Page 4 of The Hot Mess

“I’ll be around for three months or so,” I told him. “I’ll be sure to get you an answer in that time.”

“Sooner rather than later, I hope. In the meantime, why don’t you go ahead and get a lay of the land? It's been a while since you’ve been caught up around here. And you’ve never stuck around for longer than a month.”

Two to three months working in the same building, same office, with the same people doing the same job every day? The thought made me want to run for it and never look back. But the therapist my ex-girlfriend dragged me to insisted that I deal with my commitment issues. Solving them remained to be seen, but dealing with them meant sitting for a moment and ruminating on the possibility of something other than booking the next flight out. I needed to at least give it fair consideration, for Lucas’s sake. He was so excited, after all.

“Give me the week to get caught up,” I decided. “I’ll kick next Monday off with an executive staff meeting and go from there.”

“Now we’re talking,” he beamed. “It’s kind of like the group projects we used to pair up for in highschool. Only the grade is based on how much we can increase our profits.”

“I do seem to recall us acing our economics and business class.”

“Not me,” he groaned. “Which is precisely why I need you around. Can’t let on to people that the CEO is completely clueless.”

“Not completely clueless,” I argued with a wink. “Just completely lost without his trusted advisor and sidekick.”

I stood and shook his hand again before turning to show myself out.

“Oh, hey, Jack,” he called out. “I know I said it at the funeral and about a hundred times since then…but I really am sorry about your mom. I know it’s not easy to lose a parent.”

I resisted saying that it was him I felt sorry for. At least our parents’ wealth remained intact enough to be passed down to us. Poor Lucas and his siblings and their mother were all left penniless after the debt-collecting vultures sweeped in. Not only did they have to deal with losing their dad, they lost the only kind of life they had ever known. That is, until they were able to rebuild it all from the ground up. Which must have been working better than I ever imagined, since Lucas was able to agree to my salary demands.

“Thanks. Really.” I smiled back at him.

“How’s your sister doing?”

“You’re married now, right?” I shot back. “So I don’t have to read into it every time you ask me that question?”

“You know damn well I only ever really had eyes for Victoria,” he replied.

“I know, I know. I was there for all your proms and both weddings.”

“There weren’t two weddings,” he laughed. “Just two proposals. And…two engagement parties. Say, maybe if you take me up on my offer I’ll be attending your wedding soon enough.”

It was hard not to choke out of panic as I laughed. “Don’t hold your breath.”

The job proposal was scary enough. If Lucas wanted me to really consider taking the job, he’d have to lay off the marriage talk. That was the surest and quickest way to send me bolting back to the airport.

Instead I pushed the thought from my brain and returned home to unpack. I wasn’t expecting to be signing up to have a job to report to the next day, but the feeling was kind of nice.

2

Jada

We gathered in the meeting room once again Monday morning, but this time for a bigger staff meeting. The rumor was that our old friend and advisor Jack Landson had returned to town and was the one leading the meeting that day. I tried to ignore the butterflies buzzing around in my stomach at the thought of seeing him again, and apparently I wasn’t the only one anticipating the perk of Jack’s good looks that morning. The other women were straightening their hair and makeup in their compact mirrors and fidgeting in their seats, whispering among themselves.

I laughed a little to myself, thinking it was like high school all over again. The affluent private school our parents sent us to had its fair share of good looking, powerful men in the making, my brothers being some of them. But even back then we could all see Jack was in a league of his own. With his perfectly styled dark hair and sparkling blue eyes, big kissable lips and million dollar smile with perfect teeth…He looked more like a Disney prince than an ordinary man who should be roaming the streets with the rest of us.

Every female in the room seemed to join in a collective sharp inhale when he walked into the room with Lucas trailing behind.

“Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming,” Lucas announced. “Many of you remember our friend, Jack Landson, who comes in from time to time to offer us his expertise. We’re lucky to have him back with us today and for the next couple of months. To avoid wasting any of our precious time with him, I hope you’ll join me in welcoming him, and I’ll just turn this right over to him. Jack?”

He took his place at the head of the table and smiled around the room. I could feel the silent swoons vibrating through us as his eyes scanned the attendees. Wasting no time, as Lucas had requested, he immediately threw out a few of his assessments and suggestions.

“With the company’s continued success, it’s important not to let things grow stagnant. Our job is to constantly search for ways to breathe new life into everything. We have to keep surprising customers and stay at the forefront of their minds. I wanted to open the floor up for any ideas you all might have for accomplishing just that.” He paused and waited. “Come on, now. Don’t be shy. I don’t bite. If your idea is not great, we won’t use it. But if it’s a good one, we’ll run with it and you’ll be rewarded for your contributions.”

My throat started to clench up, and not just because Jack’s expectant stare was enough to take anyone’s breath away. I thought back on my personal revelation the week before, and knew this was precisely the kind of thing I had been waiting on, a chance to prove that I was doing things differently now. Of course I had ideas. But speaking up and sharing them with everyone? That was its own battle.

My lips parted as I tried to muster up the courage to start talking, but just as a slew of syllables were about to start spilling from my lips, someone else took their chance to speak. I let out a sigh of relief, but it only left me more nervous to speak when the room grew silent again. It was now or never.

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