“Me?” My head was spinning. “Okay, I get it. You want me to dress Dane. Get him a few nice suits, that sort of thing.”
“More than that,” Aidan said. “Okada and his team are coming to Chicago for four days. They expect Dane to show them around the city, take them out for meals. He’s going to have to spend time with them. They don’t want me or any of the other partners—they only want Dane. He has to look the part, and he has to act the part. He has to be convincing.” Aidan stood, coming closer to me. “I’m proposing that Tower VC sends you to Chicago, all expenses paid. You take Dane under your wing. Buy him a new wardrobe, get him a haircut. Show him some m
anners and social skills. Go with him to a few high-end restaurants and practice manners. Get him prepared for this meeting. Do whatever you have to do. And in return, you get a large fee.”
My heart was speeding up in my chest, something that had nothing to do with the caffeine. “You want me to go to Chicago? To spend time with Dane? For how long?”
“The meeting with Okada is in a week. You can leave first thing in the morning.”
Now I sounded crazed. “Tomorrow? You want me to leave my apartment, my own work, for a whole week?”
A muscle twitched in Aidan’s jaw, the only sign that he was stressed. “Ava, the company needs this. And you’re the only one who can do it.”
“There are a thousand fashion stylists out there.” Why did I feel so panicked? My fingernails were digging into the arm of my chair again. I forced myself to unstick them. “Any one of them could do it. I’m not even that good.”
“First of all, you are that good, and second, you’re the only one Dane will let anywhere near him. If I hire someone else, he won’t even open the door. He trusts you. In his own way, he even likes you.”
A shocked sound left my throat, and I covered it by lifting my cup and swallowing half-cold coffee. “I think you’re imagining that.”
“Am I? He asks me about you regularly, you know.”
“Dane asks about me?”
“Yes, he does. He asks how you are. I think he feels big-brotherly toward you.”
Another sound left my throat, and I put down my empty coffee cup. Dane did not feel big-brotherly toward me. That much, I was very aware of. But I couldn’t let my face get hot and give it all away.
Aidan was waiting, so I said, “All right, I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t think about it,” he said. He grabbed a folder from his desk and handed it to me. “Here’s your plane ticket and an advance check for expenses.”
My CEO brother might be the boss of a lot of people, but he wasn’t the boss of me. “I never agreed to go.”
“But you will.” He was still holding the folder out. “I’m asking you to do this, Ava. Please.”
I thought about arguing with him some more, about telling him about my full life and my busy job and all of the important stuff I had to do. Instead I took the folder and glanced inside it. At the check.
Oh my God, that was a lot of money. Enough that I wouldn’t be eating ramen noodles for months. Behind it was a printout of a hotel reservation—at the Langham. One of Chicago’s poshest five-star hotels. Starting tomorrow, I was staying at the Langham for a week.
I thought of my cramped Brooklyn apartment. My roommate and the boyfriend she had over often—and loudly. My empty bank account. My near-empty schedule. The guy who had dumped me a week ago, then totally ghosted me. My sore feet.
My brother was offering me a check and a week at the Langham. He really was the devil.
All I had to do was spend that week with Dane Scotland.
How bad could it be? Clean him up, buy him some clothes, show him which fork to use. Try not to sleep with him. Try, Ava. Just freaking try.
“Well?” Aidan asked. He probably had some other appointment to go to.
“I hate you,” I said, still looking at the check. I couldn’t quite look away.
“I know,” my brother said. “Thanks, Ava. Go home and pack your bags.”
Three
Dane
* * *