Page 74 of Taming the CEO

"Hey, Miriam, how are you? Everything okay with the storm?"

"Yes. There’s no damage to the house or the school. By the way, I've got some cookies. Are you at home? I could drop them by."

"I'm going to be home in a few minutes, and I would never say no to your cookies."

As soon as I arrived, I opened my laptop and started crunching numbers. They didn’t look good at all.

Miriam came about ten minutes later.

“Oh, I know that expression. Are you doing cash-flow projections?” she said instead of hello.

“Yes. They’re terrible.” I eyed her Tupperware, and she passed it to me.

Miriam pulled her long blonde hair to one side, running her fingers through it. She narrowed her eyes at me. "You look surprisingly well. No mental breakdown about losing income." Her eyebrows flew to her hairline. "Oh, you've decided to sell, haven't you?"

"Yes. Dad wants to retire. And Maddox has a good offer."

"Uh-huh. More like his magic dick made a good case," Miriam said, and we both start laughing.

Of course she knew everything. I'd picked up the phone and spilled the second Maddox left.

“We didn't even discuss the business,” I said.

"Well, no, obviously. Why talk about anything boring when you can have sex and more sex?" she asked. "And what was that last thing? Oh yeah, sex again."

I scoffed. "Miriam, you make me sound like a nympho."

"No, I think you just have a lot to catch up on. And you're excited to see him again,” she said with a smile.

I took a deep breath, closing the booking program. There was no use pretending that I was checking next week's business. The weather was too unpredictable. I wasn't panicking as much as usual, but I knew the sale would take some time to finalize. We still had to make a living before that, so I hoped the weather would stay stable.

I side-eyed her and said, "I didn't tell you, but I'm seeing him tonight."

"What? When? Where are you going? You know what? Never mind. I'll hear it all afterward.”

"We’re going for dinner in Boston. He said he’ll make reservations at a restaurant.”

"Faaancy," Miriam said. "So you two... I mean, I assumed it was a onetime thing."

"It still felt like we had unfinished business." I wiggled my eyebrows.

"So... going to Boston is code for more sex?"

I put my hands on my cheeks. They were flaming hot. "Dinner. We said dinner."

"Uh-huh," Miriam replied. Then she tilted her head. "So. aside from his magic dick, what else convinced you to sell?"

I sighed. “Dad truly wants to retire. And there's no way I can buy him out of the business."

"Would you want to?"

I hesitated. "I'm not sure. I’ve done this for so long..." I grabbed one of the cookies, munching on it. “I didn't even think about a day when I might be doing something else.”

"There was a time when you wanted to spread your wings," she added. "And I’d love that for you. Even if I would miss you."

I shrugged. "I honestly don’t know what I’d do. It's a bit scary, but it's also exciting."

"Plus, you would get a great lump sum to get you started."

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