Chapter 8
“Good morning.” I smile at Lyle and the others who’ve already gathered in the conference room for the staff meeting.
“Great work on Cabo, Carly,” Lyle says. “I received an email last night from Atomic Energy Drinks, and they thought the trip was incredible.”
No surprise there. When I’m in charge, things run smoothly. Maybe that’s me bragging, or maybe it’s just me acknowledging that I have excellent leadership and organizational skills—strengths I’m proud of. Running a great trip is something I enjoy. I don’t need fanfare from Lyle or anyone else to be fulfilled, so I brush off his compliment.
“Everyone seemed to have fun.” I shrug like it was no big deal.
“When did you get home?” Taryn sits next to me, twirling a pen between her fingers.
“Saturday night. So I had yesterday to unpack and do laundry.”
“I love when that happens.”
“I know. I was?—”
“Nate is great! Nate is great! He brings us donuts late!”
We all turn; some might even cheer when they see Nate holding a box of donuts in the doorway. His smile is triumphant and, dare I say, adorable. Something stirs inside at the sight of him in his light-blue button-up. One sexy dream, and suddenly, I’m fluttering like a teenager who sees Timothée Chalamet.
This is not good.
I steel my heart, trying to remind myself all the reasons Nate bothers me. But obviously, things would be easier if he were ugly or a horrible kisser in my dreams—both of which aren’t true.
“Nate is great! Nate is great!” he begins chanting again as he walks into the room. Opening the box of donuts, he presents them to each person so they can pick one, all the while continuing to chant, “Nate is great!”
Rodney, Shelly, Lyle, and some of the others join with him, even going so far as pumping their fist in the air to the tune of the mantra.
He rounds the table, holding the box out in front of me.
My pointed glare swings to him. “Tell me you didn’t get enough attention as a child without telling me.”
“Tell me you’re in a bad mood without telling me.” He doesn’t wait for me to choose a donut. Instead, he chooses one for me, leaning in close to speak over the chants. My heart rate spikes against my will, and let’s not even analyze how good he smells. “I got a chocolate donut specifically for you. I know how intense your cravings are this time of the month.”
This time of the month.
His jokes about my cravings are getting old. But I let them go because they help remind me that Nate is irritating and because he guessed right. I am craving chocolate and will gladly devour this double-chocolate cake donut.
“Nate, we’re so happy to have you back!” Lyle dabs his mouth with a napkin, wiping away the traces of glaze. “Things just aren’t the same around here when you’re gone.”
“Yeah, we can get more work done,” I say under my breath for no one but me. The snide remark does little to alleviate my annoyance. I’ll never understand why Nate is always the celebrated hero when he hardly does any work. His donuts aren’t that good.
“What about Carly?” Across from me, Nate swivels side to side in his chair. No laptop. No notebook. Not even a pen. “We’re glad she’s back too.”
My eyes narrow into slits as I stare at his vexing grin.
“Yes, of course.” Lyle gestures to me like the afterthought I am. “We’re happy she’s back as well. I heard positive things about both of your events. Is there anything either of you learned from your trip that might help us moving forward?”
“Carly and I had some issues with the swag getting stuck in customs.”
“No, no, no. Nate had issues with customs. It had nothing to do with me.”
“Right. I forgot that Carly couldn’t be bothered to help with the situation.” My lips purse in response to his jab. “But no worries. I got the pallets out of customs in the nick of time. I stayed up all night, breaking down the shipments and getting all the items in the swag bags before the guests arrived.”
“If you hadn’t missed your connecting flight, you would’ve been in New Zealand a day earlier and known about the customs holdup sooner.” My smile is anything but nice.
“If only my trip checklist had said Don’t miss your flight . Then I would’ve known how imperative it was to make my connecting flight.”
Lyle stops our bickering by keeping things moving. “I’m glad everything worked out in the end, but that’s a good reminder of why we try to get to an event earlier than the client.” He turns to me. “Anything you want to report from Cabo?”
“Typical guests-behaving-badly stuff. One guy was so drunk that he stumbled into a decorative vase in the lobby and broke it. The hotel took care of it with the Atomic Blast people. Also, guests trying to sneak extra people into their rooms for a free trip.”
“Is it really such a big deal if someone brings an extra person with them to share the room?” Nate asks. “The room is already paid for.”
“It’s a big deal to the hotel,” I say.
Nate laughs. “Carly is Karen from a different department.”
A few others chuckle at his joke.
Lyle holds his hand up to stop them. “Carly is right in this instance. We can’t have people bringing extra guests on the trip without paying for them.”
“Don’t worry. I took care of it on my own.” I make a point to look at Nate, but he just smiles back in his irritating way.
“Perfect.” Lyle opens the company calendar and displays it on the TV screen so everyone can see it. “Here’s what’s upcoming. Rodney leaves for Dallas in three days. And then at the end of the month, Shelly and Taryn tag team on U-Start Advertising in London.”
I smile at them, knowing how excited they are about that trip.
“We also have some exciting news. Nate, do you want to tell everyone about our new client?”
Nate’s body language closes off, and his smile drops. “No, you can.”
His response is weird, considering he loves attention.
“Thanks to Nate, we just landed the Pureskin executive trip.”
“Oh, wow.” Rodney’s expression shows how impressed he is. “That’s a huge global company. How did you get that account?”
“Up until now, they’ve been doing their own in-house trips, but the head of their event team was just diagnosed with cancer, so they’re turning the trip over to us,” Lyle explains.
“That’s too bad.” Shelly frowns.
“Yeah, it’s a real sad deal. We’re happy to step in and help despite the time restraints.”
“Time restraints?” I ask.
“The trip is in one month.”
“But they already have it all planned, right?” I look back and forth between Lyle and Nate.
“Yes, for the most part, but because of her diagnosis, the planning took a backseat, and they’re a little behind on some of the details,” Lyle says. “We’ll have to finalize everything and tie up any loose ends.”
“Where’s the location of the trip?” Taryn asks.
“Thailand,” Nate answers as if he’s bored.
“Thailand?” I can’t help the way my face lights up. I’ve wanted to go to Thailand for years. It’s definitely at the top of my bucket list. I’d give anything to go.
“Since Pureskin is Nate’s baby, he’ll be over the trip. I’ll let him pick an event coordinator to organize it and go with him.”
My heart falls an epic fall. Lyle might as well have thrown it over a cliff. There’s no way Nate will pick me to go with him. He’ll probably give it to one of the male event coordinators so they can have a bros trip.
“Uh…” He glances around the table, his eyes skipping past me just like I thought. “I guess, Carly.”
I’m shocked.
“Carly, will that work for you?” Lyle asks.
“Yes!” Shoot. I’m too eager. I clear my throat. “Yes, I can make that work.”
“Okay, let’s add you two to the calendar for that trip.” Lyle goes silent as he types into his computer.
I sneak a glance across the table at Nate.
His brown eyes shift to me then quickly dart away like he doesn’t want to look at me as much as I don’t want to look at him.
Working with Nate is my least favorite thing about this job, but it’s Thailand.
So I’ll do what I have to do.