Page 22 of Catalyst

It’s probably for the best. God knows I’d never be able to resist the temptation of fun Adam at the office every day.

CHAPTER10

Adam

Ellie’s bubblinglaugh flows through the open door between our offices. Even though I have no idea what she’s giggling about, I find myself smiling along with her. The joy she brings into the office is unmatched, even by Matthew, and I find myself needing larger and larger doses of her to get through my day.

How did I go from preferring my days to be emotionless to finding any way to get Ellie to smile at me?

It’s been three excruciating days since the fundraiser, two of which were spent piddling around at home, doing everything I could not to contact her. When I normally would’ve used the weekend to prepare for the upcoming week, I spent it remembering how it felt to hold Ellie in my arms while we danced.

The press of her body against mine is a memory I’ll hold on to for a long while.

Now, I have to come into an office where she’s just out of reach, and I’m not allowed to touch her as I did at the fundraiser. I don’t have a reason to press my hand against the small of her back or wrap my arms around her waist while we dance.

Bringing her to the fundraiser as my date was the most idiotic idea I’ve ever had. I never realized how much I wanted Ellie until she was dangled in front of me only to be snatched away at the last minute. It’s the most frustrating feeling I’ve had to endure.

And yet, imagining the complications of building a relationship with her while we attempt to keep our professional relationship intact is enough to send me into a panic attack. I can’t let myself go there with her. Keeping the shred of control I still have ahold of is my priority. Otherwise, everything about this situation will spiral until it’s no longer salvageable.

Taking a deep breath, I move to my conference table to start setting up for our marketing meeting. Ellie is presenting her final drawings for the new campaign before we decide which ones to send to Linda for mock-ups and ad content.

Matthew strides into my office as I sit down at the head of the table. His maroon slacks and black button-down would look ridiculous on me. I have no idea how he’s able to pull off the color combinations he does.

“Do you find it physically impossible to wear normal clothes?” I ask, allowing my irritation from the situation with Ellie to seep out.

Matthew raises an eyebrow at my tone. “No, I just find it less fun.”

“You’re not paid to have fun,” I grumble before I can stop myself.

“Well, aren’t we cranky today. Does this happen to have anything to do with what happened on Friday night?” Matthew smirks.

Ignoring him, I move on to more important topics. “Do we know anything more about the smear campaign that tried to surface a few weeks ago?” We were informed by our PR agent a while back that there were some highly negative articles being written about Sidelines and the Fit for All foundation.

“Jessica said she was able to stop the article from being printed based on the guarantee that we would sue the magazine for printing such an egregious lie. I still can’t believe the journalist made it as far as they did.”

“Luckily, Jessica has the contacts she does. Without her, we’d never have been able to stop it before printing.”

“Makes her worth every penny.”

“Agreed.”

“Hello, gentlemen.” Ellie breezes into the room, bringing her sunshine and floral perfume along with her. I clench my hands into fists under the table in an effort to keep my facial expression neutral.

“Ellie Beans! I am pumped to see what you’ve done since we last saw your drawings.”

I want to roll my eyes at Matthew’s nickname for Ellie. It’s ridiculous to name someone based on a candy you don’t even like.

“I’m normally pretty hesitant about showing my drawings, but I am so excited to share these.” She starts to plug her tablet into the TV hanging on the wall across from the table. The screen mirrors her tablet, showing us each move she makes as she goes to open the program.

Excitement buzzes through me like I haven’t felt in a long while. After being in business for over ten years, you start to wonder if the monotony of doing the same thing over and over again will sustain your passion to keep the business running. Ellie’s drawings renewed my passion and reminded me why I started this company in the first place.

“Okay, I took my original idea and went in two directions with it. First up, I’ve got the siblings who started buying their equipment from Sidelines and are teaching their younger siblings the sports they love.”

Ellie pulls up several different drawings of animal siblings using the various sports equipment we sell in the store. There’s a young fox wearing a baseball catcher’s gear a few sizes too large for its body, while the older sibling shows them the proper form. Another shows the younger siblings learning how to kick a soccer ball.

Each drawing looks as if it’s coming to life on the screen, and they make me nostalgic for teaching Carter and Nolan how to play soccer.

“Ellie,” I pause, not quite sure how to get my words together with the emotions running through me.

---