Page 31 of In Love and War
“No worries. Your other coworker did the same thing.” She smiled, walking back to her desk with my things.
My stomach tightened and my heart did a bouncing somersault inside my chest at the mention of Zac.
Are you fucking kidding me right now? Get a hold of yourself.
“They’re in presentation room 3 when you’re ready. I’ll bring you some coffee?” she asked, tucking a strand of her fiery red hair behind her ear.
“Please.” I nodded, before thanking her and heading over to the bathroom first to freshen up.
I looked in the mirror under the warm lights, examining my face for any makeup smudges and my fitted black sheath dress for any lint or wrinkles. It had been a short flight, but you never knew. A business trip for a big account like this was a dress-to-impress type of situation.
I reapplied a coat of my neutral pink lipstick, applied a bit of my travel-size roller perfume in my signature scent, ran a hand through my short waves to give them a bit of a volume boost, and made one last adjustment to the asymmetrical neckline of my dress before making my way to the presentation room, the click of my black heels matching my quickening heart rate.
“There she is!” David’s smile widened when I entered the room. He walked over to me, his arms wide open, as his booming voice announced my arrival.
He looked exactly as I remembered him. Light brown hair, grey eyes, and the friendliest grin in the world. But the neatly trimmed beard was new. It really suited him.
My nerves instantly began to ease.
Don’t get me wrong, the guy was a hard-ass. But he was also extremely warm and charming. It’s one of the reasons he was so great at his job, people were just naturally drawn to him. As cliché as it sounds, there really was just something about him.
Not to mention, he was the person you wanted in your corner when things went wrong. He was always calm and levelheaded in a crisis.
“Hi, David.” I grinned, giving him a friendly hug. “So good to see you.”
“You too, kiddo.” He patted my shoulder as he pulled away, his full smile still perfectly intact. David was in his early thirties, a little too young to call me a kid, but it’s something he started doing when I was a new grad and it had just stuck.
“You know Madison, Jim, and Amir,” he said and stepped aside, giving me a better view of the room.
I smiled and greeted my three former coworkers who were all seated on one side of the walnut conference table.
“And no need to introduce you to this guy, I presume,” David laughed.
My eyes landed on Zac, who was seated on the opposite side of the table from everyone else. He was wearing a midnight-blue suit that looked like it had directly sewn onto his body, with a crisp white dress shirt and black tie. The suit was almost the exact color of his eyes, which were now boring into mine from across the room as he gave me a quick nod in acknowledgement.
My reaction to him was the complete polar opposite of the one I had to David. While my former boss calmed and grounded me, my new one riled me up and turned my insides into a complete and utter shambled mess.
I quickly tore my eyes away and looked back at David. “So, what did I miss?”
“Take a seat, we’ll catch you up.” He gave my arm one last squeeze before heading back to a chair at the Yuval side of the table.
I walked over and took a seat beside Zac without allowing my eyes to make their way back to his face, which they desperately wanted to do. He shifted and slightly straightened in his chair, as if suddenly uncomfortable, when I sat down.
The gesture made me wildly self-conscious. Of course I knew things might be a bit awkward today, but it’s not like I could have sat somewhere else; how weird would that have looked to the Yuval team?
“Alright, Mills, we’ve been talking strategy all morning ahead of our meeting with the Emerson folks tomorrow,” David started, passing a booklet over to me across the table. “We really like what you’ve come up with; there’s just a few things I think might be worth adding. All of it is outlined in there.”
I quickly glanced through the first few pages of the document as David continued to explain. It all looked really good, as expected of him.
The majority of the three-hour meeting was occupied by Zac and David bouncing ideas off each other after we were able to fully catch up on what each team had been working on.
“…I agree. Mills, what do you think?” I had been busy taking copious notes when David addressed me, catching me off guard.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been asked to pitch in while brainstorming.
He smiled at me encouragingly when I looked up. They had been talking about methods of reaching our target demographic.
“Um.” Did he want my honest answer, or the one I was expected to give?
