Page 15 of Turning Tides
Archer furrowed his brows. “That you’re his boss. His friend.”
I nodded. “Six years ago, I was digging in my couch for spare change to buy ramen. I was the definition of living paycheck to paycheck.Then, I had this one really good day and I said you know what, I should buy a lottery ticket. And boom, I won. I won an obscene amount of money, Archer. It’s not something I hide, but I don’t exactly advertise it. I did all the things I always said I would. I paid off my brother’s student loans. I got my mom a house. I looked after my younger brother. I bought a bar.”
“Fuck off. That’s… no shit?”
“No shit.” I grinned at Archer’s incredulous expression.
“I feel like there’s a catch.”
“No catch. I do this a lot. Previously, the upstairs had been rented by my bartender Mickey.”
“Cyrus told me about him.” Archer ran his fingers through his hair, disturbing the dark strands.
“I didn’t charge him what it’s worth either. I charged him what he could afford. The space is empty. Kieran, my brother and money manager, wants me to rent it out.”
Archer let out a laugh. “I’m sure this isn’t what he had in mind.”
“Probably not, but I won the money, not him. He helps people by helping me not go broke so I can continue to help people. We can draw up a contract if you want, and I’ll take a certain percentage of your profits until you’ve established yourself. At which point we can discuss continuing your lease of the space. I won’t hold you here if you find a place that’s better suited to your needs, but I also won’t make you leave if you want to stay.”
“What’s in it for you?”
I shrugged. “Besides getting Kieran off my ass? Nothing. It would make Cyrus happy to see you getting back on your feet. He’s been worried.”
I didn’t mind divulging that to Archer. I didn’t think it was a secret.
“And he had nothing to do with this?”
“Like what? Asking me to offer you the upstairs? Definitely not. Cyrus knows his place is in the kitchen and not in my business.” I leaned forward, lowering my voice. “And anything else we did had shit to do with him too. I let you fuck me because I wanted it, Archer.”
I still did, but I didn’t want to say that. Not when I was trying to negotiate with him. I didn’t want it to seem like sex was part of the deal.
“I have to think about this. I know it’s a great deal, and that I’d be an idiot to turn it down. I don’t even know if the space would work.”
Opening my desk drawer, I grabbed the spare set of keys and tossed them on the desk. “The silver key is for the back door. The brass key is for the apartment. Take a few days to think about it. If you want it, it’s yours. If not, you can bring the keys back here and I’ll tell Cyrus that it wasn’t zoned properly to have a business upstairs.”
“Which it might not be.”
“I’m about ninety-seven percent sure we’ll be good to go, but I’ll check on that today and let you know.” My stomach growled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten yet today. “Were you hungry? Cyrus could whip something up for us.”
“No, ah… I’m going to go.” Archer scooped the keys off the desk and stuffed them into his pocket. “Thanks for today. For all of it.”
He glanced away, unable to hold my gaze for too long. That was fine. I wasn’t going to hold it against him.
It wasn’t that I regretted offering him the upstairs unit. It solved both our problems. But now that I had, a repeat with him would be inappropriate. Which fucking sucked. Archer had been a beast. I could still feel him on my skin, in my body. I wanted to strip naked and examine my hips for bruises. Oh well, some things were more important than sex.
“I’ll be in touch.” Archer let himself out before I could respond.
The enormity of what I’d done slammed into me the minute he walked out of my office. Cyrus was one of my best friends, and an employee I could ill afford to lose. He was the backbone of this place. And I’d just taken his brother upstairs and helped him blow off some steam. Which I’m certain wasn’t what had been on Cyrus’s mind when he said Archer needed someone to help him.
Holing up in my office hadn’t been the plan, but I needed some space between Cyrus and me before I’d be able to face him properly. And I had to see about zoning and business licenses and shit. I fired off an email to my insurance agent to double-check my policy. Then I got to work on things I’d been avoiding. Kieran did most of the books for the bar, but I still liked to know what was going on.
After bringing my accounts up to date, I knew I couldn’t hide anymore. Cyrus was in the kitchen prepping for the dinner rush. Walking in there had me sweating like I was on the way to face the firing squad. Even though I’d provided a perfectly reasonable explanation about what we were doing upstairs, I still fully expected Cyrus to make some creative threats involving knives and hiding body parts.
He saw me enter and waved me over to his prep station. Cyrus’s knife skills were out of this world and I’d admit to a tendril of fear keeping me from getting too close. Not that he’d actually hurt me, but it was better safe than sorry.
“Did you seriously offer Archer the upstairs for his shop?” Cyrus asked.
Shrugging, I replied, “It’s not like I’m using it. Mickey’s moved in with Ethan and Kieran was getting on my case the other day about letting it sit empty. I’m waiting to hear about zoning and insurance and stuff, but I have a good feeling we’ll be able to make it work.”
