Page 77 of The October Arrangement

“I have a meeting at ten o’clock with all the departments involved in the Tribeca project. I want you in that meeting.”

“Me?” Her brows furrowed. “Why?”

“Because you get it. It’s what you do, right?” My brow arched.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“I want you to explain it to my team. You got my full attention, and I know you’d have theirs.”

“I don’t know, Simon.”

“Look, you spent five minutes looking at a campaign my marketing department has spent months on and hundreds of thousands of dollars creating, and you immediately saw something none of us did. Please, Bella. I’ll pay you a consultation fee.”

“I don’t want your money.”

“I know that. But you would be consulting, and we pay our consultants. Please. I’m out of options here.” I begged.

“Fine. I’ll talk to your people.”

“Thank you.” I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me.

“I just had a thought,” I said.

“What’s your thought?”

“We’ve both had shitty days and are in bad moods. I know something we can do to get us out of our funk,” I said, smirking.

“Sex?” She stared at me.

“Is there anything better at erasing bad moods?” I smiled.

“Let’s go.” She jumped up from the couch and grabbed my hand.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Bella

I stood at the island, clutching my coffee, dressed in a nice black pantsuit. I wasn’t so sure about this. I’d never done a presentation before in front of a group of people, and I was nervous. Simon walked into the kitchen, stopped, and stared at me.

“Wow.”

“What?” I tipped the cup to my lips.

“You look very professional.”

“Thanks. But I’m still nervous as hell. Is it too late to back out?”

“Yes, it is. You’re coming to the office with me. You’ll have two hours to put your ideas in motion before the meeting. We’ll have everything you’ll need in the conference room.”

“I don’t think I can do this, Simon.”

He walked over and gripped my hips. “You can do it, Bella. You know what you’re talking about.”

“I know social media. I don’t know anything about luxury real estate.”

“You don’t need to know luxury real estate. I have an entire fucking building full of people who know luxury real estate, and we’re sitting on fifty-plus unsold units.”

“That’s not helping my anxiety,” I said.