Page 28 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

Following his cue, I said, “Give me some background on your acquisition. I looked up Goodwin Property Group. Didn’t realize they’re everywhere.”

“They’re huge.” Alec leaned back in his chair. “They control around two-thirds of the commercial property market, and they want to acquire forty percent of my business, which means I’ll continue to hold control.”

Our drinks came, and I smiled to thank the waitress as she poured the steaming tea into our cups. I took a small sip, and the rich taste of the sweet black jasmine tea instantly transported me back to my childhood.

“Having GPG as a shareholder will open more opportunities. We’ll have enough capital to build residential projects in other states and diversify into commercial developments. It’s something I’ve been working on for the past few years.”

“Gotcha.” In other words, this was massively important for him.No pressure.“Tell me about the owner.”

Alec blew on his tea. “Her name is Jacqui Goodwin. Very smart, very business-savvy. One of the few female CEOs in the industry. She told me she came from practically nothing and started working part-time jobs at fast food restaurants when she was only fourteen, determined to make something of herself. She saved enough for a deposit and bought her first investment property when she was eighteen, then aggressively grew her portfolio, and started branching out into commercial real estate six years later.”

“That’s incredible.” My biggest achievement at eighteen was landing myself in the ER in a valiant—and misguided—effort to impress this guy. If I had only gotten the memo that one could start amassing properties at that age, life probably would’ve looked very different now.

“The company is based in Seattle, and they’ve been selectively buying smaller companies around the country these past few years. All the businesses they’ve acquired have been doing exceptionally well so far.”

“What happens ifthis,” I gestured back and forth between us, “doesn’t convince her, and she finds out you’re starting your business partnership with a lie?”

“There’s noif. It has to work.”

I pulled out my phone and tapped open my list-maker app. “Okay. So our deal goes on until (a) your acquisition is formally signed, and (b) my shop repairs are completed.”

“Correct. I’m estimating no longer than four, maybe five weeks.”

I could tolerate him for five weeks, no problem. “Sounds reasonable.”

“We’ll also need to follow each other on social media. Post an occasional picture.”

I stopped typing on my list, as a prick of uneasiness went through me. “Our families will see, though.”

“Ah, but the thing is, Jacqui’s a bit old-school, so she’s not on any other platforms except Facebook. Since she’s our only target audience, that’s where we’ll be uploading the photos. She’s never overly active anyway, but we’ll still need a few posts, just in case. And Facebook lets us choose who can see our posts, so we can exclude our families from seeing them.”

“Okay. That might work.”

“We’ll need to post a few selfies together,” he said. “Stage a picture where we stare adoringly into each other’s eyes.”

“Is that necessary? Why can’t we post artsy pictures of our meals instead?”

A loud snort answered me, just as our food arrived. “I need to convince Jacqui I’m in love with a real human being, not with this plate of nasi goreng, no matter how good it looks.”

“Fair point.” I cringed as the waitress set down my plate, her eyebrows shooting to her hairline when she noticed me. “Speaking of social media, someone posted a video of me several weeks ago, and it went viral. You probably wouldn’t want Jacqui to see it.”

“I heard. Eric told me about it when we last chatted. It’ll be okay. Jacqui runs a multimillion-dollar company. Her days are full of back-to-back meetings, business lunches and dinners, and then more meetings. She has better things to do than watch videos online.”

“Fine.” I was quiet as I opened the CGM app on my phone to check my levels, took out my insulin pump, and bolused for the food.

“I’ve never told you this, but I think you’re one of the toughest, strongest people I’ve ever met.” Alec broke the silence. He looked up from his food and met my gaze. “I can’t imagine what you had to go through from such a young age.”

A blanket of warmth enveloped me as I raised my eyebrows, attempting to hide the heat shooting to my cheeks. “Did you just compliment me?” Picking up my phone, I tapped the video button and aimed it at him. “This is rarer than a super blood moon eclipse. Can you repeat that?”

An unexpected, full-blown laugh escaped him, and for a few brief seconds, his entire face lit up; it presented me with a rare appearance of his dimple, and never-before-seen footage of Alec Mackenzie laughing and being friendlywith me.

It was possibly the most glorious view on Earth, bar none.

“I mean it,” Alec said. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

Our eyes held for a few more seconds, before I did a mental kick and pretended to find my rendang immensely fascinating. My brain was running a hundred miles a second, my nonchalant demeanor hiding the raging thoughts running amok in my head: Alec Mackenzie had given me a rare compliment—and ugh, why did he have to look so good when he’s laughing? Also:I made him laugh like that.It was addictive, and now I wanted nothing more than to do it again. Repeatedly.

But as the thought went through my head, another burst in, asking a grim question:What the hell are you getting yourself into, Ellie?

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