Page 63 of Crossing Lines

“Normal? No. But it comes with the territory, I guess.”

“Why do you still work? Why not just live on a private island and not have to deal with all these assholes who are trying to hurt you?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I used to tell myself it was because I enjoyed the challenge—fixing businesses, making it work where others couldn’t. But lately, after working nonstop for almost twenty-four years, I wonder if it’s more than that. There’s this fear that I could lose it all and my mom and Zeki would be left with nothing, that we’d be poor again. It’s a pressure that never lets up.”

“But you’ve already given them more than enough. You deserve to live your life, not just survive for everyone else.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You do,” she insists. “Tomorrow morning, at breakfast, I want to show you something.”

“Is this something good or bad?”

“Why don’t you come and find out? Make sure you don’t have to rush off to a meeting rightafter.”

At six the next morning, Nina comes down the stairs, her eyes red, her hair in a messy bun and a dress in her hands. Yesterday, she stayed in her room all day and night, her sewing machine whirring, and not allowing me to come inside. I’m more than a little curious about what she’s up to.

“Since you’re being sabotaged,” she says without any preamble, “I want to show you what kind of design I was talking about.”

She holds up the dress and it’s stunning.

“It’s a fit-and-flare dress,” she says, as if I know what that means. The top is dark green, and the skirt has panels of the same green and white around the entire thing, creating a geometric pattern. “Your logo is incorporated here.” She points to an embroidered belt at the waist with my logo dotted throughout it. “You could offer it in full black or full white with pops of green or white on the hem of each. That way your customers would be able to wear this any time, any day and it doesn’t scream NFL team but instead is modern and versatile. I even added some detachable straps in case someone wants them, or not.”

Nina’s passion for design is like a tangible thing, and the more she explains, the more it becomes clear that she knows exactly what she’s talking about. She has an inherent sense of what the market wants, of what my customers want. That level of business astuteness isn’t easy to come by, but she has it.

The design she made is modern and stylish and I finally understand what she was proposing with her feedback. This is different from most of the other teams, but I think it’s the perfect direction to take in order to stand out. Better yet, I think this is exactly what is needed to impress Glam Pop.

The only thing is, I need Nina to do this, to make the line. She’s the one with the vision and the talent to pull it off.

My instincts scream at me to hire her, to even have her at the presentation to Ben and Mick since I’m confident her passion will win them over. But…the chance of Nina accepting is slim to none. She won’t even take the franchising deal and I still don’t fully understand why.

“That dress,” I say, “is perfection.”

“Really?”

“Don’t act surprised. You know you’re talented.”

“Thank you,” she says quietly.

“Are you free tomorrow?” I ask.

“Why?”

“Because I want you to come to my office. I have an idea I want to run by you. Would noon work for you? We could combine it with lunch.” If I want to offer her a job, I think she needs to see what I’m going to use the money for. Maybe that’ll help her get over her fears of working with me.

“I thought you didn’t do lunch breaks.”

“For you, I’ll make the exception.”

“Fine,” she says, “but you better order Indian and make it worth my while.”

I laugh. “Deal.”

Chapter 16

Nina

I’m not stupid. I know Evren wants me to work on his line, especially if he really is going to fire his entire design team. If nothing else, he wants me because I’m not working with that asshole Mert and actively trying to sabotage him.

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