Page 12 of Titus

I still couldn’t believe that woman had my money sitting in her bank account—all because of my spineless employees’ incompetence. Never again.

Five hundred thousand dollars.

I’d overpaid. Which meant one of two things. My financial department had lost its collective mind…or Catalina Veléz was worth every dollar.

I intended to find out which.

I stared at the number one last time, then closed the file and walked out of my office.

“Get every member of my finance department into the conference room,” I told my secretary as I passed. “Immediately.”

CHAPTER FOUR

A week had passed since I’d finalized everything with our new space. Out of everyone on my team, the one taking it the hardest was Aria—my creative design lead. I’d expected that. Change had never come easily to her; it just wasn’t who she was.

She had the soul of a wanderer, but a heart tethered to what felt safe. So, I knew the biggest pushback—and the tears—would come from her, which made it no surprise when my phone started ringing again just as I stepped out of the shower, her name flashing across the screen.

“I swear to God, Aria, everything is going to be okay.”

“That’s not what I was calling about,” she said, but I could tell she was lying through her teeth.

I couldn’t help but smirk into the phone, “Thank God, because I was starting to wonder if your tears for leaving our tiny office were going to get in the way of you planning the designs for the Porter event next weekend?”

“I, er…” She paused.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Aria, while I love you like my little sister, I don’t like standing in my bathroom staring at my naked ass, which needs to get dressed for the event I’m attending tonight. Get to the point, and quickly. What’s bothering you?”

She sighed. “I’m just going to say it then,” she said.

God, she was so damn timid sometimes.

“Are you there?” she questioned my silence on the other end of the phone.

“I’m waiting for you to just say it…” I put her on speaker and set the phone on the counter as I started applying my moisturizer, giving her time to work up the nerve to complain about the move—again.

“So… you remember Garfield, right?”

I stared at my phone like it had lost its mind—not Aria. “The alley cat that lives off scraps behind the boutique?”

“Yeah, you know how he always comes around?”

“I’ve never really paid attention before,” I said, leaning my naked, air-drying ass against the marble vanity I was standing in front of.

“You’ve met him,” she said.

“Okay?”

“Well, he’s the reason I’m having a hard time leaving our office,” she admitted.

Most people would’ve rolled their eyes at the dramatics. I probably should have. But I couldn’t. Aria—bless her heart, which was bigger than mine—had a special love for animals, especially strays. Of course, it wasn’t the building she was attached to. It was a damn stray cat—a cat as large as the cartoon Garfield and looking every bit like him. Obviously why my team had adopted him and named him that.

“That’s understandable. I’ll make sure Roni from the boutique feeds him extra scraps, and you know we do a lot of business up here anyway, so you can⁠—”

“It won’t be the same, though.”

“Aria, perhaps you should take him with you, then?”

“I can?”