Chapter 18 You Stay with Me
Briar's POV
Lucian's rejection left me confused and angry. I pulled back from the table and sat down in my seat, my face hot with embarrassment that had nothing to do with the alcohol.
Then Kai crashed into Lucian's table hard enough to make the glasses rattle. He blinked a few times, then lurched to his feet and swayed over to me, his words slurring. "Hey, I want to try those new herbal tea bags."
I straightened in my seat, my business instincts kicking in despite being drunk. "Four dollars per pack."
Kai nodded and nearly lost his balance, grabbing onto the back of the couch to steady himself. "Give me fifty packs then."
He pulled out his phone and squinted at the screen, his fingers moving with exaggerated care as he navigated to his payment app. I opened the QR code for Vance Botanicals' business account and Kai scanned it with intense concentration, then transferred two hundred dollars. My phone buzzed with the payment notification.
I met Kai's eyes. "I'll have them delivered to your office tomorrow."
Kai gave me a thumbs up and collapsed back onto the couch. I stood up and walked out of the bar without looking back.
The next morning I woke up with a headache that felt like someone had driven a spike through my skull and a mouth that tasted like I'd been chewing on cotton. I forced myself out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face until I felt marginally more human.
My phone was buzzing on the nightstand and I picked it up to see three missed calls from Rowan and a string of increasingly aggressive text messages demanding to know if I was still alive.
I called her back and she answered on the first ring, her voice sharp with concern. "About time you called me back, I was starting to think you'd gotten yourself killed or kidnapped or something equally stupid."
I winced at the volume of her voice and held the phone slightly away from my ear. "I'm fine, just hungover. How's your ankle?"
Rowan launched into a lengthy tirade about Garrett's interference, her father's controlling behavior, and the general injustice of being treated like a child when she was a fully grown adult capable of making her own decisions. I let her rant without interruption, making appropriate noises of agreement at regular intervals, until she finally ran out of steam and demanded to know what I was doing today.
I glanced at the half packed boxes stacked against my bedroom wall and felt a surge of relief. "I'm going to look at the apartment in Emerald Bay, the one you told me about."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line and then Rowan's voice came back smug and satisfied. "See? I told you that mouth of mine was blessed by the Moon Goddess herself."
I hung up and then opened my messages to find an unfamiliar contact labeled Kai Stone with a payment confirmation from last night. The memory of our drunken business transaction came back in full detail and I felt a mix of embarrassment and professional satisfaction, because regardless of how it had happened I now had direct contact with Apex's COO and a confirmed order.
I typed out a quick message and hit send. "Mr. Stone, remember to pay. "
Then I forwarded the order details to my research and development team with instructions to package fifty units of the new herbal formula and prepare them for delivery to Apex Bio-Solutions' main office.
The apartment in Emerald Bay was a large open plan layout on one of the higher floors with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the river. The furniture was minimal and modern, all clean lines and neutral colors that somehow managed to feel warm instead of sterile, and there was a small media room tucked into one corner.
The building manager walked me through the security features, explaining the key card access system and the cameras in all the common areas, and I felt some of the tension I'd been carrying in my shoulders start to ease. I signed the lease on the spot and the manager handed me the keys with a friendly smile. "Oh, I should mention that you'll have a roommate moving in next week. She's a university student, very quiet and responsible."
I spent the rest of the afternoon packing up my belongings and arranging for a moving company to transport everything to Emerald Bay. My phone buzzed while I was taping up the last box and I opened it to find a message from Kai confirming that he'd received the payment notification and asking about the flavor profile of the new formula. We exchanged a few messages back and forth, Kai offering suggestions from a customer perspective without any of the corporate formality I'd expected from someone in his position.
I made notes of his feedback and then forwarded his comments to my finance department with instructions to prepare a proper invoice for the order. I wanted to keep everything above board and professional, especially given the complicated history between Vance Botanicals and Apex.
The moving truck was scheduled to arrive at six and I was doing a final walkthrough of the apartment when my phone lit up with a message from Julian: [Where are you moving to? Come downstairs. Now.]
I felt my stomach drop and looked out the window to see Julian's car parked on the street below, and sure enough there he was leaning against the hood and staring up at my building with that intense focus that made my skin crawl.
I watched as he gestured to the moving company workers and they actually started unloading my boxes from the truck and carrying them back into the building, and I had to close my eyes and take several deep breaths to calm down.
I found Julian in the lobby and forced myself to stay calm and keep my voice level. "Julian, have you eaten yet? . Let me take you to dinner."
Julian's eyebrows rose slightly, clearly surprised that I was the one initiating the invitation, and after a moment he nodded and followed me to a small restaurant two blocks away. We sat across from each other in a booth near the back and I ordered food for both of us.
Julian barely touched his meal, just sat there watching me eat with intensity. I could feel sweat beading at my hairline from the combination of nerves and the spicy food, and when I glanced up I caught something that looked almost like softness in his expression, his eyes tracking the way I wiped my face with my napkin.
I seized the moment while his mood seemed marginally better and set down my fork, meeting his gaze directly. "Julian, I've been thinking about moving out—"
Julian's face went cold so fast it was like watching a door slam shut, all that brief softness vanishing in an instant. His voice was flat and absolute. "No."
I suppressed the anger rising in my chest and said patiently, "You never let me finish what I'm trying to say. Every time I say something that doesn't match what you want to hear, you just shut me down without even listening to my reasons."
Julian's jaw tightened but he didn't respond, just kept staring at me with that immovable expression.
I spoke earnestly and patiently, trying to reason with him. "I've been independent my whole life, Julian. I can't handle the way you need to control everything I do, the way you explode whenever I try to make my own choices. It's suffocating."
Julian's hand came down on the table with casual authority, his voice carrying that familiar note of arrogant dismissiveness. "You stay with me, Briar. That's not negotiable."