah or Nicole had texted to say they were running late. She’d contacted the girls three hours earlier and asked if they could meet her at the reggae lounge two hours before the live music would begin so that she could discuss a business proposition with them.
“Can I get a hint about what you want to talk to us about?”
Summer looked up from her phone at Danni. “Nope,” she said with a smile. “I want it to be a surprise. You guys may not even like the plan, and if you don’t, my feelings won’t be hurt.”
“So, this really is about business? Not a certain someone who I’m not going to even mention because I don’t want to seem nosey?”
Summer’s face dropped. “Seriously? That wasn’t even the least bit discreet.”
“I wasn’t going for discreet. I was shooting for blatant.”
“Oh, yes, Danni, that makes all the difference,” Summer said sarcastically. “Unfortunately, Aaliyah and Nicole are here so we’ll have to continue this conversation later.” Danni was still giving her the side eye when the ladies approached.
“Thanks so much for meeting me early,” Summer said as they took their seats.
“No problem,” Nicole said, as she laid her clutch on the table. “What did you want to talk to us about?”
Summer looked in her bag and pulled out her tablet and lavender notebook. “When Danni called and told me about Aaliyah losing her client, it got my brain to working.”
She went through the photos in her tablet until she found pictures of the loft area of her boutique. “Nicole and Aaliyah, ever since I met you both, I’ve been trying to think of a way for Danni and I to collaborate with each of you. If you look at these pictures of the loft, you may notice that the room gets a lot of sunlight. The company that occupied the space before me had the loft remodeled to include a separate room and bathroom as well as other section dividers. I assume it was to split up the space, which is perfect for my idea.”
She opened her lavender notebook to make sure she didn’t miss anything as she spoke. “Danni is a business and management whiz. I have expertise in fashion PR
, marketing and graphic design. Nicole, you’re an amazing makeup artist and hairstylist, although you rarely talk about your awesome styling ability. And Aaliyah, you’re a fantastic beauty photographer who has done a variety of work in Miami and other cities. Together, the four of us have pretty amazing skills.”
She pulled out the photos she’d stuffed in her notebook. “Aaliyah, I remember you telling Nicole and I about some work you used to do.”
“Aww, did you Google me to get these pics?” Aaliyah asked, as she admired some of her previous work.
“I did,” Summer said with a laugh. “And I’m happy to say that I’ve finally figured out what to do with the upstairs loft of the boutique. I want to turn that section into a boudoir studio. Women would not only be able to purchase lingerie from our first-level boutique, they would also be able to book a boudoir photo shoot. We will do their hair and makeup, style them with accessories to complement the lingerie they purchase, and offer them photo packages. Aaliyah, I had no idea you had so much experience with boudoir photos.”
“I do, and it’s one of my favorite types of work. There’s nothing better than making women feel sexy.”
“I agree! All four of our skill sets would be needed to make this a success. But since the sign on the outside of the boutique just says Bare Sophistication, we can add to that.”
“What would you add?” Danni asked excitedly.
Summer scrunched her forehead in thought. “Bare Sophistication Boutique and Studio for the sign, but we’ll have a motto, of course. Something like, Bare Sophistication...capturing your beauty inside and out. Or maybe something like Empowering the everyday woman. Danni, we could work together to come up with something great, and when you go back to Chicago maybe you could see if something like this could work in that location, as well. I just want to give women a place where they can let their hair down and really tap into their sensuality. When Winter, Autumn and I initially came up with the idea for Bare Sophistication, we always wanted the boutique to be a place where women of all shapes, sizes and nationalities could come and feel beautiful. Inspired. Confident.”
Waiting for Summer Page 5
