Chapter 5
GRIFFIN
“You’re awfully quiet today,” Chase said after we’d finished discussing marketing ideas for the other business we’d started together: a winery in Napa Valley. We’d decided on it after careful research, and I was enjoying setting up a new business with my brothers.
“How did your meeting about the dating app go?” Wyatt asked.
“Not well,” I said. I wasn’t used to admitting defeat. Although, I wasn’t yet considering this a lost cause.
“He wasn’t looking for an investor after all?” Duncan asked. “That sucks.”
“No, he is. He just doesn’t think I’m a good fit.”
“That’s insane,” Wyatt said. I liked his confidence in me. “Did he give you a reason?”
“He feels that I’m not taking his mission statement seriously.”
Wyatt stared at me. “Who takes any of those things seriously?”
“Apparently, he does. His dating platform is for people finding soulmates,” I said. It truly felt like it was a foreign term for me.
Knox and Finn started to laugh at the same time. Knox stopped first. “Wait, you’re serious.”
I nodded.
Finn cocked a brow. “Dude, you know what? Maybe it’s a good thing, and you dodged a bullet. I mean, you’d have a hard time getting him to push this on a younger generation.”
“Exactly,” I said. “But I’m not giving up. I just need better arguments.”
“Or to start believing that mission statement is really how he feels. Who knows, maybe it’ll help you find a… what was that? Soulmate,” Finn teased.
“Ha ha,” I replied, but I wasn’t amused.
I’d stalked Jude’s website some more last night.
From the outside, it was impossible to know if people joined it for a hookup or something more serious.
But Jude didn’t strike me as a liar. “He also said that he doesn’t like that I’m constantly dating other women. ”
Chase groaned. “Man, I told you it would come back to bite you in the ass. You have to be more discreet.”
I leaned back in my chair and shrugged. “I thought I was. I figured you only knew stuff because you’re my brothers. I don’t understand how he knows anything.”
“Well…,” Knox said.
I cocked a brow at him. “What?”
“We don’t live in the Stone Age. There are plenty of pics with you and hotties online. And people talk.”
“Yeah, I get your point. But he could have just told me he’s not interested when I set up the meeting instead of wasting my time at The Loft.”
What I did in my personal life didn’t affect anyone. I couldn’t understand how it could cost me a business deal. But I was determined not to let that happen. I just had to focus and find a better angle, then meet with Jude again.
“At least he chose a good spot for the meeting,” Knox said.
Finn scoffed. “That’s not a good spot. That’s just where everyone wants to be seen these days. Though apparently they do have great food.”
“I didn’t eat anything,” I said. “I just went to the bar, where I pretended to be someone’s date.”
The room went completely silent. Then, for the second time today, Knox started laughing. “That sounds like something I would do.”
“Or me,” Finn added. “Don’t try to hog all the credit.”
“Credit for what? Being the hothead in the family?” Knox asked.
Finn nodded. “Precisely.”
“You can be a hothead,” Wyatt said. “But this is too out there, even for you, Griffin.”
“It is,” I admitted. I had no idea what had gotten into me.
It was just an impulse, an instinct, and I followed it.
And then while I was at the table with her and her ex, all I’d wanted was to punch that idiot out of The Loft.
I could feel her shrinking next to me every time he spoke.
After he’d left, she’d completely relaxed.
It had taken all of my self-restraint not to flirt with her.
It was second nature to me, and I’d been so attracted to her that I could barely think straight.
But that was the last thing she’d needed, so I’d left as soon as possible.
If I’d stayed even one more minute, I would have asked her out. I was sure of it.
And asking her out would have been bad for both of us because she was obviously looking for marriage, and I was certainly not.
“What exactly happened?” Duncan asked.
I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. But I could use your help brainstorming ways to win over Jude.”
“Come on, man. Throw us a bone,” Finn said.
“Yeah. We never pictured that you could be as impulsive as us,” Knox added, pointing at himself, then Finn. “But I see you’ve got potential.”
They weren’t going to let this go, so I told them everything.
Once I finished talking, Duncan and Chase exchanged a glance but said nothing, which was worrisome.
“Now, can we go back to brainstorming about the best way to tackle Jude?” I asked.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea. You said this Phoebe woman was game for faking things, right?” Knox asked.
“I think she was just blindsided but went along with it. According to her friend, she’d suggested it to her earlier in the day, and it just worked out that I was there.”
“Why don’t you ask her to pretend to be your date for a change?”
I just stared at him.
“That’s the shittiest idea I’ve ever heard,” Chase said.
“Well, that’s what I would do,” Knox replied.
“Yeah, hence why it’s not the best idea,” Wyatt said in a warning tone. Between the two of us, Wyatt was more rational. But even though I could be impulsive, this was insane.
Still, it was taking root in my mind.
Damn. No. It’s a crazy idea.
“I’m getting under your skin,” Knox continued. “I can’t believe it.”
Finn laughed. “Nah, he’s far too… what was the word? Cerebral to do this.”
“He’d better be,” Duncan said.
I groaned. “Brother, please don’t warn me off.”
Chase set his jaw. “Maybe you should take us more seriously. We did tell you that your womanizing reputation might get in your way when doing business. This could bite you in the ass too. Pretty badly.”
“I haven’t even said two words.”
“No, but you look like you don’t hate the idea,” Wyatt said.
“No offense, but I don’t think you could pull it off.
I certainly could, and so could these two.
” He pointed at Knox and Finn. “But you are like these two.” He jerked his thumb at Chase and Duncan.
“You couldn’t keep up a farce to save your life. ”
Chase cleared his throat. “I’ll remind you that I did manage, sort of.”
A while ago, he’d set up a shell company to be an investor because his then-girlfriend and now-fiancée, Hannah, needed funds for her inn, but she didn’t want to take money from him.
“As I recall, it backfired spectacularly,” I said. “Luckily, Hannah was quick to forgive you.”
“Yeah, if anything, that’s a cautionary tale,” Finn said. “So maybe don’t bring it up.”
“Anyone else have ideas? Something I can actually use?” I asked.
Duncan narrowed his eyes. “His concern is that you don’t have the same vision for the business. I’d focus on understanding his point of view… and that mission statement.”
Even though I’d ridiculed it, I knew Duncan was right.
“That’s a good starting point, brother. Thanks.” I looked around at the rest of them. “Anyone else want to add something?”
“Nah, I’m still stuck on you pretending to be someone’s date,” Wyatt said.
Knox and Finn just laughed. Chase shook his head, but he was smiling.
Yeah, these bozos weren’t going to be of any more help today.
The meeting ended a few minutes later, and I headed to my office.
I’d rented floor space three blocks away.
My team was small—only ten people—and they were in charge of keeping me up to date with the latest goings-on in my portfolio of companies.
They also did the bulk of the research for any new investments.
My mind was on Jude Carson, however.
My instincts told me that this would be a great venture, and I never ignored my gut.
Some of the most profitable deals in my career were because I’d followed my instincts when others pulled back because the numbers weren’t spectacular.
Sometimes, a business deal was more than just numbers and projections.
I liked to say that I invested in people, but that wasn’t the case here. Jude and I hadn’t clicked at all. For now, though, I had other business to tend to. I pushed the issue to the back of my mind and checked the agenda for today, then dove right in.
I spent the better part of the day in back-to-back meetings. I liked my job, but Mondays could be draining.
Toward the end of the day, my mind circled back to Jude. What had he heard or seen about me that made him so adamant that I wasn’t a good fit?
I rarely looked myself up online, although I did have an alert to notify me if my name ever popped up in articles.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen any of those notifications in a while, which could only mean one thing—they’d landed in spam. I opened my email and checked the spam folder. It was empty, but that didn’t mean much; spam emails were deleted after a set period of time.
Next, I opened the website for the notification tracker. Sure enough, there were plenty of entries with my name—most regarding business, but some from the places I frequented. I’d even been tagged the evening before on Instagram. It was a benign pic of me at the bar.
The caption said The Loft: a place where everything happens, from business meetings to pleasure and everything in between. What do you think this hunk was doing here? Let us know in the comments.
Whoever was running their social media was an amateur.
I was about to close the app when a comment caught my attention. The user was @PhoebePointT.
Maybe he was looking for a social media manager.
I burst out laughing.
Damn, I liked her sense of humor. Clearly, she was as unimpressed with the post as I was.
I clicked on her profile. She only had a picture of a glass of wine and what looked like a complete teardown of a home in the background.