Page 78 of Knot All is Forgiven

"Jordy," Rafe says quietly, "how's work going?"

A safe topic. A smart pivot for Rafe.

He seems like the most level-headed of the trio.

Jordan puts down her fork with a soft sigh. "It's okay. Lanie, my assistant, has been weird lately. She didn't tell me when Cyrus was coming despite me having informed her all about you three. I think me presenting as Omega has thrown her for a loop." Jordan takes a sip of her second glass of wine, hummingquietly. "But, the job itself is great. Everyone is saying print media is dead, but it's not. Billboards, magazines, newspapers, mailers… Sure, maybe not as much traffic as the internet, but still plenty. I wouldn't want to lead up the internet division, anyways."

"Why not?" I ask curiously.

"It's a massive department, for one, and it lacks the creative freedom. Okay, so I'm going to tell you what websites we will put your ad on and what click-through rate you can expect. Sure. Fine. However, I can develop a multi-pronged approach in print, with each pathway having a unique ad. It's like …," she sucks on her teeth for a minute. "Okay, it's like perfume samples. That was revolutionary. How can someone know if they want to buy a perfume without those little samples you can rub on your wrists? What if we could do that for other things?"

Cyrus sets his fork down and quirks his head to the side. "What else could you do something like that with?"

She taps her chin with the handle of her fork. "I wouldn't do any consumables, despite how fun it would be to have lickable paper or something, but a printing company could make their ad an insert on their paper. A graphic design company could put their stickers in a magazine. There's no limit." She pushes her barely-touched plate away, her mouth dropping dramatically. "Oh shit, Alphamatic!"

She hops up, looking around the unfamiliar room for something, before pinning her eyes on Slime. "Si, do you have a notebook or a whiteboard or something?"

Slime looks around, blinking rapidly. "You haven't changed a bit, peaches," he chuckles once he recovers. He's gone for only a second before returning with a notebook and a pen.

Jordan scribbles quickly, pausing only to chew the end of the pen, pacing as she goes. Watching her with that notebook cradled in her arm as she moves easily around the room, noteven noticing the attention the men are giving her, gives me hope that maybe we can figure this out one day.

Maybe we can make this all work.

"Okay!" she says, throwing the notebook down on the table and startling us. "I think I have it." She sinks into her chair and takes a greedy sip of wine, eventually looking at the four of us strangely. "What?"

"Are you going to tell us what you have?" Cyrus asks with a smirk.

"Oh shit, right," she chuckles. "Nolan's goal is to encourage people to train at Alphamatic and get people to franchise it. Every one of his competitors does a free week or something in their ads. We don't wanna do that."

"Why not?" Rafe asks, leaning his head on his chin. "If it works, it works."

Jordan tosses her napkin at his face. "No, bad Rafe. That's not going to give a company an edge."

I try to smother my amusement at how quickly she shut the other Alpha down. "Okay, then, what?"

"Get a grip on fitness." She crosses her arms smugly.

We sit silently, waiting for her to elaborate, but she doesn't. Eventually, Slime caves. "We're gonna need context, peaches."

She rolls her eyes as if we're all idiots. "We can't see in your brain, sunshine," I remind her.

"Fine," she whines, drawing out the 'e.' "We put in an ad with Cyrus using a branded grip strengthener. The card is good for a free grip strengthener at any Alphamatic, getting them in the door. People who don't normally do gym memberships will still go because picking up the strengthener and giving your information enters you to win a dinner with Cyrus Stargazer."

We're all quiet for a minute, and Cyrus breaks the silence first. "You're going to raffle off dinner with me to drive traffic into the facility?"

She smiles smugly and crosses her arms across her chest. "Yup." The 'p' pops with the force that she expels the word. "Home workout people will go to get a free piece of equipment, even though it's small, and when they see the facilities, I think a lot would sign up for a membership. You'll also get superfans who follow your career going into the gym to enter. And women who want a chance to meet you." Taking another sip of wine, her cheeks growing red, Jordan smirks. "You forced yourself into this ad campaign, Cyrus. Did you think I was going to go easy on you?"

He swears under his breath, and I busy myself by taking a few bites of the food. Now that the tension has broken, I can appreciate the rich flavor of the mac and cheese and barbecue chicken.

"I didn't expect you to raffle me off," he grumbles, pushing the food around his plate. I tense. We were getting somewhere, and now he's pushing back on something so small?

"Oh, but I'd thought you'd be fine with it. You've done it before, after all," she says with an amused hum.

"No," he snarls, but there isn't much aggression. "We're not doing this again."

"Aw, what, Cyrus, you don't want Icarus to know about when our geometry teacher purchased a date with you in a school fundraiser raffle?" The teasing lilt of her voice is so youthful it makes my mouth slack.

"Oh my God, I forgot about Ms. Ryan," Rafe says with a snort. "She was obsessed with you."

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