Page 55 of Love Not Qualified

“No.” It was all she planned to say but when she saw me staring, she continued. “At least not for Gorig who’s high above everyone on the market. Show him secret projects first, bright ideas, and future releases.”

I couldn’t help the frown. “Secret projects?”

“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me there’s not something you’ve planned for ages, but you don’t know how to get started.” She rolled her eyes in her head, laughing.

“Well… there is something, now that I think of it.”

“Like what?”

I leaned back, finishing my second bite. “I always thought about making some racing cars to promote our company, but for that I need the best people in the world to be an actual competition next to the other car brands. If we don’t do this right, we won’t even get to an important race that will actually get broadcasted.”

“See? Brilliant.” She clapped her hands. “If you present this to Gorig, I’m sure the rest of the conversation will go smoothly as you guys consider this. You both have powerful connections in the market and this could also come as a challenge to him. We have the design and they have the car parts and all.”

She did have a point.

If this was what was going to get me a partnership with Gorig, it might’ve been the best thing that happened to me. A collaboration with a highly appreciated man, with experience inthe field and also the chance to make one of my dreams become reality.

It was probably going to take us more than a year or two to build up a car worthy enough of competing, but if we did this, we stood a chance to occupy one of the first three places.

An image of a racing car flashed through my mind and I knew without a doubt that Haelyn was right. I couldn’t show up at Gorig and present what our company could do—because he already knew that—what I needed to prove was what we’d do and convince him that he’d want to be on our side when that happened.

“Still, get a slideshow ready and a file so we’re prepared,” I instructed, a part of me brightening so hard I remained out of breath.

It’d been so long since I had a purpose and this project… could bring me a change that was going to take me back to the person I used to be.

“I’ll have everything on your desk by Monday. That gives us two days to revise it before the meeting.”

My eyes remained pointed at her. She looked gorgeous and she wasn’t even trying. Haelyn was naturally beautiful.

“You look beautiful tonight,” I told her because what the fuck, since I thought it, I might as well tell her.

“Excuse me?”

If I expected her to be flattered, I was wrong. She looked insulted.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” I told her. “They’re just the only words I can think about when I’m around you.”

Liar.

How about smart? Devoted? Stubborn?

She cleared her throat, her cheeks flaring. Jesus, it was like she had never gotten a compliment before. Because I saw sure she was nervous, I changed the subject.

When I looked at her, her meal was still packed and she didn’t look like she was planning to eat any of it.

“What happened? You don’t like pork?”

She glanced at me, biting her lip. “I told you, I’m not hungry.”

My eyebrows dragged over each other as I made a summary in my head of how many times I’d seen her eating. It didn’t take me long to realize since I had met her, the only time she ate was when I used Chad’s profile to convince her to eat on her first day at work. Even then, she took two bites of her sandwich before throwing the rest in the trash.

At the company, she never left her office, and during breaks her windows had the transparency option off. I lingered my eyes on her door many times as I was getting ready and the only reason I didn’t intervene was because I thought she had her meal and didn’t want to be disturbed.

Yet now I was starting to question whether she ate at all.

Could she starve herself? But why?

From what she told Chad, life had been tough on her and that was exactly why she wanted a job at the Graves Company, to make it better. Shouldn’t she afford more now?

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