Battle of the Sexes

Epilogue

Carver

Three months later ...

"So, if we choose this option," Priscilla says, circling a large swath of information with a red pen, "do you see how much catchier that is? Then we can branch off from there in a variety of ways, capturing more of your target customer base than if we just do just one."

"It's perfect," Amity says from her perch on my knee.

They continue to go back and forth, discussing marketing strategies. Amity Lane will be up and running in twelve months or so, catering to the farm-to-table sector of the East Coast. I've never seen someone more excited about something than Amity is right now.

Late one night, I sat in bed watching her sleep. I was thinking about how she had devoured pistachios the Hanley's had sent us earlier in the week. It hit me around three in the morning—Jones + Gallum could open a subsidiary line of restaurants featuring Amity's passion.

I woke her up and told her my idea and I'm not sure she's slept since.

Every morning, we get up and talk shop before we even get out of bed. The days we happen to have an opening in our schedules, we meet for lunch and go over the day's events and at night, over a late dinner and sometimes paperwork, we plan out the next day together.

But that's the thing—we do it together. It's a built-in support structure, someone that understands the why's and how's and when's. It's an awesome feeling.

Marcus catches my attention over Amity's head. "Come here," he mouths.

I dig my hands into her hips, touching her in one of her favorite ways, and lift her up. Planting a kiss to the bare skin at the nape of her neck, I head towards my friend.

"So, how does it feel?" he asks.

"How does what feel?"

"How does thatfeel?" He motions towards Amity. "I don't mean it physically. I mean, are you happy? You doing good?"

"I've never been happier." I tip the bottle of beer in my hand towards him. "We're going to head to California next week. You guys want to come?"

"I'd love to. I haven't been surfing in forever. But Priscilla has some big thing going on downtown for a friend of hers and I have to be around for the heavy lifting." He takes a pull of his beer. "What are you going to Cali for?"

"Amity has some friends there she wants to see, plus check out some locations for a branch of Amity Lane."

"I thought you guys were pulling back some of the expansion?"

"We are. But Amity is the CEO of Amity Lane. She came to the table with facts that supported sticking a couple of locations on the other side of the country. It didn't make sense at first, but she makes a good point."

"Priscilla makes great points," he grins, wiggling his eyebrows. "Sometimes I disagree with her just so she really drives it home."

I chuckle, not doubting that for a minute.

We look at our girls at the table on the patio of the house we're renting outside of the city for the summer. They're still going over numbers and marketing plans like most women look at shoe catalogues.

"How'd we get so fucking lucky?" I ask, downing what's left of my beer. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure she's still there."

"She'll be there. You can quit that."

"How do you know?" I laugh.

"Because I see the way she looks at you, man. Trust me. Have I ever led you astray?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Nope," he says, "I don't. But I do have another question."

"Shoot."

"Priscilla was asking me if you'd mentioned getting married. She said she talked to Amity about it and she danced around the topic."

"Why does your wife care?"

He sighs. "She really wants to stage a wedding to use for some product placement ads or something. You know Priscilla—it all goes back to business somehow."

"I think you can count us out for a wedding photo op," I say, taking another swig of the beer. "We're taking things slow and steady."

"Why?" Marcus looks baffled. "Why wouldn't you just hustle to get that on lockdown?"

"There's no reason to." I watch her throw her head back and laugh at something Priscilla said. She's carefree and relaxed, just the way I want her. "When we get there, we get there. I'm in no hurry."

"I don't get it," he says as we head back to the table. "But whatever works for you."

We reach the girls and they look up. I wrap my arms around Amity and pull her back so she's reclining against me. The sun begins to set over the bay, the sky a crazy mix of pinks and purples and oranges.

"I was just thinking," Priscilla says. "You got lucky snagging that girl, Carver. There aren't many women I can truly say I respect on a certain level in this industry, but Amity is impressive."

"I know," I say, kissing the top of her head as she snuggles against me. "I had to dazzle her with my boardroom performance."

"That's not what she said," Priscilla laughs.

Crooking my neck so I can see Amity's face, I furrow my brow. "What did you say?"

"I said," she drawls, "that you might've started winning me over in the boardroom, but you finally won me over in the bedroom."

THE END