Page 37 of Mid-Thirties Slightly Hot Mess Female Seeking Billionaire

"Less than ten people saw the memo."

"What?" I blink at him in surprise. "But you have tens of thousands of people that work for you at Rosser International."

"I do," he says, "but you’re lucky that you sent it at one-something in the morning. I saw it, Jackson saw it, a couple of other people saw it and then I took it down."

"Oh, I didn’t realize that."

"Of course," he says, "it’s not like I could leave that up for the entire company to see. I don’t want to give people ideas." He chuckles, though there’s a pained expression on his face. "Plus, if that was your way of trying to get with me—"

"I know it failed," I say, cutting him off. "Not that that was my way, of course. But if it were, it would’ve failed." I blush. I’m just making it worse for myself. Why did I say anything about it failing? He’s totally going to think that was my plan all along now.

"You are one hundred percent certain that’s not what you were trying to do, right?" His eyes are searching, and a thoughtful expression crosses his face.

"I am positive. I swear, Ethan. I was not coming on to you. I was not trying to get you to buy me clothes or get me a penthouse or anything."

"I guess that’s true because the reality of the situation is that you don’t even want to be around me, do you?"

"Huh?" I ask, swallowing the lump that has formed in my throat due to the topic at hand. Will we ever stop talking about this awful post?

"You didn’t want to come in to work on Monday morning, right?"

"It was just a joke. I—"

"And you think I’m an arrogant prick or whatever it was you said?"

"I mean, not always."

"Fine. I’ll take you at your word." He taps his leg a couple of times and then nods. "Why don’t we get to work?"

"Sure," I say, surprised that he’s changed the subject so quickly. "So, are we done with the personal ad or…"

"I’m done if you’re done," he says, shrugging as if he wasn’t the one who made it a big deal in the first place.

I nod enthusiastically, like a puppy that’s just been asked if it wants to go on a walk to the park. "Trust me when I say, I’m sure. In fact, I am one hundred percent certain that I’m done talking about this with you for the rest of my life. So, just to be clear, you’re not going to fire me, right?" I don’t know why I ask again. I don’t even know why I’m putting it in his mind. He hasn’t even mentioned firing me.

"Not now." He smirks, knowing he’s not putting me at ease. "Especially not if you write me the best jingle known to man."

"Okay." I lick my lips nervously. "That’s a tall order."

"Well, have you been working on it or not?"

"A little bit. You didn’t exactly give me the full information about the product. However, I have come up with a couple of things," I say quickly, just in case he thinks I’m not up to the job. If there’s one thing in life I’m good at, it’s my job. Even if it is boring and I’m being underutilized by the company. "If you want to hear what I’ve got, I could show you, if you want, of course?" I’m nervous again. I’ve never presented my work, especially partial work, to the CEO of a company before. I want to impress him. I want him to think I’m talented. I want him to be happy that I’m a part of his organization.

"Of course. Let’s go into my office. Because, to be fair, one of the reasons I called you here today wasn’t just to talk about the personal ad. It was also because I need a theme song created for a new department store that we’re opening, that focuses only on home renovation products."

"We’re opening a home renovation store?" I wrinkle my nose in surprise. "What? Since when? I never heard of that from anyone. It hasn’t been in any of the company newsletter updates."

"I know," he says, a devious glint in his eyes. "It hasn’t been announced yet because we’re under contract to launch a new line with several external department stores. Our own stores are being kept hush-hush right now."

"But why?" I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t we be blasting that information everywhere?

"Because we’ve just signed a major deal with Home Shop Depot and part of that deal includes a clause that says nothing can be announced until products have been at Home Shop Depot for at least a month." He rubs his fingers together. "They are the number one home supply store in the country. It is important to keep them happy. They are making a big deal of this collaboration. It is worth a potential two billion dollars a year to Rosser International. Something we do not project to make with our own stores."

"I see." I nod as I think about what he’s said. Two billion dollars is a lot of money. "I guess it makes sense that they don’t want people buying our products at our own stores, instead of Home Shop Depot. They might just back out."

"Exactly." He points at me. "You get it. Is this why you’re trying to get into business?"

"Me?" I point at myself then and laugh. "Not at all. I would make a horrible businesswoman." I try to control my giggles. "But it seems to be the logical reason why you wouldn’t announce anything."

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