Page 36 of In Love and War
Hesitantly following suit, I took off my coat and hung it on the back of one of the dining chairs before taking my laptop out of my large Chloé bag.
I’d learned in my first week at Yuval that you always needed a purse big enough to carry your laptop in, and I’d never gone back.
I sat down and began to go through his notes.
“Wait, this…” I started to reread some of the words, flipping ahead through the pages, wanting to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. “This is my idea.”
I looked up at him, confused. “You’re adding my idea to the pitch?”
“I am. It’s better than what we currently have,” Zac said nonchalantly, as if it were obvious. He walked over and took a seat across from me. “Do you want to present it to them tomorrow?”
“Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe it.
He shrugged. “It’s your idea. Who better to do it?”
There was no way. Twenty minutes ago he was saying he wanted me to quit and go back to Yuval, now he was asking if I wanted to actually jump in on the biggest presentation of his career?
I eyed him suspiciously. “Zac, are you fucking with me right now?”
It was the first time I’d heard him laugh all day. The deep sound traveled down to my core, and the sudden appearance of his dimple released the butterflies in my stomach I’d forcefully tried to lock up.
“You really don’t make anything easy, do you?” He rubbed his chin, still laughing.
I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, “I take it, then, you no longer think I’m in cahoots with Yuval with a secret plan to sabotage you?”
The smile on his face slowly began to fade as he considered my question. “No,” he finally answered. “I have a different theory now as to why you’re here.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“Stop changing the subject, Amelia. Do you want to present your idea tomorrow or not?”
Of course he was avoiding the question.
“Yes, I do.”
“Great, then let’s get to it.” He opened up his laptop and logged in.
Unbelievable. I cannot figure this guy out.
13
The Emerson presentation and meeting took all morning and the majority of the early afternoon, but it went even better than we were expecting. They were completely blown away by what we had come up with and requested no immediate changes to the campaign. It would take one day for them to make an internal decision, but it sounded like we would be going ahead as is.
To be honest, it shouldn’t have been surprising considering how much work was put into it. We knew going into the presentation that they would be impressed, but there’s always thewhat ifthat gnaws away at you until it’s all over.
It felt like a huge amount of stress and anxiety that I didn’t realize I was holding on to was lifted off my shoulders as we left their building. I hadn’t been in this good of a mood in ages.
“My team has to head back to the office,” David said once we were outside. “So we’ll get together again tomorrow once we’ve heard back from these guys on their final decision.”
“Sounds good. Thanks, man. Everything went great,” Zac said, shaking his hand.
“Couldn’t have been better.” David nodded back at him, clearly pleased.
“Mills.” He turned to me. “Great job in there. Seriously. You killed it.”
“Thanks, Dave.” I returned his smile. “Right back at you.”
“I’ll see you at five. Don’t be late.” He gave me a friendly wink before leaving with the rest of the Yuval team.
