So Not My Thing by Melanie Jacobson

Author:Melanie Jacobson [Jacobson, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Four Petal Press
Published: 2021-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“So this is it?” Miles asked.

“Yeah.” I stared down at the papers that would make it official. “This is it. You are about to be the new tenant of Dauphine Street and my downstairs neighbor.”

“Wild.”

“Having second thoughts?” I was. But we hadn’t talked about that final moment at his house, and he’d kept a friendly distance ever since, maybe so he didn’t threaten the lease.

“Not even one,” he said. “But I’ve dreamed about this for a long time, and I can’t believe that signing on the dotted line makes it all start coming true even though I had to negotiate with terrorists.”

I snort-laughed. Miles had made every concession I’d asked for and then some. He was even comping my neighbor’s rent for two months to compensate him for the inconvenience of living over a construction zone. In fact, any time Miles had countered during negotiations, it had been to offer more than I’d asked for, which had driven Aaron straight up a wall.

“Yeah, well,” I said. “Let it be known that I’m a battle-hardened businesswoman, et cetera.”

Miss Mary had been adamant that we should lease to the Turnaround after Jordan stopped by for breakfast the morning after I met him. That was some dirty pool on Miles and Jordan’s parts, but it had been highly effective. “I know his mama and them,” she’d said. “Good people.” Nothing I could have said after that would’ve convinced her we should lease to anyone else.

It had taken two weeks to work it all out, two weeks of regular meetings to look over their design concepts from tile to table placement to wall color. I had to admit, Miles and the design team he’d hired were pulling together exactly the kind of place where Chloe and I loved to hang out. It was sophisticated but warm, an interior that understood the history of New Orleans with mixed use of reclaimed wood, velvet, and leather, but that also looked toward the future with clean lines, modern tables and chairs, state-of-the-art technology, and sustainable materials anywhere and everywhere Miles could work it in.

I’d spent most of those negotiations wanting to keep my distance from Miles entirely, but I also needed to be sure I was keeping my promise to the Bywater and making sure Miles’s vision fit the neighborhood. In fact, in one of those weird kismet moments, I’d ended up closing a deal on one of the properties up the street that Miles had rejected, and soon a new breakfast café would open, restoring balance to the Bywater.

It hadn’t been easy to keep it strictly professional every time Miles and I spoke or met to go over plans. But I’d survived.

I glanced at his hands where they rested on the table now as we sat at the back of Miss Mary’s. She and Jerome had already cleaned up and left for the day, but she’d assured me she had no problem with Miles and me meeting here to finalize the paperwork. His fingers were long and slender, easily stretching to cover two octaves.

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