Laine closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his strong arms just for a moment. She felt torn. Going with him would be a huge boost for her status and for her career. One that she might need, if she were ever to move forward. But if she went with him, there was so much she would be leaving behind. There would be so much she was risking. What if her designs just weren’t good enough for a project of this scale? And ultimately, Laine was afraid that if she went, there would be no escaping falling in love with him.
Chapter Six
Laine walked into the staff meeting the next day with a heart full of anxiety and a head full of ideas. She had been thinking over the offer carefully. She’d spent an hour on the phone with her father the night before talking about it. Of course he’d encouraged Laine to take the job. He’d always encouraged his girls in their careers. That didn’t mean he’d be all right if she left him all alone, with only the occasional, random visit from Emma.
Laine set down her coffee and iPad and settled in. She liked being at meetings early. It allowed her to observe people as they came in and prepare herself for the conversations to come.
“I saw a little video of our Miss Lainey,” Adrian Ramos said as he entered and sat across the table from her.
Laine rolled her eyes. “Right. From the party.”
“Nooo. At the club you and I designed together.” Adrian leaned forward on the table. “Who knew our Lainey could cut it up on the dance floor? And with such a hot guy.”
“Hush. I was…wooing a potential client.” It was kind of true, now.
Adrian looked dubious, but others started to fill in, and he turned to talk to Richards when he walked in. Soon Mr. Brandt arrived, and the meeting started. Everyone presented on their current accounts and prospective leads. When it was Laine’s turn, she discussed the several smaller accounts that she’d finished up the week before and then went over the various upsells she’d made to the Madison account.
“It will take a few more months to execute, but the designs are finished and approved. In the end, the Madison account is going to do very well by us,” Laine concluded.
“Nicely done.” Mr. Brandt bobbed his head. “All right. From here, I’d like Joel to take over the Madison account. Cross the T’s, dot the I’s, make sure they stay happy. You got that?”
Mr. Brandt looked to Joel just as Laine did. Joel seemed to shrink under the scrutiny, since Mr. Brandt was appraising, but Laine’s look was downright murderous.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Laine said with as much politeness as she could muster. “I brought in the Madison account. I’ve seen them through all their designs and convinced them to do much more work than they’d originally come in for. I even arranged for a local artist the family loves to paint a mural for their kids’ room.”
“And you’re suggesting,” Mr. Brandt breezed with a shrug, “that it’s ‘yours’? The company has my name on it. Everything we do here is for Brandt Interiors.”
“Of course not, sir, I just…” Laine felt at a loss for words.
How could Mr. Brandt do this to her? She had been unwaveringly loyal since her first day here! She had passed up other opportunities to keep working here, because the Brandt reputation was one that attracted the kinds of awards that she won. With Joel’s name closing the Madison account, he would get half the credit for a job in which she’d done 97% of the work, and he would get half the commission!
And it wasn’t even as though Joel had seniority. He’d come in six months ago. Mr. Brandt had just handed the whale she’d reeled in over to a damn baby.
“So this isn’t a problem, correct?” Mr. Brandt tapped his pen on the table. “I need team players here. I need everyone to be thinking of what’s best for Team Brandt, not Team McConnell or Team Ramos.”
Adrian looked up from his nail polish and caught Laine’s eye as if to say, “What did we do to get signaled out for the sports metaphors?”
Laine pressed her lips together in a fine line and narrowed her eyes. The temperature of the room seemed to drop a few degrees, and she could tell that Joel was terribly uncomfortable.
Good.
“Actually, sir, this is excellent news,” she said with frosty confidence. “With Joel tying up all the loose ends and doing the paperwork, I can get started on the next big lead that I hooked over the weekend.”
“Oh?” Mr. Brandt raised a brow. “How big?”
Laine caught the look he was casting over to Richards. She could tell that he was considering making this a “team” effort, if the client was big enough.