Chapter 16
Amanda
Five interminable days of unemployment. Five days since I’d interviewed with IntelliMax. Five days of dabbling with my art and getting frustrated.
I was not cut out for the idle life—especially because my brain kept conjuring images of Calvin or sad kittens every time I blinked.
Stupid gray matter. Where was the brain-eating zombie hoard when I needed it?
I had to get out of my apartment, so I went for a walk. By force of habit, I took the route down Reedsville’s main drag toward the Blanik Building. The fall leaves blew around my ankles, making me miss the spring blossoms I’d been surrounded by in Queenstown a couple of weeks ago. Eternal weeks.
“Hey, Amanda.” The bike courier who’d brought things to my third-floor cubicle slowed to a halt. “I thought SolutionX moved. Why are you in front of the Blanik Building? You’re not working for IntelliMax, are you?”
Could Mike on a Bike see into my very soul to know what to ask to wound me most? “No, actually.” I didn’t bother telling him about the crickets after my interview.
“Well, it’s weird that SolutionX’s biggest competitor is who bought the Blanik Building, eh?”
“Yeah.” Actually, that was pretty weird. “Super weird.”
“Take care.” Mike on a Bike pedaled away at his usual light speed.
I craned my neck, staring up at the Blanik Building’s Art Deco styling, its pillars beside the various windows. It had charm. I missed the place—including Bessemer with all her quirks.
Even Calvin. Okay, especially him.
My knees wobbled. Bessemer had been the scene of the crime. I righted myself and turned around, heading back toward my apartment where I would be safe from crimes of the elevator kind.
My phone rang.
“Amanda Starkey? This is Dean Dryden from IntelliMax.”
What? He had to call me now? When I was standing in front of his new building like a creepy stalker driving past someone’s house to see if the lights are on? I coughed behind my hand. “Sure. Yeah. Nice to hear from you.”
“I should say the same to you. Or, to your rep, that is.”
“My rep?” What? I was the last person on earth to have or need a rep. “Can you catch me up?”
“The drawings your rep sent over are incredible. They’re exactly what we were hoping for. They’ll be sure to land the Amzaz account, and I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of giving the client a sneak peek. When I did, they wanted to sign with us immediately. I’ve spent the past couple of days with HR and our legal team drawing up contracts to use your work and to hire you starting at a salary I think you’ll like.”
Salary? A different bicycle courier nearly knocked me over, and my ankle got tangled in the leash of a dog-walker’s Chihuahua. “Are you saying you’re hiring me for the concept design team?” I extracted my foot and dog and walker left.
“That too, but we’d like you to be the project director for the Amzaz candy packaging and advertisement design account first of all. If you’re interested. That salary was just a starting point for negotiation. We’d like you to bring your rep in as soon as possible and we can sit down at the table and talk numbers.”
My rep. Again, with the rep. “Did my rep happen to drop a name?”
Dean burst into laughter. “You’re so funny. I’ll text him.” There was a pause, presumably while he texted my rep. “He says fifteen minutes. How soon could you be at our new location? The Blanik Building. Oh, ha-ha. You probably know your way around it. Don’t worry. The elevator has been repaired.”
The Blanik Building stretched skyward. “I’ll be there soon. Very soon.”
My stomach churned like it was turning cream to butter. My rep could only be one solitary person on this green earth. And he was going to meet me in the Blanik Building in fifteen minutes.