14. Rashad
CHAPTER 14
RASHAD
R ashad woke to sunlight streaming across his face, the warmth of Nina’s head on his shoulder, and the sound of a phone ringing. Bleary and more than a little annoyed at the interruption, he felt for his phone on the side table and swiped to decline the call. Luckily, the noise hadn’t woken Nina.
Rashad looked down at the beautiful woman sleeping beside him. Her head rested on his shoulder, her eyes were closed, with her eyelashes splayed across her pink cheeks, and her hair was fanned across the pillow in a riot of curls. She was gorgeous.
The sight of Nina’s face brought back memories from the night before, and Rashad felt an unexpected mix of desire and affection pool in his stomach. Every moment that they’d spent together, talking, playing in the ocean, kissing, had been magical, but going to bed together had topped all of that. Rashad was no stranger to nights spent with beautiful women, but it had been different with Nina. Better. Probably that was because he genuinely cared about her.
Rashad pressed a soft kiss to the top of Nina’s head. Still, she slept on — perhaps she’d trained herself to sleep through interruptions so that she could get a full night of sleep with toddlers at home. Rashad wanted to stay here forever, holding Nina in his arms and remembering the night they’d spent together, but after a few minutes he reached for his phone again. He should find out who had called him, in case something was wrong at work.
The missed call was from Amira. Rashad’s heart turned over. They must be close enough to San Diego that cell service was working well again, and his business partners would be anxious for an update after several days of silence on Rashad’s part. His heart ached at the thought of leaving Nina alone in bed, but there was nothing to be done. He couldn’t leave the call unanswered.
As slowly and carefully as he could, Rashad eased out of bed, setting Nina’s head on a pillow and tucking the sheets around her shoulders. Soon enough, the kids would wake up and Nina would, too, but for now, he’d let her sleep.
Rashad grabbed the clothes he’d shed the night before, not wanting to wake Nina by rummaging around in his suitcase, and slipped into the bathroom. There, he freshened up before going on deck to return Amira’s call.
It was still early. The sunlight that had woken him must have been the first rays of the sunrise because, even now, the sun was just beginning to tinge the sky pink and gold as it rose over the horizon. Rashad leaned against the railing and called Amira back.
She picked up on the first ring.
“Rashad?”
“Hello, Amira.” Rashad adjusted the phone to his other ear and gazed out over the ocean. Usually, he loved talking to his business partners — it was satisfying to plan next steps and go over past successes. Today, though, he just wanted this call to end so that he could slip back into bed with Nina and be with her when she woke up.
“I’m glad you decided to call us back.” There was an unexpected edge in Amira’s voice.
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s just been a few days since we’ve heard from you,” Abdul’s voice came on the line. “We had a meeting today with outside investors, and they wanted to know where the CEO was and how the expansion into the US market is going. We had to dance around the questions.”
“I should have kept in better touch.” Rashad rubbed his temples, the stress of running a business already coming back. “I apologize, but I’m happy to update you now.”
“Well, as long as you’ve secured the US market for us, all else can be forgiven,” Amira said. Her voice had lost a bit of its edge. “How’s your progress with the American, Ms. Kendrick?”
Rashad hesitated. Yesterday, offering to work with Nina had felt like the perfect solution for everyone, but in the warm light of day, he was less convinced. Still, he didn’t want to put Nina out of business — and he truly believed that collaborating could help them both. Hopefully, his investors felt the same way.
“I have good news on that front,” Rashad said in as confident a tone as he could. “We’ve been able to reach a preliminary agreement, although there are still details to be worked out, of course.”
“Of course.” Amira sounded pleased. “Tell us what you were able to agree on thus far.”
“Well, Nina’s company, Heartbeat, is truly extraordinary,” Rashad said. “She and I have spoken, and we agree that working together to improve both our businesses is the best way forward. Heartbeat can focus on low-income communities that need affordable healthcare support, while Health Trackr can work on partnerships with businesses and hospitals. We can form a joint front for advertising and some business decisions.”
“I’m not sure I’m understanding you correctly.” Abdul, usually the more flexible and free-thinking of the two, didn’t sound pleased at all. “Are you saying that both Health Trackr and Heartbeat will exist in the US market simultaneously? And that you don’t plan to do anything to ensure Health Trackr’s dominance?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Rashad confirmed. “Although there is a bit more nuance to it. The more I spoke with Nina, the more I realized that there’s a place for both companies in the US market. By working together, we can ensure that?—”
“Rashad.” Amira cut him off. He could imagine the pained look on her face across the distance that separated them. “I’m going to stop you right there. I’m not sure what happened during the last few days between you and Ms. Kendrick, but I can assure you that a partnership between your companies isn’t going to work. If you want to buy Heartbeat, fine — we can even offer a higher price than usual if you feel some concessions are necessary. If you want to put Heartbeat out of business, fine. But collaborating isn’t on the table.”
“Why not?” Rashad asked. In that moment, he realized that he sounded more like an overtired preschooler than a businessman, but he couldn’t help himself. This was important. “Maybe it’s time to update our approach. At first, the only way to make sure Health Trackr succeeded was to put every competitor out of business, but that isn’t the case now. Even if we have a slightly smaller market share, perhaps it’s better to collaborate with worthy allies.”
“You don’t even sound like yourself.” Abdul’s voice was just as upset as Amira’s. “The goal has always been to ensure that Health Trackr is the foremost healthcare app in any market. Working with the competition doesn’t build towards that goal.”
“It’s true.” Rashad could almost hear Amira shaking her head. “What provisions do you have in place to ensure that Health Trackr succeeds in this environment? What if Heartbeat retains its place as the foremost app in the US — which is likely, since it’s the existing one? And worse, you mentioned that some business decisions would be made jointly. Are you really willing to hand partial control of the company you’ve taken years to build to a rival — a rival who purposefully prices her app too low?”
Rashad froze, his hand on the railing, the phone near his ear. Perhaps his business partners were right. He had let himself be distracted from years of hard work by a wonderful weekend with a beautiful woman and a pair of cute kids. Rashad had always put Health Trackr first. Now, he was on the verge of making a business decision that wasn’t about business at all — it was about how he felt. How he felt about Nina. How he felt about himself.
“Perhaps there are some things I didn’t fully consider,” Rashad said as diplomatically as he could. “Let me speak with Nina and make sure that the agreement we make won’t require Health Trackr to give too much up.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Amira spoke again. “Rashad, we can’t sign off on a partnership between you and Ms. Kendrick at all — not unless you give us some concrete proof that working together is the best and only way forward. Please take a little time. Be sure you’re making the right decision here.”
Rashad felt like one of the twins again. He sighed. “Of course. Thank you both.”
“Call us back by this evening with an update, please,” Abdul said. The “please” was there, but it was clear that he wasn’t making a request. Amira and Abdul let Rashad handle most business decisions, because they trusted him, but at the end of the day, they were majority investors and could pump the brakes on anything they felt was a mistake.
Clearly, they felt that working with Nina was a mistake.
“I will.” Rashad hung up, slipped his phone into his pocket, and gripped the yacht’s railing with both hands. They were almost back to San Diego now; he could see the skyline in the distance. Soon, the real world would come crashing in, whether he was ready or not.
Rashad’s business partners had made a good point. More than one. He was rushing into a partnership with Nina simply because he didn’t want to hurt her, not because it would benefit his company in any way. In fact, working with Nina would cost Health Trackr, as it would be more difficult to dominate the market with a competitor at his side.
Over the last few days, Rashad had begun to feel that his work might not be as important as he thought it was. Maybe there were other things that mattered more — a sticky preschooler’s hand in his as they played hide-and-seek together. Nina’s smile as she lifted onto her tiptoes to kiss him. Laughing around a dinner table at some comment Kate or Miles had made. Twirling Nina across the deck of the yacht as an old song played over the radio.
Yet Rashad needed to think clearly about this. He couldn’t let himself make such an important decision just because he’d gotten a glimpse into family life the last few days — and liked it more than he’d expected.
He didn’t want to hurt Nina. He’d wanted to show her that there was more to him than just a ruthless businessman — yet perhaps there wasn’t actually more to him. Perhaps Rashad really was a ruthless businessman and nothing else. At the end of the day, Health Trackr was what mattered most to Rashad and always would. He’d given years of his life and all his energy to make Health Trackr a success, and Abdul and Amira were right: he couldn’t give that up — for anything or anyone.
Not even for Nina.
Rashad’s heart ached. Part of him wanted to toss his phone in the ocean and run back to his room, where Nina still slept. He wanted to find a way to work with her, instead of against her. He wanted to spend more time with her and the twins, perhaps purchase a house here in San Diego so that he could be near her for part of the year. He wanted to kiss her until he forgot everything else. He wanted to believe what Nina had said last night, about how eventually something or someone would come along who mattered more than his business.
Yet Rashad knew he couldn’t do that. He needed to be strong. He needed to focus on Health Trackr, not on the woman who made his heart beat faster and his head spin.
Even if he decided to risk his company and his partnership with Abdul and Amira for Nina, there was no guarantee that things would turn out between them. In all likelihood, Nina had considered their night together to be nothing more than a momentary indiscretion or a fun vacation fling. There was no reason to believe she’d want him in her life as anything more than a business partner.
Rashad’s hands tightened on the railing. He couldn’t risk everything for Nina, not when he didn’t even know how she felt about him. He’d go back to Al Soub. He’d speak with Abdul and Amira and find another way forward — perhaps a buyout of Heartbeat. It wasn’t what Rashad wanted, but it was the only acceptable option.
Rashad’s heart ached as he watched the sun lift over the horizon. The sky faded from pink to baby blue, then to the brighter blue of daytime, and still, he stood and watched, motionless. It was time for him to say goodbye to Nina, to Miles, to Kate, to the beautiful weekend they’d spent together in which Rashad had felt like he could be more than the CEO of Health Trackr. It was time to go back to real life.