“Omigod – the investor!” I hissed, heart pounding as I threw the sheets off my body and scrambled to Lukas at the edge of the bed. He laughed as I grabbed the phone from his hand, watching me curiously as I frantically answered the call on my knees. “Hello?”
“Lia? It’s Elaine Gardner.”
“Yes, of course! How are you?” I asked breathily, despite my best efforts to speak with some shred of professionalism.
“I’m well. I hope this isn’t a bad time… I just want to call regarding yesterday’s meeting.”
My stomach twisted. For some reason, her tone gave me a bad feeling. I wasn’t sure what it was but it must’ve been obvious because I felt Lukas give me a little squeeze. Blinking, I looked down, oblivious to the fact that I’d grabbed his hand out of pure nerves and anxiety.
“It’s not a bad time,” I said, preparing a smile, forcing myself to try and be graceful no matter what she decided.
“Right, well, I want to let you know that I really appreciated your presentation yesterday. I really did enjoy your product and even more than that, I enjoyed your vision for the brand. You’ve clearly thought about this for a very long time,” she said, breathing in audibly as she took a long pause. “At this time, I have a very similar company I’ve been looking to do business with…?
?
Fuck.
My shoulders fell. I heard Lukas murmur my name but I ignored him, hiding my wet eyes from him as I half-listened to Elaine talk about some other chocolatier with a similar product as mine. The second I heard “conflict of interest,” I pretty much tuned out.
“It’s okay,” Lukas whispered as I nodded along to both him and Elaine, trying my hardest to be an adult about all this. But the wave of disappointment was strong and despite surviving that first big hit, I was still reeling. As the rush of adrenaline finally subsided, I heard Elaine’s warm laugh on the other end of the phone.
My ears perked up.
“I guess what I’m telling you is that I liked your presentation enough to forego my relationship with the other company. I’ve chosen to work with your brand, Lia. And if it’s alright with you, I’d like to meet on Monday to begin paperwork.”
My mouth fell wide open. “Oh!” I blurted, bursting into laughter as Lukas cocked his perplexed head at me. I did my best to hold it together for the rest of the call but I was mouthing oh my God on repeat to Lukas and quietly freaking out as he did his best to muffle his big laughs.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Finally.
I did it. It was happening. Three years ago, I was underemployed, miserable and living with a man who not so secretly wished for me to fail. Now I was living on my own, working on my own and perhaps just months away from opening my own shop in Manhattan.
The second I hung up, I burst into tears.
“Whoa, whoa. Why are we crying?” Lukas murmured, trying to dig my face out from my hands. “You got it, right? Lia. Look at me.”
When I finally looked up at him, laughing and crying at the same time, he broke into an adorably huge grin that made my heart swell even more.
“I knew it. You’re fucking unstoppable,” he said, cupping my cheeks and kissing my lips like he’d been waiting the entire call to. I tossed my phone aside as we fell back onto the bed again and this time, as I basked in the bliss of his lips and his body on me, I didn’t force myself to feel guilt. I let myself squeal when he said that he was going to order champagne and I giggled nonstop as he suggested – jokingly, I think – that we go to Spain tonight to celebrate. All rules and restrictions went out the window as we lay in bed, rolled around and fought about who would open the door for room service.
For once, in that hotel room with Lukas, I just let myself be.
17
LIA
I wore a peach colored sundress on Monday that matched the satin ribbon on my truffle boxes. It was a borderline cheesy thing to do but I was too happy to care.
My weekend had been perfect.
Beyond perfect.
After getting the good news from Elaine, Lukas popped a bottle of Krug and drank his glass while watching me run around the room calling my friends and family to relay the good news. We stayed the night and when I woke up nervous on Sunday, he booked me a massage at the spa on the hotel’s thirtieth floor. After killing a bottle of champagne at dinner, we went back to the room. The bubbles and the excitement had me dozing off fast but in the middle of the night I woke up hot and breathless from a dream.
All it took were my fingertips drifting down the ridges of Lukas’s abs for him to wake up and roll, cup my jaw and roll on top of me. His fingers inside me were enough to make me come. Of course, the actual sex did the trick, too.