Chapter 3
Saffron
My husband was a hard man to find. Well, soon-to-be ex-husband if the process server could get to him.
Tyler had been all over the country and the world according to the server, making him hard to track.
I needed this divorce. I had spent five years in a relationship with a husband who never contacted me throughout that period.
He never cared what I did with my life. We were strangers and lived separate lives.
And now that my dad had died, a clean slate was what I needed, starting with getting rid of Tyler Hawthorne.
I was no longer the self-conscious twenty-five-year-old who still had a residual crush on Tyler.
I was a grown woman with a business that, while not as successful as I wished it could be, was something I had built all on my own. Without his help or my father’s help.
Malaya came into the office, throwing her purse on her desk opposite mine and turning around to face me, arms akimbo, and I thrust Tyler to the back of my mind.
She was wearing her signature, client-luring outfit of a dark tangerine blouse that complemented her light brown skin and a tight white pencil skirt that reached slightly below the knees.
My partner only put on that fit when she was trying to snag a big fish.
It’s been a year since we’ve been official with our interior decorator business.
Malaya and I started off moonlighting while we worked at one of the prestigious interior design companies.
But we were getting so much business on the side that starting our own felt like a no-brainer.
But acquiring offices seemed to have brought a run of bad luck.
Try as we might, we were having trouble getting lucrative clients, and bills were literally piled on the desk.
My desk specifically. And as though to put a point on it, our assistant, Kayla, opened the door and handed me our electric bill. I sighed.
“What’s that?” Malaya nodded at the letter in my hand.
“We’re going to have to move to that Queens office. I don’t think we can keep up with Manhattan rates.”
Malaya folded her arms, leaning against her desk. “What if I say we don’t need to?”
“Please tell me you brought good news.”
“Well, goodish news. Remember that civil engineering friend from college I told you about? Well, he finally got me in contact with one of his architect buddies, and guess who is coming from a meeting with Hawthorne and Hawthorne?”
“Haw-Hawthorne?” Cold sweat dripped down my back.
Oh god no. Anyone but those two. Malaya had been actively networking for months to get five minutes with Hawthorne and Hawthorne.
I had let her go on this wild goose chase, assuming she would never be successful.
Hawthorne and Hawthorne were large and prestigious.
We were small potatoes. Barely small potatoes.
But if my dread was on my face, Malaya did not register it as such.
Her eyes widened with excitement. “Right! I should have told you, but Ethan caught me by surprise when he told me one of the Hawthorne brothers would be joining us. I thought I was meeting his other friend. You know, that Italian guy who’s building houses all over Staten Island.
Anyway, guess who sits down to lunch? Sebastian freaking Hawthorne.
So I gave him the same pitch I planned for Ethan’s Italian friend, and he seemed impressed.
He was impressed. He wants to work with us!
” she screamed the last sentence, jumping up at a height her three-inch pumps should not allow.
Her face fell when she finally registered my trepidation. “Well? Why aren’t you happy?”
“Did, uh… Hawthorne, Seb…”
“Sebastian. Or Seb, as he likes to be called.”
“Right. Did he give any guarantees that he would definitely be working with us?”
“Um. I see what you mean. And I get you might be a little wary, but he’s very interested. I didn’t sign a deal or anything, but all he needs is our portfolio, which I will send to him, and he’s ready to work with us.”
“Sebastian Hawthorne?”
“Right! I couldn’t believe it. Ethan has earned his date.
That was some amazing pull.” Malaya strode around her desk, sank into her chair, and opened her laptop.
“If we get this deal, we are set for years. And if we play our cards right, H&H could end up being our cash cow. Seb was talking about all the permits he got for constructing apartment and office buildings. It’s insane how much building they’re doing. ”
“Sebastian said it’s a deal?”
Malaya looked up from her laptop. “You… don’t look happy?”
“What? I’m happy! This is amazing!” My too high-pitched voice failed to convince her.
“Saff. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” Fuck. I could not get myself to sound normal and not like a hysterical harpy.
Malaya frowned. “What have you heard? H&H is a good company, right? They don’t have skeletons in their walk-in closets or anything?”
“I-it’s not that.”
Malaya crossed her arms. “Then?”
I took a deep breath, trying to think of how I could explain that I wanted to work with anyone else other than the Hawthornes without telling her about my connection to them. “The Hawthornes are ruthless businessmen. Remember what they did to Astoria Crown?”
“Well, that was typical business competition. I mean, it’s a dog-eat-dog world. And Astoria kinda deserved it.”
“They destroyed a company that had been around for one hundred and fifty years in a couple of years. And what about Sterling and Vale? They basically stole all of their best employees.”
Malaya side-eyed me. “I didn’t know you cared that much about old New York real estate companies.”
“They’re too ruthless for my taste.”
“Too ruthless for your taste.” She said the words slowly, as though trying to interpret them.
“If you know something about them, I will drop H&H like a hot rock. It would suck, but if it’s some serious rich people’s shit, I will let the deal go.
You rich people have like a tight network and only share info amongst each other. ”
I rolled my eyes. “I am no longer rich, and my family was never that rich.”
“Yeah, yeah. You were a hundredth and not a straight-up billionaire before your father torched your inheritance. But you know what I mean.”
I sighed, wishing I had a better excuse than the one I had. “They don’t have skeletons. At least none that I am aware of.”
“But?”
She was not letting this go, was she? And was there any harm in working with them?
This was a big break for us, and we needed clients badly.
Our last big client bilked us on the last payment, and we ended up getting half of the original quote because he didn’t like the color scheme.
The color scheme he chose, mind you. Then there were the bills.
And the possible relocation to Queens. There was no way I was moving there.
Yes, it would be cheaper, but so would be the clientele.
“You’re right. There’s nothing wrong with them. I simply didn’t anticipate getting good news, you know. I’m probably freaking out."
“Oh, Saff. I get your point. I didn’t believe it was him at first. I thought Ethan was fucking around with me, but the longer I spoke to Seb, the realer it got. Aaaah! I can’t believe it! We need to celebrate.”
“Sure.” I wanted to do anything but that.
That night, Malaya, Kayla, and I visited the most expensive bar on the block and ordered our favorite cocktails.
The cool bar, styled like the inside of a wine barrel, was full, and yet the service was swift.
I swiped the company card with one eye closed after we ordered, wincing when the swipe machine jammed and breathing a sigh of relief when the card was accepted.
That was probably the last substantial cash left in our account.
After Malaya sent Sebastian our portfolio, he had promptly responded in the affirmative.
He made no mention of me, which I am sure he would have since I was married to his brother and all.
Surely, he must have done a Google search.
But maybe he didn’t think it mattered. Even though we were married, the last time I saw my husband was on that fateful night.
We existed as though we were single people.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Malaya said over the hubbub of the crowded bar, dragging me out of my musings.
She knocked on the wooden round table. The red cocktail in her glass was almost empty, whilst mine was still full.
Kayla was looking at me expectantly, her eyes bright with her third cocktail. Had they asked me a question?
I flashed a tight smile. “Nothing.”
“She’s been like this ever since I announced the H&H deal,” Malaya said to Kayla. “She doesn’t like the deal.”
“I love the deal!” I jumped in. “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us since… ever!”
“But she isn’t fond of the Hawthornes,” Malaya said again to Kayla.
“Ooooh. Do you think something happened between her and one of the brothers?” For an assistant who acted clueless sometimes, the twenty-something brunette was incredibly perceptive.
Malaya nodded. “I think our girl here dated one of them and doesn’t want to talk about it.”
I groaned. “I went to school with them.”
Malaya and Kayla gave each other conspiratorial looks.
“Which one?” Malaya said.
“Both. They’re a year apart. I know Tyler best.”
Kayla and Malaya exchanged a glance again.
“Oh, come on,” I rolled my eyes. “Stop looking at each other like that.”
“See. I told you all rich people are like one degree separate from each other,” Malaya said to Kayla.
“You know I am here, right?”
Kayla took a sip of her drink. “So you went to school together…”
“And,” I sighed. Their minds had already raced to filthy lanes, so I might as well give the two a bone. “And I had a crush on Tyler Hawthorne.”
Malaya’s eyes widened.
“He was like several grades ahead of me, and nothing happened between us.” At least not in high school.
“Anyway. I sent him a letter. Like an actual letter asking him to prom, and he said no in the worst way possible.” The day flashed in my mind as if it were yesterday.
The hope, the fear, the final courage to do it, and the humiliation.
“Well, don’t leave us hanging.”
“So I wrote a letter to him. A love letter basically telling him I had a crush on him, and I put it in his locker. Come assembly time, which was held weekly, he and his friends were doing a presentation. Part of that presentation was reading love letters written between people asking each other to prom. It was a time-honored tradition at our school. But guess whose letter magically ended up in the pile?”
Kayla gasped. “No!” She clutched her neck like an overdramatic Southern belle, temporarily betraying the country roots she desperately tried to hide.
“His friend took the letter from him and read it to the entire school. And he didn’t stop him or try to play it off. He had the audacity to be angry with me.”
Malaya held her hand to her chest. “Aw, Saff. Maybe he was nervous too. He was a kid as well.”
“That would have been fine if his friend hadn’t asked him whether he would go out with me or not, and he had not responded with, ‘I don’t fuck around with stalk-legged freaks.’ His exact words, by the way. And after that, no one called me Saffron anymore. I was Stalky until I finished high school.”
Kayla held out her hand and took mine in hers. Malaya frowned. “Weren’t you popular in high school?”
“It took me years to rebuild my reputation, but the name Stalky stuck. By senior year, I had reclaimed it as a badge of honor, but the pain of being reminded of that was still raw.”
“Damn, no wonder you hate the guy,” Malaya said, “but it’s not him we will be dealing with. We’ll be working with his brother.”
“Yeah, but Tyler is the other H in H and H,” Kayla stressed. “We will have to deal with his snotty ass at some point.”
“Right.” Malaya took a sip of her drink, staring off into the distance. “Seb was so nice, though. A gentleman through and through. Is he different from his brother, or was that a mask he put on?”
I shrugged. I never paid much attention to Sebastian or any of Tyler’s six siblings.
My eyes were always on him, and after we got married, I never saw him or anyone with the last name Hawthorne.
Even in my modeling days, I avoided contracts that had to do with the domineering Hawthorne Corp.
They had a chokehold on the fashion industry, and working for them meant doors would be open to you, and still, I avoided them like the plague.
I did not want to be as indebted to them as I already was.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t work with them,” Malaya added. “Even if they were mean boys in the past.”
Kayla nodded, her hands back on her cocktail glass. “Yeah. It’s not like we have a choice. You guys are knee-deep in bills.”
Malaya snorted. “What do you mean, you guys? You’re one of us.”
“Last I checked, I was only an employee. And even though I am employee number one, it doesn’t mean I am a partner, unless?” She leaned in closer, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Unless what? Employee number one?” Malaya scoffed. “You mean employee only one.”
“Hey! Have more faith in your business. After this deal, y’all will be on a hiring spree.”
“Amen to that,” Malaya raised her glass for a cheer.
Kayla enthusiastically clinked hers with Malaya’s while I gave a tentative tap to each of their glasses.
I was still thinking about how I was going to tell them my story with Tyler didn’t end there.
How were they going to react when they found out I married the guy?
I will tell them tomorrow. There was no use dampening their celebratory mood now.