Page 23 of Just Not That Into Billionaires

“Are we there?” I ask.

“Picking somebody up,” Benny says. “Aaron. He works with me.”

I nod, thinking about the Wikipedia article on him. Benny founded his company with his friend, James, and the two of them brought on this lawyer, Aaron. Benny figured out the inventions, James figured out the whole business side of it, and Aaron did the legal stuff. James was hit by a car a few months back on Thanksgiving weekend—he was on his bike. It was a hit and run—they never caught the guy. Now it’s just Benny and Aaron.

I can hear the driver getting out up front. I suppose everybody who rides in this car needs the door opened for them.

Does Benny miss James? Were they friends or was it just a co-worker thing? Benny is such a loner, I can’t imagine him being really close friends with anybody, but he’s so different now. I want to ask him, but he doesn’t seem to want to communicate whatsoever with me.

The door opens and a stout man with a thick pelt of brown hair, a thick little mustache, and wire-rimmed glasses slides into the seat across from us.

“Aaron. Francine,” Benny says, because he can’t be bothered to do a proper introduction. His phone pings and he’s back tapping and scrolling.

Aaron eyes me in a way I don’t love, and his smile isn’t exactly friendly, either. In fact it’s not hard to imagine that disdainful little mouth ripping apart a feather pillow. Lizzie told me that Aaron has a reputation for playing hardball.

He turns to Benny. “Perfect play. Trotting out the wife.”

Benny grunts, eyes still glued to his phone.

“Perfect timing, too,” Aaron continues.

“And a dream come true for me,” I say breezily, though in truth, I’m a bit apprehensive about the dress thing now.

Aaron fixes me with a hard gaze. “She gonna play nice?”

“She’ll play nice,” Benny assures him, thumbs flying over his phone.

I give Aaron a sassy smile.

Aaron addresses me directly while simultaneously speaking to me in the third person and possibly even threatening me. “She’d better play nice,” he says. “This is an important deal.”

“I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t play nice,” I say, also referring to myself in the third person. “I mean, being threatened with the loss of something I’ve worked my whole life to attain?”

As soon as I say it, I regret it. I can see the gears turning behind his eyes and I don’t like it. You never show people like Aaron what’s important to you.

I go for a smile. “Who could resist?”

“Don’t worry, she can charm people when she wants,” Benny grumbles.

“She certainly can…” I turn to Aaron now, all sassy, and add, “When shewants.”

Aaron frowns.

Benny finally looks up. “And she wants.”

“Oh, I’ll charm the stuffing out of them—don’t you worry about that,” I assure them. “Considering I have no choice.”

“All you gotta do,” Benny says, going back to the phone.

“So they want to buy your company, and this dinner is to talk about that?” I ask.

Benny says, “We’re not really sure what their agenda is. They’ve requested a social dinner. It’s likely that Juliana, our decision maker, just needs to meet me face to face, or maybe somebody else from the team wants to green-light who they’ll be dealing with.”

“Why would it matter?” I ask. “If she and her group think your tiny-robot-making company is worth buying, why do they need to meet you?”

“Because they want me to stay on for a year, overseeing the team that adapts my tech to different industrial environments,” he says, ever so bored and annoyed with me.

“Hold the phone. You’d stay on and work for them?” I ask. “As an employee?”

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