“Elena, this is a courtesy call. I’m gifting you the business. I’ve been in touch with Debra Kingston; she’s drawing up the paperwork. It’s over. We can’t do this anymore.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I mean it. I no longer have the energy for your bullshit. I asked you to leave Ana alone and you ignored my request. We reap what we sow, Mrs. Lincoln. It’s over. Don’t call me.”
“Chris—” I hear the alarm in her voice as I hang up.
My phone buzzes immediately, her name flashing on my screen. I switch it off and look over my to-do list.
I have about an hour before the press conference, so to take my mind off Elena, I pick up my office phone and call my brother.
“Hey, hotshot. Having second thoughts?”
“Fuck off, Elliot.”
“She’s having second thoughts?” He snickers.
“Could you silence your inner asshole for two minutes?”
“That long? Dubious.”
“I’m buying a house.”
“Whoa. For you and the future Mrs. Grey? That was quick. You knocked her up?”
“No!” For fuck’s sake.
He cackles on his end of the phone. “Don’t tell me. It’s in Denny-Blaine or Laurelhurst?”
Ah, the tech millionaires’ suburbs of choice.
“No.”
“Medina?”
I laugh. “That’s far too near Mom and Dad. It’s on the water just north of Broadview.”
“You’re kidding.”
to watch the sun sink
knew you were
I certainly didn’t. “It
does?” That has Elliot’s interest. “You want me to recommend
I want something sustainable and
He sounds surprised. “Can I
yet, but we’re going ahead with surveys over the next
But you’ll need an architect. I can
the woman who oversaw the
She’s now at some fancy
house in Aspen. And I seem to remember
“Yeah. Um… Sure.”
“You sound hesitant.”
kind of woman who doesn’t take no for
“What do you mean?”
to get
got no problem with
have I,” says Elliot. “In fact,
Kavanagh
and I…” Elliot
roll. My brother suffers from sexual incontinence. “Will that
course not.
take a look at her updated portfolio.”
Let me know when we
“Will do. Laters.”
“Dude.”
head. Does he know that Katherine Kavanagh has designs on him? Could he not see that over
in half an hour. I review it and make some changes; as usual, his prose is overwrought and pretentious. Sometimes I don’t know why I hired
later he’s knocking on
“Christian. Are you ready?”
you suggesting that this could be
We are keeping an open
How did you meet Anastasia Steele?” I think this
not answering any specific questions about my private life. I’ll