Page 57 of Love in Mission City
“Right. So now we work and make Jacqui happy.”
If that’s even possible.
On that note, I departed.
Chapter Three
Knight
As I sat at my desk with my yellow legal pad before me, I considered. Had I opened Orlando’s personal calendar? And, even if I had, why had I caught the name Junction and thought about nothing else since then? I should’ve been focused on Jacqui’s upending of everything, but I’d obsessed over my assistant and what he might be getting up to at a gay bar in Vancouver. Mission City didn’t have any—nor did Cedar Valley, for that matter. Here, in the Bible Belt, we had to go farther afield to find fun.
Naturally, that led me to wonder if he would wear that light-green suit or something…sexier.
Which reminded me of the last time he’d criticized my attire.
Oh my God, Knight! You cannot be thinking of wearing that tie when the people from Subliminal arrive. Never mind. I had an idea you'd do this, so I picked this tie out for you and brought it in with me today. It just says, 'I'm an honest guy, but I will design you the best goddamn office ever... What do you mean that your black tie is fine? No. That says you're boring and willdesign soulless seating areas. You want to show them you can be artistic!
That tie… Oh my God. Electric-pink lightning bolts on black satin. I wouldn’t have picked it in a million years. Yet Orlando had. He’d actually bought me a tie and had held onto it until just the perfect opportunity to ambush me.
And, damn man, it had worked.
Coralie, Club Subliminal’s owner, loved the tie. Not just an admiration, but genuine adoration. In fact, she demanded to know where I’d gotten it and, apparently, had ordered one for each of her serving staff. I was helping her with the redesign of a restaurant into a club in Langley. That wasn’t my normal type of job—I stuck to residential and low-rise offices—but I’d designed her friend Marcia’s house. Coralie had been so impressed she demanded I do the reno architecture for her. In fact, I had the preliminary drawings, and Xena was doing that model next for me.
“Knight!”
I glanced up to find Orlando standing directly across from my desk with his hands on his hips. He’d removed his jacket and literally rolled up his sleeves, revealing strong forearms with just a fuzz of dark hair visible.I’m glad he doesn’t bleach that.Thatwould be over the top.I blinked. I seemed to be doing that a lot. “Yes?”
“Darling, you’re not paying attention.”
Maybe not, but I hate it when you call meDarling. All I ever wanted was to be left in peace to do my work. That meant giving Orlando more latitude than I might have otherwise. Except, frankly, this arrangement worked. He came up with brilliant interior designs, and I got to do my thing. Symbiosis…or something like that. “You have my full attention now.”
He clapped his hands in enthusiasm. “Great. I need you to show me the preliminary designs. There are, like, six townhousefloor plans, right? That feels like a lot. I was looking over the last three projects, and you never did more than four, and—”
“You were looking over my old designs?”
This time, he blinked. “Of course I did. I even took an Uber tour of town to see all the projects. I love that Mission City has a bus service, but that would’ve been an entire day’s trip with all the projects being scattered around town, and—”
“I hope you charged the ride to the business account.” He did the basic accounting, with Minnie coming in to do the tax remittances and to check over his work.
“No.” He said the word slowly. “I did it on my own time and on my own initiative.”
“Well, I want you to reimburse yourself. I’m quite certain you have a receipt. A credit card statement or something.”
His eyes widened. “We’re getting off track, Knight. As I was saying, the last three projects were all very different—which I liked. You absorbed the aesthetic of each neighborhood and then designed complexes that felt unique—both to that space and in town. I mean, I could identify a Knight design, but in a good way.”
I wasn’t entirely certain I understood what he meant.Do I need to know?
“Like Henderson Street,” he continued, apparently unconcerned with my frown. “Those Juliet balconies on the front were brilliant. And the red brick stood out. But in a good way. The backs of the houses didn’t feel neglected either, as they sometimes do. You designed nice decks and the garage-door paint color—”
“Okay, I get it. You did a good job observing.”Damn good job. “But what does that have to do with six floorplans? The footprint of this complex is different from the others. And I want buyers to have plenty of choices. Usually it’s just which end of the townhouse the main bedroom is in. I wanted variety.”
“Well, you’ve provided that. But that means more work for everyone.”
“So what? I want this to be a unique property. To have homeowners be proud of their…homes.” Somehow, that sounded better in my head.
“So you’re set on six floor plans?”
“Yes.” Each was truly unique. Some had the kitchen at the back of the house, with plenty of natural light. Others had it in the middle of the main floor, with the dining room bathed in sunlight. Some were larger, with an extra bedroom in the basement—for an older child or an aging parent. Those would cost a bit more, but the price would be worth it to bring nana or papa closer. I’d added a private bathroom so they wouldn’t have to go up and down the stairs all the time, which would be dangerous at night.
