Page 52 of The Lessons

It had been twenty hours since I’d been trapped in that elevator with Ryan, but I still couldn’t shake the memory. I was trying to piece together exactly what had happened—one minute we were teasing each other, and the next I was caught up in something that I was pretty sure was against the rules. Sure, Ryan had instigated it, but then he’d turned and practically run away a few minutes later. The result was I felt embarrassed and wondered if I’d done something wrong. Guys remained a mystery to me. Was everything that had happened between us, the attraction I felt, all in my imagination?

All of this served to make me more confused than ever.

And I still hadn’t had any sex! Wasn’t the girl supposed to be confusedafterthe sex?!

“Natalie?” A perky voice came from the direction of my office door.

“Oh, hey, Paulina.”

“Are you coming to the brainstorming meeting?”

“Yes, I…” I searched my desktop for my notebook.It had to be here somewhere. Dammit, not again.This was the third time in as many days that I’d misplaced something before an important meeting. My notebook had all my market research notes in it. Ihadto find it.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I just can’t find my notebook. Have you seen it?”

“The red one? No, I haven’t… Sorry. Hey, I can lend you some paper. Come on, we’re going to be late. You know how Cathy is.”

We’d quickly learned that the new head of marketing was a stickler for punctuality. She’d locked one of the junior designers out of a meeting last week because she was late, and none of us wanted to be the next to feel her wrath.

“Okay. Fine. Thanks.” I got up and we rushed down the hall toward the conference room.

The beginning of the meeting was rather dull. Cathy had brought the PR and Marketing teams together to brainstorm ideas for next year’s ad campaign. We reviewed the quarterly sales figures and ad campaigns of the last two years, teasing out ideas about what worked for our audience. After that, Cathy started soliciting us for ideas for next year’s campaign.

“Now remember, guys, don’t feel like we have to stick to what we’ve been doing.” She gestured toward the screen. “Clearly, that hasn’t been cutting it. I want to hear every idea, even if you think it’s silly.”

Everyone around the table started to pipe up.

“Angels?”

I caught a coworker rolling his eyes. I couldn’t blame him; we’d done angels the last two years in a row.

“Clouds…something with clouds?”

Cathy wrote the ideas on the whiteboard.

“The Devil,” someone deadpanned. It was Lars, one of the graphic designers. He was a goth. Go figure.

“The Devil?” Cathy asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah, you know, like the opposite of Heaven. Do everything dark and evil.”

“I guess I did say every idea...” She sighed, turning back to the board.

Lars’ suggestion suddenly gave me an idea. Something about this conversation was finally hitting home. “Wait.” I sat up a little taller. “What about ‘The Forbidden’?”

Cathy turned back to me, and a smile crept across her face. “Tell me more.”

“Well, lingerie ads are all about women’s fantasies, right? And what makes something even more enticing? When it’s forbidden.”

“Like sex in public places,” chimed in Josie, the normally demure PR assistant. “Or with your boyfriend’s best friend.”

All of us turned and shot her a startled look.

“Not that I’ve done those things. I meant just as examples!” she quickly added, her face flushing.

Cathy pointed her dry-erase marker at the group and raised her eyebrows. “Now you guys are thinking like a lingerie company.”