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“We won’t let you down,” she says.
She’d better be as amazing as Dad seems to think she is. As amazing as she seems to think she is.
The rest of the meeting is yawn-inducing, full of numbers and statistics. Ariana is furiously taking notes. I take plenty of my own, although most of it is stuff I already know. I’ll have my work cut out for me, teaching her the ins and outs of the department. And that’s on top of my regular workload.
Dad swings his hands together in one large clap. “Well, I’ll let you all get started. We’ll meet again as a team at the end of the week. In the meantime, I’ll be checking in with you daily.”
Daily? That’s a lot for Dad. He’s a crazy busy man, who’s usually pulled in a million different directions. We didn’t see him much growing up because he was so hardworking. Our mom practically raised us by herself. Well, she did have a long string of nannies. The five boys in our family were pretty rough on them, so there was quite a bit of turnover.
We file out of the room, and I catch up with Ariana in the hallway. “I think we should meet one-on-one so I can go over how we want to get started. Whose office do you want to work in? Yours or mine?”
She doesn’t smile at me, but she’s not openly hostile either. “Yours is fine. It’s probably bigger than the closet they put me in.” Her eyes go wide, and she claps a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. The office I have is just fine.”
But it isn’t fine. If Ariana is so important to the company, why did they put her in such a terrible office? All the other men on the team have big offices, although it’s true mine is the largest in the department. “Show me your office.”
She leads me around the corner, way down the hall to the area where we keep the files. In the back of that room is a tiny office with no windows. There’s a small desk and a couple of chairs in there.
“This won’t work. You’re going to switch offices with Toby. His is right next to mine. We’re going to be working together closely, and I don’t want to have to traipse all the way down to this little shoebox every time I need to talk to you.”
“Toby? That’s the person who assigned the office to me.”
The guy’s a real tool, always belittling women. He won’t be happy about giving up his office to the new girl, but that’s just too bad.
“We’ll handle the switch later. For now, let’s meet in mine.” I lead her back past the cubicles to my office. Cubicles that are full of women. They are the secretaries, assistants, and temp workers. A few are men, like my assistant, Corey, but they are in the minority.
When we get back to my office, I gesture to the couch. “Make yourself comfortable. We have a lot to talk about.”
She settles in and opens the leather portfolio that contains her notes from the meeting. She’s very professional. “Since arriving this morning, I noticed a few things right off the bat that could be improved. We need to focus on minimizing data entry, improve the management of incoming documents, and automate the payment process.”
“You already noticed all that from one meeting? I’m impressed.”
“Oh, you’re impressed?” She arches an eyebrow, and her smile turns devious. “Even if I am quite the catch?”
“I’m sorry… I’m not following. Did I miss something?”
Her mouth twists downward. “Typical. You don’t recognize me, do you?”
It all comes crashing down on me then. Ariana… the drop-dead gorgeous woman from the club. “You’re the same Ariana?”
“So youdoremember me. I thought for a moment that you must have been blackout drunk.”
“I wasn’t even drinking alcohol last night. I remember everything. And I don’t regret anything I said.”
She tilts her chin upward defiantly. “I hardly think that’s appropriate, given our current circumstances. Don’t you think?”
My dad certainly won’t approve. But who says he has to know anything about what went down last night? Not that much happened. Ariana made sure of that.
I can’t get over how different she looks. I’m not used to women rejecting me, and that only makes me see her as a challenge.
I don’t care if it’s the last thing I do. Somehow, I’m going to get this girl to like me.
3
ARIANA
Ipress the delete button until the entire paragraph is gone. This story is giving me fits tonight, and it’s all because I can’t stop thinking about the moment Kaison walked into the conference room this morning. I was on the verge of a massive freak out, but somehow, I held it together. I wasn’t happy to see him. All I could think about was how he would probably end up hitting on me at work instead of taking me seriously.
My phone dings. I pick it up from the desk where it was resting next to my laptop. It’s a text from Kaison—Mr. “I Didn’t Recognize You.” Yes, I’m still mad about that.