Chapter Thirty-Two ~ Chloe
A few weeks had passed since Comic Con and everything was going beautifully.
Reardon and I were officially dating, and it was better than I’d ever imagined. I’d never actually had an adult relationship with a man, and I found that I took to it like a fish to water. It was nice to have someone to talk to, spend the occasional night with, and go places with.
I was so used to being alone, or with just Chris or Zoey, that I worried I’d feel suffocated by a boyfriend, but Reardon wasn’t like that at all.
He wasn’t clingy, annoying, or controlling. He was affectionate, easy going, and always open to suggestion.
We complemented each other really well.
Our families all seemed to take our relationship in stride, and although their easy acceptance sometimes made me worried, like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, it had made Reardon and I that much closer.
“How’s it going, chica?” Jasmine asked as she approached the table, pulling me out of my musings.
“Really good,” I replied with a smile. “How
about you?”
Jasmine sat across from me and sighed, “So busy. We’re looking at expanding, so there’s been a lot of research and numbers. God, I hate numbers.”
I chuckled and took a sip of my water.
“I feel ya; accounting is never my favorite part, but it’s a necessary evil.”
“Yeah,” Jasmine whined, tossing her thick red hair over her shoulder, “but that’s supposed to be Dillon’s department, not mine, yet he still keeps making me help.”
She was still pouting prettily when Laurel joined us.
“Uh-oh, I know that face. What did Dillon do now?” she asked as she sat.
“He’s making me do math,” Jasmine spat, as if it was a dirty word.
Laurel just laughed.
“Silver lining,” Jasmine said, her face clearing as a smile took over, her bad moon gone just like that. “I get to go on a trip.”
“Oh, where are you going?” I asked.
“San Francisco, Seattle, and Boise.”
“That’s a random list,” Laurel said, smiling at the waitress who approached our table.
Once our orders were in, Jasmine turned to Laurel and replied, “We’re scoping out prospects for new stores. Dillon was going to go at first, but he has so much going on right here that I offered to go instead. I need to get away, have a little fun, you know.”
“Yeah, I wish I could get away,” Laurel admitted, and I gave her a small smile.
We’d been working on getting the business expansion going, and Reardon was helping with the permits and such, but I knew Laurel was concerned about it taking longer than anticipated.
“What’s up?” Jasmine asked.
“Oh, just this business plan,” Laurel replied with a shrug. “It’s starting to drive me nuts.”
“You should talk to Dillon,” she suggested, and I watched as panic fluttered across Laurel’s face, before she closed it down and asked calmly, “Why?”
Hmmmm, interesting…
“Um, because he successfully runs a business. He loves that stuff. I bet he could write a business plan in his sleep. And, Laurel, you know he’d be happy to help.”