BLAINE STARED DOWN at trade show from far above it, in the corporate box Stephens-Miller rented. He leaned his head against the glass. Had it been worth it? The code was pretty. They had no more malfunctions in the test drive. The camera worked like a charm every time. It cornered like a sports car and it hadn’t run over any dogs or little old ladies. Blaine was cautiously optimistic. The Pilot Program was gaining a lot of interest, both domestic and foreign.
And yet here he was in Paris and all he could think about was if Selena could get away and see him. They hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas and their daily phone calls had drifted to weekly. He was terrified that he was losing her, and the hell of it was he couldn’t blame her. He had been a lousy boyfriend these past months.
“We did it,” Mitchell said, slapping him on the back.
“Yeah, we did.” But it didn’t make him happy. Not when the cost of this was that he lost Selena. He was such an idiot.
Paul came up alongside them. “It was almost worth getting socked in the jaw.”
“Most people get a kick in the ass to get them moving. For you it was a punch in the mouth.” Blaine held out his hand. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I lost my temper. It won’t happen again.”
Paul shook it. “What’s gotten into you?”
“He took those lessons he learned in Hawaii to heart,” Mitchell said.
“That and a good therapist did wonders.” And the love of a good woman, but he might have lost that. He tried calling Selena one more time, but it went to voice mail. They were finally in the same city and she wasn’t answering her phone.
“Why the long face?” his mother said. The whole family was in town for the unveiling and Blaine never felt so alone. “I thought you’d be happy. All your dreams have come true. There she is.”
Blaine’s heart leaped and he stared where his mother pointed. But she wasn’t talking about Selena. She was talking about the car.
“She’s a viable alternative to all the other self-driving cars out there. You’re going to be famous.”
The blissful feeling of success that Blaine had worked so hard for felt anticlimactic. He found that even when he was working on his laptop at home or in the office, his mind drifted back to Selena.
“I don’t know who they got to cater our corporate box,” Paul said. “But the food is off the chain.”
“Oh yeah?” Blaine said, not really interested in it.
“Got the card here,” his mother said. “The name of the caterer is Chanterelle.”
Blaine’s head snapped up and he looked at his mother. He couldn’t possibly have heard that right. Chanterelle was the restaurant chain that Selena was planning to open once she got her MBA. “What did you say?”
“Chanterelle, owned by Selena Thompson. She’s doing catering part time.”
Blaine took the card. “Are you kidding me? Where is she?”
“Probably getting the cake. I’ve got to find your father. I’ll be back.” She patted his cheek. “Don’t mess this up.”
“Did you know about this?” he asked Mitchell.
“Yeah, she contacted us. She gave us a really good deal.”
“I still can’t get her to run the cafeteria at Stephens-Miller,” Paul said. “So this will have to do.”
Selena had made just as big of an impression on his family as she did with him in the one short week she had been home with him.
Paul took a big bite out of a hot dog topped with peppers, onions, pickles, and a large squirt of mustard.
“I don’t think that’s a beef hot dog, Paul.”
Paul took another big bite and chewed. “Pork?” He shrugged. “Who cares? It’s delicious.”
“I say it’s probably a tofu dog, if I know the chef.”
Paul looked over at the banquet table. “No kidding.”
“Have you seen her?” Blaine asked.
“Yeah, she was looking for you when she dropped off the food, but you were on the showroom floor. She said she had to go back for the dessert anyway.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Blaine was rethinking his stance on not punching Paul out again.
Mitchell looked down at the hot dog on his plate. “You sure this is tofu? It tastes good. When I hired her to cook for you in Maui, I really hit it out of the park, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you’re a friggin’ rock star.”
“It must be love, if she got him to eat tofu.”
“She’d better be coming back,” Blaine said. “I can’t believe you didn’t let me know she was here. I haven’t seen her in months.”
“She hasn’t changed,” Mitchell said. “And she’ll be back.”
Blaine helped himself to a hot dog. For the first time in a long time, he felt hungry. After he finished it, he was disappointed that Selena still hadn’t come back with the dessert. Had she changed her mind? He opened the door and was about to go downstairs.
He almost ran into her as she was carrying a three-tiered cake. On top of the cake was a miniature version of his car. She looked gorgeous in her sexy chef jacket and with her hair pinned up under her chef’s toque.
“Selena,” he breathed and leaned in for a kiss.
“Don’t let me drop this,” she said.
Blaine helped her steady the cake and together they found an empty space on the banquet table for it. Once it was settled, he grabbed her in for a big hug.
“I’m so happy to see you. Why haven’t you returned my calls?”
“Smooth,” Mitchell coughed into his fist.
Selena raised her chin and stared at him defiantly. “You’re not the only one who’s busy.” She softened her expression. “I knew I’d be seeing you today.”
“It’s a great surprise.”
They stared at each other awkwardly. “Well, congratulations on the car,” she said. “It’s a big hit. Just from hearing the random conversations on the floor while I was bringing the food up, it’s getting a lot of buzz. And this time, for the right reasons.”
“Do you want to get out of here?” Blaine said with his hand on her elbow.
“Get out of here? This is what you’ve been working toward for the past five years. This is the whole reason you were blowing off surfing lessons and hanging around by the ocean in Maui. The whole reason these last few months have been so tough.”
“Yeah, I was an idiot. Even more so because I think I hurt you.”
“You didn’t hurt me,” she said, shaking her head. “Like I said, I’ve been busy too and the time zones don’t make it easy either.”
Mitchell came over. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the exposition chair wants to talk with us.”
“You and Paul go without me. I’ve got something more important to take care of.” Blaine shooed his brother away.
“It can wait,” Selena said. “You should be with your company and your family right now.”
Blaine shook his head. “I did what I had to do. They can take it from here.” Blaine turned to his brother and Paul who stood in the doorway. “I mean it, guys. Go talk to the event coordinators and see what they want. Selena and I have a few things we need to discuss.”
Mitchell tried to hide a smile, but Blaine saw it anyway. As soon as Mitchell and Paul left, Blaine locked the door behind them.
Selena raised her eyebrow. “I see that look in your eyes,” she said. “You can forget it, mister. I’m not having sex with you in a trade show booth.”
“It’s an owner’s box,” he said. “No one can come because I just locked the door. And nobody can see in, unless they’ve got a huge ladder.” Blaine took her by the elbow and walked her over to the window to show her the floor below.
“Still not having sex with you.”
“What if I want more than sex?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I told you, I’m not going to be your personal chef in Detroit, Michigan.”
“How about being my fiancée then?”
Selena’s jaw dropped. “Fiancée?”
“I don’t even have a ring or anything. I thought I had blown it for good this time.”
“You didn’t blow it.”
“I can have a one-track mind sometimes. I didn’t mean to neglect you and our daily calls. It just happened.”
“I know,” Selena said. “It happened with me too. You were always in my thoughts, but sometimes there weren’t enough hours in the day and on the days there were, I just wanted to sleep.”
“I can arrange to stay in Paris for a while,” he said. “If you think I wouldn’t be too much of a distraction?”
“I’d like to be distracted,” she said, hugging him. “I wanted to see you so bad, that I brought you guys real hot dogs, real beef hot dogs.”
Blaine smirked. “I have the guys convinced they’re tofu dogs.”
She made a face. “They really don’t taste the same.”
“Now you tell me.”