Date Shark (38 page)

The feel of hands clamping down on her shoulders brought Leila’s eyes up and away from the shoes. Ana stared at her with a smile. “Before you have a meltdown—which it looks like you’re about to do—take a deep breath and let me explain.”

Leila couldn’t say yes or no. She couldn’t manage to say anything at all. The most she could do was stay frozen in stupid bewilderment. Ana apparently took that as a sign for her to go ahead with her explanation.

“I know you forbade Eli from telling me about these because you had some crazy idea that I would be mad, but I’m so glad he did. Leila, your designs are fabulous.”

“But … but they were just for fun. I’m not a designer.”

The look on Ana’s face said Leila was insane. “What do you mean you’re not a designer? You design my marketing packages every day! You’re an exceptional artist. I wouldn’t have hired you if you weren’t. Fashion design isn’t about drawing. It’s about creating. Everyone has their own style and tools. Yours just happens to be paper and glue,” Ana said happily.

Still dumbfounded, Leila said, “I told Eli not to mention those designs to anyone. Why would he go behind my back like this?”

“He wanted to do something special for you,” Ana said. Her hand gently touched Leila’s shoulder. “He wanted to show you how absolutely wonderful he thinks you are, something you don’t seem to understand like everyone else in your life does. This is his gift to you for everything you’ve done for him.”

“Done for him?” Leila questioned. “I haven’t done anything for him. He’s been the one helping me.”

Ana shook her head. “It’s not my place to air all of Eli’s problems, but please trust me when I say you’ve been a good influence in his life. He’s changed quite a lot since meeting you, and certainly for the better.”

Finding words after something like that proved impossible. Leila stood like a fish gulping for air—a million thoughts running through her mind, but incapable of putting any of them into words. “I don’t know what to say,” she finally managed.

“Don’t say anything until you see the rest of it,” Ana chirped. She grabbed Leila’s hand and yanked her toward the secluded design studio. Leila’s mind was floundering. Just as they swung around the divider, she remembered the intern mentioning dresses.

And there they were.

Leila stumbled to a stop at the sight of her paper designs brought to life. The layers of gathered yellow fabric looked as delicious as homemade lemon meringue. Her hand covered her mouth at the sight of the empire-waisted cream gown with ruching on the bodice. The pearls sewn into the diagonal seam were something she hadn’t considered before, but she absolutely loved them. An Audrey Hepburn inspired black tea length gown with off the shoulder sleeves made her want to run home and watch
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
, it was so beautiful.

“Ana, they’re gorgeous! How did you manage this?” Leila asked breathlessly.

“I hardly did anything. These are your designs. They’re so beautiful because of you, not me, and …” Ana hesitated when her phone buzzed on the table. She ignored it for the time being and continued. “Leila, I want to use your designs.”

The air seemed to be sucked out of the room at that moment. Leila suddenly had trouble breathing. Ana couldn’t possibly mean she wanted
her
designs. She wanted to use them. What did that mean?

“I asked you a while ago about branching out, opening a new store. With a brand new line, concept, and name.”

“Uh huh,” Leila mumbled, completely unsure about where this was going. Leila had told her boss she was confident branching out would be a success. Suddenly she had doubts.

Ana grinned. She walked over to the far wall and pulled a sheet of fabric away. Leila was stunned beyond words when she saw
Sparro
scrawled elegantly across the oval logo. Anna turned back, beaming. “I want your designs for the new store. The new store and line will be named after you. You’ll be lead designer. You can even have your own gaggle of interns and assistants to boss around.”

“But … but, I’m not a designer.”

“You are now,” Ana said.

Leila didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t stop staring at her dresses. She touched the patterned cap sleeve of a minidress paired with snug black leggings. This was beyond even her most treasured artistic dreams. Eli’s deception no longer angered her. Her thankfulness outweighed everything else. She could think of nothing she wanted more in that moment than to throw her arms around him.

Her phone was out of her pocket a second later, her fingers bringing up his name and sending the call. It rang three times before Leila was startled by a message claiming the number she had dialed could not accept her call because her number had been blocked. Confused, Leila dialed again. Met with the same response, she turned to Ana who was staring at her phone looking rather perplexed.

“I can’t get through to Eli,” Leila said.

Ana looked up, her lip tucked between her teeth. “You told Eli about what happened with Luke this morning, right?”

“No,” Leila said slowly. “I didn’t have time. I rushed over here right after Luke and I broke up. I was planning on talking to Eli about it tonight after the show. Why?”

“Did he know you were meeting Luke this morning?” Ana asked.

The strange look on her face began to worry Leila. What was going on? “No. I was in the bedroom getting dressed when Luke called. Eli was still asleep.”

Ana grimaced. “Are you sure?”

About to say yes she was sure—Eli had looked awful when she walked out of his room after just waking up—but a thought stopped her. Her hands started trembling. What if Eli hadn’t been so out of it because he’d just woken up? “Oh no,” she said.

“What?” Ana demanded.

“When Luke called, I was trying to get ready, so I put my phone on speaker while I was getting dressed. If Eli was awake … Ana, he might have overheard my conversation. What if he thinks …?”

Handing over her phone, Ana said, “I think that’s exactly what he thinks.”

Leila’s eyes darted over the text message.
She made her choice. I’m backing off as promised. I wish things had turned out differently. Thank you for the dresses. I hope she likes them. The last one … don’t use it
. She nearly dropped Ana’s phone, her hands were shaking so bad. He heard the phone call. He heard Leila agreeing to meet with Luke—which must have sounded very much like she was ready to give him a second chance.

“Ana,” Leila said slowly, “why did you
really
ban Eli from the show last spring?”

Sighing, Ana said, “Because when I realized he was interested in you I got mad at him. I thought he was treating you like a project and I didn’t want you to get hurt. I told him he had to either leave you alone, or prove his interest was real before I’d let him come back to one of my shows.”

In that moment, Leila understood what his response to her text message the night she fought with Luke had meant. She had asked if he was coming to the show, and his response had been that it depended on her. She wanted to cry as she realized that her choice between Luke and Eli would determine whether he would come to the show and remain a part of her life, or walk away forever. She had made her choice. She chose Eli, but he didn’t know that. He thought she was on her way to happily ever after with Luke. Even hearing that Eli was genuinely interested in her couldn’t keep her from going into panic mode.

“No, no, no, no,” Leila whined. Her eyes snapped up to Ana. “He blocked my number.”

Ana grimaced. “You need to find him, now. When Eli makes a decision, he sticks to it. If you don’t talk to him today, there’s a very good chance you’ll never see him again.”

Leila was halfway out the door before she stopped and spun around. “What about the show?”

“That’s what interns are for,” Ana said.

“Thank you!” Leila turned, ready to dash away, but this time Ana stopped her.

“Leila, wait, before you go running off after Eli … go home.”

“What? Why?”

Ana looked uncertain, but she said, “The letter he gave you after your first date, go home and read it.”

More confused than ever, Leila started to object, but Ana cut in again.

“Would you please just trust me on this? If you’re going to run off after Eli, I think you should know everything. Go home. Read the letter. Then decide what to do.”

Leila had no idea why Ana wanted her to put off finding Eli to read a rundown of her faults, but Ana refused to let Leila leave the office without a promise to follow her instructions. Once her boss finally relinquished control, she bolted from the boutique and ran for her car. The careful and cautious Leila everyone knew disappeared. She sped down streets, cutting people off and blazing through yellow lights in order to reach her apartment as quickly as possible. She had never made it up the three flights of stairs to her front door so fast. Seconds after barreling into her apartment, she was on the floor in front of her desk scrounging through paperwork. Nearly desperate after the first few minutes, she was sure she was on the verge of imploding before she found the letter wedged between two expandable file folders. Her fingers tore the envelope open, her eyes reading before the letter was even fully laid out.

Leila,

I don’t know if you will ever read this letter. Most don’t. But perhaps that is why I feel safe enough to write to you. I told you when we met for lunch that this was a copy of the errors you made while on our date. I apologize for that lie, but I couldn’t tell you what I had really written.

I have been running my date shark business since college. It is almost an obsession. Those who know me well would argue and say it is definitely an obsession, and if I was being perfectly honest, I would agree. I won’t go into the reasons behind that statement, but I will tell you that being a date shark is the reason I am still single. Despite having met women that were beautiful and engaging, I have never felt enough for any of them to give up being a date shark.

You have changed that.

I will not claim to have fallen in love with you at first sight, but I was immediately captivated by your beauty and unique spirit. What I can say without a doubt is that I am already falling for you quite fast. You are delightful and I find myself wanting to be around you as much as possible. I never stay in contact with my clients. I have rules that guide my business and help me find success. I have never broken these rules before, but I have every intention of doing so when it comes to you. I can’t walk away.

But I can’t tell you any of this, either.

Your view of yourself is out of sorts with how everyone else in this world sees you. I fear that bowling you over with my attention now would only undermine you. I don’t want to trap you in a relationship before you are ready. You need time to discover how amazing you are. I want to help you come to that realization. I think also that if I told you, now, how much I wanted to be with you I would scare you away. I’m sure you would never consider yourself to be someone I would be interested in, but in time I hope you will.

I want you in my life, Leila, more than you could understand right now, and I will do my best to stay in yours.

With love,

Eli

Leila’s first response was pure giddiness. Her second was a near blistering anger. She didn’t have time for a third response because she was already running out of her apartment in search of Eli. Her hands were itching with the desire to strangle him.

Turning up at his office—which was the closest—proved fruitless, being as it was closed for the day. His apartment only infuriated her even more when she realized her key no longer fit the lock. She wasn’t sure where else to turn since she couldn’t get through to him by phone or text. Nearly defeated, she was on her way back to St. Claire’s to ask Ana for her help when she remembered Conrad. Leila swerved through traffic and redirected herself toward
Dolcini
. She slid into a parking space and was halfway out of her car when she spotted Eli stepping out of his Audi. His name was on her lips, but stuttered and fell away when Sabine—the gorgeous supermodel who admitted the only shrink she would ever consider dating would be Eli—stepped out of the Audi as well.

Ana’s words rang in Leila’s mind.
When Eli makes a decision, he sticks to it.
He had written Leila off and turned his attention to someone new. Leila slumped in her seat, defeated.

Chapter 30

Old Wounds

Eli led Sabine to his usual table. The third member of the lunch party had already arrived and was seated when they walked up. He stood and shook hands with Sabine, who was as sultry and sumptuous as she always was. His guest was obviously captivated by her. Eli hardly noticed her fitted dress and bronze skin. After a quick round of introductions, he dropped into his chair and tried to dig up some modicum of professionalism.

“Thanks for coming, Lewis.”

Lewis nodded. “Not at all.”

Eli reached for the attaché he had brought with him. Sabine’s hand falling lightly on his forearm halted him. He looked up at her and was surprised to see a well of compassion in her blue eyes.

“Why don’t we eat first?” she asked. “Business can wait.”

He had no desire to sit there and engage in small talk, but the concern in her eyes softened his bristly demeanor. She was worried about him. “Sure, Sabine. Food sounds good.”

“And maybe a few drinks,” she suggested.

Eli nodded noncommittally. He doubted getting drunk would make him feel better. What he really wanted was to be done with lunch and back at his apartment. Alone.

That word dropped his mood to an even lower level. He didn’t want to be alone. He wanted Leila. Sabine seemed to catch wind of his worsening disposition and flagged Megan down with a murmur of, “Yes, we definitely need some drinks.”

Eli was about ready to agree with her at that point, but the sound of a disturbance at the concierge desk caught his attention. Sitting up, he looked in that general direction, craning to see around the corner. And see he did. Eli nearly fell out of his chair at the sight Leila storming through the restaurant. He was stumbling out of his chair a second later, desperate to intercept her.