All the air sucked from the room. Patti Macer looked like she’d swallowed a fish. And for the first time the whole meeting, Michael was staring back and forth between us with a bit of interest. I instantly regretted the words—calling him out like that. What the hell had gotten into me today? But just as I was about to apologize, he leaned back in his chair with a little chuckle.
Like pulling a plug, the chuckle instantly released the room from its silent panic. Macer collapsed back in her chair with a quiet gasp; the lawyers exchanged a blank look, and I took my first breath in what felt like ages.
“Not at all, Miss...?”
My face flamed red. “Harks. Jenna Harks.”
His eyes met mine from across the room, and once again, I was utterly transfixed.
“Just come in for the merger?”
Heartless man—how could he expect me to speak when he looked like that?!
“Um, yes.” I tried my best to capture that same composure I had before. “I was requested to be on Ms. Macer’s team.”
His eyes now flickered to poor Patti, who looked like she was having a coronary. “Well done, Macer. Looks like you hit the jackpot.”
Her face flushed, and she looked at me like I was the daughter she’d always wanted. “Oh, uh, yes Thomas. We’re all very happy to have her.”
The eyes returned to me, and for a split second, I thought I saw the hint of a smile.
“Please Miss Harks,” he gestured to my notes, “continue...”
Chapter 4
Finally!
My first work week was officially done. I was free as a bird—past the cagey glass doors, away from the towering inferno, finished with the rest of that excruciating meeting.
Perhaps ‘excruciating’ wasn’t the right word for it.
Confusing? Baffling? Surreal?
I could settle for nightmarishly weird.
Thomas Larchwood and I had kept up our strange back and forth for the better part of an hour. And let me tell you—it wasn’t by choice. Every time I’d try to sit down, he’d haul me back up to the front. What started out as a simple ‘she’s giving the presentation, so ask her the questions,’ quickly turned into a bizarre game of cat and mouse—one where I wasn’t sure which part I was even supposed to play. It went on so long and got so uncomfortably obvious that the entire room took notice. By the end, they were watching it like a tennis match, their heads whipping back and forth between us with each reply.
“And how would you characterize the Chen account?”
“Again, Mr. Larchwood, I would have to defer to my supervisor Ms. Macer, as this is really her area of expertise. She’s the primary on the account—”
“I want to hear what you have to say, Miss Harks.”
At this point, I would usually stifle a frustrated sigh. Jamie’s initial thumbs-up was wilting by the minute, and I could understand the feeling.
“Well, Mr. Larchwood, I would have to say that based on all the factors, the risk is too great. I would back out of the account and go with something easier to predict.”
At this point, there would be a charged pause as he stared into me with those blue eyes.
“You don’t believe in taking a risk now and again, Miss Harks?”
And at this point, I would flush and drop my eyes to the ground, wondering what unholy power struggle I’d stumbled across into and prayed for release.
The only one who seemed to be enjoying my passive-aggressive torture, other than Thomas himself, was Michael—who had taken a rather amused position in the back, watching the disaster unfold with an unmistakable twinkle in his eye. When the lights had finally come back on, and the meeting had adjourned, he’d tried to get my attention. But I’d walked deliberately out the door, not speaking or looking at anyone else, lest they pull me into another interrogation to last for days. Instead, I headed straight to my office and pretended to be on an overseas call for the rest of the day. When Jamie popped his head in and told me that everyone could see my phone line was not in use, I flipped him off. He retreated with a grin and left a sympathy salad outside my door on his way back from lunch.
I ate it with a fixed, sullen glare—stabbing at the crisp pieces of lettuce with a vengeance they didn’t deserve. It wasn’t them who’d tried to humiliate me during my first ever Larchwood presentation. It wasn’t them who’d x-ray visioned me in front of the entire office until cold chills were running down my spine.