Chapter 10 #2
“He’d have to be a genius to stay alive as long as he has with the insufferable attitude he carries around,” I muttered before taking a sip of my water.
“Are you sick?”
“No, just tired. Why, do I look that bad?” I asked, trying to peer at myself on my laptop screen.
“No, bitch, you’re drinking water.” Jules pointed at the offending bottle like it had personally insulted her in multiple ways.
“Mr. Easton brought me an energy drink this morning when he picked me up. I didn’t want to be jittery when we worked on Aurora’s project, so I grabbed a water.”
Jules eyed me with a suspicious glimmer. She shook her head, and it almost looked like she was talking herself out of a thought.
“What? What is that look for?” I asked, finishing the rest of the bottle and tossing it in the trash can under my desk so she wouldn’t have to look at the offending drink.
“Nothing. Maybe he isn’t a huge asshole after all. I think we can thaw him into liking us, so he stops giving us a hard time while we work with Aurora.”
“I don’t want to let him thaw,” I grouched, checking my email.
“But you should. When Aurora sees how good we are with her account she’s going to want to keep us on for the foreseeable future. If we can keep on Easton’s good side, there’s a better chance that we’ll stay on this account.”
“I don’t think Mr. Easton has a good side.”
“He does, and we’re going to find it,” Jules declared, finishing her energy drink, not a bottle of water in sight on her side of the office.
“I’ll let you figure out how to find Lucifer’s happy button. I don’t have fireproof skin, and I don’t want to be burned with his bad attitude.”
“He did bring you an energy drink,” Jules hedged.
“Are you the devil’s advocate now?” I couldn’t help how petulant I sounded.
“No, I’m just going to be his friend.”
We locked eyes with goofy smiles on our faces.
“I fucking love you, dumbass,” I said before going back to my emails.
“Love you more.”
“Holy shit,” I cried when I opened the holy grail of emails.
“What?” Jules screeched, running over to me.
With a shaky hand, I pointed at the most incredible thing to happen to me this month, my engagement included.
Open in front of us in all its glory was an email from Faith Taylor, one of the most well-known indie authors, and the wife of Kill Taylor, the lead singer of the JackholeS.
Jules’ fingers dug into my shoulder while both of us stared at the email.
“I’m afraid to blink. What if it disappears when I blink?” I asked in a panic.
“Okay, you blink and I’ll continue staring and when you’re done, I’ll blink and you stare.”
“Deal. Okay, I’m done blinking.”
“It’s still there. Okay, I blinked,” Jules said.
The email was still there. Apparently, Faith had heard of Aurora’s project and wanted to help in any way that she could.
She also mentioned she was funding a small production studio where they only produced indie author’s books into movies.
It was going to be a membership-based platform where the members would be able to vote for the next book they wanted turned into a movie.
She wanted to know if Aurora would be willing to collaborate in helping her find indie authors that needed to be discovered.
“I’ll call Aurora.” Jules ran to her phone.
I continued to stare at my screen, not trusting it to disappear.
“Aurora, you need to come down to the office as soon as possible.” Jules wheezed like she’d just run a marathon instead of the five steps it took to get to her desk. She sat down in her chair with a quiet thud.
“Is everything okay?” Aurora asked timidly.
Jules had put her on speakerphone, and we looked at each other, both of us at a loss for words.
“Yes,” I squeaked before clearing my throat. “We have a lead that we want to discuss with you, but it would be better if we did it in person.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in twenty.”
After Jules hung up, we simultaneously stood, then began jumping up and down, screaming. I grabbed my phone and turned it up as loud as I could with the JackholeS blasting out of the tiny speaker. Waiting for Aurora, Jules and I sang along.
We cheered as the elevator’s door slid open, but stopped when not only Aurora but Lucifer’s hemorrhoid himself stepped out next to her. His stupid scowl, ever his faithful sidekick, tagged along.
“Hi, my two favorite people,” Jules said, her smile widening.
“Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you?” I whispered in her ear.
“I’m going to thaw his fucking heart,” she replied out of the side of her mouth.
“What is so important you pulled me away from a very busy day?” Mr. Easton asked. He surveyed behind us like he was assessing the room for a threat.
“We didn’t ask you to leave your busy day, we asked Aurora to come.”
Jules elbowed me in the ribs, but I refused to pull my attention away from the twat hole.
“We just wanted to let you know about the newest development.” Jules smiled even wider, and I hoped her cheeks cramped.
“Development?” Mr. Easton asked, his eyebrow raised almost to his hairline.
“Yes,” I answered before Jules could speak.
“A development. Faith Taylor contacted us. Not only did she want to learn more about your project, she offered her name to help it become more successful. She also wants to start a production company where only indie books are made into movies, and the members help vote for the next book. She thinks your company can help.” I smiled even wider than Jules when I made the announcement..
I would’ve taken offense at the indifference on Mr. Easton’s face if I hadn’t noticed the little flicker of surprise when I said Faith’s name. He knew the JackholeS, and he was impressed.
Aurora stood next to Mr. Easton, her mouth hanging open. She blinked several times like she couldn’t comprehend what I’d just said. Nervous flutters skittered inside of my stomach. The seconds clicked by, and Aurora still hadn’t said anything.
Holy shit, does she not know who the JackholeS are? Does she not like their music?
If any of those were true, Jules and I would have to terminate our biggest account.
“Faith. Taylor,” Aurora whispered in awe.
Our account was safe.
“Yes,” Jules answered, and then in a blink of an eye, they were jumping up and down, hands clasped, screaming.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, I joined in, jumping and screaming along with them.
“My ears will never recover from this,” Mr. Easton muttered.
“Uncle Easton, you’re the one who introduced me to the JackholeS. You’ve taken me to five JackholeS concerts and paid for both of us to do a meet and greet. I know you want to jump and scream just as loud as us,” Aurora shot back, crossing her arms over her chest, heaving in a breath.
“Yeah, Uncle Easton.” I smirked, attempting to copy his, and most likely doing a horrible job.
“I’m impressed. And I liked it better when you called me Mr. Easton,” he admitted under his breath.
“Can you repeat that?” I poked, basking in his discomfort.
“I said, I’m impressed. Can I use your conference room to get some work done while you’re with Aurora?” The tips of his ears reddened, and I wished his mass of black hair was moved away so I could see the embarrassment in all its beauty.
“Of course you can,” Jules answered. “Let us know if you need anything.”
He nodded and moved without a word.
The three of us huddled over my computer, rereading the email several times before constructing one in reply.
We deleted the first four attempts because it made us sound like teenage fangirls instead of the mature business owners we were.
The email we ended up sending had us sounding like mature fangirls, which was so much better.