Chapter 17 #2
“The women’s products industry is very different in New York and the Midwest. Most women want the same things—smooth skin, to feel beautiful and pampered, to look attractive to the opposite sex—but what works for selling beauty can be quite disparate in various geographic areas.”
Getting comfortable in my seat, I attempted to put the last fifteen minutes behind me and took notes as she worked through her presentation.
I’d done plenty of marketing focus groups during my years with Fresh Look, but there was always something new to learn.
The ad world changed by the minute, and advertising to women was even more of a challenge.
Let’s face it, we women wear our right to change our minds like a badge of honor—what we want today could be passé by tomorrow.
I was sitting two seats away from the presenter on the right side of the long conference table.
Chase sat a half dozen chairs away from her on the far end of the opposite side of the table.
It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed he didn’t sit at the open head of the table during marketing meetings.
He was the kind of boss who had his eye on everything, and participated, but didn’t feel the need to constantly remind people he was in charge.
Holding my pen to my lips, I wondered if he did it on purpose.
When my eyes flicked back to him, he was watching me intently. I looked away, but two seconds later, I glanced back again. He looked around the room to see if anyone was paying attention to him. Of course everyone else was watching the presentation, as we both should have been.
Then he mouthed to me, I really love that you read lips.
I smiled coyly and scanned the room before looking back.
It felt like we were in middle school, trying not to be caught passing notes. His gaze was glued to my lips as his mouth formed soundless words. I also really love your lips.
Flustered, I shifted in my chair to face the woman giving the presentation. I managed to hold out for less than five minutes before my eyes wandered back. This time, Chase didn’t even bother to see whether anyone was watching. He mouthed, I really like my shirt on you.
I shot him a look of warning. It didn’t scare him one bit. He continued—and like an ass, I couldn’t look away.
I can’t wait to see what’s underneath it.
I wanted to kill him. I also wanted to hear what he was going to do once he saw what was underneath. Luckily, my focus was forced to return to the room when I heard my name spoken.
Josh had opened a discussion on in-store product placement testing vs.
focus groups and asked me to share my experience from Fresh Look.
It took a minute to regain my footing, but marketing wasn’t just my job, it was a passion.
Once I began talking, that passion took over.
Over the next hour and a half, I did my best not to fidget when I found Chase watching me.
At one point I was putting on Chapstick—something I did a dozen times a day—and Chase was mesmerized watching me line my lips. It made between my legs tingle, and I squirmed in my seat.
When it was Chase’s turn to speak, I admired how he dominated the room with his thoughts and ideas.
He was so different than my boss at Fresh Look—a typical CEO whose presence had been felt in almost a bullying kind of a way.
There was no way Scott Eikman was not sitting at the head of the table during a meeting like this.
My old boss would have been there with his arms folded over his chest, making everyone around him sit up straighter.
Chase’s style was understated, and he captured the room with brains and natural charisma. He caught me watching him while he spoke, and the corner of his mouth twitched up. Luckily, unlike me, he didn’t become tongue-tied when being watched so closely.
After all the questions had been answered, Elaine went in to close the deal. “I know you said your timeline was evolving, but we have two focus groups available this week, if you’d like to jump in. One is in Kansas and one here in New York City.”
Of course, she’d also spent a good deal of her presentation speaking about the importance of collecting feedback from the Midwest, in addition to both the coasts.
And she just happened to have two such groups available for us to join in the next few days.
I had to hand it to her, though—she gave a good sales pitch.
Josh told her we’d get back to her quickly, and the projector had not even cooled down from her presentation when the second appointment was escorted into the room.
I was disappointed that Chase had said he wouldn’t be able to sit in on the second focus group presentation, but also relieved I’d have nothing to distract me.
When the meetings finally ended at six, we sat around the conference room discussing the two companies. We agreed unanimously that Elaine’s Advance Focus was the better firm to handle our focus groups. Josh looked to Lindsey and me.
“Think we can pull together the rest of the samples and presentations in time to join the groups Elaine has running this week in Kansas and here in the city?” he asked.
“We can,” Lindsey said. “It’ll be close, but we can pull it together tomorrow, I think.”
Josh nodded. “I need to be here for a photo shoot we have going on the rest of the week uptown. So which one of you is staying in New York and which is heading to Kansas?”
Lindsey looked to me, and I said, “I’ll do whatever you don’t want to do.”
“Good. Because I hate to fly. I’d rather cover the New York focus group.”
“Well, that was easy,” Josh said. “Chase may want to join you for some of the focus group here, Lindsey. Let him know when you’re confirmed with the details.”
She nodded. “Will do.”
While I was going to miss out on spending time with Chase, I knew deep down that I needed some distance between us. A few thousand miles might be the only thing that could separate us enough to let me clear my head.