Page 13 of The Cask

She eyed me warily. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I answered quickly. “What do you mean?”

“You seem…”—she cocked her head to the side— “tense.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

“You had this same look when that corporation was trying to buy out all the businesses on the block a couple of years ago.” She raised an eyebrow. “It’s nothing that serious is it?”

While Alexis and I were friends, at the end of the day she was still my employee and I didn’t want to rope her into the revenge fantasy I’d been nursing since the night before.

“I’m fine,” I reassured her. “I just want to make sure profits stay on an upward trajectory even though there’s”—I paused, choosing my words carefully— “lots of change around us.”

“Fall and winter are usually our best time of year.” She placed her jacket on the coatrack. “And I wouldn’t worry about the competition.”

“I’m not worried,” I said quickly.

“People are curious and will check Luxe out because it’s new. But you created a city staple with The Cask.” Her smile grew. “And for what it’s worth, I think the owner of Luxe likes you.”

“Well, that’s not worth much of anything.”

“I don’t know…” She dragged the sentence out in a sing-song tone. “You can’t compete when you have hearts in your eyes. And regardless of what you think, I saw the way he looked when he asked for you. That man has hearts in his eyes for you.”

I frowned. “I don’t like the way you keep saying hearts in his eyes.”

“And if I may add,” she continued, ignoring me. “You looked really comfortable wearing his jacket last night.”

I sucked my teeth and rolled my eyes. “The temperature dropped unexpectedly while I was doing my job.”

“Mm hmm.”

“You haven’t been on a date in a long time. You haven’t been in a relationship since your ex moved. All you do is work. Maybe you should accept the man’s apology and let himmake things right.” She wiggled her eyebrows as she said the last few words.

I narrowed my eyes and gestured around. “How about you find something to do?!”

She laughed, glancing over my shoulder. “And to add to my point, I’ll let you get the door while I check the kitchen inventory.”

“I already checked—”

A knock interrupted me.

The reinforced glass door was strong, sturdy, bulletproof, but completely see-through. And the fact that I made eye contact with Omari Fortune meant that I couldn’t pretend I didn’t see or hear him.

“I’ll let you get that,” Alexis sang as she walked into the kitchen.

“We’re closed,” I replied in that same sing-song voice she used.

She stuck her head out of the kitchen door. “He may need his jacket back,” she pointed out.

Damn.

I forgot about that.

Sighing, I turned around and made my way to the door. Omari wore jeans and a dark green polo shirt. Somehow, he looked just as good relaxed as he did in a suit.

That kind of pissed me off, too.

Rolling my shoulders back and meeting his gaze, I stood silently in the doorway. “We don’t open until four o’clock,” I told him finally.

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