Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
CHLOE
“I’m really glad you decided to take a chance on us. I think you will like it here,” Brantley tells me as we walk up to the arena.
“Why don’t you have an office building for this stuff?” I ask him.
“I like the staff to work in the same building as the team. One of the restricted areas leads to a whole office floor, so the staff has the office feel but still near the rink. You are more than welcome to come eat your lunch in here while they practice. A lot of the employees do.”
I smile. I like that. I can imagine eating lunch and watching them skate around the ice. It is like a dream come true.
“Brantley,” a man calls as soon as we enter the arena. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“You’ll have to wait a bit longer. Chloe, this is Louis. He’s my business adviser. Chloe is our new marketing specialist.”
“Because you need more employees,” Louis mutters.
“It’s none of your business. I’ll meet you in my office,” Brantley spits at him.
The man doesn’t say another word. He walks away instead.
“He doesn’t like me,” I tell him.
“He doesn’t know you. He doesn’t like that I make my own decisions.”
I nod as if I understand. I don’t. I have never had anyone telling me what to do with my life like that.
“Don’t worry about him. You won’t be dealing with him.
Let me introduce you to your new team,” he tells me as he pushes through a set of doors.
The vibe in here is different from the empty arena.
You can hear people typing and some low conversations as we move through.
He takes me to a conference room with three other people poring over some papers.
“Hey. This is Chloe. She’s your new marketing specialist. She has some really great ideas to help catapult the organization in different directions. Please make her feel welcome.” He turns to me. “I’ll check in with you later.”
I nod, knowing what he’s saying. He will see me at home.
I appreciate him not saying it out loud. I don’t need them knowing I live with the owner.
“Hey, I’m Sarah. This is Randy and Malik. Come on over. We will get you a desk and all that later. We have a marketing campaign we need to have turned in by three. Jump on in here and ask questions. If you have any ideas, we are open to hear them.”
“Sounds good.”
I listen for a few minutes as they go back and forth. I gather that they are looking at new possibilities for intro videos. They have used the same single photo of the guys for as long as I can remember.
“What if we took highlights from their entire careers and started there? We could show a clip from high school or as a kid to college, then on our team. End with the single photo like usual since it’s tradition,” I throw out there.
Malik turns and smiles. “Wow. That’s actually a great idea. I can hear all the women in the crowd saying ‘aww’ already.”
“As if you wouldn’t also be saying it.” Sarah rolls her eyes. “That is a great idea. Let’s get it all laid out. Use stock videos for now if we have to.”
“You can come with me,” Malik says as Sarah and Randy sit at the end of the table by a laptop.
I follow him with my purse as he leads me down the hall toward a collection of cubicles.
“I’ll introduce you to everyone later. You can leave your stuff here. We will work at my desk.”
I do as he says, stowing my purse inside the desk before going to the next cubicle and pulling up a chair.
“So they are working on typing out our plan. Our job is to execute it. Since it was your idea, you get to help me. We are going to look for stock videos that fit the vibe you had in mind. We will splice them together so we can present them to the higher-ups. If they like it, we will present it again to the manager and owner.” Malik clicks on the computer, opening a stock website.
“What if we didn’t use stock?” I ask.
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“Well, we are presenting this to the team, right? So it doesn’t matter if it has watermarks on it.
I know for a fact that Clayton James has a channel dedicated to his career.
Let’s piece together his video. If they approve it, we can get permission from the creators to use it and even give them a shout-out at the bottom giving them credit,” I tell him.
“Show me this channel.”
I lean forward, typing in the website. The videos load up, and I click on the first one that I have in my head.
“If we start with this one, it’s of him on skates as a baby. That’s his mom there behind him. We transition into this one.” I switch it to one of his youth hockey days. “This was his first goal.”
“Okay. That would be cool.”
I nod, clicking another one. “This one is when they won their high school championship. Then they have one on here from when Clayton made the final goal in the college championship. We end it when he made the first goal for the team, then fade into his figure that we use now.”
“That’s one hell of a vision. Where the hell did you come from?” he jokes.
“Lloyd and Sons. They didn’t value my opinions,” I tell him.
“Well, no worries with that here. We listen to all ideas, even if they seem far-fetched. Sometimes the best ideas are bred from the ones that make no sense. It’s all about getting the creative juices flowing.”
“That is so encouraging to hear. I’ve been told I can be a lot sometimes, so to hear that really makes me feel like I made the right choice coming to work here.”
He pats my shoulder. “Girl, don’t even question that. I can already tell you are going to fit right in here. Come on. Help me put this together so we can wow the socks off these executives.”
I laugh, nodding as we put our heads together to splice the video together perfectly.
For the first time in a long time, I feel good about what I’ve done.
I think I’m really going to love this job.
brANTLEY
I’m waiting by the arena doors as Chloe comes walking down with her team. She’s chatting with them, smiling widely. It makes me feel good that she is this happy. I am glad I finally convinced her to come work here.
I wait for her to notice me as they approach.
“Hello, Mr. Gibson,” Malik calls to me.
I nod at the guy. “Hello, Malik. Did you treat my girl well today?”
Chloe’s cheeks heat at my words, but Malik doesn’t notice.
“Of course. She is such an asset to the team. She single-handedly saved the entire openings for the players. I can’t wait for you to see it,” he brags about her.
I smile. I knew she would be a positive addition to the team.
I’m glad to hear that they can already see it too.
I didn’t tell anyone I was hiring her until this morning, so they didn’t have long to prepare.
I’m glad they welcomed her with open arms. Not that I had my doubts.
I only allow people on my team who work well with others.
Nothing gets built alone in this building.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Chloe tells them, walking to my side.
I wait until they are out of sight before I wrap my arm around Chloe.
“How was it?” I ask.
She starts talking a mile a minute as I walk her to my car.
“It was amazing. I was nervous at first, but then they were struggling, so I just threw this idea out there. They loved it. I thought they would take it and make it their own, but they don’t do that. They gave me the lead and let me bring the idea to life. It is so invigorating.”
I smile at her excitement. She has so much energy right now. It’s intoxicating.
I turn away from our place, heading downtown.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“To celebrate your first day. I’m taking you to one of my favorite places to eat. You’re going to love it.”
For once, she doesn’t argue. Instead, she continues to talk, telling me all about the presentation I’m going to hear tomorrow. I don’t even care. I would listen to her talk for hours if she spoke like this.
We pull up to the restaurant, and I swear she hasn’t taken a breath. I wait for her to pause before I get out of the car. I help her out, laughing when she keeps speaking as soon as she is out of the car.
When we walk inside, I place my hand on her lower back. I love that she is so comfortable with my hands on her body now. She leans into it instead of away.
“Can I help you?” the woman at the hostess stand says as soon as we walk up.
I don’t miss the way she sneers at Chloe. That only makes me pull Chloe in front of me as I wrap my arms around her.
“We would like a table for two,” I tell her.
The woman pretends to look through her book before looking up at me. “We are all booked.”
I get her game. She is jealous of Chloe, so she is making a scene. It won’t work, though.
“Oh, I’m sure you are. You should probably go check with Chef Lamar,” I tell her.
She rolls her eyes, heading toward the kitchen.
“This place is fancy. They probably really don’t have a table. We can eat somewhere else,” Chloe tells me.
“Oh no. That girl is jealous of you, so she’s throwing a fit. They have room,” I promise her.
“Jealous of me? Why? Because I’m on your arm?” She scoffs.
I laugh. “She’s jealous because you have this beautiful naturally red hair and a tight-ass body that most women would kill for.
You are gorgeous, and you happen to have a man to dote on you.
She doesn’t like it, and she thinks she is using what little power she has to put you in your place.
She fucked with the wrong one, though, Chloe. ”
Before she can ask me why, she comes back with the chef in tow.
“Brantley, my man. She didn’t tell me it was you. Of course we have a table,” Lamar tells me as he offers me a hug.
“We are fully booked for tonight,” the hostess tells him.
“Except our table we keep empty for VIPs. This here is Brantley Gibson, co-owner of Wild Ivy,” he informs her.
I watch as she pales.
Yeah. You fucked up.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll get you and Mrs. Gibson to your table right away,” she says, practically stumbling over her words.
I shake my head. “No need. I know the way. Good to see you, Lamar. This is Chloe. We are celebrating her first day at a new job. She killed it. Make us something special?”
“You’ve got it. I’ll send a bottle of our best over too. Congratulations on the new job.” Lamar takes Chloe’s hand, kissing the back of it.
I lead her through the restaurant to the table that is always available for me. I pull out her chair before I take my own.
“So you own this place?” she asks.
“Not really. Lamar went to school with me. He never liked academics, though, so he would always bring food to me and the guys, and we would help him with his schooling. When he said he wanted his own place, I paid for him to go to culinary school and study under some of the best chefs. Then I gave him the money to start this place.”
“That was nice of you,” she tells me.
“I knew he had what it took. Even as a teen, he was cranking out fancy dishes and nailing it. He learned everything from watching cooking shows. He deserved to explore that part of him. His parents wouldn’t support his dream, so I did.
I’m glad I did too. He’s killing it. This place is always busy. ”
“I’m glad. You know you aren’t what I thought you were,” she says.
“Yeah? I don’t meet your Mr. Playboy criteria anymore?”
She shakes her head. “No. I think I had you all wrong. The more I get to know you, the more I think I like you.”
I reach across, grabbing her hand. “So if I were to say this was a date, you would say…”
She smiles, squeezing my hand. “We have done things a bit backward. We live together, and now we are going to start dating?”
“The order doesn’t matter. How you feel does. So is this our first date, or do I need to try harder to get your attention?”
“Is that what you’ve been doing? Getting my attention?”
“I’ve been trying. You don’t make it easy.”
She laughs. “Oh no. God forbid I make you work for it for a bit.”
I shake my head. “Don’t mistake what I meant. I am not complaining. I have never wanted anything in my life handed to me. I work hard for what I have, so if I have to work hard to have you, then it just means that you are worth it.”
Her mouth falls open a little at my admission.
Before she can respond, the server comes up, pouring us each a glass of wine. Behind him, another employee sets an appetizer on the table.
“Enjoy,” he says before he walks away.
I smile at Chloe. “Oh, I will.”