“You!” a woman yelled. For a split second, I thought it was Camilla. Then a lazy grin spread across my face as Ivy huffed up to me, dragging a big box behind her. Her curls were plastered to her head with sweat.
“You didn’t have to come all the way here to thank me,” I said, jerking my chin at the box.
“You!” Ivy leaned over and sucked in air.
“You seemed really upset that I ate your lasagna, so I bought more for you,” I said. “You’re welcome,” I added.
“I am not thanking you,” she replied, jabbing me in the chest. “Where am I supposed to put all of this?” She gestured to the box. “Huh? You’ve been in my apartment. You know how tiny it is. Where in the world do you think I’m going to store all of this? Are you seriously this clueless? You have no idea about how the real world works, do you?”
I glared at her. The wedding planner was puffed up with anger. She was sort of adorable if I ignored the shrieking.
“Excuse me for trying to do something nice,” I drawled.
“It wasn’t nice, it was inconsiderate.”
“You’re inconsiderate,” I retorted. “Throwing my very nice gift back in my face.”
“Very nice? It’s a box of pasta!”
“You like pasta,” I reminded her.
“Nice gifts are jewelry,” Ivy countered.
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’d rather have jewelry than lasagna with locally grown tomatoes, cheese imported from Italy, and pasta handmade by Cameli’s grandmother?”
Ivy glared at me. “Yes, of course.”
“Liar.”
“Go suck on a lemon!” she shrieked. “I can’t believe I ever wasted my time helping you!”
Ivy turned in a huff to head toward the subway. Then she stopped, backtracked, grabbed two trays of lasagna out of the box, and stomped off again.
“I knew it!” I crowed.
“If my hands weren’t full, I’d make a very rude gesture!” she shot back.
I had a courier take the lasagna to my penthouse. It was good pasta; there was no way I was going to let it go to waste. Plus I was going to need it and a good half bottle of Scotch to decompress from my next meeting.
The Svensson Investment tower loomed against the sea of other glass structures in downtown. I forced myself to adopt the bored professional demeanor that helped when you had to deal with the Svensson brothers. The Svenssons were all arranged in the conference room when I entered—all with the same blond hair and flat grey eyes. They were like evil clones poised to make my already rocky life even worse.
“You have not delivered the land as you promised,” Greg said from his spot at the head of the conference table. He was arguably the worst of the bunch—cold, sociopathic, interested only in money and keeping his brothers in line.
“Sebastian really talked you up,” he continued, watching me like a hyena as I took a seat. “We didn’t have to let you in on this deal, but we did.”
His half brother Archer let out a dramatic sigh. “Seriously, Greg? This is like The Godfather or some shit. Evan has just had the worst day of his life.”
“Thank you, Archer,” I said.
“He’s demoralized, deballed!”
“Thanks, Archer.”
“It’s like someone took his manhood, put it in a Vitamix with some organic strawberries and coconut milk, and drank it.”
“Thank you, Archer,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Namaste,” he replied, giving me a little bow.
I turned to Greg. “I’m working on the land acquisition.”
“Are you? Because the daughter of the owner is not your wife, which was, if I am not mistaken, a stipulation of your receiving the land.”
“We’re in talks.”
Greg sneered. “Talks? Is this why Camilla cheated on you—because you’re all talk and no action?”
I jumped up.
“Fuck you, Greg.”
“Whoa!” his brother Walker said. “Sorry, Evan, Greg’s in a bad mood. Crawford’s back in town, there’s rumors that Harrogate isn’t going to serve alcohol at town meetings anymore—”
“Why would they…”
“Don’t ask. Small town.” Beck shook his head. “They’re heathens over there. Nothing like Manhattan.”
“Which is why we really need this deal to go through,” Carl Svensson added. “That property was a key piece because it linked the assemblage to the HighLine trail.”
“Yes, I know. I’m working on it,” I assured him.
“Really?” Greg asked. “Are you going to get back together with Camilla?”
“Hell no!”
“You should. That’s the only way her father is going to give you that property. Honestly, Evan,” he said in disgust, “we didn’t go into business with you because you’re special, we did so because of your connections to the Sutherlands. And now you have lost those connections. Orson Sutherland is not going to just hand over the property because you two shook hands. So I suggest you get back together with his daughter and give me my property.”
“Fuck you.” I stood up and buttoned my jacket. “I’ll secure the property, but I’m not getting back together with Camilla to do so. So you’ll just have to wait.”
Greg’s brother Mike, Archer’s cofounder, was coming off the elevator when I walked out of the conference room.
“Meeting over already?” he asked me.
“Your brother is a piece of shit.”
“Which one?”
“All of them.”
“Yeah, sounds about right.” Mike patted me on the shoulder. “Greg’s just in a bad mood.”
“That’s what I keep hearing.”
“If it wasn’t you, he was going to chew me out about not being able to sell that penthouse at the top of the Brookview hotel that we just built.”
He pointed to a familiar picture on the wall in the waiting area. It was the same one that was on Ivy’s mood board.
“It cost us millions to fit out that penthouse,” Mike told me. “Each one of those clock windows was like a hundred fifty thousand dollars. I don’t suppose you want to buy it?” He grinned at me.
“After I close out this deal with your brother, I never want to touch real estate ever again,” I told him.
Mike laughed. “That’s what I said after my first deal. But you’ll see. It will all work out and be amazing. You’re going to turn into a real estate shark!”
I’m not going to be anything, I thought as I rode in the town car to my penthouse uptown, if I don’t find a way to make Orson Sutherland give me that land.
Then I remembered Imogen. My half sister was marrying Sutherland’s nephew. I’d heard Teddy talk about his uncle on occasion. They seemed fairly close. Maybe being in the wedding party would help me score the land without having to deal with Camilla. I could put in a good word with Teddy and have him talk to Sutherland on my behalf.
As much as I didn’t want to go near another wedding, it couldn’t be that bad, right? I mean, the wedding planner did all the work. I just had to show up.