CHAPTER 11
Maya
IT SMELLED LIKE SALT AND VINEGAR, A TRACE OF MEN’S cologne, and Guerlain Shalimar, my grandmother’s favorite perfume.
A weird combo, but I was too drowsy to question it.
I sighed, snuggling deeper into my pillow and—
Wait a minute. What happened to my fluffy, ultra-soft bedding? It felt like I was sleeping on a brick wall—a warm, muscled brick wall that wasn’t uncomfortable per se, but it definitely wasn’t silk and goose down.
I cracked my eyes open. A blast of sunlight scorched my retinas, and I slammed them shut again.
I always closed my blackout curtains at night. I also always lit my favorite candle before bed, and that smelled like jasmine, not Guerlain.
Something was very wrong.
I braved another peek. This time, there was no direct sunlight because there was a face shoved right in front of mine, blocking out the rest of the room.
“Aaaahhh!”
“Aaaahhh!”
I bolted up into a sitting position, my heart racing. “How—what—why are you screaming?” I had so many questions, but I opted for the simplest one first.
“You screamed first,” my grandmother said, her ruby earrings glittering in the morning light. She wore a bright blue coat, a curious expression, and enough jewelry to fill a Tiffany’s. “Why are you sleeping on a yoga mat with your childhood nemesis?”
“What are you…” I followed her gaze to the spot next to me, where Sebastian lay sprawled with his forearm covering his eyes. One of his legs tangled with mine, and I realized with horror that the “brick wall” I’d been snuggling was him. Our screams didn’t appear to have woken him.
“Aaaahhh!”
I yanked my leg away from him and scrambled to my feet. My grandmother chuckled as Sebastian finally stirred. He lowered his arm and squinted up at us. His gaze flicked over my sleep-rumpled frame, and his eyes flared with something dangerously close to heat before they cooled.
The entire moment came and went so quickly that I must’ve imagined it. There was no heat. Why would there be heat?
“I hope you don’t wake up screaming like that every day. It’s quite off-putting,” he said before giving my grandmother a charming smile. He seemed to be taking her unexpected appearance much better than I was. “Good morning, Mrs. Gupta.” Gupta was my mother’s maiden name.
My grandmother smiled back. “Good morning, dear.”
She’d always had a soft spot for Sebastian, which proved that her exquisite taste in jewelry didn’t translate to equally exquisite taste in people.
I ground my teeth as Sebastian rose leisurely to his feet.
He stretched his arms over his head and yawned, the lazy movement resembling that of a big cat after a nap.
Despite his sleep-mussed hair and rumpled clothing, he still looked gorgeous.
There were people who spent hours mastering that effortlessly casual look, and he’d nailed it by rolling out of bed or, in this case, a yoga mat.
It was so annoying.
He reached down to roll up our mats. My eyes dipped involuntarily to his forearms, and a hint of something velvety brushed my heart. A flutter? No. That was ridiculous.
Our brainstorming session for the pop-up had been fun, but that didn’t mean anything. The only thing Sebastian Laurent had ever induced in me were ulcers.
But there was something so… intimate about seeing him right after he woke up, even if he was fully dressed and we were in an office. I was convinced he’d had a nightmare when he’d dozed off the first time last night, and that tiny glimpse of vulnerability shook me more than I cared to admit.
I preferred when Sebastian was some untouchable god. It irritated me, sure, but it didn’t create cracks in what was supposed to be my rock-solid opinion of him. I’d formed my opinion of him after decades of forced acquaintanceship, and I didn’t like being proven wrong.
Which I wasn’t. Sebastian was Sebastian, no matter how endearing he was when he got excited about the pop-up menu or how nice his body warmth—
A delicate cough interrupted my musings.
I jumped, my face heating when I met my grandmother’s shrewd gaze. She plucked Sebastian’s jacket off the back of a chair and held it out to him. “Perhaps you should put this back on lest people get the wrong idea,” she said without taking her attention off me.
“Ah.” Sebastian cleared his throat. “Thank you.” He took the jacket, a wash of dull red darkening his cheekbones.
Our eyes met for a millisecond before we both quickly looked away.
The flush spread from my face to my neck and chest. I had nothing to be embarrassed about. It wasn’t like we’d done anything wrong. We were working, and we fell asleep. End of story.
I faced my grandmother again. “What are you doing here, Nani?” I asked, attempting to take my mind off Sebastian’s proximity. “You never come into the office.”
“I’m meeting a friend for breakfast, and I was in the area. I thought I’d come by to see whether your father’s terrible taste in decor has improved. It hasn’t.” My grandmother’s eyebrows rose. “It’s a good thing he wasn’t the one who found you two here. It’s frowned upon to fornicate at work.”
“What? No!”
“We weren’t—”
“We didn’t—”
Sebastian and I stumbled all over each other trying to deny her accusation.
“We weren’t fornicating,” I said. “We’re fully dressed. Does it look like we were doing anything inappropriate?” I gestured at our clothes.
My grandmother’s gaze traveled between us. “It looks like something,” she said. “Perhaps if you fornicated more, you’d have given me great-grandchildren by now.”
“Nani!”
Beside me, Sebastian’s face turned the color of ripe strawberries. I would’ve enjoyed his discomfort more had flames of mortification not engulfed my own cheeks.
For an eighty-year-old, my grandmother was extremely open about sex. I wished she wasn’t.
“It’s the truth.” She harrumphed. “If you—”
“Please don’t say the word ‘fornicate’ again.” Normally, I’d never interrupt an elder, but I was this close to dying from humiliation, and I had so much left to accomplish before I accepted death’s embrace.
Though to be honest, getting struck by lightning sounded really good right now.
“I wasn’t going to.” My grandmother’s gold bangles jangled as she smoothed the front of her coat. “What I was going to say was, I’m not getting any younger. I don’t want to die before my favorite granddaughter walks down the aisle.”
Ha! I knew I was her favorite. Take that, Neha.
“You’re not going to die,” I said. “I mean, not anytime soon. You’re one of the healthiest people I know.”
“Yes, well, that doesn’t mean anything. I could fall off a cliff or get hit by a car.
” She sounded unbothered by the thought.
“Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your time.
The sooner you finish this project, the sooner you can work on my great-grandchildren.
” She waggled her fingers at us and sailed toward the exit.
“More working, less sleeping together,” she added over her shoulder. “Save that for a hotel!”
The door slammed shut behind her.
Silence rang in her wake. Sebastian and I stood stock still until voices outside the hall snapped us out of our trance. It was almost eight, which meant people were trickling into work.
“I should—”
“I need to—”
We bumped into each other as we rushed to grab our belongings. We mumbled our apologies before swiftly exiting the room.
I took the elevator; he took the stairs. For once, neither of us had anything snarky to say.
I didn’t know where I was going, but I had to get away from him ASAP.
It’s just Sebastian. The elevator doors pinged open. You’ve known him your whole life. Nothing’s changed.
By the time I crossed the lobby and stepped outside, I’d almost convinced myself that was true.
“Hello? Earth to Maya.” Vivian waved her hand in front of my face.
I blinked, my attention snapping back to the present. “Sorry. What were you saying?”
“I wanted to see if you had any changes to the run of show,” she said. “I swapped Riley K.’s time slot with the acrobats. She’s flying straight in from her tour in Asia, so I wanted to give her a buffer in case there are any delays.”
“That’s fine,” I said.
We were in her living room, going over the final details for my birthday party, which was coming up in two and a half weeks. I usually loved this part—Cake! Performances! Gifts!—but I couldn’t get my head in the game.
Honestly, I’d been distracted all week. Ever since… Well, ever since I woke up next to Sebastian Laurent and found myself not hating it.
It was so wrong.
We tolerated each other at best, so I shouldn’t be softening toward him. I was pretty sure that was a sign of the apocalypse.
“Good.” Vivian marked something in her notebook. “That’s all I have. I’ll reconfirm with the vendors tomorrow, but other than that, we should be set for the party.”
“Thanks, Viv.”
She smiled. “Any time.”
We’d worked together many times in the past, but thanks to Sloane, our relationship had gradually transitioned from friendly acquaintances to actual friends over the past year.
I’d always liked Vivian. The luxury event planner was competent and patient, and despite coming from—and marrying into—major money, she remained down to earth.
Her husband Dante Russo ran the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate, which gave her access to some niche, high-powered connections that were invaluable in her line of work.
My phone pinged as Vivian walked me to the door.
SEBASTIAN
See you soon
I’m going to win, you know
I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t seen him in person since our unplanned sleepover. We’d communicated exclusively via emails and texts over the past week, but that hadn’t stopped us from jumping into another competition.
Our first major task for the pop-up was finding the perfect location. We’d agreed we needed something more special than any ol’ New York haunt, but we’d butted heads over what the alternative should be.