Page 12 of Strictly Business

“Or maybe it’s not so much that she doesn’t like you, but that she was busy and had to work over to get her own work done after taking time out to give you a tour,” Brook says. I glare at her, and she laughs and holds her hands up. “I’m not taking this bitch’s side. I’m just playing devil’s advocate.”

“It wasn’t just that,” I say. “I know it sounds stupid, but when I first went into my office, one of the cables was loose on my computer. I fixed that and then I didn’t have any logins. I went down to IT – hence how I met Adam – and got that sorted. Later on in the day, Ruth came to see how I was getting on.”

“Well, there you go. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t like you would she?” Brook says.

“Wyatt told her to,” I say. “He was out in meetings all day, so he asked her to check in on me with it being my first day.”

“Oh, ok. Carry on then,” Brook says.

I think for a moment. Where was I? Oh yes. Ruth coming to check in on me.

“So yes. Ruth came to check on me, and she seemed surprised to see that I had my computer up and running. I told her I’d been down to IT, and she got a bit snotty, asking how I knew that was what I was supposed to do. I just shrugged it off and said I thought it was obvious to go to IT for issues with IT stuff. But I swear she looked angry for a moment when she saw me set up. And yes, disappointed. I think she sabotaged me, and she wanted to come back and find me doing nothing because I couldn’t login. And then I think she would have told Wyatt that I was useless,” I say.

“That’s quite a leap Serena,” Brook says.

“I know,” I say. “And it could be that I am being paranoid, but I’m going to keep my eye on her all the same.”

“Oh yeah, definitely watch her. And keep one step ahead of her like today. Like anything you suspect her of doing, don’t let on until you’re certain. In fact, don’t even mention anything happened and she will think all her hard work was in vain and you’re not even noticing her inconveniencing you,” Brook says with a wicked looking grin.

“Yeah, I plan to keep a close eye on her and ignore her at the same time. Hopefully she’ll get bored and go bother someone else,” I say.

I have a feeling shaking Ruth off will be a lot harder than that but what the hell. I’m willing to give it a go. And I do quite like the idea of just getting around her little sabotages and pretending I didn’t even notice them. I can picture her angry expression and I grin to myself. Bring hated by Ruth for no reason might actually be more fun than I had initially imagined it would be.

CHAPTER9

Serena

Isit down and have one more read over my presentation. In between working alongside Wyatt on things for his clients, I’ve been working on everything for Hislop’s for almost two weeks now and I know it pretty much word for word but I’m not going to miss an opportunity to have one more read through it and tighten up anything that still needs it. I finish my read through and nothing has jumped out at me as needing changing and for the first time since I started working on this account, I am satisfied that the presentation is as good as it possibly can be.

I already know my branding work is on point and the actual content of the ad pieces for social media and even the TV ad, and normally, once I have those nailed, the presentation pretty much writes itself, but this time it has been a little bit different because of the vegetarian angle. That really has made this whole thing much harder than I thought it was going to be, but I got there in the end and if the client doesn’t like it, then they might have to give me some direction about what research they have done on this, and I can incorporate that into the advertising campaign.

I have done so much research on the idea of vegetarianism in dogs, even down to calling a couple of vet practices and I have found nothing and no one to support it being a good idea. In fact, all of the vets I spoke to sounded horrified at the very idea of it. I didn’t want to outright lie on the presentation because it would be too easy for potential consumers to check up on the facts for themselves, and so I had to find creative ways to bring in the vegetarianism. I mostly tried to come at it from an environmental viewpoint and I talked a little bit about the vitamins and other good things found in plant-based foods. All true, but still not good for the dogs and I was very careful not to say that it is.

After I finish my last read through of my presentation, I have about fifteen minutes until the presentation is due to start. I have already transferred all the slides and everything to my laptop from the desktop computer and I have triple checked that they are all there and all in the right order. With this done, it should just be a matter of plugging my laptop into the projector and my screen should be presented on the main screen in the conference room, but I want to make sure that I am there in plenty of time to get set up without getting flustered, so I close the laptop and pick it up along with my note book and a pen, and with a deep breath for luck, I leave my office and head downstairs.

I go to the conference room I’ve been directed to go to, and I get my laptop all set up in under three minutes. I busy myself filling the refreshment jugs; one with water and one with tea. I add lots of ice to both of them, because it is kind of hot in the conference room. I leave them out on the main table with a pile of cups. I’m debating adding some snacks to the table when the door opens, and Wyatt comes in.

I feel my stomach roll deliciously at the sight of him, but I won’t let him distract me from my presentation. This is by far the biggest moment of my career so far and I am not going to ruin it by stuttering and spluttering my way through it because the guy I am into is in the room. I’m not sixteen anymore, although it seems I still have the same taste in men as sixteen-year-old me did.

“You’re ready,” Wyatt says with a smile when he looks around and sees everything set up and the refreshments already out.

“I know,” I say. “I just had visions of the projector not working or the cable being missing or one of a hundred other things that could have gone wrong, and me getting all flustered in front of the client, so I got here early. As it turns out, too early because I did refreshments too and it’s still a few minutes early.”

Wyatt smiles at me.

“It’s always best to be prepared,” he says. “But you have nothing to worry about. You’ve got this.”

“Thank you,” I say, returning his smile with a small one of my own.

Wyatt sits down at the head of the conference room table and pours himself a cup of water. I pour myself a cup of water in case my throat gets too dry and then I go and sit at the opposite end of the room to Wyatt where my laptop is.

Slowly, the rest of the people for the presentation start to show up and as the door closes for one final time, Wyatt smiles and nods to me.

“That’s everyone here Serena,” he says. “You can begin whenever you are ready.”

I wipe the palms of my sweaty hands on the sides of my black dress. I’m pleased that I wore this dress today. It is mostly black – the bodice and the sleeves fully black. Just above the waist, it tucks in and then flairs out into a knee length skirt. Around the bottom of the dress is a white silhouette of various types of flowers. It’s one of my favorites of the new dresses and things I bought for work last weekend.

I debated wearing another of my boring pant suits today in case I got too self-conscious standing up in front of strangers with a dress on, but I’ve mostly stopped wearing those now, opting instead for skirts and dresses. The old pant suit look really isn’t the aesthetic here and I want to fit in.

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