Page 14 of Accidentally Amy

He gave a nod. “Yes. Thank you, Kelli.”

When the meeting finally ended, I followed Pam out the door, wondering how many people were exiting between Blake and me. Was he still lingering in the back of the conference room, discussing data with the people who cared about data, or was he exiting right behind me, his big body mere inches from mine?

A tiny shiver slithered down my spine at the thought, which was ludicrous.Get a grip, Iz, I thought as I headed back toward my office. Unfortunately, the tie on the back of my straitjacket sweater caught on the door hinge, jerking me backward.

“Gah!” I looked down at where I was connected to the door just as Blake was approaching the doorway, talking to two other executives.No, no, no.I looked over my shoulder, reaching a hand around to untether myself as quickly as humanly possible.

“Izzy?” Pam said, stopping and turning around.

Blake and his cohorts reached the doorway at that moment, and I watched his eyes absorb my situation in a split second.Please kill me. Just let me die of embarrassment this very minute.

He almost looked like he was going to smile—almost—before he said, “Hang on.”

He stepped closer, his cologne swirling around my sensibilities like some kind of olfactory roofie, before he said, “Looks like you’re stuck.”

Does it? Gee, thanks for the summation, Bloke.

“Little bit,” I said, feeling like the world’s biggest idiot.

“Here.” He unhooked my tie from the hinge in a half second, freeing me.

But I felt all of his fingertips like they were burning my skin through the sweater. The awareness of him that’d existed in the elevator ride yesterday was instantly back.

And it almost felt like his left hand—just the tippiest tips of his fingers—had rested on my lower back for the millisecond it’d taken for him to disengage me from the door.

“Thanks,” I said, my cheeks on fire as I met his gaze.

It feels like he’s reading my mind somehow, I thought as his dark eyes moved over my face.

I gave him what I hoped looked like a smile before taking off in the closest thing to a sprint I could manage while wearing three-inch pumps.

The rest of the day was blessedly uneventful, with nary a Blake sighting, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Pam had intimatedyesterday that he wasn’t often seen in our department, and I was damn glad to hear it.

Because men like Blake turned women like me into bumbling idiots, and I had no interest in playing that part. Ellis could be a career launchpad for me, a place where I could figure it all out, and I wasn’t about to let AVP Blake screw it up for me.

Chapter Seven

Blake

“Here is my concern.” I set down my cup of coffee and glanced at my notes. “I really like the product, I think it’d be a great fit for warehouse and transportation personnel, but I don’t see how our front office employees would benefit from this.”

“Do they have to?” Pam asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood beside the spot where her slides were being projected onto the wall of the meeting room. “If we can improve workplace safety by requiring all employees to watch a daily ninety-second video, does it really matter if there are days where it doesn’t apply to everyone?”

Pam was great at her job and fantastic at finding ways to make the business run more efficiently, from a human capital standpoint.

What shewasn’tgreat at was considering feedback.

“Hear me out, I think it might,” I said, smiling because I didn’t want her to feel defensive. “Because if we create a culturewhere more than half of our employees think it’s okay to ignore the safety videos because they aren’t applicable, then we risk lessening the value of safety overall as a company. On the other hand, if we were to requireonlywarehouse and transportation workers to watch the videos, then it feels unfair to them, like they’re being singled out, and safety engagement goes down. So though I agree with the idea of ‘greater good’ here, I’m still not sure it’s the right move.”

Brad, my boss, nodded in agreement.

Which made Pam frown.

“Push back, though,” I added, “if you disagree.”

“What if we customize?” I heard from the other end of the table.

I turned to look in the direction I’d purposely avoided looking since Scooter’s Amy had walked in. I’d done a spectacular job of pretending she didn’t exist, but since she was now talking directly to me, I couldn’t really ignore her any longer.

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