The syllables sounded like music.
There was no electric shock at the touch of those tapered, unadorned
fingers, but Christina did feel something. She was used to feeling absolutely
nothing when it came to clients, so something was quite a big deal. The
nails were cut short and filed neatly but had no polish. Taylor didn’t wear
an
y rings. She hadn’t embellished her outfit with any jewelry at all. She did
still have in the same gold studs that Christina noticed on Friday night at the
benefit.
Christina dropped Taylor’s hand, ignoring how the feeling of
warmth seemed to linger in her palm long after it should have. “If you want
to follow me back to the boardroom, we can get started.”
Taylor silently followed, her heels clicking at first on the tiled floor,
and shuffling on the carpet. Christina let Taylor go first and shut the door
behind them quickly before she had the opportunity to take a hard look at
Taylor from the back. She was late enough. She needed to focus. Maybe she
could shave a few minutes off this meeting and be on time for the next one.
The boardroom had no windows since it was in the middle of the
office. There was a whiteboard on the far wall and a projector screen at the
end. The projector stood mounted in the middle of the square oak
boardroom table. The chairs around it were new, the black leather still crisp.
Christina pulled out a chair on the left side and spread out her
things. Taylor looked around nervously, but then took the seat across the
table. Her eyes flitted to the projector, then to the screen, then back to
Christina.
“I— um— I— didn’t make a presentation or anything. I just— I
typed everything out.” She whipped a stack of papers out from the purse
she’d set under the table. Her motions were too fast and since she hadn’t
used a stapler, the pages went flying all over the table. “Oh! Crap!” Taylor
scrambled to gather everything while Christina sat there watching.