Chapter four
“I can’t seem to concentrate and I wonder why that is. Could it be that I am thinking about a certain young lady on her knees last night giving me the kind of pleasure that I can’t stop thinking about?” I did have a sleepless night, tossing and turning with visions of him on top of me making me scream loud enough to wake up the neighbors down the street.
“Is it my fault that you can’t seem to keep it in your pants? I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that you can’t get up and walk out onto the street without scaring the little old ladies into a premature heart attack.” He was covered by the table between us, but the look in his eyes told me the story of a man that was begging for some female attention.
“Let me show you what you have done… wait…we have to keep this platonic until we finish. We moved a little too quickly last night and I take full responsibility.” I was right to presume that last night was his way of finally finding out what he had been missing out on.
“I hate to bring this up, but have you given any more thought about going back to her? It will kill me inside to see you leave, but the only thing I want is for you to be happy.” It was a Sunday and I had closed shop in favor of the religious beliefs of my customers.
“I won’t lie to you, I have thought about it, but I’m not sure that she’s right for me. I know that you can treat me far better than she could ever imagine. I don’t know why we’re wasting time sitting here talking about business when we could be doing something far more pleasing in the back.” The second he mentioned anything more than a physical relationship was when I was going to realize the man of my dreams had finally come back into my arms.
“You are wasting time with anybody else besides me. I want to take you by the hand and tell you that I will never let you down. I’m getting ahead of myself and I haven't even asked if there’s a special man in your life. Last night could’ve been one of those things and I would never want to become some kind of home wrecker.” We had avoided speaking about our personal lives during our e-mail correspondence and I think neither one of us wanted to know that the other was happy with somebody else.
“To answer your question, I haven’t exactly been a nun while you were away. Is it my fault that I turn you on? When we kiss I can feel that sexual energy in the air.” I was inclined to slap him to put him back on track concerning business.
“What did you think I was doing? You are a desirable woman and any man in their right mind would walk over hot coals to be with you. I don’t know how many times I had the phone to my ear about to arrange a flight back to the states in the last few years. I came to the painful conclusion that I had to let you live your life without me.” I grabbed him by the collar of his starched white shirt and kissed him with a passion that left no doubt about my feelings for him.
I was turning things upside down by opening up a window of opportunity. His eyes were wide with surprise and I made out with him until I felt a semblance of relief.
“I feel like we are in an elevator. The passion we feel for one another is climbing with every second that goes by. The kiss was meant to satisfy your cravings, but I see that it has done very little to curb your sexual appetite.” I was referring to the way that he was squirming and what I witnessed when I lifted up the tablecloth to see him adjusting himself.
“Damn you for being a firecracker. I was wrong to leave, but now I’m back.” He pushed the table to the side letting me see the hungry determination in his eyes.
He came forward on his knees and it took everything in my power to put my hand on his chest to keep him from getting any closer.
“It’s quite obvious that we both want the same thing. One of us is going to have to keep a level head and it appears it’s going to have to be me.” I got up and retrieved the papers that had fallen to the floor in his haste to get his hands on me.
“Do you really think being on all fours is going to keep me from thinking obscene thoughts about you? I will try to get my mind back on the business at hand.” The table was once again the only thing that was separating him from my overwhelming need to climb into his lap.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night and I had time to do some mockups of what I have in mind. Take a look and see if it’s feasible. We both know that it takes money to make money in the food industry.” I was talking but he was still reliving the kiss.
He slapped himself across the face and the resounding echo made me take a deep breath.
“I don’t mind spending money as long as my return is a lock. Business speaking, I would like to propose a return of my initial investment by the end of the year. My lawyers drew up some papers that I think that you should go over. I also get 10% of the earnings after expenses.” He expected to get $200,000 by the end of the year and I had already estimated earnings at a comfortable two million.
“Do I have any reason not to trust you? I can afford a lawyer, but I would hope being friends that we can handle this in a civilized manner.” I knew that I had gotten a rise out of him, but the twinkle in his eye was no longer looking at me like I was made for only one thing.
“It’s pretty much boilerplate and I promise there isn’t anything that is hidden between the lines. I’m not usually this open and honest during negotiations, but I believe that I will make the exception for you. We both have the same agenda to make this place the next big thing. We do need some kind of hook.” I had been playing around with an idea, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to respond.
A big part of me wanted to grab him by his expensive suit and make him lie on the table in a compromising position.
“It’s interesting that you bring that up and I have been thinking the exact same thing. It’s a radical idea, but I feel I have to warn you there is nothing proprietary about my idea. I can’t get a patent on something that is readily available.” I took a deep breath and this was the first time that I was going to tell him about a notion I had in the middle of the night after a bout of insomnia.
“You have a captive audience. Blow me away.” I gave him a cock of my eyebrow. “I already know you can do that, but it’s not what I was getting at.” I was going to dedicate a small area to the storage of old games that would have been a nightly occurrence in family homes before technology took over.
I told him about games like scrabble, monopoly, battleships just to name a few. I had already made preparations and there was a closet full of games waiting for the big opening night.
Colton wasn’t saying anything and I was worried that he would find some sort of flaw in my grand scheme. He finally came up for air after a few minutes of leaving me on the edge of my seat.
“It has been done before and you are taking a big leap of faith. I can see the novelty of sitting down to a cup of coffee, going over your emails and then unplugging for an hour with a decadent pastry at your fingertips. Let me run something by you. The growing trend is to be health conscious. What do you think about a doughnut that is baked and not fried without any sugar and the only sweetener is honey?” In the day and age of diabetes and obesity, his idea was on trend.
“We are going to be the secret that is on everybody’s lips. It means we’re going to have to get the renovations up and running as fast as possible. We need to be the first to introduce something like this before somebody else steals the idea.” I could see that he could understand where I was coming from and it meant throwing a lot of money into the business from the very beginning.
“I have soldiers on the front line wearing suits and pocket protectors to defend against any such piracy. My money and your great ideas are going to take us far.” We had found a way to think of something besides the hot animal sex that was foremost on our minds.
“Little businesses like mine without the necessary backing of a benefactor usually fall into bankruptcy the first year. Any kind of competition looking to capitalize on my idea will find the threat of litigation dogging their every step.” I heard the buzzing of his phone and he looked down.
He was not the least bit amused to see that the woman who had stomped on his heart was calling him.
“I’m in the middle of something. You should have thought about that before you threw the wedding ring back in my face. I know I was suffocating you. Don’t cry. We can talk about it, but I don’t think anything is going to change. I know it might seem sudden, but I’ve moved on. Yes, it is the woman that I have talked to you about. I know this is painful, but we both need to move on.” I grabbed his hand for some emotional support and I could see that it was hurting him deeply to give her the painful news that crawling back was never going to work.
He finally sat back with an air of exhaustion. There was no reason to say anything and I didn’t want to be the cause of any more problems in his life. He got up and left without saying a word and I had no idea what that meant.
The papers were right in front of me and I eagerly signed. It not only made us partners in business, but the chemistry between us was undeniable. I would give him time to come to terms with his decision to call things off with the other woman. I wasn’t going to say her name in fear that it would jinx what I thought was a sure thing.
I should’ve raced out after him in a declaration of solidarity with us against the world. I didn’t want to be clingy begging for his attention when he was being pulled in two different directions. A game of tug of war would only make him feel like he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.
The ink was barely dry on the documents, but I felt relieved to have him in my corner fighting on my behalf. We both had an investment in this business and it was tempting to give him more than 10%. We could always renegotiate when things were more solid underneath our feet.
Time was a commodity that we didn’t have. Hitting the ground running was necessary and I was going to have to remind him that life was nothing without risks. There was an inkling in the back of my mind that was telling me that he was only taking a chance on me because he wanted to get closer. I had to prove that my vision was not something I had thought about on the fly, pulling it out of the air from nowhere.
I had thought about all of this and barring any kind of complications things looked on track to turn this grandmother coffee shop into more than something to keep a roof over my head.
I had plans to franchise, but only when I could prove the concept to be viable. There were even fleeting thoughts of auditioning for one of those reality shows to pitch my business idea to those that could take us to the next level.