Chapter Sixteen
When my Jr. Rep. gets nervous, he chatters endlessly.
Movies, proposing to his girlfriend, the best soda to mix with grain alcohol—anything.
That morning was silent. Nerves so bad they shut Deven up only made mine worse.
Though, his were focused on the pitch we were about to give.
My angst centered on seeing an old colleague, mentor, and friend at the table.
There was no communication between Alec and me in the weeks after the conference. I knew only part of that was apprehension about speaking to me. The rest was professionalism. Our former working relationship and his new position meant there was a conflict of interest.
That didn’t occur to me until we got home from the conference. I tried my best to find Alec again while still there, but didn’t. None of us did. Lisa said she canceled their lunch, but also let slip he had to move his flight to the morning before they met.
Rebekah’s entourage, including Alec, were the last to arrive. I couldn’t sit, and Deven couldn’t stand. Alec looked better than he did at the conference. It filled me with butterflies and dried my mouth.
“Good to see you,” Alec said, shaking my hand. I returned the greeting and formally introduced him to Deven.
Rebekah was very attractive, but no one who had ever met her would think to mention her looks. The wit and humor she’d shown in our brief elevator encounter was a drop in the ocean of charm and intelligence she possessed.
“Mason Blackwood, right,” she said with a firm handshake. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, we’ve met once before. Last year—”
“Oh, I remember.” She chuckled as she sat.
“And even if I didn’t, Alec reminded me.
” She laughed. “I liked you guys. Took chutzpah to ambush me like that, but it’ll take a bit more today.
” Her smile was wide, but her eyes were sharp.
“Alec says you know your stuff. You wouldn’t have gotten this meeting without his recommendation. So, please don’t disappoint.”
That wasn’t the typical start of a sales pitch. It felt more like I was presenting to professors who held my future in their hands. If seeing Alec didn’t already throw me, that did.
But also—what the fuck did she mean I wouldn’t be there without his recommendation?
My heart skipped a beat, and my mouth dried further.
If that were true, he knew about it well before I told him.
Not only knew, but secretly worked on my behalf.
And if he was out there back-channeling to help me, that meant…
“Well, uh, we will try not to,” I chuckled and swallowed against the desert.
Silence. I didn’t know why I thought someone else would say or do something, and I stood up there like an idiot for five seconds of bone-shattering quiet.
“Ok, so, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us,” I began, and it only got worse.
“We just want to stress that not only are our products superior to our competitors, it’s our selective service model that shines in the mist…
or the, uh, crowd, not mist.” Everyone’s face, including Rebekah’s, soured.
“Or I should say cloud, not crowd or mist, because of our robust cloud computing platform. Clouds are mist, just really high up.” I chuckled.
“So, uh… Deven, can you uh… no, no, that one… yeah, thanks.”
It was as awkward as a man setting himself on fire. And just as lethal. I’d lost them twenty seconds in. The biggest pitch of my career ruined by self-immolation.
As Deven set up his laptop, Alec caught my eye. He wore a smirk and gave me a tight nod. The same one he’d shoot me before a pitch before and after we were together. A quiet, Calm the fuck down, Blackwood. You got this.
When the screen blinked to life behind me, I did have it. I’d learned much from Alec, and from every teacher, mentor, and boss before him. But I was in charge now, and I was damn fucking good at my job.
◆◆◆
“Is everyone there?” Deven asked.
“Yup, we’re here,” an older woman said through his speakerphone.
“We did it! We closed the deal!”
The response was raucous applause, hooting and hollering.
Why Deven insisted on calling his family from a bar, I had no idea, nor why they were so excited.
I guess I’d hyped him up so much he must’ve hyped them in turn.
The thought of calling my family to tell them I had closed a single deal was foreign to me, but I didn’t rust his shine, and praised him to his family. But my mind was elsewhere.
I blew Rebekah out of the water. Socks off.
Deven, too, for that matter, and I was so proud of that kid it hurt.
Rebekah poked and prodded the both of us for two hours after our presentation, and he held his own.
No one in the room had anything to say after her onslaught of questions.
No stone was left, no alley unexplored. The deal was done before any verbal decision was made.
My excitement and pride overflowed once she said, “Yeah, okay. Let’s do it.” It only increased as she left me with a knuckle-crushing handshake and a, “Good job, guys. Really well done.”
I wished I could have carried that enthusiasm into my call with the VP of Sales, but I was breathless after talking to Alec. He looked at me with pride and the satisfaction of seeing an outcome come to fruition. But I stopped breathing when he said, “Was there ever a question, Blackwood?”
Blackwood. Just like that. Out in the open. For three months, the only time he used my last name like that was in a bedroom. Ours, or more often, a hotel’s. His tone, too. Not his dominant sex voice, but an octave lower than his speaking voice.
We weren’t even out of the building when my phone started dinging with payments from everyone on the sales team.
I didn’t understand. The messages were just baseball and checkmark emojis.
When Deven began to get them, too, I remembered.
The wager from so long ago felt like a different lifetime.
We were the first team to deliver a pitch to CompComm, and we closed it.
I laughed hard until Deven got me to explain. He was thrilled.
Flush with cash, we took those on the team who could get away to an early celebratory dinner. I was hoping Rebekah would join us, but she didn’t. Nor Alec. When he said “no,” I asked, “Drinks after? We’re staying at the Hyatt.”
“We’ll see,” he said.
As Deven basked in his family’s fawning—what an odd dynamic they had, his girlfriend was there too—all I could think about was Alec showing up.
I kept going back and forth, wondering if we should move down the lobby bar.
If he showed up and we weren’t there, would he venture to the twenty-seventh floor to find us?
Then again, how could I deny Deven the well-deserved fanciness of the sophisticated, modern lounge—with views of the city and mountains beyond through the floor-to-ceiling windows—after such a tremendous performance?
Deven hung up without me saying goodbye. He was still happy, but asked, “Are you good? You barely said anything to my parents.”
“Yup. Fine. More than fine. Just in my head.”
“About what? You could retire right now and be good. Today was huge, man!”
I chuckled. Deven only knew it was huge because I told him it was. He’d never heard of CompComm before he was hired, or their finance department’s storied, ancient software.
“You’re right,” I chuckled again. “Alec might stop by to grab a drink, and I’m just wondering if he’ll know we're up here, or if we should wait in the lobby.”
“He’ll text or call, right?” Deven said, confused.
“Yeah, true,” I lied.
I sipped my drink and watched the door. Deven chattered, reliving each moment of the pitch.
To his credit, his focus wasn’t only on the parts he played, but mine too, and us as a team.
He was a good Jr. Rep., and I was lucky to have him.
It made me a shitty boss for not reveling in his joy as much as I should.
I was sure Alec wouldn’t show. Why had I even let myself think he would? We’d been there long enough to order a second round. As I did, he walked in.
My abdomen filled with flutters, and my head floated.
He scanned the luxurious space, looking for us.
We made eye contact, and a chorus of oh my god, holy fucking shit, what the fucking fuck rang in my ears.
Alec could always make me do things I never imagined.
Reacting to him like a fawning fanboy was one of them, apparently.
To be fair to myself, there was a lot to fawn over.
He had changed since the meeting, making me think it was for me, but knowing better.
A tight, casual suit, no tie, and white button-down open to the third button, exposing some of his muscled, hairy chest. Along with his short beard and modern glasses, he appeared relaxed but able to command the room.
Alec held my gaze as he approached, melting me. I don’t know what my face was doing, but I’m sure it wasn’t manly. His smile never faltered.
“Sorry I’m so late,” he said as I stood to greet him. “Got caught up.”
“No worries at all,” I said, as if I never had an ounce of cool in my life.
I’d seen him since we split, yet it was different. He chose to come meet me. And what Rebekah said before the pitch meant he still thought highly of me. If that was just professional or more, I couldn’t tell. But he said he missed me. And that was…
“Congratulations, guys. Seriously, great job.” Alec spoke to Deven and me, but his eyes lingered on mine. If I melted when he came over, I boiled under his gaze.
“Thanks, man!” Deven said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
“We couldn’t have done it without you, apparently,” I said.
Alec’s eyes flashed, and his smile tightened, but only I noticed. I wasn’t planning to bring that up in front of Deven, but it needed to be said. Who knew how long he’d stay?