Page 94 of Fierce-Matt

“Yep. I’m going to call you Kitty.”

She laughed. “Don’t you dare. Not unless you want to hear me purring again.”

He sent her a wink. “Tell me about your visit with your mom,” he said. If they didn’t talk about something else, he was going to end up throwing her over his shoulder and taking her to her room or declaring his love for her.

Earning her trust had been the first step and now that he knew he had it, the rest of him was ready to open up.

“It went well. My father was a little confused over the sale of the business. We reminded him what was going on and he got it or said he did. The papers were all signed and sent back. It kills me to have to share the commission with Calvin.”

“Your mother told you to take it, didn’t she?”

Anya sighed. “She did. I’m grateful. It’s my biggest commission check. I don’t get the full percentage, obviously. A tiny part goes to the firm, but they are making out. Since Calvin and I work for the same firm, they get that from both of us.”

“Good for them,” he said. “But sucks that it’s coming out of yours.”

“It’s part of the business. This check is almost as high as all of my commissions in the past year. It’s sad but nice. I understand why everyone is fighting for those big listings now. But I knowthis was given to me. I would have never had a shot at it if my parents didn’t own the building.”

“Rather than look at it as it was given to you, take it as a learning experience. It gets your name out there. It sounds like Sally and Paula found you impressive. I bet they spread your name around over Calvin’s to any clients or friends.”

She pursed her lips. “I didn’t think of that.”

“You should. I think you could have a great career if you cut yourself some slack and focused on your strengths.”

“I’m not asking this to boost my ego, but what do you see as my strengths?”

“I told you before that you are open and available for clients. It sounds as if you can relate more with first-time buyers. You give them attention and space to find what they are looking for when others are clamoring to get those higher listings.”

“I do,” she said. “But that is how I make less too. I have to work twice as hard to get less money. It’s fine starting out.”

“The more you sell, the more your name is out there. You’ve been doing this for over two years now, right?”

“Yes,” she said.

“And in the short time we’ve been dating, you’ve had one closing, another is in escrow that should close in a few weeks. Then your parents’ building. That sounds successful to me. You aren’t working forty hours a week at that job either, are you?”

She frowned. “No. Not even close. But I am working nights and weekends.”

“And you’re able to give your mother a hand in a trying time in their life. You’re working a second job where you’re meeting people also. I don’t suppose you network there, do you?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said. “That would be crude.”

“Not to customers at Fierce,” he said, laughing over her appalled face. “Other employees. Do they know you’re a realtor? Talk to people more. Be seen and heard.”

The woman in front of him wasn’t someone to do that in her youth.

“That’s hard for me,” she said.

“Change is hard. But anything that is worth it in life is. Unless this isn’t what you want? You asked for your strengths, and there I gave you a weakness, but it’s not really. You’re great with people. You’ve got such an ease with them at the bar, but yet other employees you can’t. Why?”

She shoved two more fries in her mouth and chewed. He wasn’t going to talk again until she answered him.

Twenty seconds went by. “It’s easier when they are strangers.”

“Did you hear what you just said? Isn’t that part of sales? It’s easier when it’s strangers, yet you don’t like putting yourself out there. You’re a wild contradiction.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Not a strength there either, huh? I think I’m afraid of failure. Of putting so much of myself into something and then not being successful. I’ve spent so much of my life comparing myself to everyone else and trying to be more like them.”

He loved she was so honest with him about that now.