Page 199 of Love Unwritten

“Yes. And do you know what I hate more than Lorenzo?”

“Losing?”

“Speeches, Rafa,” he snaps. “This is a damn nightmare. I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to the endorsement.”

I wince. “I’m sorry.”

He takes a few deep breaths before asking, “Did you get what you needed at least?”

“Yeah. He delivered.”

“The devil always does.”

I sigh. “He’s not that bad.”

“Perhaps I should steal that quote for my speech. What do you think?”

“To be honest, I’m surprised he is asking you to speak. I thought he would ask you to put up a few lawn signs and publicly acknowledge him at Last Call or something at most.”

“He wants me to speak. In public.” I can picture Julian sneering while saying that.

“Is there any way I can repay you?”

“Fake an assassination attempt before I ever make it to the podium?”

I chuckle, and Julian reluctantly does as well.

“I’m only doing this because I care about you.”

“I appreciate it.”

“You owe me,” he grumbles before hanging up.

Someone banging on the front door has me tossing my phone on my desk and heading to open it.

“Did you have something to do with this?” Ellie shoves her phone in my face. The article is different from the one I read but the title is similar.

I glance at her face and take in her puffy, red eyes. “Um…”

Before I have a chance to panic about her crying, she throws her arms around me. “Thank you.”

“You’re not…upset?” I never expected another record label to swoop in and buy Darius’s company, so I hope it doesn’t mess up her legal case against Ava.

She pulls away. “Upset? No!”

I release a pent-up breath. “Good. I don’t want to mess up the case for your lawyer.”

“Are you kidding? Even if it does, this is so worth it. He loved that company.”

The tightness in my chest loosens a bit. “I’m glad he won’t be able to take advantage of anyone else.”

“All thanks to you.” She stands on my toes to kiss me. “You really are a superhero.”

“I didn’t pull this off by myself.”

She smiles. “Julian helped?”

I shake my head. “No.”