14. Marcus
Chapter fourteen
Marcus
Leaning on the doorless divide between the main part of the bar and the back rooms, I take in the event. The usual moody 70s vibe is nowhere to be found. Instead, it’s been replaced by romance. Red metallic fringe hangs in front of all the glass window walls at the entrance to the bar. It’s nearly one in the afternoon, but the streamers covering the windows create a deep red glow in the room. The usual red shades over the lights only enhance it.
Red heart balloons hang mid-air. How the hell did Brooke get them to do that? A row of cocktails lines the edge of the bar. Lexy created a special drink for the morning. I assumed it would be mimosas, but the deep shade of red tells me it might be a liquor drink.
Five giant black rectangle cushions form a circle on the floor. They’re big enough for three women to either sit on or lay across–a few girls immediately made themselves comfortable on their stomachs, feet kicked up in the air, chins propped up by their fists. There are more people than there is room for on the giant pillows, but no one seems to mind. Everyone invades the personal space of their friends and acts like the ones they met today are lifelong buddies. There must be at least 50 women here, if not more.
Brooke sits criss-crossed in black athletic shorts and an oversized white sweatshirt. The black lettering on the front says “here for the” in cursive along the edge of a block letter “B.” Avery had them made for the four of them. I can’t hear Brooke from where I’m standing, but I can tell she addresses the group with enthusiasm. She looks comfortable and happy–so much so that I silently excuse myself and retreat to my office.
I could leave the building. I’m not needed. I’m sure she will give me a full report when the event is over. I stay anyway.
An hour later, a light rapping against the doorframe startles me from the book I’m reading.
“Hey, there, boss.”
Fucking hell. There’s that word again. Everyone who works for me at the bar has known me since before I owned it. They call me by my name. Everyone I do business with initially addresses me as Mr. Cole until I convince them Marcus is fine. Brooke is the first person who has actually felt like an employee, but even so, that’s not exactly what she feels like.
And the way boss rolls off her tongue so smoothly, I don’t mind the name. I shake my head and bring myself back to the moment before my thoughts stray to another place where I’d like to be in charge of her.
“Hello.” Picking up my bookmark from the desk, I slide it in place.
“Here, I brought you these.” She holds out a plate with a crepe and a rocks glass filled with red liquid.
I take them from her, examining both. The thin golden pancake is perfectly folded into a triangle with a layer of Nutella inside and sliced strawberries shaped into a heart on the top. It’s sprinkled with crushed nuts and a dollop of whipped cream. “Thank you,” I say, my gaze flitting to her only momentarily before they are on the drink. As I bring it to my lips, I notice the silver glitter swirling in the liquid and frown, my brows scrunching as I send Brooke a look.
She laughs. “It’s edible glitter. I promise. I wouldn’t poison you. If I did, who would pay me for this kick-ass event?”
A smirk slips out, but I wipe it off my face. I set the drink on the desk, still not trusting a drink that sparkles. “How is everything going?”
“Perfect,” she says, moving a step closer to me in the process. The bare skin on her knee nearly brushes my thigh, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “There are 52 people here! If my math is correct, our cut alone is enough to cover the included drink for everyone and enough profit to cover all the decorations–that are reusable by the way–and marketing we did. It’s impressive considering I’ve only been advertising for about a week and a half. I think even more people will come next Wednesday. Everyone is having so much fun.”
Her animated rambling brings her closer to me and when our legs touch, her excitement cracks me. I lick my lip, biting it to hold back a grin, but it’s no use. She’s contagious. “Sounds like you are having fun.” That fact makes me way happier than it should.
“I really am.” Her hand lands on my shoulder, and my eyes flick to it on contact. She pulls away immediately like she thinks it was a mistake and steps back to create distance between us. “Thank you again for this.”
“I should be the one thanking you. Sounds like this might be better than I even hoped.” I wonder if she’s ever considered running her own business. She seems to have the talent for it, and it’s hot as hell.
She smiles softly, her eyes flitting to the floor like she’s shy all of a sudden. Or maybe she just doesn’t know how to take the compliment. In the next instant, she pulls her wrist to her line of sight, staring at the screen of her watch. Her chest visibly heaves with a deep breath and she closes her eyes.
“What is it?”
“Just Satan, herself.”
“Satan is a woman?” I quirk a brow.
“My mother.” She sighs, pulling her phone from where it’s tucked into the band of her shorts, showing a sliver of stomach when she does. My body tenses seemingly everywhere but my heartbeat which is running like a wild horse. For fuck’s sake, I need to get laid or something. She reads the full text on her phone. “She wants more details about my homecoming.”
“To Connecticut?”
“Yeah.”
Oh. For some reason, my stomach drops, and I reach for a stray pen on the desk, flipping it in my fingers–a habit I picked up from Troy. “That’s far.”
“I haven’t been back in three years.”
A blonde ponytail swings into the office, attached to Lexy wearing a sweater matching Brooke’s along with a pair of cut-off jean shorts. “Ugh. Your mom again?”
Brooke turns to her and nods. “She’s driving me nuts about visiting.”
“Didn’t you tell her you have a ticket already?”
“She’s throwing a fit about it being a two-way ticket. I’m actually surprised that Beau sprung for a round-trip. ”
“Round-trip and no first class. How confusing,” Lexy says, and I’m definitely confused.
I’m too curious to bite my tongue. “What is going on?”
Brooke starts to speak, but Lexy cuts her off. “Brooke’s waste of space ex thinks he can blackmail her to come back.”
To him or to Connecticut, I wonder. “Sounds like someone with an ulterior motive.”
“Always.” Brooke groans, and I’m even more confused.
“So, you let him buy you a ticket . . . why?” I’m taken aback by my uncharacteristic nosiness. Fucking hell, I need to stay out of it.
“Trust me. It was easier this way. Plus it gets my mom off my back.”
I’m not quite following her logic, but it seems to make sense to her.
“Hopefully she’ll be satisfied once she sees you. Then let you go without a fuss because you just got here, and I’m not ready to lose you yet,” Lexy whines.
That makes two of us.
“Doubtful, but maybe. It’s so draining just thinking about going. The entire trip all she’s going to do is force me toward Beau. Or try to set me up with some other snobby rich guy from the country club.” Seriously, what does she have against rich guys?
“Ugh, I’m sorry, babe. Can’t you tell her you have a boyfriend?”
“She’ll know I’m lying. She might be awful, but she’s still my mom. She knows me that well. I’d need too good of a story.”
Lexy searches the ceiling as if it’ll give her an idea, the two of them having a conversation like I’m not here at all. She snaps her fingers. “I’ve got it. ”
“I’m listening.” Brooke chuckles, but it’s sad.
“The book we picked for next week.”
“What about it?”
“It’s fake dating.”
“Yeah . . .”
“That’s the solution.”
“Ha. Yeah, let me just find some guy in the next week and ask him to pretend to be in a relationship with me on the other side of the country. No flaws at all with that idea.”
Narrowing her eyes and biting into her lip in concentration, Lexy focuses as if it’s enough to create said man out of thin air. Another snap of her fingers. “Marcus.”
“What?” I drop into the conversation.
“No. You’re the answer.”
“Excuse me?” I say at the same time Brooke laughs.
“Yes! This is perfect. You already know he’s not a creeper. He’s a great people person.”
This time I’m the one to laugh.
“Okay, well maybe you don’t like it, but you’re good at it when you have to be. And when you’re around people you’re comfortable with. And I mean, Brooke is your employee, soooooo.”
“He’s known me for two months–if that. It’s not like we’re best friends. I know nothing about him besides the color of his sheets and how he likes his coffee.”
“She is my employee,” I chime in, attempting to clarify it as a reason why this would make it a worse idea instead of better.
“Two very important things a girlfriend would know.” Lexy winks, ignoring my statement altogether. “Marcus, come on. You need a vacation. You’re long overdue. Plus, I don’t want to feel guilty when Troy and I take an extra long honeymoon. This will make me feel better.”
“I already assured both of you about taking time off, Lexy. But I can’t do this. I don’t have the time,” I say, on edge that she put me in this situation I can’t be in.
Lexy shoots me a glare before softening for Brooke. “Don’t worry, girl. We’ll come up with something.”
Brooke reveals her signature half-smile, full of equal parts hope and doubt, and some stupid fucking invisible string tugs on me. Fuck. I’m not ready for her to leave. I am overdue for a vacation. “Troy has been bugging me about taking a vacation.”
Both girls’ eyes snap to me. “What?” they say in unison and shock. Fucking hell. I hardly registered saying the thought aloud.
I let my justifications race through my mind before committing. It won’t be during the fall colors, but a hike on the East Coast would be great if we could get away from her family. I don’t mind Brooke’s company. A few days hanging with her wouldn’t be bad.
“Connecticut. I need a vacation,” I confirm, praying panic isn’t laced through my voice.
“Trust me,” Brooke says. “This would be anything but a vacation. My mother is not easy to convince or deal with in general.”
Lexy waves her hand in front of Brooke’s face as if she could physically swat away her argument. “Marcus can handle it. Can’t you, Marcus?” I run through the points of contention. I’m her boss. She’s one of Maci’s best friends. If we’re in a situation where I should be touching her, how the hell will I ever go back to not touching her? This is a terrible idea .
With both the girls’ eyes on me, Brooke can’t see the smirk on Lexy’s. The little devil knows exactly what she’s doing. The question is, is it her own game? Or one based on a previous conversation? This is a disaster waiting to happen. But it has been a while since I’ve had a good challenge. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
Ignoring me, Brooke asks, “What about your work? Your non-bar work?” Panic fills her voice as if she can feel her excuses slipping away. “It would probably make more sense for you to go on vacation when I can be here to do things for you.”
I pull my phone from the front pocket of my jeans and open the calendar. Scrolling through the next few weeks, I’m surprised by the flexibility in them. “Charlotte and Emma are in production for the next few weeks, so we can’t do much there. I only have one meeting that I can’t reschedule. The rest I can check on remotely.”
Lexy’s eyes widen. If she’s shocked by my willingness to rearrange my schedule, that makes two of us.
“Oh. Okay. Well . . . if you’re sure you don’t mind. You heard the part about having to pretend to be my boyfriend, right?”
“I heard.”
“So . . . you’ll have to act like we’re in a relationship.”
“That is what being a boyfriend means.”
“You might have to . . . I don’t know. Kiss me or something.”
“Believe it or not, I do know how to do that.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Well, I guess we’ve been working well together already. Just a different kind of work.”
“It won’t be work,” I assure her .
“Oh. Okay. Sure.” She stumbles over her words and her face flushes in a way that makes me wonder what else I could say to draw that reaction from her.
“I’m so brilliant,” Lexy sasses. “I’ll leave you two to figure out the details.” With that, she walks away.
Brooke kicks the doorstop out of the way and closes the door, trapping us in the small space. “Seriously, you don’t have to do this. Don’t feel pressured or anything. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
“Brooke. I’m a businessman. I don’t make deals I’m not confident about.”
“This isn’t really a deal, though. There’s nothing in it for you. I mean, of course I’ll pay for everything. But–”
“Stop trying to talk me out of this. I made up my mind. It’s enough that I’m helping you. Like I’ve said before, a friend of Maci’s is a friend of mine. And I could use help getting Troy off my back. I haven’t taken more than a couple of days off since we bought the bar over a year ago.”
“Alright then. Let’s get this over with. I’ll get your ticket tonight.”
“That’s the spirit.” I deadpan. Is she really that against the idea of us spending time together?
“It’s not you . . .” she assures me as if she’s a mind reader. “I promise. You’re great. Perfect boyfriend material, too, I’m sure. It’s just . . . my mom.”
“Is she that bad?”
“I don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe I’m overreacting.”
“Do you want to do this?”
“I have to do this.”
“I don’t have to join you. ”
“No. That’s not the part I don’t want.” She chews on the skin at the edge of her thumbnail. “Okay. Let’s do it. Thanks, Marcus.”
“That’s what I’m here for, babe.” I wink.
“No.” Her pretty pink lips flatten as she shoots me a death glare.
It’s impossible to fight my grin. “Text me the flight details, Brooke .”