Page 44 of The Rules of Their Red-Hot Reunion

‘How’s the restaurant coming on?’ Miles asked.

Slowly, because she and Pasco often got distracted. But they’d get it done. She wouldn’t let down Ro. ‘It’s coming.’

‘I know that I dumped that on you, Aisha,’ Miles told her, wincing. ‘But I don’t want you killing yourself. If you can’t manage, I’ll send someone—maybe Kendall—to take over the establishment of the restaurant.’

Kendall was young, sexy, and an incorrigible flirt. She’d take one look at Pasco and decide to add him as a notch on her bedpost. Aisha had no problem with Kendall’s relaxed attitude to men and sex—her body, her rules—but not when it involved her husband...dammit, her ex-husband.

Uh, no. She’d rather work her fingers to the bone, thank you very much.

‘I’ll let you know if I get overwhelmed, Miles,’ she said through gritted teeth. No, she wouldn’t.

‘Your call,’ Miles replied. ‘So, I know it’s late notice, but Dad and I are flying into Johannesburg tomorrow evening, and we want to have a strategy meeting all day Friday and Saturday morning. On Saturday night, Dad is hosting dinner at his house for senior management, and he wants you to join us.’

Getting an invite to the chairman of the board’s house was a big deal, something that hadn’t happened to her before. It wasn’t a leap to believe she had a better than average chance of being promoted.

Aisha felt the buzz of excitement and told herself not to gush. ‘That would be...’ Oh,crap. Pasco. They’d made plans for Saturday night, and he’d pulled strings to get into a spectacular restaurant in Cape Town, a place where you had to wait months to get a reservation, and he wanted to talk.

‘You have plans...’ Miles stated. ‘Hot date?’

Aisha scratched her forehead, not wanting to lie. ‘Yes, but I’ll cancel...’

‘Judging by your torn expression, it sounds like meeting him is important to you.’

It was, but was it as important as her job? She wished she could say that it wasn’t, but she couldn’t. Equally important, maybe.

And that was the difference between her and Pasco: he didn’t hesitate to put his work first. No, that wasn’t fair, not any more. Pasco was definitely getting better at making her a priority. And how ironic was it she was the one who now had to choose between her man and her work? But she couldn’t pass this invite up. Pasco would understand. ‘Please thank your dad for the invite, and yes, I’ll be there.’

To her consternation, Miles shook her head, her expression pensive. ‘We’ll be done with business by lunchtime Saturday. Book a flight back for mid-afternoon and you can still make your date.’

Aisha frowned. ‘Really, it’s fine, I’ll cancel.’

‘It’s a casual dinner, Aisha, not a referendum on your work. And you know that I’m all about a work-play balance. You work too much and play too little so you’re going on that date.’

‘Your dad won’t see it that way,’ Aisha protested. Miles’s father expected his employees to say, ‘How high?’ when he said, ‘Jump’. She often thanked God that Miles and not her father was her boss—she would’ve resigned years ago. Aisha was also grateful that Mr Lintel would be retired when—if—she got the promotion.

‘Aisha, I’m grateful for your work ethic, I really am. But I worry about your workaholic tendencies.’

She was a workaholic? She snorted. She was an amateur compared to Pasco.

‘I worry about you because you don’t worry about yourself enough. I’m the one who has to insist that you take a vacation, who practically has to force a pay rise on you. I’m thrilled that you are dating and even more thrilled this man is important to you.’

He was, unfortunately. Always had been, probably always would be.

‘Is he based in Cape Town?’

‘Yes,’ Aisha muttered, wondering why Miles was asking.

‘Is it serious?’

Miles wasn’t going to let this go. Her boss was a bull terrier when she sank her teeth into something, so Aisha might as well admit the truth and save them some time. ‘We were married when I was very young. We’ve recently reconnected and it’s...complicated.’

Miles opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, her lips moving in a silent ‘wow’. ‘I did not know that.’

Few people did.

‘He’s a very busy guy, but he’s taking me to Michel’s on Saturday night to see if we can find a way forward.’

Miles whistled. ‘Michel’s? You lucky thing, I waited for ever to eat there. Right, that settles it, you’re flying back Saturday afternoon.’

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