“Okay, fine,” I admitted, “it’s possible that I had a little crush on you – briefly – when we were younger. But as for Friday, well, it’s been a while for me since I’ve, uh, been with someone and you’re not completely hideous looking so… let’s just say we got carried away in the moment.”
Grace stared at me for so long I had to try hard not to squirm.
“We should fuck.”
Unfortunately, I was taking a sip of my coffee when Grace let those choice words out. I sputtered, trying not to spit out my drink, which caused me to choke on it and start coughing. Gracewatched me impassively as I tried to keep from aspirating my coffee.
“You okay there?” she finally asked. Her expression was totally neutral but her eyes danced with amusement.
“Did you just…,” I looked around to make sure no one I knew was nearby, “suggest that we have sex?”
She nodded. “Sure, why not. You said it’s been a while for you, and it’s been a while for me too. We both know we’re going to give in and work on this damned project, but it’ll be hard to concentrate if we are lusting after each other. So we should fuck it out. Clear the air. It’ll be like rebooting the computer.”
Even though I knew I’d never get that scene in the conference room out of my mind, I’d read enough romance books to know that what Grace was suggesting was a terrible idea.
“I’m not going to have sex with you!”
Grace shrugged like it didn’t matter to here either way. For some reason, that stung.
“Okay fine, let’s talk about the project then.”
I stared at her for a few seconds, struggling to keep up. She was giving me whiplash.
“Okay fine?” I repeated, expecting her to argue more.
“It was just a suggestion. If you’re not into it, I’ll find someone else to scratch my itch. Now let’s focus on work. I have tons of shit to do today.”
I felt a pinch in my gut that felt a little bit like jealousy. Obviously, I needed more coffee. Who Grace slept with was none of my concern. I took a long sip of my cold brew before responding.
“I’m probably going to regret this, but I think we should go for it,” I said. “The project I mean. Getting the Grant Park College job would be a game changer for both of our companies.”
Grace nodded, but I could tell by her expression she wasn’t happy about it. This was going to be a monster project, and working together would just make it more complicated for both of us.
“You’re right about that. If we don’t at least try, we’ll probably regret it. And our parents will be pissed. I don’t want drama with my parents, and I’m sure you don’t either.”
I nodded. That was one thing we could agree on.
“But this is really going to impact my ability to run my own business,” she continued. “And to be honest, my work at AGM gives me way more joy than what my parents do. But… full disclosure, my ego is involved now and there’s a huge part of me that wants to stick it to all those male developers that were assholes to me all these years by winning this bid from them.”
“I get that. And I’m in full agreement. But maybe we can figure out some way to make this a joint project between all three companies,” I suggested. “That would only strengthen our proposal.”
Grace looked thoughtful. “Yes, I like that. How about we work on some ideas, then we can present it to my partners?”
“Sounds good. Let’s figure out a plan.”
The next few weeks flew by in a blur of meetings. Architects. Environmental engineers. City planners. Property managers. Financial gurus. Investors.
It was all hands on deck. We needed to get all the information that we could about the site to create a proposed plan for it that would wow the selection committee. For such an important project, it had a ridiculously short timeline, something that favored the larger firms who had more resources.
But we were making the most of what we had. I’d assigned several people from my firm to help with the proposal, and Grace had done the same with her family’s company. And once we had a glimmer of an idea, we brought in Ariel and Maeve, who’d agreed to join the proposal and dedicate some of their staff to help with the retail side of the proposal.
Grace and I met every single morning, usually on Zoom, to do status updates and work through issues. Even though we had a fair number of disagreements, I was surprised how well we worked together.
Ariel’s assistant Theo was providing some administrative support. He had created a complex project planning chart for us, and we were all using it to track the many moving parts of getting the proposal ready. Although I knew Ariel and Maeve from school, I met Theo for the first time when we all got together for our first planning session.
Theo was an extremely handsome and smartly dress Black man with a snarky charm that made me like him immediately. When we took a break he told me all about how Ariel had fallen in love with her house cleaner, and he’d helped get them back together.
“I fancy myself a bit of a matchmaker,” he told me in a confiding voice. “So you just let me know if you want some help in that area.”
