Page 19 of Embracing Love

Chapter 9

Gabriel Valois had been out of town for the rest of the week and she’d been unable to pin him down.

The week passed by busily enough for Tanya as she put her head down and concentrated on the rest of her work. She was still wary of Michael keeping an eye on the Paris office, but with Mr. Valois out of town, there was nothing she could do.

Luc had kept his distance at work and she preferred it that way. She’d wanted for him to behave like a work colleague and not a horny teenager. No longer did he pass by her office daily for no reason, nor did he seek her out at meetings. In fact, he avoided all contact with her unless it was absolutely necessary.

She’d lost him as eye candy, but considered it a small price to pay.

Life in the Paris office moved along nicely as hazy summer June days became hotter and more colorful. The one constant still in her life was her daily habit of stalking Vincent on social media. His little boy, once a chubby little baby had transformed before her eyes over the months, into a tiny mini-human. He had Vincent’s blond coloring, and his forehead. He had his mother’s eyes.

Vincent had no idea that she stalked his family’s pages on a daily basis, an activity bordering dangerously close to OCD. She couldn’t not do it. It was as natural a part of her daily routine as brushing her teeth.

It was through these photos that she got a window into the world she could have had—if only things had turned out the way they were supposed to.

Some days, some of her better days, she reasoned that having a child might not have been the glue that would have kept her and her husband together. Perhaps it was just an illusion she used to torture herself with daily. It hurt more on her down days: seeing pictures of the man she loved with a child she’d been unable to have.

Finishing off the report she’d been working on since yesterday, Tanya got ready for the meeting that Mr. Valois’ secretary had arranged only yesterday. She was to meet at his offices after eleven.

She’d called a taxi, not wanting to ever be late for this client, and knowing the walk would take too long.

What with everybody getting together in a few weeks’ time at the marketing convention she knew that developments at the Paris office would be uppermost in senior management’s mind.

She was conscious that there would be talk about the progress of the Flight Europe campaign and she was getting anxious that they’d not moved forward much. Not that any of the delays had been due to her.

As certain as she was that Nadine would fight her corner should anything arise with Michael back home, Tanya made it a point to keep Nadine fully informed of all developments at her end.

She felt it was important to let Nadine know that any delays were not due to her. As long as Nadine knew this, Tanya felt sure Michael would know too.

Still, all that aside, she needed results and today, she was going to be extra forthcoming to Gabriel Valois, at all costs.

~ ~

Gabriel had been away for almost a week, dealing with issues at their manufacturing plant, two hundred kilometres north of Paris. The factory’s days were numbered, save for this small batch of products which Flight was willing to test under their product line. In time, all manufacturing and distribution would move to China, in line with the American company’s operations and soon the factory would close.

But for now, the factory was operational save for a few problems. The new range of brightly colored sneakers had been challenging to say the least and he’d gone there, with two other senior managers to deal with the issues.

In so doing it had left him unable to tend to much business in Paris. Vanessa had become infuriated when he hadn’t returned her calls and she’d turned up at his apartment last night, not long after he’d finally returned home. He’d come clean and told her that he wouldn’t be able to give her the Flight contract—the very thing he’d promised her once, a long time ago, when she’d been sitting on top of him, bucking wildly.

She’d reacted in her usual turbulent manner but he couldn’t really blame her, the deal would have been big. She was adamant he’d broken a contract, but he wasn’t convinced. Besides, most of their deals had been sealed in bed.

There was nothing Vanessa could say that would change things. And there was no denying, the work Tanya had shown him was miles better than what Spiral produced. He’d spent time looking through the brochures while he’d been away and he saw that the Flight ad creatives, with their simplicity and minimalist designs were so catching. It was hard to turn away from the work.

It would be completely remiss of him to stubbornly refuse to show any interest in this work when it was clearly of a better standard.

He had no choice anyway, he had to accept that working with the Zimmerman Group was the only way and it was time to stop dragging his heels. Luckily for him, the final product was all important and the Zimmerman Group’s final product outshone everything Spiral had ever produced.

He’d be a fool to insist on Vanessa’s work. Besides he had no choice in the matter because Russell Trent now called all the shots, something else which Gabriel needed to accept and get used to.

Maybe he’d have to work with Tanya and get off his high horse. Which was just as well because he didn’t like being so nasty to her when the woman had clearly done nothing to deserve it.

As he’d passed by his office just before the close of day yesterday, he’d told his secretary to arrange a meeting the next day. He knew that things hadn’t moved forward and Russell Trent was on his back.

She’d be here any moment now.

His secretary called five minutes later to tell him Ms. Braun had arrived and was waiting for him. Gabriel walked into the waiting area and found Tanya looking at her cell phone. She must have heard him come out because she looked up and smiled.

“Come in, please,” he said, feeling a little cheered up. He waited until she passed and followed her into his office.

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