JAKE
Gabi flipped through the paperwork in the wake of me leaving my signature on every page. Her brow creased, and her nose crinkled, and she muttered under her breath as she read some of the more intricately worded sentences.
“Damn,” she breathed, “they sure are being thorough, aren’t they?”
“The best businessmen always are.”
She pursed her lips, slid the papers away, and rested her chin in her hand. “Fair enough. Are you almost done? I’m bored.”
Chuckling, I showed her the ten or so remaining pages. “Almost. Why don’t you meet me in my office? There’s a bottle of champagne in my fridge we can open.”
She perked up. “Champagne, you say?”
“From a client of mine who lives in the south of France.”
Gabi pushed to her feet. “You don’t have to tell me twice. Meet you in there, handsome.” She leaned over like she was going to kiss my cheek but whispered into my ear instead. “Champagne has always gone straight to my head and made me do very naughty things.”
“Don’t tease me like that,” I groaned.
She giggled and hurried out of the conference room, leaving me to frantically finish up my remaining signatures. Once I was done, I did my due diligence and gave the documents one last thorough look to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. This was the big moment of the deal. Once these papers were back in Theo and Banner’s hands, we’d be moving full steam ahead with the project. They’d have an idea of just how big their budget was and would be able to scale their marketing strategy accordingly. I already had a few ideas for marketing firms I could recommend, most of which had incredible digital platforms with huge millennial and Gen Z audiences.
It’s only up from here.
I collected the pages back into a neat stack, tucked them into a folder, and brought them into my office, where Gabi waited for me. She sat on my desk, one leg crossed over the other, with two champagne glasses in her hands.
She held one out to me. “Cheers, boss.”
“Cheers, baby girl.”
Her cheeks flushed and she took a sip.
I hoped she wasn’t lying about the effects of champagne on her.
“So, on a scale of one to ten,” she said, “how big is this deal for your company? Like really?”
I stroked my jaw thoughtfully. “A ten, absolutely. If this goes the way I think it will, my profit margins for next year could see a fifty-percent increase.”
Her mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”
I nodded. “Yes, which would mean raises for everyone on the deck, and for you of course.”
She flipped the ends of her hair playfully. “Obviously.”
I chuckled. “We could increase everyone’s benefits plan, too. Move them up to the platinum plan. Boost everyone’s vacation days by two full weeks. Tack on a few extra wellness days. This deal would make a difference for everyone here. I want it,” I admitted. “I want it really fucking badly.”
She licked her lips. “It’s such a turn-on when you talk business.”
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “How else will you make this deal worth our while?”
“Well,” I purred, moving closer to her, “I have a couple ideas.”
“Do tell.”
I wanted to kiss her so badly, but I knew there were still employees milling around on the deck, and we’d agreed to keep things clean. I kept my hands to myself. “When the deal goes through tomorrow and the paperwork is back in their possession, I’m going to book us a ten-day vacation somewhere so we can have some uninterrupted time just the two of us. No business. No distractions. Just you, me, and hopefully more skimpy bikinis.”
Her lips pursed in a sexy little smile. “If you want bikinis, there had better be sand and tropical waters.”