Unable to fully hide the faint edge to her tone, Miri said, “I apologize, but I’m going to need you to clarify. Are you asking me to come up with a new menu right now?”
He nodded impatiently. “It appears I was crystal clear. What you’ve got now is basic and has nothing to do with your theme.”
Miri pressed back. “I won’t argue those points. It was a sacrifice I felt was warranted considering our time constraints.”
With a dismissive snort, Mr. Silver waved her words away like so many excuses. “I don’t care what your reasons were. I told you to do better.”
Miri’s mouth dropped open.
The man was out of his mind and mad with power. It was the only explanation—for any element of her day, honestly, from the unrequested flight to the fancy desktop, to this right now.
How dare he speak to her like a child?
Like he was some kind of mentor pressuring her into higher performance.
And this was after all of his comments about her cardigan.
Thank God they were only meeting for two hours. And that she had a night with her closest friends to look forward to when it was all over.
He’s been complimentary of the concept thus far, a timid internal voice offered.
Miriam stamped that voice out.
The last thing this man needed was someone inside her head making excuses for him.
Autocratic, bad-mannered, out of touch, toxic man... Her mental litany continued as she forced her face into a smile.
“Why certainly, Mr. Silver. Recalling that the theme is Secret Garden, we should obviously have a menu built around lush produce prepared simply with fresh herbs, botanical cocktails, and desserts inspired by the overflowing bounty of a summer garden, throwing in honey berry drizzles and edible flowers here and there throughout it all for the whimsy. Is that more along the lines of what you were thinking?” She said it all brightly, but the flat tone of her voice said exactly what she thought.
She thought he was being outrageous. Everything about him.
His demands, his mountain fortress, his power, his ability to make her forget that everything depended on making a good impression with him and instead respond with a more authentic version of herself—all of it.
Without his cooperation, there was no way she would keep her job. Without her job, the only place she had to go was back home. Pride had pushed her to stay in her car the two weeks immediately after graduation rather than go back to her family home before she’d gotten her apartment, but she knew she didn’t have enough pride for a second round of that.
She would rather do whatever it took to keep her apartment and the new job she was already in love with.
She wanted those things more than she was interested in chasing any wild thoughts she might be inclined to think about Mr. Benjamin Silver.
He might be good-looking and have a great voice, but he also lived on a different planet from the one she inhabited. He was entirely out of her league—both because of the foundation and because of his wealth.
He was not a man she could afford to be a more authentic version of herself with.
He was a man she had to be the sharpest, most impressive version of herself with.
He held her gaze for a moment silently, his clear blue eyes dancing with a light that could have been temper or humor.
It flashed through her mind that under different circumstances, she wouldn’t have minded knowing him well enough to know the difference.
Then he smiled, slowly, one corner of his mouth lifting at a time, offering Miri a glimpse of his straight white teeth, and she had her answer: humor.
Even as she attempted to shore up the foundation of her professionalism, his grinning eyes promised he could handle a little pushback.
“Exactly,” he said. “Much better, Ms. Howard.” He continued to grin as he elongated the Ms. in a way that could only be interpreted as insolence. “That’s much more in alignment with the event you’ve put together thus far.”
“I’ll update it accordingly, sir,” she said, exhaling through flared nostrils with irritation even as a part of her was pleased at what was ultimately a show of real buy-in to her plan.
Here again was the contrary sense of humor that she had encountered on the phone.