Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
ABIGAIL
A wave of excitement washed over me as I walked through the huge glass doors of the Fit Gal headquarters. Their offices were stunning, the space airy with plenty of natural light and indoor plants in pots. The bright turquoise and neon pink of their branding made for a great aesthetic, pops of the colors in everything from the signs on their walls to the décor.
The minute I walked in, so many more campaign ideas came me and I smiled, already thinking about how to fold Fit Guy into everything I had in mind. I’d called Austin first thing on Saturday morning to tell him what I’d learned about the launch, and I knew he was looking forward to incorporating men into our pitches.
What he wasn’t looking forward to, however, was the fact that I had to spend the next three months seeing the source of our information so often. He wasn’t the only one worried about it either. London, Dad, and even Olivia had called this morning to make sure I was okay.
My honest answer to them all had been the same thing: I was more than just okay. I was raring to go and Simon’s presence didn’t faze me. Secretly, I was even kind of excited about having him around now that we’d cleared the air a bit.
Even if I still hadn’t forgiven him.
When I reached the front desk, the receptionist smiled at me. “Abigail Walker, right?”
I nodded and extended my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too.” She offered me a fist bump instead of a handshake and grinned. “I’m Charlene, also known as the genie around here. If you need anything, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to make it happen.”
I smiled. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Let me show you to the conference room that has been set up for you guys.” She motioned for me to follow her and led me down a corridor to a cute little space with six seats in it. There were pictures of Ashley and Blake on the walls, cans of Fit Gal in a small fridge with a glass door, and a variety of chocolates in a bowl on the table.
Simon was the only one there so far, that divine scent of his faint, but definitely lingering in the air as I walked in. Wearing a navy blue suit and a crisp white shirt with no tie, he looked good enough to lick. Even if I did prefer it when his hair was slightly messier than the perfectly styled look he had going on right then.
Charlene left me at the door. “There’s a break room just down the hall. Please help yourself to some coffee if you’re a human being and tea if you’re, well, confused. There are some muffins in there too.”
She winked before she spun around and raced back to her desk, and I chuckled, looking at Simon as I made my way to a chair. “You’re here early.”
“Well, you know what they say. The early bird gets the breakfast.”
“It’s worm,” I corrected him with a smile. “Early bird gets the worm . Maybe this is going to be easier than I thought.”
He chuckled, eyebrow arching as he leaned back in his chair and watched me get settled in, that dark green gaze never leaving me. “I’m just messing with you. It’s part of my strategy to make my competitors think I’m innocent and slightly dumb, and then I’ll stab them in the back when they least expect it.”
“Yeah, you’re actually really good at that.” I watched his face drop and guilt pricked at my gut for a moment, but then I remembered that what I’d just said was completely true.
Despite our talk—and our truce—he’d hurt me and I wasn’t about to let him off the hook entirely. Besides, he’d walked right into that one. I pumped my eyebrows at him as I sat down and he sighed.
“It was a joke,” he supplied halfheartedly. “Good morning, Abigail.”
“Good morning, Simon.”
As I took my seat, two people I’d never met walked in. Since Charlene had showed them here as well, I assumed they were our competition. A man and a woman, both of whom appeared to be around the same age we were.
The guy wore a brown tie and a brown suit, with thick glasses that had a few smudges on them, and his brown hair was combed and slicked down into a middle parting. The woman, on the other hand, had bottle-blonde hair cut into a sharp bob with huge sunglasses sitting on top of her head. She wore tight, bright red leggings and a white cowl-neck shirt, with heels so high that I had no idea how she walked in them.
Simon and I both stood up dutifully, offering them our hands to shake. He flashed them both a charming, very nonthreatening smile. “Hi there, folks. I’m Simon and this is Abigail.”
“Jeffrey,” the man said, sticking out his hand and giving Simon what appeared to be a very tight and awkward shake.
When he moved his hand to mine, I learned I had been right. His grip was much too stiff, his palms clammy. I forced a smile anyway. The guy was a total nerd, but I knew better than to underestimate him. After all, if his company had been selected for this tryout, he was good at his job. Very good, or he wouldn’t have been here no matter what he looked like.
“I’m Karen,” the woman said, and I saw it immediately. Karen was exactly that—a Karen, and a Karen who didn’t seem to be above flirting with the competition either. She smiled coyly at Simon as she gave him her hand like it was a gift. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
He returned her smile, but his was cold and impersonal, his hand barely touching hers before he withdrew it and sat back down. I barely got a glance from her as she greeted me. Then they were both taking their seats.
Simon and I made small talk with them, learning which firms they were from and the campaigns they’d worked on before. After getting ourselves some coffee and settling in, the door opened again, and this time, Blake and Ashley appeared.
The sibling owners of the company were both beautiful, with similar features and dressed in clothes that were athletic but stylish. My heart skipped at the sight of them.
Here we go!
After they’d introduced themselves, they sat down with us in the remaining two seats and didn’t waste any time getting started. Ashley kicked us off with a big, bright smile on her shiny lips. “Thanks to all of you for being here. We’re so excited to spend the day with you, showing you around and giving you your first assignment.”
“Since this is your first week here,” Blake continued where she’d left off, his voice considerably less easygoing and friendly than hers. “This will be team-building week. What we’re looking for at the end of this probationary period is a marketing firm that we feel is the right fit for our company. We’ve built our brand around a sense of community and teamwork, which means that we’re looking for that same ethos in the firm we choose.”
At the Fit Gal Olympics, he’d seemed a lot more approachable. Here in the office, he was a businessman. There, he’d been a host. I supposed it made sense, but my first impression of him was that he was going to be much harder to impress than his sister.
He knew what he was looking for and he definitely had a stick up his ass, but I could work with that. For the rates we charged, clients expected perfection. Ashley kept stealing glances at Simon, which immediately made me wonder if she was looking for a boyfriend more than a marketing firm.
Unfortunately, I also felt a frisson of jealousy trickle through me, but I tamped it down and looked firmly at Blake as he continued. “We’re going to be showing you around the facility this morning. All of you have also been assigned office space, and we’ll show you where that is after the tour. Any questions so far?”
I shook my head and so did everybody else, but I could feel the spirit of competition tightening the very air we were breathing. As we listened to Ashley and Blake, it really dawned on me that one of us was going to land this company as a client. More than ever before, I wanted it to be me.
When they finally started showing us around, the need to represent them built within me with every step I took. The production of their product was so cool, done in a big warehouse attached to the building that housed their offices.
It was all industrial, with massive mixing tanks, pumps, filters, canning equipment. There were tunnels for pasteurizing, heating, and cooling of the products once they were sealed. Labeling happened at the end of the process.
I couldn’t wait to explore this place on my own and I made tons of mental notes of questions I wanted to ask the staff when I was alone. All four of us followed the siblings, mostly quiet as we took it all in.
Ashley didn’t stop talking at all, but she’d fallen into step beside Simon and she seemed to be directing most of her comments and explanations toward him. She also kept sending him long, lingering glances and I fought the irrational jealousy that had turned from a trickle into a tsunami.
You’re here for work, to sign this awesome company as a client. Don’t let Simon being here derail you. You promised you wouldn’t do that. You’re not that girl anymore.
I breathed through it, deliberately pulling my attention from Simon and Ashley to chat to Jeffrey instead. He was smart, sharing several observations as we walked from the warehouse back into the office building.
“Those storage tanks are to hold the raw materials,” he said as we passed row upon row of containers in the tunnel connecting the two parts of the facility to one another. “The ones we saw when we started were to keep the final product fresh until it can be transferred to the cans. There are safety standards for these kinds of things.”
“Oh. That’s cool. Thanks for telling me.” I smiled at him, and Simon must’ve caught the movement from the corner of his eyes because the next thing I knew, he was narrowing them at Jeffrey.
I sighed.
Whatever, Astor. You’re being hit on over there. I’m just trying to be friendly and do my job.
When we were back in a corridor with doors lining the walls, we were shown a pause area with futuristic-looking pods which, according to Ashley, was where people could recharge. Next up was a large, spacious kitchen complete with a popcorn machine and several coffee makers, and beside that there were a few different meeting areas. All of their conference rooms were named things like the Creativity Core and the Inspiration Station . Finally, Ashley led us down another corridor and introduced us to a few of the employees.
“Alright,” she said as we stopped outside a door at the end of the corridor with another door right behind her. “Office assignments. Settle in and we’ll meet you at the Inspiration Station in twenty. We’ve got Abigail and Simon in here and Jeffrey and Karen over on this side.”
Great . Just freaking great.
It really wasn’t going to be easy getting anything done with Simon sitting right there with me, but I shook it off as he opened our door. Jeffrey and Karen disappeared through the other and Blake marched to the pause area, aptly named the Zen Den .
Ashley, however, didn’t leave. She followed Simon into our office space, and I hovered outside in the corridor for a moment. Instead of cock-blocking her like I wanted to, I gave her a minute with him, trying to ignore the green-eyed monster inside me.
I knew my best shot at not annoying her, which would basically amount to taking myself out of the running for the account, was to hang back. So I turned and looked at the funky, brightly colored paintings on the walls. I didn’t know much about art, but even I could tell the turquoise and pink splotchy pieces must’ve been custom-made for them.
I just wasn’t entirely certain what they were meant to represent. Either way, the pieces were pretty cool, as were the weirdly shaped mirrors and the fresh flowers arranged on so many of the surfaces in the common areas.
The more I saw of their offices, the more I felt like I was getting an even deeper understanding of their company culture. They certainly didn’t seem to be an uptight corporation and I liked that. I loved clients who were a little bit quirky and open to new ideas.
All the while though, even as I was bombarded by little details to add to my pitch, I was supremely aware of Ashley being in our office with Simon. Her laughter and syrupy sweet voice filtered out into the hallway, but she couldn’t be doing what I thought she was doing.
It had to be all in my head, right? There was no way she was actually interested in the representative of one of firms competing to win their company as a client.
Oh, who cares? I don’t. Right? I can’t care. I must. Not. Care.
And yet, I had a feeling that I did, in fact, care—and I had absolutely no idea how to stop doing it.