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Somehow that didn’t make me feel better. Deciding the taco might cool down my burning tongue, I took a bite. Ten seconds later, the heat had lessened from painful to merely uncomfortable.
“What did you want to talk about?” I asked before taking another mouthful.
She set her food down. “I’d like to ask a favor.”
“After you tried to kill me with that hot sauce?” I gulped more Coke.
She tried unsuccessfully to hold back a laugh. “I warned you, as I recall.”
Seeing her laugh made the mouth-burning exercise almost worthwhile. My taste buds had finally recovered enough to enjoy the food. “Pretty lame warning, I’d say.”
She shrugged. “I guess… It’s about Lara.” Her finger made a circle on the top of her Coke as she pondered her words.
“Is she all right?” I didn’t want to ask if she was in trouble again.
“Yes and no.”
I bit off another mouthful of taco, waiting for her.
“It would be good for the company too. It’s just…”
Whatever it was, she was uncharacteristically reluctant to mention it.
“No,” I said firmly. “Absolutely not.”
* * *
Nicole
The gall.To refuse what I wanted just because it was me?
I’d just decided he was fun to kid with, the way he’d taken his salsa error in stride, and then he went and showed me his evil side.
Huffing loudly enough that he’d get the message, I pointed out the obvious. “I didn’t even ask you yet.”
He nodded and smirked.
The asssmirked, like it was funny.
“That’s the point. If you don’t have the guts to ask for it, you can’t have it,” he said. “Another thing they obviously didn’t teach you at that school.”
I put down the taco in my hand lest I throw it at him. “When are you going to stop lecturing me?” I’d had enough of him putting down Stanford. My school was ranked higher than his, and that was a fact.
He lifted his Coke. “As soon as you learn to be decisive. It’s a lesson you need if you’re ever going to run the company.”
His statement floored me. “What do you mean?”
“I thought you wanted to run the company?” He chewed another bite of his lunch, nonchalantly waiting for me.
I’d never considered it anything but my destiny. Daddy had taken over for Grandpa, and as the only child, I’d been expected to follow in his footsteps, just as Josh was following in his father’s.
“Well, I am a Rossi.”
“Do you want Rossi’s to be the best it can be?”
The question was so insulting it almost didn’t deserve an answer. “Of course.”
“So do I, and that means you need to be the best you can be. And I’m suggesting you could be more decisive.”
