Sleepless In Manhattan. Sarah Morgan

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СКАЧАТЬ had a knack for saying the right thing.

      Jake reached for a beer. “To playing it safe.”

      Paige ground her teeth.

      Jake, on the other hand, had a habit of saying what he thought, regardless of time or place.

      She felt like emptying her champagne over his sleek, dark head. As usual he seemed to be deliberately trying to goad her.

      “Your bedside manner needs serious attention, Jake.”

      “I’ve never had complaints.” Dark lashes shielded the glitter of amusement in his eyes and the spasm of sexual awareness shocked her. She should have been used to it by now. Kissing Jake had featured large in her fantasies for almost a decade, even when she’d tried hard to switch the fantasy to something less dangerous. She imagined him using all that raw power and muscle to pull in a woman, all that charisma and hot sexuality to make sure she never wanted to step away. Although she’d long since stopped hoping anything would happen between them, she’d discovered that sexual attraction wasn’t something you could easily switch off. There were days when she wished he would kiss her just so that she could stop fantasizing. Everyone knew reality never came close to fantasy and she would have given a lot to have her illusions crushed.

      The breeze lifted her hair and sounds of laughter drifted up from the streets below as people walked home after a night out. Lights glowed in windows, dogs barked, a siren shrieked and a car door slammed. Life went on.

      She thought wistfully back to this time yesterday. She’d been planning what to wear for her interview, excited about her promotion, planning the future.

      And now she was unemployed.

      What was she supposed to do tomorrow? Get up, get out of bed and do what? Spend the day job hunting? Even if she found another job, it wouldn’t be with her friends.

      She tried to imagine how it would feel to not be working with Frankie and Eva.

      “How much money would I need to set up a business?” She blurted out the words, her heart racing.

      “You’d have some up-front costs,” Jake said. “Mostly legal. I’m willing to pay for that. I believe in you.”

      Matt rose to his feet and sent Jake an incinerating glare. “Get him a bowl of chips, Ev. Enough to fill his mouth so he can’t speak.”

      “I want him to speak.” Paige knew that if she wanted a straight answer, she had to talk to Jake. He didn’t protect her the way her brother did. “You really think I could do it?”

      “If you adjust your attitude.” Jake took a swig of beer. “You’re too risk-averse. You cling to control like a climber on a rock face. You want guarantees and you won’t find them running your own business. You want safe, and there is no safe. There’s risk, a ton of hard work, sometimes for nothing. Businesses fold every day. It’s not for the fainthearted.”

      If she’d been Claws, she would have scratched him. “I’m not afraid to take a risk if it’s for something I want badly enough. And there’s nothing wrong with my heart. It’s as strong as yours.” And it was beating hard in her chest, as if to back her up.

      Why not?

       Why not?

      An idea was taking shape in her head and with it came an unexpected rush of excitement. Some of the heaviness that had been there since the meeting with Cynthia lifted. “We should do it. Frankie? Eva?”

      Frankie glanced up from her plants. “Do what?”

      “Start our own business.”

      “Are you serious? I assumed you and Jake were having one of your fights.”

      “I’m serious. We have skills. We’re good at what we do.”

      “Cynthia didn’t think so.” Eva slumped on the cushion and Paige felt a rush of anger.

      “Don’t let her do that to you. We’re not going to let her knock our confidence.”

      “All right, but I don’t think I can run a business, Paige.” Eva looked doubtful. “I can ice the perfect wedding cake and make good pastry. I’m a decent writer and people seem to like my blog, but strategy doesn’t interest me and spreadsheets make my head ache.”

      “I’ll do that part. Your natural ability to create delicious food is your special gift. You invent new dishes every day of the week and you’re wonderful with people. Customers love you. No one soothes a tense situation better than you do.”

      Frankie rocked back on her heels and wiped the soil from her fingers. “None of us has any experience running a business.”

      “I’ll learn that part.” Her mind was racing. She had contacts; she was capable. She did her job well for other people; why not for herself? “We’d have control. We’d get to decide who we work for. It would be fun.”

      “It would be risky.” Matt’s expression was serious. “One of the main reasons companies fail is because they don’t think about their customer or their competition. The city is full of event planners.”

      “So we need to be different. Better. Clients like the personal touch. If you’re super wealthy, you expect good service. Star Events operated within rigid lines, but what if we don’t? What if, as well as organizing your event, we’re happy to handle all the little things that are clogging up your day? Cynthia moaned, but customers loved the fact that we always went that extra mile. We don’t only organize their event, we’re there for everything, from dry-cleaning your silk tie to cat sitting.”

      Eva eyed Claws. “I don’t have a talent for cat sitting. And how are we going to offer all that when there are only three of us?”

      “We can outsource. Have preferred vendors. We’re not trying to fund a huge bloated company with staff like Cynthia, who take a salary but do nothing to bring in business. We’ll keep it lean. We’re not the only ones who lost our jobs. There are plenty of people who would be happy to freelance for us.” Her mind was racing, leaping over hurdles and looking for possibilities and solutions. “Look at this another way. What do we have? What are we good at? We’re organized and we have great contacts. We know every hot venue in town—clubs, bars, restaurants. We know how to get the best tickets for the best events. We know how to manage things when everything goes wrong. We’re brilliant at multitasking and we’re friendly and hardworking. What is the one thing most people in Manhattan don’t have?”

      Eva reached for her sweater. “You mean apart from a sex life?”

      Jake smiled. “Speak for yourself.”

      Paige ignored him. “Time. They don’t have time. People have too much to do and no time to do it in and the stress of it stops them from enjoying every part of their life. Everyone wants forty-eight-hour days because twenty-four isn’t enough. That’s what we’re going to fix. We are going to be the people who give them hours back in their day.”

      Frankie adjusted her glasses. “I can’t see corporations employing us. We’d be too small.”

      “Small can be good. Small makes us nimble and responsive. Doesn’t mean we can’t be as professional as a large company СКАЧАТЬ