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“Is your mother all right?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah,” she answers. “She just gets lonely sometimes.”
“Is your father not around?”
Paige pauses. I realize I might have overstepped. “Not so much, no,” she says. “It’s just the two of us nowadays.”
“Sorry,” I say, clearing my throat. “I didn’t mean to bring up?—”
“No, it’s fine!” She waves a hand as she pivots back to the stock. “Let’s finish this up, shall we?”
I smirk as I present my clipboard. “Already did.”
She blinks twice as she takes it from me and scans the front page. “We’re... done?”
“We’re done,” I say. “New York day two is officially in the bag.”
She releases another deep sigh. “Oh, thank the lord. I thought it’d never end.”
“Working with me is that hard, eh?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean—” She stops as she notices my smirk. “Yes, I admit it,” she jokes. “It’s awful. You’re awful. This was awful.”
“Really?”
“Worst day of my professional life. Yes.”
I chuckle. “Then, let me make it up to you.” I snatch the clipboard from her hand. “Let’s go get a drink.”
Predictably, Paige inhales sharply to argue her way out of it.
“Please,” I say before she can. “You blew me off last night and the night before that?—”
“I didn’t blow you off. Come on.”
“We just spent a full day auditing the massive, five-star, Botsford Plaza New York restaurant,” I argue. “We came, we saw, we conquered the hell out of it, and I want to celebrate with a drink at the bar with my new best friend.”
Her lips twitch. “Oliver?—”
“You and me. Right now. On me. Let’s go.”
“But—”
“One drink and you can explain to me why exactly I should root for Melissa and Richard to be together,” I say, dropping the bait.
Paige’s jaw opens wide. “Excuse me?”
I shrug a shoulder. “I don’t see why they should end up together.”
“Uh... because they’re meant to be!”
“But why, though? He’s a jerk. She deserves better.”
She scoffs. “That’s so?—”
I hold a finger to her lips, stopping her. “Save it for the bar,” I say, quickly turning around taking a few triumphant strides toward the door. “Come on. Head downstairs, slip into something a little more casual, and meet me in ten. I’ll do the same.”
Paige arches a brow. “Casual?”
