Page 5 of High-Rise Heat

Dom turns quickly, spatula in hand. “Right! Ilsa! I uh, Isaac is—”

“An old friend,” I interrupt, pulling open the fridge and grabbing the orange juice carton. “Or something of that sort. Yes, he mentioned it. You’re in Hong Kong. He’s in Hong Kong. Old buddies from—” I look over my shoulder to Isaac, raising my eyebrows in question. “College? High school?”

“Harvard Law,” Isaac answers cautiously as I squint at him. With his tossed hair and beach-bum t-shirt, I’d expect Isaac to be surfing the waves rather than standing in a courtroom pontificating.

“You’re a lawyer?”

Isaac shrugs behind his cup of coffee. “Not anymore.”

I wait for him to elaborate and when he doesn’t, I shake my head. “Okay, law school buddies, or … whatever.”

“Woah!” Dom’s eyes are wide, clearly thrown off by my aggressiveness on this topic. “Is this, uh—this isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

I close the fridge and turn to Isaac. He watches me like a hawk, hunched over his empty place setting with a completely amused look in his eyes, as if stirring things up was his god-given meaning in life.

“Of course not,” I say, turning back at Dom. “It’s just a big weekend. Negotiation. Acquisitions. Promotions on the line. But if you guys need to catch up and toss around business accolades or whatever …” I uncap the orange juice and toss it back like it’s a hard drink. “Do what you’ve got to do. You’re the boss.”

A crease wrinkles Dom’s forehead and he looks at me hard, showing off just how unhappy he is that I played the boss card. I don’t usually throw it around and he hates it when I do. We’re equals, remember. And that’s what I want to say to him. Equals, exactly! Don’t bring a wild card into our lives when I’m about to make the biggest deal of my career. Especially one that—

Isaac smiles at me like he knows what’s got me so riled up and he’d be happy to recite law terms as he shows me his favorite stress-relief secrets. Suddenly, I’m not sure what I’m more pissed about—the fact that he’s here messing up my weekend with Dom, or the fact that I’m imagining exactly how he might ruin it.

Dom on the other hand is completely at a loss for what’s just happened. I nod to his frying pan.

“Your eggs are burning.”

“Crap!” Dom scrambles to pull the eggs from the burner and I use the opportunity to walk away, marching through the open terrace door and out into the fresh air. Only, it’s already muggy outside and the air is thick and unsatisfying. The sun blankets my neck as I toss back another swig of orange juice to cool me down.

“Sorry, man,” I hear Dom mumble. I look back through the floor-to-ceiling windows and see him toss the eggs in the trash. “I didn’t think this would be a thing. Give me a minute to—”

I look back at the horizon, then lean against the glass railing and peer down the monolith of the building that we’re atop of. It would be quite the fall. I imagine it would feel like soaring: the wind through my hair, the rush, that last moment of excitement before the crash at the bottom. It makes me feel reckless and like I’ve done nothing but play it safe with Dom for the past two years.

“Ilsa, hey—” Dom says, walking up next to me and drying his hands on the skirt of his apron. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”

“Exactly!” I snap, turning to face him. “What if something goes wrong this weekend? I don’t want you distracted. I get that he’s your friend, but what if there’s something—”

Dom puts his hand on my shoulder and I’m startled by it. He’s done this a hundred times before, but right now it turns on my every nerve ending. It fills me with every doubt I could imagine: wanting his touch to mean more, but unsure it ever will. Realizing he invited his friend to crash the one weekend where this couldbemore, which can only mean he doesn’t see us as … anything.

“You’re right.” Dom nods, his thumb rubbing against the silk of my blouse. “I didn’t think. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to even show up. Everything about Isaac is unpredictable.”

My eyes flick past Dom to where Isaac is watching us through the glass. Unpredictable is an understatement.

“But yes,” Dom continues. “He’s a good friend, and … he’s here now.”

I bite back what I really want to ask, which iswhyhe would invite Isaac in the first place. But it’s not a question I can ask. Not right now. Not with the negotiation still ahead of us. I need to leave our personal feelings out of this and make sure we make this merger work. And frankly, inviting Isaac hereisthe answer in and of itself. Dom never intended for this weekend to be anything but business.

I shake my head in polite agreement, stepping back so his hand falls off my shoulder. “Of course, its fine,” I say. “I’ve overacted and I apologize.”

I drink from the juice carton to distract myself from the knot of disappointment that wrings in my gut. I can’t look at him right now. Not as this truth washes over me. Dom and I are brilliant together—but only as business colleagues. That’sallwe’ll ever be.

“I must be more nervous about this deal than I want to admit,” I say to cover my silence, pushing through the lump in my throat. “Of course your friend can be here.” I laugh forcefully, rolling my shoulders back and making myself look at him. “I just like to focus. You know that.”

“Hey, you said it yourself last night,” Dom counters, that regal confidence he effortlessly exudes sparkling in his green eyes. “We’re going to be great. Everything is planned. The only reason this deal won’t go through is ifthey’vebeen jerking us around.”

I nod, unconvinced by my own defense, and my eyes flick over his shoulder to Isaac again. Only Isaac isn’t in the kitchen anymore.

“What if there’s something we didn’t anticipate?” I ask. “Something we misjudged, or took for granted? A move we’re not expecting? What if we’re blindsided?”

“Do you trust me?”

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