Chapter 7
Chapter 7
I returned to the office, floating on a cloud of happiness, my feet barely touching the floor. Nash liked me, and I liked him back. No freak-outs, no bolting from the scene of the date, just a cup of (cold) coffee and some outstanding kissing with a very, very hot guy.
I let out a contented sigh. This must be what it’s like for normal people.
I dropped my purse at my desk and headed straight to Cassie’s office. Cassie had become Regional Sales Manager a few short months ago and got her own office with a view of the city with a sliver of a glimpse of Auckland’s beautiful harbor. Although she was my boss, it hadn’t affected our friendship. I was a hard worker—when I wasn’t meeting hot men at cafés in the middle of the work day, that was—and always delivered great results. In fact, since Cassie had been promoted, I had taken her place as one of the top selling account managers in the team, a record I was extremely proud of.
“Knock, knock,” I said, leaning up against the door frame, peering in at Cassie, hard at work on her computer.
Cassie’s head bobbed up, and her look of concentration transformed into a grin. “Come in, close the door. I take it you have news?” She stood up and walked around her desk toward the comfortable chairs she had arranged around a small, wooden table by the large window.
Closing the door behind me, my tummy performed a fresh flip-flop at the thought of Nash. “I do.” It would have taken superhuman strength to suppress the grin that wanted to spread across my face, a strength I didn’t possess today.
I sat down and crossed my legs. Looking at Cassie’s face, upturned in anticipation, my heart expanded. “It was good, really good.”
“And he was okay with the whole dog thing and your freak-out?”
I nodded. “He was. In fact, he said Dexter’s—that’s his dog’s name, which is really cool, isn’t it?” I sidetracked myself, thinking of how cute Nash and Dexter were together, adding to Nash’s charm. Why I had decided to choose Blaze over Nash was utterly beyond me right now. “Anyway, he said his dog’s lick didn’t even come near his lips and that he doesn’t usually let him lick his face. So, we’re all good.”
Cassie shook her head, smiling. “You are so funny, Marissa. But I’m happy for you.”
I beamed. “Thanks. I am too.”
“So, you’re seeing him again?”
“Of course! We’re going out on Saturday.”
“Oh, that’s so exciting. Your third date.”
“I really want it to work out. Nash even said he would help me through my next freak-out.”
Cassie raised her eyebrows. “He did? Wow, he sounds amazing.”
“I know, right? Amazing.”
Cassie grinned at me. “I have a feeling about you.”
I had a feeling about us, too. “It’s got to work,” I added solemnly.
Cassie narrowed her eyes at me. “Because of the pact?”
“Yes, that’s right: the pact.” A knot tightened in my belly. Since we had first agreed to the pact to marry the next guy we dated, I hadn’t exactly taken it as seriously as the others.
But now, things had changed.
Cassie raised her eyebrows in question, her eyes trained on me. She had the ability to say everything without saying a single word, and it was making me very uncomfortable.
I swallowed, not wanting to have this conversation right now—or at any time, if I was completely honest. I shrugged. “And I . . . I want what you have with Will,” I added, hoping to deflect her attention.
“Uh-huh,” she replied, her eyes searching my face. Dammit! She wasn’t deflected in the least!
I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat. I needed a change of subject, stat!
“So, I’m seeing Pukeko Chocolates today, to pitch a solution. Want me to try and nab some of that earl grey tea–flavored chocolate you like?”
“Hang on. Let’s get back to this ‘it’s got to work’ thing.”
I’d pulled out the big guns, and failed. I had felt sure if anything could distract my sweet-toothed friend from her line of questioning it would be chocolate.
I scrunched up my face. “Do we have to?”
“Why does it ‘have to work’? What’s going on, Marissa? What are you not telling me?” Cassie’s voice was filled with suspicion—and concern.
I hated to admit it, but I crumbled. Man, I would make a terrible spy if I was captured and interrogated by the enemy.
I let out a sigh. “It’s my ex, Eddie. We dated a long time ago. He . . . he got engaged.” I hung my head.
Cassie’s mouth formed a perfect “o” but no words came out.
“It’s not that I’m trying to say ‘well, look at me, I’m in a relationship, too’ or anything, you understand, it’s just that it made me realize it was about time I got serious about getting serious with a guy, and the pact seemed like the perfect way to do it, and . . . well, here I am, dating Nash,” I said, rapid-fire.
Cassie raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure? I mean, it can be a big thing when an ex gets engaged. It can bring up all sorts of things.”
“No! It’s nothing like that. It’s so much more nuanced.”
Nuanced my ass. Eddie had been my Big Love, the guy I fell for hard. We were together for three years, and I had thought we would last forever. And then he broke up with me, out of the blue. It was like a hurricane blasting through my life, devastating me. It took a long, long time to get over Eddie Sutcliffe.
“Is it really, Marissa? Are you sure you’re not having a knee-jerk reaction to this guy becoming engaged?”
Again, I crumbled. And again, I would make a terrible spy. “Maybe a little bit? Or a whole lot? One or the other, I haven’t decided yet.” I pouted.
I remembered Eddie’s smile, the way he made me feel so special, something I had never had before. He quickly became the center of my world, and life without him was unimaginable.
Until I had to.
Cassie shook her head. “Oh, Marissa.”
I put my hands up in surrender. “It’s okay. Everything’s good. I admit, I may have decided to find The One because of the whole Eddie marrying a perfect-looking ice queen thing, but I genuinely like Nash, really, I do.”
“Okay. So, what’s the deal with this Eddie guy? When did you two date?”
“We met in my last year in college and dated for a few years. He was my first.”
“The first guy you slept with?”
“Yes, and . . . my first boyfriend.”
“Wow, a late bloomer.”
“Something like that.”
None of my friends knew about my teenage confidence and weight issues, and I had zero interest in sharing now. It wasn’t long after I’d lost the weight and begun to feel better about myself when I had met Eddie. We hit it off immediately, and I was genuinely surprised when he asked me out. I hadn’t gotten used to the idea guys would find me attractive, I’d been invisible to them for so long. We started dating and, for the first time in my life, the pieces had felt like they had fallen into place. And that’s the way it was for three years, two months, and seventeen days. Until he broke my heart.
Cassie’s phone beeped on her desk. She stood up. “I had better get back to work.”
“Sure.” I couldn’t help but feel as though I’d let her down, like she could no longer trust my intentions. Or maybe it was me I was letting down, me I couldn’t trust? I pushed the unsettling thoughts from my mind.
Cassie turned to me as I reached for the door handle. “You know what? I hope you are genuine about your feelings for Nash and you’re not just hankering after something you can’t have.”
“Please trust me?” My voice was almost pleading.
“It wouldn’t be fair to mess Nash around, you know. Not if you’re still in love with your ex.”
I let out a startled laugh. Still in love with Eddie? Was she insane ? “No way. It’s all good.”
I thought of Nash, sitting across from the table at Alessandro’s, smiling at me, and I knew what I had begun to feel for him was real. It was special, and it was genuine—whether or not I had something to prove to Eddie Sutcliffe.
I reached my desk and plunked myself down in my chair, staring absentmindedly at the cute puppies calendar I had on my cubicle wall. Despite the churning in my belly, a small smile spread across my face. I should tell Nash I had pictures of dogs at work. He’d like that.
“Hi, Marissa, is it?” a voice said.
I swung around in my chair and came face-to-face with the newest member of the sales team.
“Yes, it is. Hi, Antoinette.” I nearly chuckled. This girl wasn’t French, so what kind of name was that? A pretentious one, that’s what it was.
“I wondered if you could help me? I don’t know how to work the printer.”
Antoinette Smith—You see? Unless I’d missed something, Smith was so not a French name—had joined AGD on Monday, and already half the guys in the team were in love with her. Well, probably in lust with her, you know how men could be. With her long blond hair, her short, tight dresses, and more makeup than a drag queen on debut, she definitely fell into the “sex siren” category in that obvious way men can’t help but lap up.
When we had first met, I’d found it hard to take her seriously. She looked like she belonged on the set of the Baywatch movie, not in a telecommunications sales team. Cassie had told me confidentially that she had been forced to employ Antoinette as she was her boss’s niece. Nepotism was alive and well at AGD, it would seem.
I hopped out of my seat, glad of the distraction from my love life. Antoinette may not be my type of person, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be nice. “Sure, no problem.”
I walked with her through the sales office, noticing the male team members’ eyes following us, their tongues virtually hanging out, as we made our way to the photocopy room. I rolled my eyes. Men . Subtlety was not their forte. I glanced at Antoinette. She seemed to lap the attention up, walking like Marilyn Monroe, her hips swinging from side to side.
“Okay, what are you trying to do?” I asked as we stood facing the printer.
“I sent something to print, but it hasn’t turned up here.”
“It might be in one of these.” I leaned down and checked the trays running along the side of the behemoth machine. Why it needed so many trays was beyond my understanding. I found a couple of loose pieces of paper and pulled them out. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
“Oh, yes!” Antoinette replied, her face lighting up as though she were a child and I’d just announced she was going to Disneyland. “Thank you so much.”
I handed the paper over to her and said, “Next time, choose tray seven. For some reason, that’s the main tray.”
“I will,” she replied with a nod, her face serious.
Back at my desk, I pulled up my action list and set about ticking items off before our team catch-up at eleven. I put the final touches on the presentation I planned to give Pukeko Chocolates this afternoon, and I ran through precisely what I was going to say in my head, mouthing the words out as I looked at my screen.
Eleven o’clock rolled around and I accompanied the rest of the team into the boardroom where we took our seats around the large oak table. I watched with amusement as a couple of my male colleagues fussed over Antoinette, pulling a chair out for her, offering her water—generally making idiots of themselves. She took it all in her stride, smiling and simpering at them like a fifties movie star. I bet she got it all day, every day.
“Right, everyone. Let’s get down to it,” Cassie said, standing at the front of the room in front of a large, empty screen. She clicked a key on her laptop, and a diagram appeared on the screen behind her.
I had to pull my glasses out of their case and give them a wipe to see the screen.
“As you can see on this chart, we had a good, solid quarter,” Cassie began.
The chart showed a small rise in profit, but an equally small rise in costs.
“I’m not going to beat about the bush here, guys. We need a better quarter, starting from right now.” She sat down at the table. “Let’s hear your top projections. Marissa? Why don’t you kick things off for us?”
I glanced down at the spreadsheet I had printed off prior to my coffee with Nash this morning. I had the name of each of my customers in one column, their current revenue, projected increases based on my upcoming pitches, and my estimated percentage success rate. I was prepared.
“No problem. First up, I have a data solution I’m pitching to Pukeko Chocolates this afternoon with Bryce.” I smiled across the room at the technology specialist I often worked with. He was the absolute best. “Even though this is only my third appointment with them, I’m pretty confident they have short-listed us and Telco, and I plan on blowing them out of the water with our new voice-data-connectivity solution. I’ve placed that at a seventy-five percent likelihood.”
“Excellent. We’ve never had their business and it’s big, so anything you need from the team, you let me know.” I nodded. “What’s the projected revenue?”
I gave Cassie my figures and watched as she typed them into her laptop. I had been working on Pukeko Chocolates for weeks, having followed up on a lead from our telephone support team, and I was this close to winning their business, I could feel it in my bones. Winning it would be a major coup for me, plus it would set me up nicely to achieve my annual target, which, I hoped, could lead to a promotion to Account Director within the team. Marissa Jones, Account Director . I liked the sound of that.
Today was my final push, and I was hoping, with Bryce’s expertise and my savvy, we would put this one to bed very soon.
Cassie continued to go around the room, asking for each team member’s predictions. I watched her work quickly and efficiently, asking pertinent questions and offering support or advice where needed. When it came to Antoinette’s turn, all eyes were on her. She sat in her seat, her cleavage pushing its way out of her tight top, toying with her long blond hair.
“Antoinette, as you’re new here and haven’t gotten to know your customers yet to be able to make any projections, maybe you’d like to tell us all a little bit about yourself? This is day two here for you?”
“Yes, it is, and I have to say, I love it here. You all have been so welcoming to me.” She put her hand against her chest, and I could have sworn many eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they watched the gesture. “All of you,” she said, gesturing with her hands, “are awesome!”
As she flicked her arm out, her watch got caught in her long hair, pulling it out to the side so she looked like she was wearing some kind of wide hood made of hair. But, although her hand didn’t stop, her hair did, pulling a large clump out of her head.
I sucked in air. That had to hurt!
I looked at the hair attached to the watch and noticed it was a hair extension. She’d pulled one of her hair extensions off her head. How embarrassing for the poor girl!
“Oops!” she cried, lowering her hand to hide it under the table. She yanked desperately, eventually loosening the extension from the watch with a thud when her fist hit the underside of the oak table.
I caught her eye and mouthed, “Are you okay?” and she nodded back, clearly humiliated.
“Thank you, Antoinette,” Cassie said, coming to her rescue. “We’re glad you’re here. I’d like you to shadow someone for the next few weeks to learn about our solutions and see how we interact with our customers.”
“That sounds great,” she simpered, her hair now successfully detached from her watch. Her head looked a little lopsided now.
“Kieran, Marissa, Jason, and Sally?” Cassie said, naming the most experienced members of the team. “Can one of you please take Antoinette to your meetings for the next few days? I’d like her to see you at work.”
“I’d be happy to,” Jason said immediately, almost before Cassie had finished speaking.
“Me, too. I’ve got loads on. You could watch how it’s done,” Kieran said eagerly.
I noticed Sally stayed quiet, echoing my own silence. Antoinette seemed sweet enough, but I had things going on right now and could do without the added responsibility.
“Thank you both so much, Kieran and Jason. You’re both so wonderful to me, and I really appreciate all the help you’ve offered me since I joined.”
She was being so sickly sweet, I could vomit.
She turned her attention to me. “I think I might go with Marissa, if that’s okay with you?”
My eyes got huge. “Me?” I questioned. I glanced at Cassie. Her eyes gave her away, but her face was as calm and in control as always. “Would you be happy with that, Marissa?” she questioned.
I shrugged. “Sure, Antoinette. That’s fine.”
She beamed at me. “Thank you.”
I may have to shove a few of my male customers’ tongues back in their mouths when she walked through the door with me, but I was certain I could manage that. What harm could it do to have her tag along?
No harm at all, as it turned out. That afternoon, I only had to do one tongue shove at the start of the meeting, and the others on the Pukeko team seemed impervious to her charms, much to my relief. I had a job to do and business to close; I didn’t need any distractions.
As I stood at the front of the room with Bryce, wrapping up the reasons why choosing AGD Telecommunications over our rival was the best decision Pukeko Chocolates could make, they were utterly riveted.
I knew it had gone well. They had asked the right questions, and between Bryce and me, we answered them all, dispelling their concerns.
On the way back to the office, Antoinette peppered me with question after question about our pitch and the customer. She didn’t let up, even once I was back at my desk.
She was eager, I’d give her that. Surprisingly so for someone who got her position because of a family member on the executive team.
“And that was why you decided to go with that particular solution?”
“It was. You see, I think it’s always best to get to know a customer and their needs before you even get to pitching.” I placed my laptop on my desk and plugged it in.
“Exactly,” Antoinette said with a smile. She took my hand in hers, training her (unnaturally) blue eyes on mine. I wondered what her actual eye color was. “Marissa, thank you so much for this. I’ve learned so much from you.”
“You’re welcome, Antoinette.”
Antoinette looked from one side to the other, then leaned down toward me. “Can I ask you a question?” she asked in a hushed tone.
“Sure.”
“Do you think I’m right for this sort of place? I mean, a lot of people look at me funny.”
“What do you mean?”
She screwed up her face. “I mean . . . the men.”
“Oh.” I tilted my chair back. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that.” I would have to be blind not to have.
Her cheeks flushed a delicate shade of pink, and I instantly felt bad for her, despite the fact I knew she played the “damsel in distress” with the men in the office half the time. Really, she could single-handedly set the women’s movement back a decade with the amount of eyelash fluttering and hip swinging this woman did around the office.
“What I mean is, I think a lot of the guys here think you’re very attractive.”
“Oh.” She nodded, biting her lip. “Is it the way I dress?”
I pursed my lips and thought for a moment. Would Antoinette appreciate me suggesting she tone her look down, perhaps lose the hair extensions that seemed to have a life of their own? Maybe even go so far as to wear clothes in her actual size? I decided, yes. If I were new here and asked someone’s advice, I would want to hear the truth.
I cleared my throat. “Look, Antoinette. Have you ever thought about maybe, I don’t know, changing the way you dress?”
She stood up straight, pulling her hands defensively around her small waist. “What’s wrong with the way I dress?”
I took in her loose hair, falling in soft curls to her elbows, her tight, low-cut, sleeveless top, her short black skirt, her sky-high heels. Really, she didn’t look too dissimilar to a lady of the night. “I don’t know, maybe cover up a bit? That way the guys won’t gawp at you so much.”
She nodded, slowly. “Okay. I might try that.” Her face broke back into a smile. “Thanks, Marissa. You’re a real friend.”
I glowed. I’d gone from thinking Antoinette was some silly girl, riding on her aunt’s coattails, to realizing she was just as insecure as the rest of us and trying to find her place in the world.
It was quite a turnaround.
“Now, I need to get back to my desk to write this all up. Can I grab you a coffee?”
I smiled at her. Perhaps I’d misjudged her? She was interested and keen to learn. Perhaps I’d been as bad as the guys on the team who treated her as nothing more than a sex symbol? “That would be great. Milk and no sugar, please.”
“Coming right up!”
I sat down at my desk and pulled out my phone. A smile spread across my face as I noticed a text from Nash.
Just checking in. Hope no freak-outs occurring. If so, text immediately. xx
I held the phone against my chest for a moment, grinning like a Disney princess in love. Not only was Nash cute and funny and quite possibly the best kisser on the face of the planet, he signed his message with not one but two kisses. I fired off a quick message in response.
No freak-outs. Thanks for today.
I paused, my finger hovering over the keyboard, then added “xx” to the end, hastily pressing “send” before I had the chance to delete it. I waited, sitting at my desk, holding on to my phone like it was a lifeline. I didn’t have to wait long for a reply.
Looking forward to Saturday. Pick you up at six?
I replied in the affirmative, texting him my address. I placed my phone back on my desk and let out a contented sigh. Eddie’s engagement to that ice queen may have put me in a tailspin at the time, but now that I’d been on two dates with Nash, I knew in my heart I did want to find The One.
And I had a pretty strong feeling I had.