Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now. I turn my computer on. Like every morning, I have several emails awaiting my attention. I still have other work to do, so I need to focus on that for the time being and forget about Brandon and the representative meeting right now downstairs. Brandon will give me a full report later, and I just need to wait until then.
Try as I might, however, I can’t focus. I try to read my messages and reply to them, but after the fifth mistake in the first reply, I give up. I’m not going to get anywhere until I’ve got a feel for what’s going on and what the representative is like.
Alicia looks up as I leave my office. There’s a knowing look on her face.
“They’re in the boardroom on the third floor,” she says.
I try to remember which one that is.
“The one with the glass walls?” I ask.
“That’s the one,” Alicia replies.
My staff know me far too well. I give Alicia a brief smile and then head to the elevator. The fact that the room has glass walls means I can’t get too close. As much as it irritates me to skulk around my own company, I don’t want the representative to catch sight of me in case they’ve seen me before.
The third floor is the advertising department, where Alicia used to work. Several people are rushing back and forth, though many of them either nod on their way past or pause to greet me briefly. With the advent of our newest venture into cell phones, each department has been thrown into disarray as they struggle to make two different plans; one depending on a collaboration with Tech Square Inc. and the other assuming there is no alliance.
The boardroom is at the south end of the floor. I can see it as I get closer, and I stay with a group heading the same way, hiding among them. Brandon is sitti
ng at the table with someone, but I can’t quite see them. I do hear laughter, though, which is a good sign; it means things are going well.
Then I get closer and see the representative.
I almost stop. Common sense catches me at the last moment and I keep moving with the group, sweeping past the boardroom. I can’t take my eyes off the woman sitting at the table, eyeing her familiar long black hair and striking green eyes. I know I’m gaping, making several of the employees I’m walking with glance at me in confusion, but I can’t help it. My heart is thumping.
The Tech Square Inc. representative is Amanda.
As soon as I’m able to, I break from the group and dash toward the elevator. Several of my employees give way when they see me rushing forward. Normally, I would have waved them on, content to wait for the next elevator. Not today, though.
I wait, jittering, as the elevator takes me up to the top floor, fidgeting at each stop it makes. By the time it reaches the top, I’m the last one there, and I step out onto the floor. Alicia looks up with a smile that falls as she gets a look at my face.
“That bad?’ she asks sympathetically; she knows how much this deal has meant to me.
But suddenly, the deal is the last thing on my mind. I collapse into one of the waiting chairs, stunned and horrified.
“Do you know the name of the representative?” I ask hoarsely.
“The name?” Alicia asks, confused. “Ah… One moment. Yes, here it is. The representative is Alan’s daughter, Amanda Simmons…” She trails off and stares at me. “Oh my.”
“Oh my,” I agree.
The woman here to work on the collaborative deal with my company, the representative that has been sent from Energy Plus Co., is none other than Amanda, the same woman that I danced with and then slept with last night. The woman whose number is currently in my phone.
Oh my, indeed.
Chapter Five
Lyle
I have no idea what to do now.
“How the hell does something like this even happen?” I ask with a groan.
“It does seem a little like the plot of a movie,” Alicia agrees. She shakes her head. “I can’t believe you slept with Alan Simmons’ daughter. He’s going to murder you.”
“Not if she doesn’t first,” I groan. “Fuck, how could I not know what Amanda Simmons looks like?”
“To be fair, she didn’t seem to recognize you, either,” Alicia points out.