Tess and I were spending the evenings and nights here. Even though Josie offered to sleep over, Tess and I figured Mom would prefer one of her daughters to help her shower and so on.
“Damn, we’re so productive when we put our minds to it,” Tess said on a smile.
I grinned. “True.”
We tiptoed out of the room and then out of the apartment, because based on how quiet it now was, it was obvious both Mom and Mick had fallen asleep. Even though it was early in the day, we didn’t want to wake them up after the busy morning they’d had.
***
Rob
Something was off with Skye. She’d texted me that she wanted to talk to me. That was a few hours ago. I called her as soon as I saw the message, but it went to voice mail. I assumed her phone’s battery was de
ad. As a result, I just wanted to get this day over with and head to Soho. I was certain I’d find her at the store.
But before that, I needed to finalize this meeting. I was at our restaurant in the West Village. It had the lowest rating in our customer satisfaction survey.
“We’re going to up our game and take every complaint seriously.” I was speaking to the entire staff of this restaurant.
Lionel, the manager, just stared at the ground. I had enough authority that they did what I asked even though they may not agree.
“Among the most frequent complaints are long waiting times as well as unfriendly responses when they ask about their order.”
“You should hear how some of these people talk to us,” one of the servers said.
“Customer is king.” As always, I kept my voice calm but cold. “I’ve instructed my assistant to send me online reviews weekly.”
Lionel’s eyebrows shot up. Most business owners in my position would consider this micromanaging, but years of observing my grandfather and parents and how they ran the show taught me one or two things.
“Unless anyone wants to add anything else, you can return to your tasks.”
The second I dismissed the team, I left and ordered an Uber, heading straight to Soho. It had been a fucking long week, and I just wanted to take my woman out to dinner or back home and spend time with her. Skye and I had had dinner with Anne and Lindsay every evening for the past week, but tonight I wanted her all to myself.
Soho was buzzing with people, even more than usual. A few big stores were running sales, which seemed to be the reason for the extra foot traffic. Once I reached Tess and Skye’s store, it was obvious why Skye hadn’t picked up. They were overrun with customers. They still had ten minutes until closing time, so I sat in a chair at the ice cream shop.
Just watching her had a calming effect on me. As the minutes ticked by, I grew impatient. I wasn’t satisfied with simply watching her anymore. Even after nine o’clock came around and the store emptied out, Skye and Tess didn’t show signs of slowing down and closing for the night. I headed inside.
“I’ll be right with you,” Skye said automatically. She had her back to me, not realizing I wasn’t a customer.
“I know.”
She whirled around, eyes wide. “Hi! What are you doing here?”
“Came to see you. I got your text.”
“Crap, did you call? My phone was out of battery, and the afternoon was so crazy that I didn’t even have time to charge it. I don’t know why there were so many people here.”
“I passed Zara and H&M just now, and they had huge sales.”
“Oh, that explains it.”
I walked straight to her just as Tess came from the back.
“Rob, hi! Come to rescue my sister from herself?”
“That’s right.”
Tess smiled. “I thoroughly approve. She’s been in a frenzy the whole afternoon.”