Beau Vincent and Paul Trask came that afternoon, but there wasn’t much they could do on their own. They all went to a nearby coffee shop after they had toured the store and surveyed the damage. It could have been much worse, and Spencer was grateful it wasn’t. They had just ordered coffee when Beau looked at Spencer with a quizzical eye.
“Excuse me, Ms. Brooke, would you like to explain how Mike Weston happened to show up here last night, acting like your best friend?” She looked embarrassed for a minute and smiled at them. Paul looked like he was about to keel over when he heard it.
“The Mike Weston you’ve been refusing to meet?”
“The very same,” she admitted. “He invited me to the event at the Met last night. He was the Honorary Chair. He sent me two tickets I didn’t know were from him and he had me seated next to him. I told him that if he said a word of business, I’d leave. So he didn’t, and he was very nice to talk to. He was sitting next to me when I got the call about the fire, and he showed up on his own.”
“Are you willing to talk to him now?” Paul asked her.
“Maybe. I haven’t decided yet. I’ll concede that he seems to be a nice person, but that doesn’t mean I want to be in business with him. I’ll think about if I want a meeting with him.”
“Well, let me know,” Paul said, still stunned by the latest development.
They left after that. There wasn’t much they could do. She had a text from Mike that afternoon when she got home, just asking how she was, and offering anything he could do to help her. He had been nothing but kind since they met. He wasn’t at all like what she had expected.
She didn’t hear from Bill until ten o’clock that night, and she was profoundly shocked by that. He called her while she was lying on her bed, watching TV, trying not to worry about the store. It had been a deeply upsetting twenty-four hours, with no word from him.
“So, how’d it go last night?” he asked blithely, as though inquiring about another party she’d gone to after the Met.
“How’d it go? My store was on fire and we lost most of the top floor and the roof, with water and smoke damage on the other floors. How do you think it went? It didn’t occur to you to call a little sooner? Mike Weston showed up to help us, and I only met him last night. We’ve been dating for two years and you couldn’t give me a call?” She was angry at him.
He sounded instantly uncomfortable. “Sorry, Spence, I was busy.”
“Doing what? If your house caught on fire, I’d call you.”
“I’m calling now, and it wasn’t your house. So I knew your kids were fine, it was just the store, and you said I didn’t have to come.”
“You could have called.”
“True. I didn’t think of it till now.” He was honest although not impressive. “And you and Weston looked cozy last night. I thought you hated him.”
“I do. I did,” she corrected herself. “He’s a nice person. That doesn’t mean I want to be in business with him or give up my store.”
“His wife is a total beast. She was pissed off all evening. She said she hates going out with him. She hates a lot of things. It was like talking to an angry porcupine all night.”
“You seemed to hit it off with the blonde on your other side,” Spencer commented.
“Yeah, I did,” he said in a noncommittal tone, and Spencer had the feeling that he’d spent the night with her, which was why he hadn’t called. She didn’t ask, and didn’t want to know. His not calling or showing up for the fire told her all she needed to know.
“I think we’ve about done it, Bill, don’t you?” There was a long silence at his end. It was what he wanted too, but he hadn’t expected her to be so direct, so soon. He wanted to see the blonde he’d spent the night with again. It had been an incredible night for them.
“I guess you’re right,” he said cautiously. “I thought we had a little more mileage left in us,” he said. But not Spencer, after the fire. He was just too cavalier and disengaged. What was the point of being with someone who cared so little about her?
“I don’t think we do,” she said coolly.
“I hope the agency doesn’t lose the Brooke’s account because of me,” he said. It was all he could think of now, and that he’d get fired if they lost the account. But Spencer wasn’t a vengeful person, he couldn’t see her doing that.
“Don’t worry, they won’t.”