Page 13

“The…real…reason?” I slid a finger between my neck and collar.

“Yes, but don’t worry. The fact you’re claustrophobic will stay just between us,” she lowered her voice and winked.

“Claus—?” I scowled at Pearl. Now she was in big trouble. The first phone call I’d make today would be to Mom to beg her to let me fire her.

“In fact, you should come down for lunchtoday.I have a pastrami sandwich on special.” Chelsea’s words went right to my stomach, and it growled.

“Ooh, Rex loves a good pastrami, don’t ya?” Pearl’s irritating grin showed way too many teeth, getting too much satisfaction out of this conversation.

“As good as the next New Yorker, I suppose.” I smirked.

“Then you must be sure to try mine. I make it extra special. This is not your ordinary sandwich. Oh, I have to go. Duty calls. See you soon.” Chelsea wiggled her fingers in the air and off she went, to clear one of the tables.

“Claustrophobia?” I raised a brow at Pearl.

“What? It’s creative, don’t you think? I was pretty sure you wouldn’t want her to know why youreallyhate this deli, especially when she asked if you ever venture out for lunch…” Very few people knew my reasons, and that was exactly the way I preferred it. “Among other questions she had about you.”

“Questions about me? Like what?”

“Just girl talk. Sounds to me like you two should get more acquainted.” She took her phone out of her pocket and pulled up what looked like my schedule, and poised her finger, ready to type. “Shall I put in for a lunch date with Chelsea over the special of the day?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Okay then. You’re free for drinks next Tuesday after work.”

“Shut it, Pearl. I’m not dating Chelsea.”

“Why not? She’s a beautiful woman, plus she knows her way around a kitchen. You’d never go hungry.”

Because I couldn’t see dating her and crushing her spirit at the same time; that would never work. Besides, I didn’t date. I fucked around when it suited my purposes. I had my playboy reputation to live up to. “Enough. Don’t you have work to do upstairs?”

“Yep. Especially since your mother is on her way to meet with you shortly.”

I groaned, slapping my face and dragging my hand down my cheek. “You’re just now reminding me?” But she didn’t hear while heading back to her table to finish eating her lunch.

“Shit.” Now I had no choice but to enter the building through the front lobby. I stood there and peered at the front entrance, trying to imagine the glass dome Archer had designed. It’d be magnificent when complete.

Of course, that all depended upon getting Miriam Buchanan-Astor on my side with this plan. Almost likeselling my soul to the devil, I wondered what Mom would make me agree to do to make that happen. Date a daughter of a friend of hers? Hell, even marry?

9

MOTHER’S WISHES

REX

Yep,I was right. Mom wasn’t interested at all in my new ideas for the building. In my office, she waved off the model of the lobby without a care for the time Brooks and Archer had poured into making it.

After unveiling my plan to remodel the lobby of the building to include shops and eateries, the best Manhattan could offer, something I figured would appeal to her ego and elevate her status among her society friends even more, she wouldn’t hear of it.

“This was Patrick’s first building, and I met him while it was being built,” she recalled with a faraway look on her face, which hardly showed a wrinkle since she could afford the best in plastic surgery. “I’ll not have you deface it. Every time I’m here, I remember when we dated, and he…he…”

“He took you to the rooftop the day the building was complete for a candlelight dinner and proposed to you.” I filled in for her. Her tears started, and I held out atissue from a box on my credenza. “I know, Mom. I’ve heard the story a million times. But it’s just a building that needs updating. Your memories will stay intact.”

She dabbed at her nose, making her huge diamond ring dazzle in the office light. Then she donned a steely gaze. “We may have had you and Richard late in life, but we were a family and shared so many good times. How can you be disrespectful and even think of changing what your father built?”

My jaw set. She was making this too personal when it was just good business. I took off my jacket, laying it over the back of my chair and countered, “I’min control of the business now. You know I don’t really need your approval.”

“Oh, but in your heart, you know you do, which is why you’re showing me these plans today,” she seethed, squinting her hooded gray eyes at me with her heavily penciled brows scrunched. I swallowed hard but continued my own threats.