Hook an Angel✔️

Chapter 43

Her thirty-third birthday was in a month and she wondered if she could skip the hoopla. She did not want to celebrate this year. Her parents were selling the house and moving away. That meant her main focus was finding her own place to stay, so she focused all her extra time on that. Plus her storefront was opening in a week. It had been delayed after the shooting and she did not want to keep delaying it.

So work was crazy, her personal life was crazy, there was no need to do anything for her birthday. All her free time was used house-hunting and last-minute preparation for the store opening. She spent late days at the office and in the retail space. She was going to have a big Grand Opening and she was anxious about it.

Maybe no one would attend. Maybe no one would buy anything. Her online sales were through the roof, they couldn't keep up with the sales. Nowadays people did more online shopping than in-store. Maybe this was not the right time to open a brick and mortar. It was too late now. She went over her projections daily, hoping to at least meet her bare minimum in the first six months. She knew within a year, if she did not turn a profit, the whole company could go under.

While she was so busy with work and house-hunting, she did not have much time for Hook. She did not want him to keep driving forty minutes out to her parent's house and back, just to see her for two or three hours. That was not fair. He seemed okay about it. They talked every day. They did not bring up his baby on the way. She wanted to keep that in the back of her mind. Anytime it flashed in her mind, Hook holding his newborn child in his arms, her heart broke a little.

A new baby. With another woman.

Long as she stopped thinking about it...

"Zup baby step momma," Jared said, walking into her office with a stack of dresses in his arm.

She looked at him and rolled her eyes. He was trying her and she was going to ignore him.

"Hook coming to the Grand Opening?"

"Yes, why wouldn't he?"

"Because you're funny acting like that," he said, laying the clothes on the table. He looked around the office. "Where's Shay Shay?"

"Downstairs checking the store. What's all that?"

"I don't know, was hoping she could tell me." He walked to her desk and sat in a chair. "Did you talk to Hook about..."

She waited for him to finish the sentence, when he did not, she frowned at him. "I talk to him every day, is there something I should be talking to him about?"

"Ain't my business," he said.

"It is your business if you're bringing it up. And what do you know about my man that I don't know about?"

"That man is being a man, is all I have to say," he said, standing up. "Anyhoo, I need to find a date for the Grand Opening."

"It's not a party! It's the opening of a clothing store."

"Yes, that I want to bring a date too and show off my bestie doing big things. Don't worry, I may be single, but not for long," he said, walking out.

She wondered what Jared was hinting at. She picked up her phone and dialed Hook. She was not too concerned when he did not pick up. He was at work, and he could be on a tow or under a car. He would call her back when he could.

Sure enough, he called her thirty minutes later.

"Hey babe, I was just thinking about you," he said. "Wanta have lunch with me?"

"Uh, sure." They never had lunch together in the middle of the day, both too busy to take a break. She mostly had something delivered and ate at her desk. "Want to meet somewhere or-"