Page 69 of Best In Class
Luna:Don’t half ass it, Calder.
I laugh.
Me:I’ll have my whole ass there, Moonbeam.
Luna:
I’m still grinning when I step off the elevator and onto the rooftop at The Peregrin.
It’s golden hour in Savannah. The skyline glows with just enough romance to make you believe in second chances. String lights float overhead, and the rooftop hums with that laid-back Southern luxury vibe—white parasols, velvet booths, cocktails with names like “Propagator” and “Root Runner”.
The guys are already at a corner table, drinks in hand.
One of them has ordered me a bourbon neat. Probably, since they know me, it will be a Blanton’s Single Barrel.
I sit down, pick up my glass, and proudly announce to my friends that my girlfinallysaid she’d go out with me.
Yep, I’m as excited as a teenager who’s gonna go on his first date.
“I think you look prouder than you did when you won the Mies van der Rohe Award,” Lev remarks, amused.
“It was harder to get her to agree to go out with me than it was to win that damn award,” I reply, looking through the menu.
I’d won the European award for a modular clinic project in Barcelona, which is now regarded as the best example of passive cooling in use. Technically, the prize was for designing a fully self-sustaining health complex with modular scalability in underserved urban neighborhoods. My team and I had worked hard to deliver a solar-integrated façade, rainwater harvesting systems, natural ventilation, plus on-site community spaces.
Lev had been my plus-one for the award ceremony sincehe was already in Europe on business. I’d thought about asking Luna, of course, I had. But I didn’t. I knew she’d turn me down.
Still, I can’t help wondering—if I’d asked her three years ago, would we have found our way back to each other sooner?
Well, no point living in the past, Dom. Let it go.
Noah raises a brow. “Look at you. Mr. Net-Zero.”
I smirk. “Yeah, well, Luna’s got better instincts for sustainable systems than I do. I just get the fancy press.”
Lev leans back, arms folded. “So, you built a revolutionary project that’s been studied in top architecture schools, but the one thing you’re celebrating tonight is getting a woman who already loves you to say yes to dinner?”
“Exactly,” I agree, raising my glass of bourbon. “Because that award changed my career. But Luna? She’s the one who changedme.”
They’re quiet for a beat, and then Gabe clinks his drink to mine. “To the woman who made this architect relearn his foundation.”
I grin. I’m so fucking happy, my heart is ready to jump out of my chest.
“So…what’s the plan?” Noah slouches back in his chair.
Gabe chuckles. “Five-star dinner? Helicopter over the marsh? Serenade under the Spanish moss?”
I shake my head. “Just dinner. Good food. Honest conversation. No bullshit.”
Gabe shoots me a delighted grin. “Aurora will be pleased.Apparently, Luna’s stressing everyone out since y’all started working together.”
Noah’s expression lightens with amusement. “According to Stella, she wishes y’all would just fuck and get it over with.”
I shoot him a look of mock exasperation.
“Women!” Lev complains. “And they say we’re the insensitive sex.”
Noah lets out a sigh of mock irritation. “We are? I am prettysensitiveabout sex with my wife.”
