with oranges, greens with fuchsias, while the room itself added its own flavor to the mix with its vibrant reds and pinks.
In other words, Ana Maria loved it.
“If you say so,” Octavia said in a bored tone. She’d initially been enthusiastic, but more recently had begun to complain of a headache caused, she said, “by all of this patterned exuberance.”
Ana Maria just laughed and rang for more tea.
“Why don’t you just come and make the decisions for me?” Octavia said. “It is not as though I have an opinion that would go against yours—I appreciate your aesthetic, even if it makes me faintly nauseated.”
“Thank you?” Ana Maria replied as Jane smothered a snort.
“And I do think the club needs to have a dash of panache.”
“This is more than just a dash,” Jane opined. Ana Maria glanced sharply at her, but the other woman’s expression was neutral.
“So you can do it, and I’ll pay you for it, just as I would any other contract worker. I’ll have to ask Henry what fees are standard.”
“Henry?” Ana Maria asked. Asking a banal question to deal with the fact that her heart just leaped into her throat with Octavia’s casual suggestion.
It was what she had told Jane she wanted to do. And here Octavia was just—offering it to her. Without hesitation.
“The bookkeeper. He also works to toss out unpleasant patrons—he was a boxer before working for us—but he is mostly our bookkeeper.”
“Extraordinary to have two such disparate skills in one individual,” Ana Maria said.
“Not so disparate—a bookkeeper is precise in calculations, and a boxer has to determine precisely where to launch a blow that will take care of his—or her,” Octavia said with a grin, “opponent. Plus it’s being able to add up one’s strengths and weaknesses—like income in and income out—to figure out if the end result is a net gain.”
Ana Maria laughed in response, but then began to think about what her friend had said. “So is it your belief that all things can be calculated so precisely? Figuring out if there is a net gain, even if there are some weaknesses along the way?”
Octavia raised a mischievous eyebrow. “Of course I do. Especially when it comes to achieving one’s goals. You have to invest something before you get your return on investment, after all.”
“I have no idea what you two are discussing,” Jane interjected, “but if it ends up with Lady Ana Maria getting something she wants, I think it is worth further pursuit.” Jane nodded firmly as she spoke, making Ana Maria keenly aware of how many champions she had that she hadn’t even been aware of.
Octavia looked knowingly at Ana Maria, whose cheeks started to heat under her friend’s pointed expression. Worth further pursuit. So instead of feeling mortified by today’s events, she should review them, and calculate whether or not she wished them to happen again.
Not that she would force her decision on Nash, of course; that would be wrong. But she could talk it out with him. If he truly did not want to teach her those kinds of things in addition to self-defense, perhaps he would assist her in finding someone who would.
And then there was the net gain Octavia herself had just offered.
“Do you really mean it?” Ana Maria asked. Octavia looked confused. “About the decorating of the club, would you trust me to handle it entirely by myself?”
Octavia’s expression cleared. “Yes, absolutely. Don’t tell me you hadn’t thought of it yourself.”
“She had.” Jane interrupted before Ana Maria could find the words. “She said she’d like to have a hand in decorating things, that she wants to be useful. Not like before, mind, she’s too much of a grand lady for that.” She accompanied her words with a quelling look toward Ana Maria, as though reminding her that yes, she was a grand lady, and Ana Maria had to be fine with that. “So your suggestion isn’t one she hasn’t thought of herself.”
Octavia looked bemused, which made Ana Maria want to laugh again, even though she also wanted to shake Jane. Two warring impulses, as suited her contrariness.
Wanting to kiss him while also wanting to punch him.
Though since the “him” in question was Nash, she wasn’t certain those were contradictions; she thought that Sebastian and Thaddeus might think the same, albeit replacing the kissing part with a “drink alcoholic beverages and get ribald with one another” part.
Nash was, as she well knew, worthy of both extreme loyalty and utter frustration.
But Octavia was speaking. It wasn’t