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“If we can get in early enough,” I told her, pointing at one of the graphs, “we can make sure any competitors start off on the back foot. And if we play our cards right, they’ll never come close to us in profit.”

Mia nodded her agreement. “There are a lot of risks here, though,” she countered, her keen eyes picking up the smallest issues with ease. As usual. “The economy is still recovering from their recent recession, so we’d have to tread carefully investment-wise.”

She scrolled a little further and pointed at another statistic. “See here? More than twenty percent of the country’s population exists under the poverty line, so we’d be looking at a rich market, rather than a large one.”

“I see what you mean,” I said. “Data aside, how doyouthink our company would fare there?”

“You mean from a general public standpoint?”

I nodded.

“There’s a huge gaming community that could very likely do with content that is curated for them specifically. I’d probably suggest hiring a Brazilian marketing team to handle that aspect. And we’d need an inclusive development team as well.”

I made a mental note of her suggestions, to contact the relevant people quickly to make sure the risks she’d identified would be minimized as much as possible.

“But it’d be so amazing to open up a global branch in Brazil,” she said finally, her eyes shining with real excitement.

“Thanks,” I said, taking my laptop back. “I’m glad you feel that way about it, too.”

With a smile, she went back to her laptop.

It was so easy with Mia around.

“Mom, for the hundredth time, no.”

“But Daniella is visiting the city soon,” my mother whined. “You could at least meet with her. It’s the least you could do.”

I bit down on my tonguehardto keep from retorting and pulled the phone away from my ear for a second to compose myself.

“I don’t owe her anything,” I said, glancing up as Mia walked in with our coffee order.

Like a bell in my head, I remembered and grinned wide.

“Besides,” I added, not bothering to keep the snark out of my words, “I’m married.”

Mia’s knee connected with the bottom of my desk with a solidthudand she swore under her breath.

“Married?” my mother parroted as if she hadn’t heard me the first time.

“That’s right,” I said, getting to my feet to check on Mia, who’d bent over her injured knee to keep from making a sound. She waved me off with watery eyes and I sighed.

“Who did you marry?” my mother asked, her voice saccharine and inquisitive. “Why haven’t I heard about it? I didn’t even know you were dating anyone!”

“What can I say?” I chuckled. “When something is right, why waste time?”

Mia lifted her eyes to mine, her brows pulled tight in confusion. I covered the microphone and mouthed, “It’s my mother” and she nodded quickly.

“I’m so happy for you! I’ll definitely have to visit soon to meet your new bride!”

She hung up after that and I blew out a breath, glancing at Mia again.

“Everything okay?” she asked, absently rubbing the knee she’d hurt.

“I have a really bad feeling about this.”

Chapter 9

A Short Walk Down The Aisle