“Even while you’re working with your boyfriend?” he asked, unable to hide the skepticism in his voice.
“Especially while I’m working with my boyfriend.” She stood up, walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
Without needing any prompting, he slipped his arms around her waist and held her. “Okay. I’m going to take some painkillers, and then you can hit me with all your ideas.”
Chapter 15
On Monday morning Heather walked into Simon’s office, armed with a tape recorder and her laptop. The weekend meeting with Agnes had jolted her out of her complacency when it came to working with Simon. He had given the opportunity to share her ideas with him on Saturday and now she was meeting with him bright and early like they had planned.
She closed his office door and found him talking on the phone at his desk.
When she caught his eye, she waved.
While she waited for him to finish his phone call, Heather set her laptop on his desk and pulled up a chair to sit in while she checked her email. If Simon agreed to some of her ideas today, this week was probably going to be hectic. Which was a welcome change from worrying about her ex-husband and the next court hearing.
She had updated her lawyer on what Agnes had revealed to her over the weekend; that Gary was trying to find a witness against her from Dover. In turn, her lawyer had updated her on what the investigator had found. So far not much, but her lawyer was still convinced Gary was hiding something. And with the way her ex-husband kept trying to ruin her, she was inclined to agree. If he was so willing to take millions of dollars from Simon as a payoff, there was no way he was as squeaky clean as he had pretended to be in court.
“Good morning,” Simon said as he hung up his phone and set it aside. He turned his attention to her, his eyes sweeping over her in a way that no boss should ever look at a subordinate. “You look beautiful, Heather.”
Her cheeks warmed and she lowered her eyes. “Flattery isn’t going to get you out of this.”
He laughed. “Can’t I tell you how beautiful you are?”
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, giving the best no-nonsense pose she could. Now was not the time to fall for his charm, no matter how much her stomach fluttered when he gazed at her like that. “Have you come to a decision about my ideas yet?”
“I think the TV interview is a bit much for now,” he started. “But I could see myself doing some print interviews for some magazines. And maybe even one of those tech podcasts.”
Heather did her best to keep her face neutral. If she gave away how happy she was that he was finally coming around to her ideas he’d probably take that as a sign that he was losing something, and she needed him on the same page. “Terrific. I think we can get started.”
He paused for a moment. “Get started on what? It’s not like you’ll be the one conducting the interviews.”
“Oh, but I will be conducting the interviews,” she said. “At least, I’ll be conducting the interviews for the press release and the press kit we’re going to be releasing before the interview with the men’s magazine, the tech magazine, and the interview with the podcast. By the way, I think doing a podcast is a great idea.”
“It was your idea,” he grumbled.
“Right,” she said, suppressing a pleased grin. “Anyway, I think a podcast will show the public the down-to-earth side of you. Show them that you’re a different kind of CEO.”
“I don’t know how you’ve done it, but I have a feeling that you’ve played me,” Simon said with a groan.
Ignoring him she went on. “First, I’ll conduct an interview today so that I can start writing up the press release and setting up the new press kit.”
“I’m terrible at interviews,” he said.
She got to her feet. “That’s why I want to conduct the interview for the press release myself. It’ll be good practice for the other interviews. By the way, you’ll be doing the photo shoot this week.”
“Seriously?”
“The men’s magazine editor was so excited about getting this interview that they’re ready to go,” she said breezily. “I emailed him on Saturday, and by Sunday he had replied. I think these magazines are just chomping at the bit to get an interview with you, so they’re fine with short-notice interviews.”