Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
ABIGAIL
E very time I noticed Ashley checking Simon out, I felt myself getting a little defensive before I remembered that he didn’t belong to me anymore. If he wanted to get with the Fit Gal herself, then that was up to him.
Even so, watching her ogling him wasn’t fun. In the time since he and I had been together, it seemed I’d forgotten how to be unbothered by the female attention he’d always attracted.
I supposed the other difference was that back in the day, he’d been pretty clear about not being interested. He’d always look them right in the eyes and then take my hand, or slide his arm around my shoulders, or lean in for a particularly passionate kiss.
It’d always worked, leaving the girls looking a little crestfallen but accepting of the fact that they would be wasting their time with him. These days, he did nothing of the sort.
Obviously.
I’d probably have punched him if he tried something like that right now, especially while we were in a professional setting, but that didn’t help the green-eyed Sasquatch living inside me. Logically, I knew I had no right to be jealous and yet it was horrible to have to sit here, watching another woman make eyes at him without being allowed to do anything about it.
Simon wasn’t paying much attention to her, but that didn’t matter. We were at the beginning of a three-month stint with her company. He didn’t need to rub it in my face in order to have a good time with a potential client at some point in the next few months.
I couldn’t even deny that they would make a gorgeous couple. With Simon’s dark hair and her platinum blonde, his well-fitted suits and the chic, professional yet athletic look she had going on, they would cut a really freaking pretty picture.
Jealousy gnawed at my insides, but the more I tried to ignore it, the more prominent it seemed to become. Not that I could blame her for checking him out today. I didn’t blame her any other day either, but he looked particularly handsome in all black with an emerald green tie this morning, that short facial hair neatly sculpted around his strong jaw.
As I averted my gaze from her flirtatious smiles, I caught Blake staring at me and wondered if I was imagining things, but I didn’t think I was. Immediately, I looked at Simon to see if he’d noticed.
It seemed as though he had, his posture tense and his nostrils flaring as he did his damnedest not to scowl at the guy he was trying to win over. I bit back a smile. Good. So I’m not the only one wrestling with irrational jealousy.
It was weirdly comforting to know, even if I really shouldn’t have cared. While it definitely looked like the siblings might have conflicting interests in terms of who they’d rather have around their company once the ninety-day period was over, I was going to choose to believe they wouldn’t let personal preferences sway them.
Ultimately, their goal was to find the marketing firm best suited to the massively successful brand they’d built. They weren’t in this room looking for love—even if it did look like Ashley was still out to find herself a husband named Simon. I could only hope she wasn’t using this competition as a way to find a date.
Sadly, the same could be said for Blake. A little older than we were, he wasn’t bad looking at all. In fact, I’d absolutely noticed him when he’d walked out on that stage at the Games, his presence in real life making him even more attractive than his picture on all those posters had suggested.
The guy was larger than life, tall, light, and handsome with a sexy, confident smile and sparkling eyes. He was as ripped as his sister was toned, and frankly, he was built as powerfully as one of those old muscle cars. It was impossible not to notice him.
A few weeks ago, I definitely would’ve been flattered by his interest and I might’ve even wanted to grab dinner and find out if there could be something there. Now, however, I couldn’t help feeling that it was slightly inappropriate of both him and his sister to eye us like we were slabs of meat, and I couldn’t find a single shred of attraction toward him anywhere inside as a result.
With a soft sigh, I turned my gaze away from him and even from Simon, who was now scowling at the screen. Refocusing on Jeffrey and Karen’s commercial, I immediately pinpointed who had been responsible for the different elements they displayed in their video.
After team-building week, I’d gotten to know them a little bit. I’d learned that Jeffrey really was a total nerd, but that he was also super valuable when it came to builds. He’d never met an app, website, course, or video he couldn’t build or improve, and that would make him an asset to any company in this day and age.
Karen, on the other hand, was a total turd. Just a horrible, annoying person, but she had a real knack for trends and content creation. Using the employees who embodied the Fit Gal brand had most certainly been her idea, whereas the suggested app at the end to link up Fit Gals in the same area who had similar interests had almost definitely come from him.
When their commercial faded out, I joined the others in a round of applause, knowing that we’d have to watch out for these two going forward. Like us, they’d come here to win, and irrespective of what we thought of them as people, they were real contenders for the job.
Simon stood up when they returned to their seats and I joined him beside the laptop at the head of the table. He and I had agreed that he would introduce our commercial, and when he spoke, I knew we’d made the right call.
Attraction rolled over me like a wave as I observed how well spoken and confident he was, and Ashley seemed to think so too. I could practically see her swooning in her chair when he got started.
“That commercial is going to be a tough act to follow,” he said, effortlessly acknowledging our competition before he moved onto our presentation. “Abigail and I chose to focus on the idea that anybody, anywhere, can be a Fit Gal, and we’ve incorporated the sense of community that the company holds so dear into our commercial.”
He smiled. “Almost everybody in marketing knows that authenticity has become a buzzword in the industry. More and more, we know that consumers are seeking transparency and connection with the brands they love, so we decided to look past the traditional meaning of a fit girl to showcase that this is a brand for every woman and even the men who can look past the name for now. No matter who you are or what you enjoy doing, you can be part of the Fit Gal community.”
Ashley looked like she was barely holding herself back from bursting into a standing ovation and even Blake seemed mildly impressed. Definitely more interested in our idea that the others’, he turned to the screen as I hit play on the laptop.
Honestly, watching our commercial again with them, even I was impressed with how awesome it’d come out. It opened with Hazel on a run around the park, cracking open her energy drink when she paused to take a breath. Eden had been pretending to be hosting a book club under a tree, and she and all the women we’d found in the park, who had agreed to be part of our production, each had a Fit Gal open next to them.
From there, we moved to Liv drinking a Fit Gal as she directed cowboys around on the ranch on horseback and we showed London with her Fit Gal while she was having her nails done. We’d included shots of Liam and Austin drinking a Fit Gal while in the arcade, with Liam winking cheekily at the camera as he tried to hide the name on the bottle.
Many of our coworkers and other friends were also featured, and by the time the video stopped, I knew we had this in the bag. Jeffrey blinked hard when the lights came back on. “What camera did you use to shoot that? The resolution was incredible.”
Karen flipped her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. “I wasn’t aware that we could take this off-campus. That really should’ve been made clearer.”
I bit back a retort to her very Karen-ish response and went to take my seat again. Simon came to sit down beside me, offering me a discreet fist bump under the table. I tapped my knuckles against his but diverted my gaze from those intense, excited eyes.
Ashley beamed at him, then quickly realized she was being too obvious and toned down her megawatt smile before turning it on each of us once she tore her gaze away from him. “Excellent work, everybody. I think it’s safe to say that you absolutely fulfilled your brief to wow us. That was amazing.”
Blake nodded his agreement curtly, then pushed back his chair, gaze lingering on mine for a moment before he stood and motioned to his sister. “If you’ll excuse us, we’re going to step outside for a minute.”
Ashley grinned as she stood to follow him. “When we get back, we’ll hear everyone’s first individual pitch and then we’ll announce the team who won the commercial challenge at the end.”
As they left, I pulled out my notes for the pitch and looked them over, feeling nerves rise up within me. I’d opted to have Simon introduce our commercial over myself because regardless of how adept I’d become at doing it, speaking in front of people still didn’t come naturally to me.
Super nervous as I glanced over my talking points, I realized I didn’t need these anymore. I had the mock pitch down pat and I knew it was good. All I had to do now was deliver it as flawlessly as I’d done with the interns the other day.
When I looked up, I saw Simon’s eyes already on me, those greens as calming and steadying as ever. As we made eye contact, I felt my panic recede just like it had at graduation and so many times before.
Confidence surged through me and I knew it had come from him. Even as opponents, he was letting me borrow some of that inner strength of his. Instantly, I felt grounded. Ready to present, I grinned when Ashley and Blake walked back in.
Nothing could stop me now, and whether or not I had the best pitch here, I knew I was going to establish myself as a true contender. I’d come here to win this company as a client, and my pitch was going to prove that I stood as good a shot at achieving that goal as anyone.