He could negotiate a commercial lease without raising his voice, but he became absurdly nervous when speaking about his personal life.
He had dated actresses, socialites, and the daughters of prominent businessmen.
He had once been engaged to Isabelle Laurent.
The engagement had ended two years earlier.
“Was it terrible?” Maggie asked when he told her.
“No.”
“That's an unusual answer.”
Nicholas smiled.
“We were fond of each other.”
“But?”
“But we were better at being friends than anything else.”
Maggie considered.
“She seems lovely.”
“She is.”
“Beautiful too.”
“Yes.”
Maggie looked down at her coffee.
Nicholas watched her.
Then said gently, “Maggie.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“Isabelle and I haven't been involved for years.”
“I didn't ask.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“But I thought you might like to know.”
Her cheeks warmed.
He continued.
“She has a life of her own. So do I.”
Maggie looked at him.
“And what exactly does your life involve?”
“At the moment?”
“Yes.”
He leaned a little closer.
“An unreasonable number of meetings with a woman who refuses to call them dates.”
Maggie laughed.
“Because they aren't.”
“Of course.”
“It's research.”
“Very important research.”
“About architecture.”
“Among other things.”
Their eyes met.
For one dangerous moment, Maggie wanted to lean across the table and kiss him.
Instead, she picked up her coffee.
Nicholas smiled as though he knew exactly what she had been thinking.
She found that particularly irritating.
By the third week of October, the Starlight proposal had become a small operation occupying nearly every available surface in Tessa's shop.
Maggie hired an independent structural engineer, Leonard Brooks, whose father had once worked on Broadway theaters.
She recruited a lighting designer willing to reduce his fee.
She contacted a nonprofit arts organization about running workshops in the unused rehearsal rooms.
She obtained letters of interest from a small repertory company, a film society, and a local dance school.
The revised proposal introduced several commercial spaces along the street frontage.
A café.
A record shop.
A small bookstore.
Each would provide rental income without compromising the theater's historic interior.
She divided the restoration into phases.
Essential structural repairs first.
Safety upgrades and auditorium reopening second.
Decorative restoration and the full educational program third.
The costs remained formidable.
But for the first time, the proposal appeared financially credible.
Nicholas read every page.
He challenged her assumptions.
She challenged his.
Their conversations frequently became arguments.
And their arguments, to the amusement of everyone around them, often ended in laughter.
One rainy evening, Maggie arrived at Sterling Tower carrying three enormous presentation boards.
Frances looked up from her desk.
“Another proposal?”
“Revised figures.”
“Again?”