Page 93 of Chloé

“Oh yes,” she quickly said. “Of course. It’s just… They offered me an opportunity, and I want to talk to you both about it.”

Ethan relaxed back into his seat and stretched his arm along the back of the chair. “That sounds exciting. What kind of opportunity?”

Chloé swallowed, a sudden flurry of nerves twisting in her stomach. “They want me to run JULIEN.”

“Holy shit, Red. That’s fucking amazing.”

Zayne’s exuberance was contagious, and Chloé found herself laughing. “It is, yeah. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“But…” Ethan eyed her closely, always seeming to sense when there was something behind the silence.

“Butthey don’t mean JULIEN here in Chicago.”

Zayne’s confusion was obvious, but Ethan cleared it up for him real quick.

“Paris.”

Chloé nodded, and Zayne’s jaw all but fell in his lap.

“They want you to go toParis? For how long?”

“Um…” Chloé turned her attention to Zayne, very aware that Ethan had yet to react. “As long as I want. I’d be running it.”

“Wow…”

She chanced a look back in Ethan’s direction to see him studying her with the same serious expression from minutes ago.

“I haven’t given them an answer yet. I wanted to speak to you both first.”

“Thank you,” Ethan finally said, his expression softening. “That’s a wonderful opportunity.”

“It is, but… I don’t know. It’s such a big move.”

“It is.”

“And I’m finally settled in here with you two, and my family is here. I just had an amazing debut in the Chicago food scene, and now what? I’m just going to up and leave it all?”

“Uh, first up,” Zayne said. “You aren’t leavin’ us. If you go, we go. So you can cross that right off your list of worries.”

Ethan smirked. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Chloé looked between the two of them, hardly believing what she’d just heard. “Be serious.”

“We are being serious.”

“You’d just up and move to Paris for me? No questions asked?”

Ethan looked at Zayne, then they both turned back to her with a smile. “Sure, why not?”

“Whynot?” Chloé dropped her face in her hands and shook her head. “Ugh. That just brings on a wholeotherround of stress.”

“It does?” Zayne said.

“Yes. I can’t ask you to move countries. You have a business here—”

Ethan shrugged. “We have a businessthere.”

“That’s not what I mean. You have an enormous company you run from here.”

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