Page 63 of Think Outside the Boss

“Frederica.”

I look up. “Yes?”

“I need you for a client meeting. We’re meeting with Nicour in—” Eleanor glances at her watch—“less than thirty minutes, and Clive couldn’t make it. I just love it when he cancels last minute.”

I reach for my binder, my handbag, following her out of the office. Toby gives me a thumbs-up and a mouthed good luck. Not a single part of me thinks he might be the mole. My gaze drifts over the back of Quentin, but for all his mutterings and bad moods, I don’t think it’s him either.

“Frederica?”

“Coming.” I hurry after Eleanor to Strategy’s conference room. In the spirit of saving time as well as miles to travel, this is a digital meeting. Exciteur has an entire camera setup just for this sort of thing.

When they work, that is.

Eleanor grows increasingly stressed as the technician struggles with the electronics.

“They’re waiting for us,” she hisses.

“Any second now…” he murmurs.

I open my laptop and prepare for taking notes, drawing up all the info I have on Nicour. The door to the conference room opens. I don’t look up, focused as I am on the numbers on the screen.

“Mr. Conway?” Eleanor asks. “I wasn’t aware you were joining this meeting.”

“Filling in for Clive,” he says. A chair is pulled out next to me, a familiar cologne scenting the air. Something knots in my stomach.

I look over, but Tristan’s gaze is focused on Eleanor and the techie. Cool, casual power on his face. Here he’s a man made for boardrooms and thousand-dollar watches, no trace of the handsome stranger from the Gilded Room or the caring man in my elevator yesterday.

I turn my focus back on Eleanor.

“There we go,” the technician says, stepping back. The projector screen flickers once, and then the good people at Nicour come into view, sitting at a conference table much like ours. Discussions begin, so I turn to my note-taking, focusing on the words being said and not on the man sitting a few feet from me.

It’s difficult, when he’s all I can concentrate on.

Eleanor defers to him when he deigns to speak, but he mostly lets her handle the show. Has he come to watch her performance? Or had he come to watch mine?

Perhaps he’d decided I haven’t been effective at finding the mole and chose to take matters into his own capable hands.

Tristan is the one who ends the meeting. My hands still on the keyboard of my laptop as he speaks, the depth of his voice filling the room.

“It’s been good to touch base with you,” he says. “Our team will have a new business strategy to present to you in a month’s time.”

“Looking forward to it, Mr. Conway. Thank you for taking the time.”

“Of course, Howard,” Tristan says. “Talk to you soon.”

The conversation clicks off and sudden silence reigns supreme. He taps his fingers along the table. “Nicour is one of our biggest clients.”

“And they’ll get nothing but our best,” Eleanor promises.

I close my laptop and look between them. Tristan still hasn’t given me a single glance since he entered the room. Is it only professionalism?

“Excellent,” he says and moves to stand, but Eleanor stops him with a cleared throat.

“While I have you here, might I ask a favor for the conference in Boston this week?”

He sinks back down, raising an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“I’m sure you remember our junior trainee, Frederica Bilson,” she says, nodding to me. “I’m aware that Strategy is only approved for four attendees for the conference, but she has a lot to recommend her. I’ve nothing but high praise for her and I’d like to include her from my department as well.”

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