Page 61 of The Arrogant One
“I don’t like that answer, Sadie.”
“Neither do I. How about you change it?”
I skimmed my teeth over my lip. “Dinner.”
“Yesss.”
“I’ll text you later.”
“You’d better.”
I chuckled as I hung up and pulled into the parking garage of our corporate office, getting out at the valet stand, and while the attendant parked my car, I took the elevator to the top floor. Since the ride was fairly long, I slipped out my phone from mypocket, avoiding any app that had to do with work, and opened Instagram—the best stress-free way to pass time.
The first post on my feed was from Dear Foodie with the caption,Soy in love. There were two photos. The first was of three pieces of nigiri on a plate and a perfectly positioned pair of chopsticks with a wad of wasabi on the end. The second was of a lychee martini, holding the mouth of the glass with her pink nails. She’d tagged the location; I knew it well. It was the restaurant where I’d run into Sadie and taken her out in the alley behind the building.
If Dear Foodie loved that place, I could only hope she felt the same way about Toro.
I gave the post a like just as the door opened to the executive floor, my assistant standing nearby since the security monitors had notified her of my arrival.
I nodded. “Good morning, CC.”
Cecilia preferred the nickname, and my family and I had been using it since her first day, which was seven years ago.
“Everyone’s already in the conference room.” She waved me toward the hallway, and that was when I caught sight of her nails.
“You have pink too? What, does every woman in this world only use that color?”
“Pink?” She followed my line of sight to the hand she was holding in the air. “Oh! Dear Foodie inspired this manicure. What can I say?” She snorted.
I shook my head and checked my watch. “I’m not late.”
“No, your siblings were just early. Can I get you coffee? Bagel? Anything?”
“Coffee, as strong as you can make it. Thank you.”
I passed her and went through the double doors and down the hallway until I reached the end. The door to the conferenceroom was already ajar, so I walked in, and the room turned silent as everyone looked at me.
“Suddenly, you’re all overachievers?”
Eden smirked. “I came in early to get work done. You know, I’d be able to work normal hours if you guys actually left me alone during the day and let me do my job.”
“I didn’t sleep,” Walker admitted. “Might as well be here than tossing and turning in my bed.”
Colson groaned. “None of you are allowed to complain about sleep until you have a four-year-old who would rather sleep in your bed than hers, who positions herself sideways and mostly on top of you and insists on having no less than ten purple unicorns surrounding her. Then, you’re allowed to bitch all you want.”
“Fuck that. I have every right to bitch,” Walker stammered. “Besides, I have plenty of four-year-olds, their names are Charred and Toro and their hundreds of kitchens that I manage, and they do a hell of a job at keeping me awake.”
Kill me now.
Today was going to go over like a goddamn lead balloon.
I took a seat across from Beck and nodded toward him. “Do you want to do the honors?”
Beck was wearing an LA Whales hoodie, the team he played for, and he pushed up the sleeves before he clasped his hands on the table. “We need to talk about Horned.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Walker groaned. “I can’t escape that restaurant, no matter how hard I try.”
“What we’re about to tell you is going to make things even worse,” Beck said, clearing his throat. “Hart and I went there last night for dinner.” He paused and looked at me before returning his gaze to Walker. “It fucking pains me to say this, but it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time.”
