“But I come in here a lot,” Lena added to help. “I’m sure I’ll see you next time.”

  Van’s smile returned, and she nodded without words.

  “Large vanilla latte for Michael!”

  Another barista’s voice had interrupted their moment.

  “Have a good meeting,” Van said.

  “Thanks,” Lena replied.

  Lena sat in the conference room minutes later, trying to listen to her Director of Midwest operations walk through his hiring plan for the next quarter, but she had a very hard time doing that. She kept glancing down at the cup in front of her with a name and the phone number written on it. She’d never been hit on like that before. Lena wasn’t sure how she felt about it. In a way, it was a good thing, since she had such a hard time striking up conversations with women. Van was attractive. She had a nice smile. Her initial arrogance, or at least what Lena had taken her forwardness for, had disappeared completely the moment she thought she’d been off base by hitting on Lena. She’d been embarrassed and a little shy after that.

  She wasn’t able to make lunch with Hayden after all, because he’d gotten a call from a client and had to take care of something. She met him at the first place Summer wanted to see instead. They’d beaten her there and stood outside by Hayden’s car.

  “She just wrote her number on the cup?” he asked.

  “Yeah, just like that. Here’s my name and number. Call me,” Lena replied.

  “Was she hot?” Hayden lifted an eyebrow at her.

  Lena rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “She’s hot. I’ve seen her in there before. I might have stared a couple of times.”

  “Really? This is good news. She’s into you.”

  “She doesn’t even know me,” Lena replied.

  “You could call her. She could get to know you. Come on. You keep talking about how you want to find someone, but you have a hard time picking up women. This one picked you up. At least give her a chance,” he suggested as Summer’s car pulled up. “Unless you’re hoping for someone else.”

  Summer climbed out of the back seat and said, “Am I late?”

  “No, we were early,” Hayden said as she arrived on the sidewalk.

  “Wow,” Summer said as she looked at Lena.

  “What?” Lena asked her.

  “You just look different,” Summer replied.

  “I came straight from the office.”

  Summer seemed to be taking her all in, while Hayden unlocked the door to the condo they’d be seeing.

  “How was lunch?” Summer changed the subject and walked toward where Hayden was staying.

  “We didn’t go.” Lena followed.

  “I had a client emergency,” Hayden said and ushered the women into the house. “So, I’m going to wait here and let the two of you walk around for a while. Just let me know if you have any questions.”

  “Thanks,” Summer replied and took the lead.

  She turned around and motioned for Lena to follow, which she did.

  “You don’t want to take a look around by yourself first?” Lena asked as they headed through a hallway further into the house.

  “I’d rather have my second set of eyes now,” Summer answered with a smile.

  Lena smiled back and followed her through the house. They made their way through three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a massive kitchen with brand new appliances and countertops. Then, they were outside on the balcony, which overlooked part of downtown.

  “Well?” Lena asked.

  They leaned over the rail next to one another. Summer had been relatively silent as she was exploring. Lena had matched that silence so as not to interfere with her process.

  “It’s great,” Summer replied after a moment. “But it’s not the right one. See? This is my problem. I can’t make a decision to save my life sometimes.”

  “It’s the second place you’ve seen, Summer. It took me forever to find my place. Ask Hayden.”

  “He told me about that the other day. I just get frustrated with myself.”

  “Let’s go see the other place, okay? Maybe it’s the one. If it’s not, that’s okay too,” Lena said.

  “I should just keep renting my tiny apartment. It would be easier.” Summer pushed off and moved away from the railing to go back inside.

  “Well, aren’t you the eternal optimist?” Lena joked.

  ◆◆◆

  The second place obtained much of the same reaction from Summer. Lena wondered if that was because she had some kind of mansion back in California that there was no way a condo in Chicago could live up to, but based on her lack of enthusiasm surrounding both places, Lena guessed there was something else going on.

  “It’s a little early for dinner, but you could come to my house. I could cook us something,” Lena offered.

  “That sounds good, actually. I’m not sure how much help I can be. I’m not much of a cook. Should we stop? I can buy wine or dessert?” Summer replied.

  They stopped at an O’Shea’s near Lena’s house. She showed Summer the wine selection from that new distributor she’d just locked down. Summer insisted on buying six bottles of red wine so that they could try it all. Lena laughed as she grabbed one of those cardboard wine bottle carriers, piled them all inside, and then carried them toward the checkout stand. Lena suggested ice cream for dessert, which gave her a chance to pick up some heavy cream and cheese for a sauce she liked.

  ◆◆◆

  “This is your place?” Summer asked when she stood fully, after picking up a few bags off the ground, and took in the two-story all brick home in front of her.

  “This is it,” Lena answered and turned to see the look on Summer’s face. “Not what you were expecting?”

  “It’s not that.” Summer shook her head. “It’s beautiful. Will you give me the tour before dinner?”

  “Of course. Come on.” She walked with her own bags toward the front door. “I took that porch swing from my old house. It was on the porch of my house growing up. I took it with me when I got married. Then, I brought it here. I’ve had it refinished a couple of times.” She pointed with a nod in the direction of a wooden swing hanging from the porch ceiling by the chains.

  The floor of the porch was brick that matched the house, and she’d changed the original front door to a solid oak one when she’d first bought the place. She wanted a homier feeling to the house. She’d loved the bones of the place when she bought it, but it had been entirely way too modern for her taste. She unlocked the door after shifting bags to one arm. Then, pushed the door open and walked inside. She allowed Summer to enter and then closed the door behind her.

  Summer’s eyes were darting around the open space. The foyer was one of the reasons Lena had purchased the house. It was bigger than any of the others she’d seen in the city. It had dark hardwood floors that she kept because she fell in love with them immediately. While the stairs were straight ahead, due to the size of the entryway, they didn’t feel like she ran right into them when she entered the house. The large dining room was off to the right and the kitchen was behind it.

  “It’s amazing,” Summer said and met Lena’s eye.

  Lena smiled at her and started moving past the stairs.

  “Let’s put this stuff in the kitchen. The tour starts there.”

  Summer followed her into the room. Lena placed the bags she was carrying onto the marble island, then, she took the bags from Summer and did the same.

  “How did you even find this place?” Summer asked.

  “I told you Hayden was good. I did a lot of work on it when I first moved in. It had a very modern feel to it. I like some things about modernity, but I wanted something a little comfier, I guess.”

  “So, like the opposite of what we saw today?” Summer asked.

  “That would be your house, so my opinion on it doesn’t really matter. This is what I wanted. I did some of the work myself. Not the tough stuff, of course. I had the plumbing and electrical work done by professionals. Last year, actually, Charlie helped me redesign the bathroom. I had a contractor take care of most of that, but I refinished all the floors myself, hung the swing. I even did the tile in here on my own.”

  Lena pointed to the backsplash behind the sink that was patterned with soft hues of pale pinks and barely grays. Summer approached the tiles and touched them as if that action would supply her with an answer to her own house confusion.

  “You did this on your own?”

  “I read a book. It took a lot of extra tiles, but yeah, I did it on my own. It was important to me to work on this place.”

  “Show me.” Summer turned back to her.

  “Let’s start upstairs.”

  They headed back to the staircase. Lena climbed the staircase, which led to the open loft that overlooked the foyer.

  “There are two guest rooms, but I’ve turned one into a home office. There’s a pull-out sofa in there, in case I actually ever have two people stay over at the same time. I can’t say that I’ve ever had one person stay over. I doubt I’ll need it. It’s down here.”

  She headed to the end of the hallway and waved Summer to the open door of her office.

  “It’s nice,” Summer offered as she stood in the doorway.

  Lena was also standing in the doorway. Since there was little room for the two of them to share the doorway, they’d both turned their bodies to face one another as Summer’s eyes were still searching the room.

  “It works when I need it. I usually just put my computer on my lap in the living room though,” Lena replied.

  She didn’t look at the office though. She kept her eyes on Summer’s face. She noticed a few freckles under her jaw, near her left ear.

  “I do the same thing, but I don’t have a choice, since my apartment here doesn’t exactly have an office,” Summer replied.

  “Well, you can borrow this one anytime,” Lena said.

  “When I was in school, I mean, on campus and like nineteen,” she paused as if trying to sort out how to complete that thought, “I was at Stanford just going through my pre-requisites. I was majoring in business, but I had no clue what I wanted to do with it. I guess I thought I’d have time to figure it out, since I’d have to go for my MBA anyway. I took a bunch of classes outside my major. Do you know what my favorite one was?”

  “What?” Lena asked, surprised by the change in subject.

  “Creative writing. The business major liked creative writing the best. Well, that and this philosophy course I took, but mostly creative writing.”

  “You thought about being a writer?” Lena asked.

  “Not professionally or anything. I just enjoyed the class. Business courses are pretty cut and dry. There’s not a lot of creativity involved.”

  “I remember,” Lena said.

  “I’ve never asked. I’m sorry. What was your major in school? Where’d you go?”

  “I went to Yale,” Lena replied.

  “You went to Yale?” Summer’s hand came forward to touch Lena’s briefly before returning to her side. “Smarty.”

  “Says the woman who went to Stanford.”

  “Still going, technically.”

  “I majored in business too.”

  “Why didn’t I know that?” she asked herself more than Lena. “I mean, of course, you did. You’re a VP of Operations. That makes sense.”

  “I guess. It came in handy when I wanted a job after the divorce.” She moved out of the doorway and headed to the next room, needing to get some space from Summer. “This is the other guest room.”

  “Nice,” Summer said.

  “So, creative writing?” Lena pointed as they hit the guest bathroom immediately after the guest room. “Bathroom, obviously.”

  “It was fun. We wrote short stories and read each other’s work. I don’t know. I just liked it.” She paused and glanced into the bathroom. “I’ve been approached by three publishers to write about the founding of the company and my business advice or techniques. Things like that. Seth has been approached by like six publishers because he’s the genius, or maybe just because he’s the guy.”

  “Probably the guy thing.” Lena smirked at her. “Lastly, up here is my room.”

  She walked them to the end of the hall, closest to the staircase. She allowed Summer to walk into the room first before following her inside. Summer took in the space. The room was rather large for a home this size. The bed was a king and a four-poster at that. The floors of the upstairs had all been carpeted when Lena had moved in, with the exception of the bathrooms, but she’d pulled that out, replaced it with hardwood, and updated the bathroom tile to match her taste. She had a TV mounted above the dresser and two bedside tables. There was an old rocking chair in the corner. The paint on the walls was satin light blue, and the molding was white. She watched Summer walk through it and head toward the master bathroom. She followed her slowly.

  “This is perfect,” Summer said. Lena walked up behind her. “You have an old claw bathtub,” Summer added.

  “I do. I don’t use it all that often, unfortunately. I’m usually just taking quick showers and heading out the door.”

  Summer turned to see the two above counter sinks in the same marble Lena had chosen for the kitchen and the walk-in closet off the bathroom.

  “You have an amazing house, Lena,” Summer said after turning back around to face her.

  “Thanks. Do you want to see the downstairs?”

  “Yeah.” Summer followed her out of the room and back down the stairs.

  “Why haven’t you taken any of those publishers up on their offers?” Lena asked when they arrived in the living room.

  The living room had the same dark hardwood floor and white molding, but she’d chosen an off-white for three of the walls and a rich amber color for the accent wall behind the fireplace.

  “Is that wood burning?” Summer asked and pointed at it.

  “I thought about getting gas, but it seemed wrong, considering all the other changes I’d made.”

  “It would have been.” Summer turned to see the opposite wall with the TV mounted to it just above a small shelf, with speakers and the cable box among other items. The sofa and two chairs faced the center of the room, instead of either the fireplace or the TV. “I like this,” Summer said and pointed back and forth between the sofa and the chairs facing it. “It’s like you want people to actually talk to each other, instead of just staring at a television.”

  “That was the thought, but I don’t have people over often enough for it to work. It does help me though. I can lie down and watch TV, or flip around and watch the fire behind me as I work on my laptop or something, or I can just face the window.” Lena pointed at the large bay window that faced the small backyard.

  “You have a freaking garden?” Summer headed toward the window while Lena laughed.

  “It’s not really a garden. I have flowers. I don’t grow vegetables or anything. I’ve never had a green thumb. I’m surprised those are surviving,” Lena said of the flowers outside the window.

  Summer stood staring outside. The sun was nearly finished setting and illuminated the world outside with oranges and pinks. Lena watched the scene in front of her and felt for a moment that it was perfection; Summer taking in the bright colors of the sunset and flowers through her bay window, looking beautiful and bright herself. Then, she shook herself out of it again and headed back toward the kitchen. Summer’s phone rang just as she joined Lena at the island to start unpacking their groceries.

  “Hey Seth,” Summer greeted her brother, and Lena went about placing items in the fridge so as not to seem nosy.

  CHAPTER 8

  “Hey, Sum, I’m thinking about-”

  “No way,” Summer said into her phone as she watched Lena open one of the bottles of wine she’d bought earlier.

  “I met some guys who are going to Australia to surf. I haven’t been to Australia yet.”

  “Neither have I, Seth. I’ve hardly been anywhere because you’re always everywhere. Get back here, like you promised.” She turned around and walked toward the bay window to stare out of it. “Seth, I need you here,” she said in a more hushed tone, not wanting to make a scene in front of Lena. “This is your company more than it is mine.”

  “I know. I’m sorry, Sum. Look, I’ll stay here until the end of the week and then I’ll head home, okay?”

  “I’ve heard those words before, brother,” she replied.

  “Sum, what’s going on? Is someone giving you a hard time?”

  “No, it’s not like that.” She matched his sigh with one of her own. “I’m just doing it all myself. I don’t even know if this is what I want to be doing, Seth. I’ve fallen behind in my courses, because I’m the face and the CEO and the board is driving me nuts, still asking for me to try to find another, more qualified CEO. We just opened this office and the one in Detroit. I’m trying to buy a house and-”

  “Okay. Okay,” Seth interrupted. “I’m sorry. I’ll come home. I will this time. You should take some time off, Sum. You’ve been dealing with all this. I know that some of it is my fault, but you should take a vacation or something.”

  “I’ll let you know when that happens. I’ve got to go. I’m at someone’s house. We’re about to have dinner.”

  “You’re on a date?” Seth teased.

  “It’s not a date, Seth. I’m with a friend.”

  “Male or female?”

  “Her name is Lena.”

  “But it’s not a date?”

  “Seth, just come home. Get back to work at the HQ, please. Stop by the other offices to let everyone see your face and that you’re back to work and that you’re done taking vacations for a while,” Summer said.

  “Yes, boss. I’ll see you soon, I guess.”

  “You better.”

  Summer hung up the phone. She stood in front of the window for another moment and stared outside. God, she loved Lena’s house. She’d thought so the moment she got out of the car and laid eyes on the exterior with shuttered windows and beautiful brickwork. She loved the swing, the wood on the floor, and the dining room table that she’d seen in passing. The kitchen was the perfect combination of new and old. She loved it all. Even her house in Palo Alto couldn’t compare. This place was so near a major city but maintained an old-world sensibility and quietness that she found calming. She smiled at the thought and recalled her idiot brother’s comment about a date. She withdrew her smile because this wasn’t a date. She and Lena were friends, and for some reason, Lena seemed to want to hook her up with a guy, despite her own protestations.