bad idea

Chapter 36

Kai's Pov

"What are you doing here?" I asked, avoiding her words. Ariana was never really a morning person, and for it to be eight in the morning, she seemed very put together.

"I came to discuss business. Tommy said you'd be up by now." She shrugged, clinging onto the papers in her hand, as well as her purse, phone, and coffee.

"I'm sorry I don't have time—"

"-you said if I had business then that's the only thing you'd listen to me for. I do now, so I'm asking for ten minutes." She fired back, almost instantly.

I mentally sighed before opening up the door more so she could come in. "Give me thirty minutes and I'll be right there with you. You know your way around."

"Mhm,"

I closed the door before retreating upstairs to Lauren. Locking my bedroom door, I headed straight for my bathroom.

"Who was it?" Lauren asked, leaning against the door frame, now in a big shirt of mine.

"Ariana, apparently she has business to discuss, so I'll see you another time,"

"Good luck with that," She said, before getting herself dressed. She kept on my white shirt, putting on some jeans and tying her hair into a messy bun. She left out through my backdoor, so there weren't any run-ins.

I appreciated that Lauren was so carefree. Otherwise, Ariana coming to see me would've been bigger than it needed to be.

I quickly showered and got myself together before meeting Ariana downstairs. Things were always strictly business so Tommy, Victoria, and I dressed accordingly.

"Well?" I said, turning her attention to me.

"Do you know we had a contract between our families? It was made when we were both babies,"

"No, my parents never told me about this. Why is this important now? Do we have unsolved settlements or something?"

She shook her head, handing me the papers. "This contract was supposed to tie our businesses together until it was officially over with. When you cut ties with my family, we still had six more months left of that contract."

"Ariana, what are you trying to say?"

"You have to legally be in business with my family for 6 months,"

"Why would I agree to this? Why are you even following through with this?"

"You can't be mad at me forever," Ariana said, meeting my eyes.

I chuckled bitterly, "Mad? Shit's a lot more complicated than just me being mad. After these six months are up, I don't wanna see you again. I don't want anything to do with you or your family,"

"You can't punish my family for my mistakes! Frankie fucking misses you and you won't even act like he exists!"

"Do you think Victoria didn't miss you? You acted like we never existed," I scoffed, shaking my head. "I have nothing against Frankie, God, I love him. But everything tied to you, I want nothing to do with."

"You still love me... I know you do. I'm not giving up on us, so you can drop the bitchy attitude because you're stuck with me for the next six months."

"182 more days to go then,"

Once Tommy and Victoria arrived, we got to business.

Of course, I wasn't gonna immediately let Ariana into everything, in fact, she would never know about any of my big projects. Victoria just kept her busy with other contracts while Tommy and I worked on other stuff in my office.