Page 12 of Beauty and the Boss Man

Chapter Six

Aiden

Romy might have said I looked good, but she looks fucking stunning. Getting away from Minnesota does wonders for her.

I never realized how long her hair is. Of course, she’s probably thinking the same thing about me. At work, I always wear my hair under my hat. It keeps it out of my way while I get shit done.

And now, she’s wearing contacts which makes it easier to see her pretty blue eyes.

And the outfit she’s wearing? Holy fuck. I’m struggling not to let my eyes drift down to her low-cut shirt. Usually, she wears baggy clothing, so I had no idea what was hiding underneath.

It doesn’t take long for our food to show up, and we dig in. I offer her part of my lobster, and it doesn’t take much to convince her to take it.

“This is delicious,” she says between bites.

I nod and get the server’s attention to order us each another drink.

Once they appear, I take a sip and ask, “So, tell me about college in Arizona.” I remember on her resume that she had a degree in business and finance, but that’s all I know.

“Hot,” she responds with a smile.

Jokingly, I say, “You really have a thing about weather, don’t you? You’re either too hot or too cold.”

She giggles. “Here in Florida, it feels just right.”

“Okay, Goldilocks. Anything else memorable about college?”

She twists the straw around the rim of her glass. “Well, I lived on campus with a girl named Veronica. We’re still best friends to this day. V is a bit of a free spirit, so she moved back to Minnesota with me when she graduated.”

“That’s awesome. It seems like most people get more horror stories from their college roommates rather than a best friend.”

“I definitely got lucky.” She smiles, thinking about her friend. “Of course, sometimes I want to kill her. When we got here, I realized she’d repacked my entire suitcase. Hence the crazy outfit.” She looks down at herself and sighs.

I’m not sure exactly what to say without sounding like a total pervert. I settle on, “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you look great—no matter what you’re wearing.”

Nope. Still creepy.

But she just gives me a warm smile. “Thank you.”

“So, did you do a lot of partying back in your college days?” I ask.

Her body tenses slightly as though I’ve touched a nerve. “For a while, but after a big dose of reality, I buckled down and focused on studying.”

I’m curious to know about that ‘big dose of reality’, but I don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, so I don’t ask.

Turning the spotlight away from herself, she asks, “What about you? Where did you go to college?”

“I didn’t. Well, not in the literal sense anyway. I went to a trade school in town. I worked during the day to get on-the-job training and took all of the classroom stuff in the evenings.”

She nods. “Sounds exhausting.”

I chuckle. “It was, but I made it through and didn’t have any debt when I was done with it all.”

“Lucky you. How long did it take you to start your own business?”

“A few years,” I begin. “This is going to sound super lame of me, but I lived with my parents while I was in college and a few years after so I could save up every cent that I made. No one wanted to give me a loan, so I had to start small and fund it myself for a while.”

“I don’t think that sounds lame at all. I think it’s pretty damn impressive that you’ve built such a thriving business in such a short time.”

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