Page 40 of One Night in Paris

Despite all of my inappropriate thoughts, not once did I see Harper act like I was anything but her boss. This job was important to her. She’d made it clear to me that she appreciated the fact that I’d hired her more than once, and now that I had more clues about the situation with her mom, I understood better why she’d dropped out of college and why she was always working so hard. Her mother had been ill for quite some time,from what I could gather, which made Harper solely responsible for paying for her treatment and supporting both of them.

Harper was remarkable in every single way. Every day that I worked with her, that became more evident. Her work ethic was remarkable. She was always upbeat and energetic. Whenever something needed to be done, she was always first to volunteer or ask if she could take part so that she could learn a new skill. Bouncing ideas off her was meant to be something I intended to do down the line, when she had more experience, but her fresh eyes and life experience made it possible for me to do that now.

In a meeting where the lead architects were discussing the best way to situate a parking lot between two restaurants, Harper timidly signaled that she had an idea. Of course, I welcomed the input, and when she stood up to point at the blueprints, her solution immediately made sense.

She just had a way of looking at things that the rest of us didn’t have. Sometimes, all of our schooling got in the way of practicality, common sense, and real-world scenarios. Harper didn’t have any filters to look through. She simply saw problems and solutions.

As much as I enjoyed working with her, I wanted to spend more time with her outside of work as well, but this weekend, I was going to my parents’ house for a family birthday, so that would have to wait.

Friday afternoon, while I packed up my briefcase to take a few things with me to work on when my family members got a little annoying and I needed an excuse to duck out, Harper stuck her head in. “Hey, do you have a minute?”

Nervousness bubbled up inside me as I stood there staring into her mocha eyes. It had been about this time the week before that I’d asked her to dinner—and we’d ended up having sex. Was that what she had in mind now? I was meant to head straight to my parents’ house, but maybe I could take a detour.

“Yeah, what’s up?” I put my briefcase down and turned to give her my full attention.

“Well, I just got a phone call from someone in California named Dave Adler. He works at Sky High Enterprises. He said he’d spoken to you before? A few months ago?”

My mind raced to catch up with her. The moment I realized her question was work-related, a tsunami of disappointment had nearly knocked me off my feet, so I’d tuned out what she was saying. But now, I was up to speed. “Oh, yeah. I think so. Whatever they need, just send it to Rick. He handles all of our acquisitions for the east coast.” She should know that. We’d gone over this before. Not that I expected her to be perfect, but ordinarily, Harper didn’t have to be told things twice.

“They want to speak to you about a business proposal they have. He said it was a huge deal, something to do with the government in San Francisco. He wanted to know if it would be possible for you to call him back now.”

My eyebrows raised as I checked the time. “It’s almost five o’clock on a Friday. What’s wrong with these people?”

She chuckled at me. “Well, it’s not five o’clock in California. But yeah, he should know time zones are a thing.”

It wasn’t quite time for me to leave, so reluctantly, I held out my hand for the phone number, which Harper had written on a message for me. “Can you hang out for a minute? Take notes?”

“Of course.” Harper grabbed my extra notebook and a pen and sat down in the chair across from me while I retook the chair behind my desk.

I knew a little bit about what Sky High Enterprises did. Dave and I were at a conference together a few months ago, and he’d mentioned this project. He’d said his company was bidding on it, and if they got it, it was going to be huge. They were the project coordinator, but they’d need several architectural firms to come in and help them with bringing the concepts to fruition. I’dbeen intrigued by the project because it was supposed to bring museums and other cultural centers to low-income, urban areas, which was something I always wanted to help with.

The moment I told Dave’s secretary it was me, she patched me through. Dave’s robust, energetic voice filled my ear. “Hey, hey! How’s it going, Logan?”

“Hi, Dave,” I said, his enthusiasm making me smile, though it always came across as a little smarmy to me. “I’m good. I got your message. What’s going on?”

“Well, my friend, it’s happened! I just got the word about an hour ago, and you are the first person I wanted to call. We are on like Donkey Kong! Can you believe it? The event center is happening!”

“Congratulations on securing the bid.” Anyone who said “on like Donkey Kong” was not my kind of people, but this was business, after all, so I kept listening. “What are your plans?”

“Well, I know it’s short notice, but most of the other companies we are looking to wheel and deal with are local. They’ll all be here tomorrow to meet with us. We aren’t expecting any hardcore plans at this point because you haven’t had time to prepare, but just get yourself on a plane, and get out here! This has got to move fast because the first phase has already been funded. We have until the end of the month to lay out the first five billion.”

“Five billion? For the first phase?” My eyes widened. That was a lot for the first phase of one project, especially for a government project.

“That’s right. What do you say? You in, my friend?”

The question hung in the air between us as I thought about the promises I’d made to my family. The cousin who was having the birthday would honestly be happier about the giant gift card I intended to give him than getting to see me. I could always go see my folks another time.

But I wouldn’t have anyone to take with me on such short notice. Normally, I’d take one of my senior architects—Robert, Ellie, or Ben. On Fridays, most of the staff left early, and all of them had families. They wouldn’t want to change their plans for this. No, I couldn’t take any of them.

So who could I take?

My eyes fell on Harper, sitting there in the chair with a pen and pad, ready and eager to take notes. This was just a preliminary meeting. Dave wouldn’t expect us to solidify any ideas while we were there. He just wanted us to get the information and begin our parts of the project—if we wanted to do it.

With no more hesitation, I said, “Yeah, Dave. I’ll be there.”

“Awesome sauce!” he proclaimed. Was this guy just trying to sound relevant, or was he really stuck in the lingo of years past?

Dave gave me the details of when and where the meeting would be located, and I repeated them for Harper to write down, which she did. Then, I hung up the call, knowing I’d have to let Mom know my plans had changed. Trevor was going to go with me, too. Damn it. He’d be pissed. He never missed the chance to meet new women, and there were supposed to be plenty at the birthday party. Oh, well. He’d have to go to a club.

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