One thing I did know was that I had a meeting to prepare for. Which meant I needed to get out of my head and switch on my professional mind. We were in Paris, the city of love. The city I knew deep down Brett wanted to build his international headquarters in.
This was the city I had to pay attention to.
“Ready for the meeting?” Brett asked.
I came out of my room carrying my laptop and nodded. “Ready when you are.”
It was the first time we had spoken outside of a meeting in days. And it stopped as soon as it had begun. He escorted me downstairs and out to the car, and the entire trip passed like a blur. We pulled up to a restaurant. The two of us got out, and I walked in at his side, like I always had.
But the second the smell of cake hit my nostrils, I almost puked in my mouth.
“You okay?” Brett asked.
I nodded quickly. “Yep. I’m good.”
“This won’t take long. Take notes and try to keep up.”
I followed Brett to the table, and the smell of cake got stronger, more pungent. Chocolate, with caramel and coconut shavings. Bile crept up the back of my throat. I felt my neck breaking out into a cold sweat. I had to keep it together. I had to swallow it down. We approached the table, and I saw Brett’s eyes travel to the cake. He looked back at me, and I could have sworn I saw worry in his eyes.
Or maybe I just wanted there to be worry.
“Brett! So good you could join us.”
“Phillipe, it’s good to see you again,” Brett said.
“And who is this beautiful woman you have with you?” the man asked.
“This is my consultant manager and the woman helping me take on this endeavor, Olivia Masters,” Brett said.
“The pleasure is all mine,” the man said as he took my hand.
He brought it to his lips to kiss, and I focused on that rather than the massive slab of cake he was gnawing on.
“Olivia, this is Phillipe Martin. This man did me an incredible favor when I was first building my business, and without him, my company wouldn’t be where it was,” Brett said.
“Nonsense, you would have found a way to fund your venture,” Phillip said.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Martin,” I said.
“No, no, no. Beautiful women call me Phillipe. Always,” he said.
I saw Brett clench his jaw out of the corner of my eye.
“Phillipe knows my father. He had a case that took him overseas for a spell,” Brett said.
“So you’re a friend of the family,” I said.
“Of sorts,” Phillipe said, smiling.
“So, I want to get to the point before we sit down. Things with London went well. I’ve got support, financial and otherwise. Which means I’m prepared to pick out a piece of property right now to set up my headquarters,” Brett said.
I whipped my eyes up to him, watching as a grin crawled across his face. He hadn’t told me about that. He hadn’t told me we were in Paris to purchase the building for his international sector.
“That brings my heart a great deal of happiness. It will be nice having you and your services closer to us. Of course, my company will be looking to partner with you. Scratch each other’s backs, if you catch my drift,” Phillipe said.
“That’s what this meeting is about. Not to talk about headquarters or where I’m going to do, but to settle that itch,” Brett said.
The three of us sat down, and I did my best to pay attention. I ordered a bowl of french onion soup with extra onions and dumped pepper onto it. I had no passion to eat it, but it did mask the smell of that cake. It enabled me to type away on my laptop and take notes as the two men talked back and forth. Phillipe apparently had a financial business of his own in Paris. His company handled over 60 percent of the country’s debt at any given moment in time. He wanted to use Brett’s consulting services and offer them to his clients to help them pay down their debt. Possibly refinance for lower interest rates and the like with Brett’s company. The two men went back and forth, hammering out details as my fingers flew across the keyboard.
And by the time it was all said and done, the men were shaking hands and smiling at one another.
“Always a pleasure, Phillipe,” Brett said.
“You tell your father I said hello, and we’ll get this paperwork drawn up,” Phillipe said.
“Of course. Of course, I’ll tell him,” Brett said.
“Olivia, it was a pleasure,” Phillipe said.
He turned to me and bowed his head lightly as a smile crossed my cheeks.
“The pleasure was all mine,” I said.
“The next time you come along, we’ll have to take you somewhere with food you might want to eat. You didn’t touch a bite of your soup,” Phillipe said.