Page 4 of Love in Times of Contempt

How Liam could be calm, awaiting the important news from one of their lawyers, was beyond Ana. It was hard to believe that she now had access to a team of them, all with different specializations, thanks to her boyfriend. Wild.

Ana grinned. This was a piece of news she'd been wanting to share while looking at his gorgeous face. She had big plans for this conversation. "Yes, we finally have the green light. We can actually start looking for an office, prep the launch of the rebrand, et cetera."

"Yes! Finally!" He reached to hold her hand over the table. "We can really get started on this. Though I don't know how excited we're going to be as we go about hiring people."

She nodded, taking a sip of water. "I know. It's like trusting our baby to other people. But we need help, especially in the next few months."

"Yeah, we need help." He squeezed her hand again and let it go, returning to his plate. "Getting to this point was hard already, just the two of us— and Mo, with all his personal assistant superpowers— it slowed down the documentary production. We need to get this started and hire people."

Ana speared a shrimp with her fork. "Agreed. You can tell Jen to keep it all in mind when she's doing her agent-y thing, so that the flow of your projects gives you room for production tasks." She scooped some coconut milk sauce on the shrimp and took a bite.

"I'll write to her tomorrow. Should I ask Mo to put out the word that we're hiring an operations manager and a social impact manager?"

She studied him, fork resting on her plate, and gulped down the sudden nerves gripping her throat.

He stared back, a curl appearing at the corner of his mouth. "Out with it. I know you're preparing to tell me something."

A smile formed on her lips despite her apprehension. "Yeah, you're right. I've been thinking… What if we hired Ely as the social impact manager? Listen," she argued, even though she didn't see any signs that he would interrupt her. "Ely is the best at everything, you know that." He chuckled, which gave her a push to finish her plea. "She has lots of experience in the not-for-profit world, dealing with the for-profit world, and she already has expertise managing social media campaigns."

"Ely, huh?" Liam rested his fork on the plate as well, steepling his hands together, elbows on the table.

"Yes. I honestly think she'd be amazing for the job. Really. But in the spirit of full disclosure, the fact that she'd have to move here is appealing to me, too."

He laughed. "Of course it is."

"So what do you think?" She picked up her fork again, but didn't use it right away.

"Well…" Liam took his fork as well and shoveled a big bite into his mouth. Ana imitated him as he thought. "Honestly, I'm kind of excited. I've been thinking about that myself. You know I love Ely and my gut says she'd be amazing for the role. My mind says I should be more professional about this and interview her with the job in mind, though."

"You've been thinking about it? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I've been trying to think about it from different angles, and I didn't want you to get excited about it if it doesn't make sense."

Ana picked up the last of her food with the help of her knife, and savored the last bite. Hearing Liam had considered the idea himself released the last of her nerves.

"I think it makes sense. She's perfect to build what we want out of the position; she's had to wear so many hats at work before. You know how it is in the not-for-profit world, sometimes."

Liam arched an eyebrow. "Do I?"

She squinted at him. "Ha. Anyway, I'm a hundred percent sure of the social impact side of things. If the social media thing felt too difficult for her, she could always outsource it. You know that's in our business model already."

"Have you talked to her about this yet?" Liam took his last bite of food and reached for his glass of water.

Ana dabbed her lips with her napkin. "No, I wanted to talk with you first."

"Thanks." He smiled. "I know it must have been hard for you not to discuss it with her."

"It was," she said, mirroring his grin. She squeezed his hand over the table this time. "But you're my partner. In business and— god, I don't know how to say this in a non-clichéd way, but you're also my partner in life."

He laughed. "I share the sentiment, if not the corny words."

She shook her head and tried to let go of his hand, but he grabbed it and linked their fingers together, his smile impish. "I'm tempted to challenge you to find a better way to say it."

"Tell me you missed me, instead."

Ana pursed her lips, considering. "I suppose I did. Maybe that's why I kept having this image in my head, the entire time you were gone. I kept thinking… Bloomington isn't the right place for me anymore."

Despite her show of nonchalance, nerves twirled in her stomach. He remained silent, but his eyes softened and a small smile appeared on his lips.