was unpacking a bunch of Scandinavian detective novels for a themed display the following week.
"Do you think I should focus it on Jo Nesbo or Henning Mankell?" she asked Natalie, holding a novel in each hand, but Natalie just huffed at her.
"So, what was last night like? Spill! I've been dying to talk to you for ages but it's so freaking busy today."
"That's supposed to be a good thing," Emmy deadpanned back.
Natalie's face was a picture of frustration.
"Emmy!"
"It was... fine actually. Food was great, we had an interesting chat, and he discussed the possibility of extending our notice for a few months, so we might have a little more time. I haven't managed to convince him to give the whole thing up though. "
"Really? He’s willing to extend the lease? That's a good start. I'm assuming you haven't given up the fight."
"I haven't," Emmy assured her, happy to dodge the exact terms of the lease extension. "Not for a second. I will get him to change his mind, I promise."
"How? Do you think we should launch a full campaign of support? You know I've already spoken to a few people, including at Columbia. Dean Hartwell is on board, and..."
"Really? Well, that can't hurt. I haven't quite figured out the battle plan yet but I'm going to try and work more on Oswell, talk him down from his stupid project to turn this building into another soulless rich man's mansion."
"Is that his plan?"
Emmy nodded.
"He wants to move in. That's what we're up against. And I bet he's got some fancy plans to strip down the house to its basics and rebuild it from the inside, or something equally flashy and expensive."
The grimace on Natalie's face said it all.
"It's for him? Oh God, we're doomed, aren't we?"
"Maybe not," Emmy said. "But it's going to be a bitch. I’m going to have to try and convince him little by little."
"Wait — what? How do you plan to do that?"
At which point Emmy realized that she might have given the game away.
"Oh, you know, meetings and such," she said airily, but it was exactly the wrong tone to hit with a friend with whom she'd spent the last four years joined at the hip as they built up the business, and who knew every shade of her expressions.
"You're planning on seeing him again, aren't you?"
"No," Emmy protested. "I'm not."
"But you're thinking of it?"
She wished she were able to keep a straight face but she’d never been a good liar, and she could feel her cheeks turning pink even as Natalie looked at her.
"Fuck, I'm not... well, kind of. I don't know."
"Oh my god, has he asked you out? He has, hasn't he?" Natalie asked, goggle-eyed, as Emmy sank deeper into a pit of embarrassment.
She cast around for a distraction but there was precious little in the storeroom so she resorted to the pile in front of her and nervously started moving Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy from one rack to another.
"I told you he had the hots for you," Natalie stage-whispered. "And you for him, apparently," she added with a leery wink, and Emmy felt the urge to stab her.
"I do not have the hots for him," she enunciated clearly, to which her colleague responded with an eye-roll.
"Yeah, right. So why are you blushing like a virgin at an orgy?"
"I don't even wish to dignify this with an answer."
"Oh, please, Emmy!"
"The thing is... I don't even know," she confessed, and it was God's honest truth. "Eric's hot, and I sort of want to get to know him better, and yeah, okay, I am maybe a bit attracted to him, because, well, duh. But I know it's a stupid idea, and he's rich, arrogant, and kind of a control freak so I'm really wary of getting involved with him."
"Eric, huh? What happened to Oswell?"
"Cut the crap, Natalie, it was first names from the moment we met. And you were there."
"Maybe," Natalie conceded, but wasn't letting go that easily. "But you actually think of him as Eric rather than that bastard Oswell, right?"
"Where are you going with this?"
She'd always known her friend had a devious mind but it was a little unsettling to be on the receiving end of it.
"Just that you should go with the flow. What's the worst that can happen?"
"You mean, apart from sleeping with him and then getting evicted? I don't know, Natalie, you tell me? The guy is in a position of power over me; he's a gazillion times richer than me,