Not Quite Over You. Сьюзен Мэллери

but that’s not a surprise. It’s kind of a specialized field.”

      “They’ve each worked with clients of mine and have gotten good reviews. We can go with whomever you’re comfortable with.” When she hesitated, he added, “I’m happy to interview them myself or set up interviews with both of us there.”

      “Let’s do that. I’m not sure what to ask, but I want to be there. Then we’ll make a decision.”

      He pulled out his phone and added the task to his calendar. “I’ll get something out to them today so we can get going.”

      She nodded. “The sooner the trailers are functional, the sooner we can start booking them.” She glanced around her showroom. “Now if only we could do something with this.”

      He followed her gaze. The retail space was big and open. One square room maybe fifty by fifty with an alcove that was her office. There were a couple of restrooms in back and a small storage area.

      Silver leaned back in her chair. “I keep feeling as if I’m missing out on an opportunity to make money here, but I’m not sure what to do. Everything I’ve thought of seems so complicated.”

      “Such as?”

      “Rehearsal dinners. Generally, the wedding party has the rehearsal on Friday and then the dinner after, but sometimes their wedding venue has a Friday wedding planned and so the Saturday wedding folks are out of luck. Or sometimes the wedding party is too small to meet the venue’s minimum. I thought about offering this place, but there’s no kitchen. Putting one in would be really expensive and take up too much space.”

      “Can’t they use caterers? Or couldn’t you contract with a caterer who would bring in everything they need.”

      Silver looked doubtful. “Without any kind of food prep area, it would be difficult to actually cook. All the food would have to be brought in. It makes things complicated.” She paused. “Don’t laugh, but I’ve thought about having bachelorette parties here.”

      “How would you make that happen?”

      She pointed to the ceiling. “I’d get rods installed so I could easily hang drapes to make the setting feel more intimate. We’d have seating like at any dinner, but also a few sofas and love seats. It would all be movable so we’d be able to support whatever theme they wanted.”

      “There’s a theme?” All the bachelor parties he’d been to had focused on liquor and giving the groom a hard time.

      She nodded. “Say a spa theme. So there would be a massage table and pedicure stations. Those would be brought in but we certainly have the room.” She looked at him, then away. “And we could put in some poles.”

      If she hadn’t already mentioned rods for the drapes, he would have assumed she meant poles for that. “What are you talking about?”

      She cleared her throat. “You know. Poles. Like stripper poles. They’re actually very popular. The bride and her friends learn moves they can, ah, share later.”

      He kept his expression neutral and did his best not to wonder if Silver had any moves he didn’t know about. “Stripper poles?”

      “It’s just a thought.”

      He reminded himself this was a business meeting and that picturing Silver doing a pole dance was wrong on many levels. “Sounds like a good one.”

      “Let me run some numbers. The poles have to be secured to the floor and the ceiling. I’d have to check my lease as well, to make sure I could do it. Or I guess I could phone Violet and just ask.”

      Violet was the owner of the retail space and loft above, and Silver’s landlord. The previous year she’d fallen in love with an English duke and had moved across the pond, so to speak, and married him.

      “If you can install stripper poles?” He laughed. “I almost want to be in on that call.”

      She rolled her eyes. “We’re not going to talk about anything sexy.”

      “No, but it will still be interesting.”

      “You’re such a guy.”

      “I can be, yes.” He looked around. “I would say if you think renting out this space for parties is something we should try, let’s spend the least amount we can. The poles shouldn’t be too expensive. Better lighting and some soundproofing. But nothing that expensive, at least at first. The main business is always going to be the trailers.”

      “That’s a really good point.”

      “Have you thought of starting a franchise?”

      She stared at him. “Excuse me?”

      “Your trailer bar idea is brilliant. What about a franchise? It would be great for a lot of people. Retirees, anyone who only wants to work a few days a week.”

      She made a T with her hands. “Let’s take this just a little slower. You’ve been my business partner all of fifteen minutes. Let’s put franchising on the back burner for oh, say a month.”

      “It wouldn’t be hard. Once we got the legal stuff out of the way, we’d need to come up with a plan, then maybe do a little internet advertising.”

      “Is that all?”

      “You have to have vision.”

      She folded her arms across her chest. “You weren’t kidding when you said you had a lot of business experience.”

      “I wasn’t.”

      “My business partner, the bank mogul.”

      “It’s just one bank. Does that make me a mogul?”

      She laughed. “It’s one more bank than anyone else I know owns. I’m kind of surprised you stayed in town.”

      “Why would I leave?”

      “You could be a bigger mogul somewhere else. Plus, you know, the parents. I’ve never actually met them, but I remember what you told me about them when we were going out. Your mother is very ambitious for her only child.”

      “Why would you remember that?” he asked.

      “Because it was important to you.”

      It had been, and still was. He didn’t normally talk about his parents, but with Silver he’d felt a connection that he hadn’t experienced before or since. He’d trusted her with every part of himself, including the doubts he rarely admitted to, let alone shared.

      He’d talked about his parents and their odd sense of the world—that being connected and having political and financial power mattered more than anything else, including family. His mother especially was driven to be influential. Ambition drove her to an extent that was almost frightening.

      Drew had done his best to rebel against their dreams for him but it had been a losing battle. Then his father had received an ambassadorship that had sent his parents to Europe. He’d been in high school and after much discussion, they’d agreed to leave him with his Grandpa Frank.

      Drew had loved the freedom, the normalcy of simply being one of the grandkids. He’d been able to relax, to learn and grow because it was what he wanted and not because of some unrealistic master plan. And he’d fallen in love with Silver.

      “What is this really about?” she asked, her voice quiet. “Are you really that interested in being a business partner or are you rebelling against what your parents expect?”

      “You mean run the bank for two years, then join them in their lobbying firm?”

      Her eyebrows rose. “Is that the current plan?”

      “Last I heard.”

      “What do you want?”

      What he’d always wanted. He wanted to run the bank, to modernize the various processes and make every department responsive