A/N: Thank you for all your lovely reviews and support! Here's the next chapter for you :)

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Chapter 36: Kate & Ana's Place

Kate

Late Sunday afternoon, Kate drove through the Pike Market District and toward Santos Blvd, where the storefront location for Seattle Independent Bookstore & Publications was going to be. Ana had been nice enough to lend Kate her car for the weekend, since Ana had gone off for a little birthday getaway with her boyfriend for a few days. She was apparently coming back sometime today, however, so Kate made sure to text her and let her know where she was and not to worry.

Kate couldn't help but grimace slightly to herself as she thought about Ana's boyfriend: Ana had been going out with this guy a lot lately, and things were apparently getting pretty serious between them, yet Ana had never brought him around to the apartment or even told her his name - why was that? She must have been embarrassed about him or something, though Kate honestly had no idea why. She decided not to push Ana on the issue, however, and figured if things worked out between them, she would at least know that.

Kate now pulled up in front of the store, noticing that the For Lease sign had finally been taken down by the landlord. She quickly hopped out of the car and walked around the back so she could pop open the trunk and pull out her large box of cleaning supplies, mops, and a water bucket. She walked them over to the front door of the building, balancing all the items in her arms, and preparing to spend the rest of the day tidying up the place for when the contractor would come tomorrow morning.

Kate didn't think she had ever been more excited about a business venture - she had put more time and effort into starting SIBP than she had anything else in her entire life, and it was turning out to be an amazing experience. Her father had always made her feel like she couldn't do anything on her own, and that she needed to ride on the coattails of his own success in order to accomplish anything with her life, but Kate was determined to prove him wrong.

She would prove him wrong.

She was smart, she had a brain for business, and her best friend was going to be doing this by her side - Kate knew she could do absolutely anything.

Kate now walked into the main part of the empty building, setting her cleaning supplies down on the dusty floor. She straightened up and put her hands on her jean-clad hips, assessing how dirty this place had gotten over the many months of disuse. She noticed a box of miscellaneous nails and screws laying on the floor beside the empty shelves by the back wall, and she walked over to pick it up. Thankfully, there really wasn't a lot of garbage and debris lying around - it was mostly drywall dust and dirt that seemed to be the problem, and really nothing else. It would probably take awhile to clean up all by herself, though.

Might as well get started.

She turned around to grab some of her cleaning supplies… only to come face-to-face with a tall, copper-haired man standing in the doorway.

"Hello," he said kindly. "I'm Christian Grey, and I would like to invest in your company."

CLATTER!

The box of nails immediately slipped and fell out of Kate's motionless fingers. She could only stand frozen and stare at Christian Grey with wide, shocked eyes, while he quickly took a step back from the nails, which had scattered everywhere on the hardwood floor.

Before Kate could say or do anything else, Ana suddenly appeared from the doorway as well.

"Hi Kate," she said, looking down at the mess of nails on the floor with an amused smile on her face. "How's it going?"

Kate blinked, still staring at Grey. "Um… Ana?" she began, unsure of what she wanted to say.

"I know," Ana said, glancing up at Grey. "You've met Christian before."

"You… your boss… he wants to invest in our business?" Kate finally stuttered, turning to look at Ana with a confused expression on her face.

"Well, that's actually why we came by today," Ana grimaced, looking a bit uncomfortable. "I got your text saying that you were going to be here this afternoon, and I thought this would be a good time to tell you the truth about what's been going on."

She moved closer to Grey's side and took his hand in her own. Grey smiled fondly down at her, and Kate immediately understood.

"Wait… he's your boyfriend?" she asked, glancing between Ana and Grey. She pointed at him. "He's the guy you went away with for the weekend?"

"Yup," Ana nodded with a smile.

"We went to Aspen," Grey said, gazing down at her with a loving grin, and she smiled lovingly back at him.

Kate blinked, still feeling a bit flabbergasted. "Wait… so… you and him…?" she stammered, staring between the two of them, and they both laughed.

"Yes, me and him," Ana smiled, letting go of Grey's hand to walk toward Kate. "And don't worry, I've already explained to Christian about the whole situation with your interview, and he understands."

Kate suddenly blushed crimson. "Ana," she whined, feeling embarrassment rise up in her chest. Why the hell did she have to go and bring up one of her most humiliating moments to the guy who had instigated it?

"It's quite alright, Ms. Kavanagh," Grey said kindly, and Kate looked at him. "Ana explained to me how much trouble your old coworkers were giving you back at your father's company. I, too, can personally attest to how brutal the corporate world can be, and my CFO can vouch for how much tougher it can be to be a woman in this business. I'm sorry that you had to be on the receiving end of that sort of abuse, and I don't think I helped matters much by kicking you out of my office. For that I would like to apologize, and I hope you can forgive me for it."

Kate could only stare at Grey, still recovering from the shock of finding out he was dating Ana, but possibly becoming even more shocked by his apology to her. From what little she knew about Christian Grey (and what she gleaned from that interview), he was a cold heartless businessman who played the corporate game better than anyone else. He definitely didn't seem like the type to dole out heartfelt apologies to people he's wronged, but perhaps Ana was twisting his arm on this one or something.

Yeah, that's probably it.

"Thank you, Mr. Grey," Kate said with a glance in Ana's direction. "It's quite alright - let's just forget it ever even happened."

"Agreed," Grey smiled, and he held out his hand for her to shake. "And please, call me Christian."

Kate took his hand. "Kate," she responded in kind.

Christian nodded before releasing her hand, and there was a slightly awkward silence between the three of them for a couple seconds. "So," Ana finally piped up. "Kate, you said the contractor is coming over tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, he is," Kate nodded. "He's gonna take a look around and give me an estimate on what we want to have done with the place - it's probably mostly gonna be remodeling the bathrooms and maybe adding a kitchenette in the back, so hopefully it won't get to be too expensive."

"What contracting company are you going with?" Christian asked.

"Um… Jansen Remodeling," Kate said, remembering the name. "Why?"

Christian immediately pulled out his wallet and began digging around inside - after a second, he produced a blue business card. "I have the number of Greg Mallory, the head of Mezzanine Associates. They remodeled all our offices at Grey House a few years ago - my brother actually worked with them for a few years before he started his construction business. I promise, they do excellent work."

Kate moved to politely accept the business card from him, but Ana cleared her throat loudly and pointedly. Christian and Kate both looked up at her, surprised, while she was giving Christian an annoyed look.

"Christian, what did I say?" she asked sternly. "Kate and I can do this on our own - we don't need you carrying us the whole way."

"I'm not trying to carry you guys," Christian said defensively. "I'm just trying to help! A lot of contractors out there are crooks, so unless you know one personally, you're running a huge risk by putting your livelihood in the hands of strangers. I just want to make sure you guys don't get screwed over."

He's got a point there, Kate couldn't help but think fairly. "Thank you, Christian" she said gratefully, accepting the business card from him and looking down at it. "I'll give him a call."

"Make sure you mention my name, too, so you definitely know you're getting their best service," he insisted.

"Will do."

Ana merely shook her head and turned to walk away, obviously deciding it was a lost cause to argue any further.

At that moment, there was a faint buzzing sound, and Christian quickly reached into his pocket to pull out his vibrating BlackBerry. "Excuse me, I have to take this," he said apologetically, looking at the phone screen. "I'll be right back."

He turned and walked out the front door, bringing his phone to his ear. "Ros, what is it?"

Ana walked over to Kate's side, stepping over the nails on the floor as she watched Christian leave. "Sorry, that tends to happen a lot - running GEH takes up pretty much all of his time."

"Well I suppose that's the life of a billionaire businessman," Kate said, turning to face Ana and crossing her arms. "Which begs the question - how in the living hell did you two end up getting together?"

Ana snickered. "You've never snagged a billionaire before, so it's completely impossible for me to have?"

Kate grimaced at her. "Come on, seriously, Ana - how did this happen? I mean, obviously you guys already knew each other because you work together, but Christian's your boss. And from what I gathered doing my research on him, he only ever dates skanky supermodels…"

"Thanks," Ana said sarcastically.

"Oh, you know what I mean," Kate rolled her eyes. "And it's a compliment to you, actually, because you're not skanky at all."

"I know what you meant," Ana giggled before looking at Christian through the window. "I'm not sure how it happened… we clicked at the office, you know, cause we just worked really well together. I think I was able to enjoy my job a lot more because of him, and the more time we spent together, the more we got to know each other…" Ana blushed. "Feelings began to develop, and then things between us just sort of happened from there."

Kate couldn't help but grin at her blushing friend. "So when did it all start?"

"When we went to London for that business trip," Ana said, smiling at the memory. "On our last day there, he took me to a fancy dinner and he told me how he felt. I told him I was feeling the same way about him, and so that night we… well…"

"Boned?" Kate finished for her with a smirk, and Ana's face went even redder as she giggled. "You go girl!"

"Oh, shut up," Ana snickered, still blushing. "Yes, we did have sex, if you must know. But things have been going really well between us since then, so I'm not complaining. Although he and I do have to keep our relationship a secret from everyone at work."

"Really?" Kate asked, raising her eyebrows. "I mean, I understand why you kept him a secret from me - I was terrified of confronting the guy again after that interview."

"Yeah, I know," Ana grimaced apologetically. "I'm sorry for not telling you about him sooner. Did you think I was lying about having a boyfriend?"

"No, not really - I just assumed you were really embarrassed about him or something," Kate said truthfully. Ana laughed.

"Well, you're still right about that," she giggled, and Kate laughed as well.

"…But seriously," Kate said once their laughter died down. "He's good to you and everything?"

"Yeah, he is," Ana smiled, her cheeks a bit pink. "We're in love with each other, and he's as committed to me as much as I am to him."

"Good," Kate nodded. "That's good. But…" she hesitated for a second. "I just wonder, from a business standpoint, you know… would it really be a wise move for your boyfriend to be making such a permanent investment in our company?"

Kate felt incredibly awkward asking that, but she had to know since it involved their business. Thankfully, Ana didn't seem too upset by the question, although there was a noticeable hardness to her voice when she spoke:

"Yes," she said firmly, looking Kate in the eye. "Christian wants to do this for us, and I'm not going to stop him. He is the most important thing in my life right now, and, if things go my way, he will continue to be the most important thing in my life for years to come. This isn't just a fleeting thing, Kate - I already said that he and I are completely committed to each other. Please understand that."

Kate could only stare at Ana, feeling a bit surprised by that little impassioned speech. Holy crap, was Ana talking about spending the rest of her life with Christian Grey? Just then, the man himself walked back into the store, effectively ending their conversation.

"Sorry about that," Christian said, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "Work stuff."

He sounded very distracted, no doubt from the phone call he just had, and Ana picked up on his change in mood. "Everything okay?" she asked with a concerned frown, placing a gentle hand on his forearm.

"Fine," he grimaced, though he didn't sound very convincing. "Weren't we just talking about me investing in your store?"

A businessman through and through, Kate thought sardonically. He was obviously trying to change the subject, and Ana was kind enough to not push him on what was really bothering him. "Christian, it's Sunday, and Kate was just about to start cleaning this place up… can't the investment talk wait till the work week actually begins?"

"I'll be available to talk to you tomorrow afternoon about your investment," Kate piped up quickly. "The appraisal firm is only having me work mornings now, so I'm free to talk anytime after lunch."

"Tomorrow afternoon could work," Christian nodded. "Although I'd have to check my schedule to figure out what time exactly I'm free."

"Oh! You had that cancellation at 5:15," Ana said quickly, sounding excited. "The three of us could meet up at Grey House tomorrow evening and talk about the future of SIBP."

"Sounds like a plan," Christian nodded and smiled.

"I don't know, will I even be allowed on the premises?" Kate asked, though there was a note of lighthearted amusement in her voice.

"I'll let my security team know you are no longer banned from Grey House, Kate," Christian smiled at her. "I hope we can let bygones be bygones."

Kate grinned back. "Hey, you're dating my best friend and you're investing in our company - I'd say this all worked out pretty well for me in the end."

Both Christian and Ana laughed at that, and Kate couldn't help but smile widely. This was not how she had thought this day was going to turn out, but she certainly wasn't complaining - hopefully, with Christian's help, she and Ana could hit the ground running with SIBP and begin this venture sooner than she had ever expected.

And she was fucking ready for it.

Ana

After the three of them made plans to meet at GEH tomorrow to talk business, Ana and Christian left Kate to clean the place up, with her denying their help and insisting that she could do it by herself. Ana decided not to argue too much, and she and Christian ended up walking hand in hand to the black Audi parked behind Kate's on the street. On the horizon, the sun was setting and casting an orange glow on everything around them.

"…So what did Ros want?" Ana asked when they stopped in front of the car. She could tell it hadn't been a very pleasant call, and Christian let out a huge sigh, releasing her hand and running his fingers through his messy hair.

"She told me there was an attempted break-in at GEH on Friday night," he finally said, his angry voice conveying the suppressed rage he had obviously been feeling since that phone conversation. "And no one thought to fucking tell me until now."

"Wait - what?" Ana stared at him in shock."Is anyone hurt? Was anything stolen?"

"No, my security team stopped the perpetrator before it got out of hand," Christian scowled. "That's probably why no one bothered telling me about it - I gave my team orders to not contact me unless it was an emergency, but apparently they didn't consider a fucking break-in to be an actual emergency!"

"I'm sure they just didn't want to worry you about a situation that had already been handled," Ana said fairly. "Is the person is custody?"

Christian frowned before nodding. "Yeah, she is."

Ana looked surprised. "She? So it was a woman who broke into the building?"

Christian nodded again, looking back up at Ana with an oddly reserved expression on his face. "Yeah. It was Gia Matteo, apparently."

This surprised Ana even more, and for a moment all she could do was stare at Christian in utter shock. "Gia?" she finally said, disbelievingly. "Seriously? Why the hell would Gia try to break in at Grey House?"

Christian pressed his lips together and shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Ana felt completely floored. What was Gia - blonde, sophisticated, well-to-do Gia - trying to do by breaking into a corporate office building late on a Friday night? Ana had no idea, but she couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with that drama that had happened at the Grey's a couple weeks ago. She shook her head, still completely stunned.

"It doesn't make sense," Ana looked back up at Christian. "Why on earth would she risk doing something like that?"

"If I knew why, I would tell you," Christian said, starting to sound angry again, though Ana was sure his anger was directed at this whole situation rather than her. "I have no fucking idea what she was doing, but all I know is that she didn't take anything and no one was hurt - that's all that matters for now."

"Yeah," Ana nodded, still with a thoughtful frown on her face. "But the building's safe now, though, right?"

"Yes, everything at Grey House should be secure," Christian nodded. "The work day will proceed as normal tomorrow."

Ana smirked. "Darn. And here I was, hoping for a day off."

Christian laughed, moving forward so that he wrapped his arms around her. "You're funny."

Ana smiled, wrapping her arms around his torso. "Were you thinking about dropping by Grey House right now to check up on things? I'd understand if you did."

Christian looked a bit reluctant. "I didn't want to say anything about it, since I know it's technically still our weekend and all…"

Ana leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "I understand Christian - you go meet up with your security team at Grey House and I'll stay here and help Kate clean up. She can just drop me off at your place when we're done. Okay?"

Christian didn't say anything - he only gazed into her eyes with an unreadable emotion on his face before suddenly taking her face in his hands and kissing her with fervent passion. Ana kissed him back, surprised, but enjoying his desire for her all the same.

"You are the most patient, understanding, and sweetest woman in the world, Ana Steele," he whispered after a moment, his lips still brushing lightly against hers. "And I don't deserve you."

Ana blushed, still feeling a bit hot from that kiss. "Christian, people will see us," she said shyly, glancing at the relatively empty street around them.

"Let them see," he said seriously, still staring into her eyes. "You and I won't have to hide for much longer, and pretty soon, we will finally be able declare our love to the world."

Ana smiled at him. "I can't wait," she said honestly. True, there would likely be a lot of problems in store for them once they finally went public with their relationship, but Ana was ready and willing to take the plunge if Christian by her side.

Christian kissed her again. "I'll see you tonight, baby," he said quietly once they broke apart, and Ana bit her lip.

"Don't stay too late."

Christian flashed her his most charming smile. "Never," he winked before turning around and moving toward his car.

~/~

"Hey," Kate said, sounding pleasantly surprised when she saw Ana re-enter the store. She stopped sweeping the nails off the floor to lean up against her broom. "You're back."

"Yeah," Ana said, moving toward the box of cleaning supplies on the floor. "Christian had to go handle some stuff at work, so I thought I'd stay back here and make myself useful."

"Okay... well, cleaning this place up shouldn't take too long now. I was just going to sweep up the floors and maybe wipe down the windows so it all looked a bit more presentable. We'll probably need to do a thorough scrub-down of the whole place at some point in the future, though."

"I'll say," Ana grimaced, gazing at the back wall, where a lot of dirt and mold had accumulated in the far corners.

"Aw, c'mon - don't be like that," Kate grinned, walking over to Ana and putting an arm around her. "It doesn't matter if this place is dirty. It's ours - it's gonna be our very own bookstore and publishing company! It'll be like a second home to us - Kate and Ana's Place!" Kate looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head. "Actually, no, scratch that. 'Kate and Ana's Place' makes us sound like an old lesbian couple living together."

Ana laughed loudly. "Well, we can't have that, now can we?"

Kate laughed too, letting go of Ana to walk back over to where she had been sweeping. "No, we can't. God, I really need a boyfriend." She sighed disparagingly. "All these long, lonely nights working on getting our company started is starting to get to me."

"You'll find someone," Ana said sympathetically.

"Sure," Kate shrugged. "Maybe Christian knows of some handsome, wealthy single men out there that wouldn't mind hooking up with someone like me. Like that would ever happen!"

A/N: Thank you all for reading! Sorry I had to make you all wait for such an uneventful chapter, but as you could probably tell, some of the upcoming drama has been hinted at. What do you think is going on? Leave a review and let me know!

Also, it looks like this story is coming to an end pretty soon :( I'm not sure exactly how many chapters are left in it, but the finale is going to be coming up. I'll be sure to keep you all posted on when it happens!

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