Page 21 of Secrets, Scandals and Baby Shoes

Lucy had said Elliot had changed. Well, she had, too. The old Lucy would never have talked like this. She would never have acted like this, either. Elliot missed her — well, not the version of her that had broken up with him, but the version that had been happy with him for several beautiful months all those years ago.

After a quick turn around a lake and past a playground full of happy children getting the last of their energy out before sunset, Elliot turned out of Central Park. He followed a line of streetlights through the growing darkness and sought his bearings. He was… somewhere. Sighing, Elliot got out his phone to find a route back to his hotel. Apparently, he’d now have to look for an apartment here in New York because his life in Chicago was on hold until he got Borderless on stable footing. Keype would just have to keep going without him.

It was a long walk back to the hotel, so Elliot called a cab and rode back in silence through the New York traffic. Maybe it would have been better to walk, after all. Although Elliot loved New York, he’d rarely visited in recent years. The odds of running into Lucy had felt too high. Now, of course, his efforts were in vain, as fate had thrown them back together again. Well, not fate. Dominic.

Elliot ate dinner alone in the restaurant of his hotel. In his room, he spent a while on the balcony looking over the sights of NewYork. He could see a few lights still on in office buildings and the glow of billboards and streetlights far below. The darkness of the river stretched in the far distance, inky and still. Last time he’d visited, at Dominic’s insistence, they’d stood together on the balcony of Dominic’s midtown apartment and watched the lights like this. In that moment, with Dominic’s presence feeling so close, Elliot resolved to make things work with Lucy. After all, they’d been close once. Surely, they could tolerate each other well enough to make this work now.

Elliot went back into his room and started planning. After a restless night of sleep, he returned to the office early the next morning, where he found Lucy already at her desk.

“Good morning, Elliot.” She was using her too-polite tone again. Her short hair was slightly pinned back so that it waved when she turned her head, and she wore a no-nonsense pair of black slacks and a dark pink blouse.

“Good morning.” Elliot slipped past her desk and sat at his own. “Listen, I’ve been thinking, and I have an idea for how we can work together more efficiently.”

“Great. I’d be happy to hear it.”

“Well, how about we split the tasks of a CEO between us?” Elliot suggested. “You can do everything creative while I take care of the business side – finances, hiring, the general direction, that kind of thing. That way, we can each focus on what we specialize in, and we won’t come into conflict so much.” He’d been up late last night laying out a plan for how this could work. To his surprise, though, Lucy’s eyes narrowed.

“It sounds to me like you’re suggesting the same thing you suggested yesterday — to have me go back to my creative role while you run the company.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Elliot took a breath. “CEOs have creative tasks as well. You can do all our branding, run the creative department?—”

Lucy cut him off with a lifted hand. “Again, you’re basically saying I should go back to my old job. I’ll tell you again what I said yesterday: we are going to do this together. All of it. That’s the only way forward.”

“I don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn about this,” Elliot blurted. “Come on. Even in college you didn’t really have a head for numbers. How do you expect to manage the finances of a huge company like this one? Just because you’ve been pulled into this role doesn’t mean you’re qualified. You can’t get everything you want.”

Lucy’s mouth dropped open, and Elliot realized he’d overstepped. He tried to backpedal, but it was too late. “Excuse me? You’re saying I’ve been handed this promotion without proving myself, and I do agree. I haven’t been a CEO before. But you were handedeverythingin your life. I know your father gave you the capital to start your company. I know you were trained in business practices since you were in diapers. I know you always got everything you wanted all your life. At least Dominic and I had to work things out for ourselves.”

“Right, because you always made your own way?” Elliot’s temper flared. “I know Dominic gave you your first job. You had plenty of help along the way, too.”

“I had help. Help is different from receiving everything on a silver platter, which is what happened for you.”

“You’re just a stubborn creative director who won’t listen to reason,” Elliot shot back. They glared at each other across their desks. This was not at all how Elliot had wanted this conversation to go, but he wasn’t sure how to fix it. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to. Instead, he reached for his headphones, slipped them into his ears, and cued up a playlist on his phone. Within moments, any sound in the office was drowned out by the blaring eighties rock playlist he’d put on. Without looking at Lucy, Elliot booted up his computer and got to work. If she wanted to stubbornly refuse any kind of middle ground, Elliot just wouldn’t engage.

Suddenly, in a heartbeat, Elliot was back in college. He was sitting on the couch in his dorm’s common room with Lucy’s head resting in his lap as she explained why she lovedBig Hero 6so much. Jokingly, he retorted that he’d never watch such a movie, and she lightly punched him in the upper arm. Back and forth they went, trading arguments and insults and laughing with each other.

Then Elliot was back in his chair, at his desk, in Borderless, with the grown-up Lucy across the table from him. They’d always fought… but this felt different. This was no longer the playful banter of a couple of college kids in love. This came from a deeper, much bitterer place.

At lunch, Lucy disappeared for a while and returned with a paper bag. The delicious smells wafting from it immediately made Elliot’s mouth water. To his surprise, Lucy pulled a paper-wrapped sandwich out of the bag and held it out to him.

“Here. I got you one.”

“Thanks.” Elliot felt his anger begin to soften. He unwrapped the sandwich – only to find that it was filled with tuna salad. His anger returned, for surely, even after all these years, Lucy remembered that he detested tuna. Sure enough, when he looked up at her, she was smiling into her own sandwich.

“Seriously?” he asked. “This is so childish.”

Lucy sighed and held out a second sandwich. “This one’s roast beef.”

Elliot took it, mumbled a thanks, and returned to his work. Still, he had not appreciated her prank. It was a sign that she wouldn’t be a good person to work with as CEO. There was no time for childish behavior when it came to running a business.

“We should talk about the meeting tomorrow,” Lucy said suddenly, breaking Elliot away from his reverie.

“What meeting?” He opened his calendar app and saw that the following day was packed with meetings, mostly with members of the C-suite and different department heads.

“The meeting with Pura Vida Vineyards,” Lucy said. “At eleven? Dominic was in the middle of getting them on board. They’re hoping to offer tours and vineyard stays through the Borderless app.”

“I know,” Elliot said. “I’ve read the briefings.”

“Sure, you didn’t seem to know what it was, so?—”

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