“Step one: buy the girl dinner. Step two: do it again. Step three: take over the world.” Holly nodded thoughtfully. “It seems like it could work.”
Nathan chuckled and held up his wine glass for a cheers. She happily clinked her glass against his and took a sip. It was delicious. Definitely not just the house red.
“I wanted to ask you something,” Nathan said, carefully setting his glass down on the white tablecloth. The candlelight flickered against the wine, creating beautiful patterns on the cloth.
“Anything,” Holly replied.
“I’m thinking about keeping ECT here,” he said, watching her face.
Holly’s eyes went big and a smile filled her fa
ce. “Really?”
“Shh.” He glanced around. “It’s not official yet.”
“But you’re really going to do it?”
“The connection with the university is too good to lose. The staff is happy here and we can keep salaries priced for this area rather than trying to compete with the Bay Area,” he explained. “The more I think about it, the more I know it’s the right decision.”
Holly grinned at him.
“When I asked you to look into it, I didn’t think you were actually going to change the decision of the company,” Holly said softly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he warned. “I still have to run this by the board of directors. I may be the official owner, but they are the ones that set the rules.”
“Thank you anyway,” she told him. “It means a lot.”
Nathan reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It also means that I’ll be here more.”
Her grin widened. “Really?”
Maybe she didn’t have to look for jobs in California after all.
“I’d have to spend most of my time at the Paradigm headquarters, but I would have a good reason to come out here more often,” he replied. He made a nonchalant shrug. “Maybe we could hang out or something.”
She laughed. “Yeah. We could go to football game.”
Nathan laughed, squeezing her hand. “Basketball. Not football.”
Holly took a sip of her wine, using it to give her courage. “You’re not doing this for me, are you?” she asked him.
He smiled at her, his eyes dark and soft in the candlelight. “You’re a perk. You are the cherry on top. The sundae is the company being successful here. George struck gold with his college recruitment. He said, ‘get them before they know they’re talent.’ And he’s absolutely right. It’s brilliant. There’s so much potential for growth, and I have these ideas for a new... Why are you smiling at me like that?”
Holly was grinning from ear to ear. “Because you sound so excited about it. Like you came up with a solution to a difficult puzzle. You haven’t talked about your job once like this since I met you. But, right now, I can see that you love it.”
“I love parts of it,” he replied. “I like the idea of starting some new tech here. Elements has the setup I need to bring a new plan to the market.”
“And there’s that enthusiasm again,” Holly said.
She liked seeing him like this. He was alive with idea. She could see how he ran a business as big as Paradigm when he was like this. He was all energy and dreams.
“To be honest, it’s the first I’ve been excited for a while,” he admitted. “I don’t want to run the business. I’m not a great businessman, but Elements has the tech that can change things. I love working with that. I’ve been more excited to go to that office and play in the R&D department than anything else.”
“Do you like your job?” Holly asked him, tilting her head to the side.
Nathan looked at her surprised. “Usually.”
“Usually?” she asked. “You just said this is the first you've been excited in a while.”