Page 20 of Love.V2 (Occupational Hazards #2)

Tess

“—interested in what Tess has to say. She’s the one who called this meeting, after all.”

Even lost as I was in my haze of happiness, I didn’t miss the snark in Victoria’s voice.

My eyes flickered to Dylan as heat rose in my face, but I forced my attention back to my computer.

We’d both agreed to keep our relationship quiet around the office for now.

It felt too new, too fragile, potentially complicating things when Eric announced Dylan was next in line to be CEO.

So far this morning, we’d kept things very cordial. Until he’d shared a document with me two minutes ago simply titled, “List.”

The first bullet we’d written on our date was already in place:

1. Do something you’ve always wanted to do.

I’d stared at his blinking green cursor on the shared document for several seconds before it moved, watching in real-time as he wrote.

2. ??? (Your turn, Angel.)

Of course, that was the exact moment Victoria decided to relinquish her hold on my brainstorm and make it seem like I was the one who wasn’t doing my job.

Maybe she had some kind of radar that went off if anyone in her vicinity was happy, and she was duty-bound to her demon overlords to put an end to it immediately .

The second the thought crossed my mind, I blushed even harder. It was unkind and probably undeserved. Victoria was annoying, but she was passionate. Even if it seemed intrusive or aggressive, I couldn’t fault her for working so hard for the company she obviously loved.

“Sorry, I was lost in some notes.” I clicked out of the shared document, eyeing the whiteboard Victoria had been scribbling on for the last twenty minutes. There were a few ideas written, but nothing cohesive. I hadn’t missed much.

“We’re getting nowhere with this. Let’s go with my idea. It’s the strongest and most marketable. Steel. Classic metallics. It makes a powerful statement,” Victoria pushed, circling (again) the central word on the board. Her long, sleek ponytail swished across her perfectly crisp, tailored shirt.

BOTTO, she’d written in big, bold letters, taking the time to sketch in some rivets and bolts.

The international robotics company was building new manufacturing facilities in the U.S., and wanted a big rebrand to kick-start its push into the states. And they wanted us to bid for the job.

“Botto’s CMO said Jinx’s history of unique campaigns impressed her, but she’s equally excited by our position under Worther’s agency umbrella.

Essentially,” Eric had drawled, giving us a conspiratorial look when he’d made the office-wide announcement, “they like that we work like a boutique with the firepower of the big guys.” He’d nodded to Dylan, who was standing by his side.

“This is exactly what we wanted when we joined Worther. Perfect opportunity to show them what we can really do, huh? ”

We had two weeks to pull together an initial round of proposed concepts for their company-wide re-brand, and I hadn’t wanted to waste a moment of it.

I’d pulled everyone I could into the conference room to brainstorm.

Victoria had grabbed a marker and stationed herself at the whiteboard before I’d even walked in, but I hadn’t cared.

The Botto proposal would be the biggest work Jinx had ever bid for. To compete with the larger companies with lower costs and an army of interns at their disposal, I needed everyone’s help.

Unfortunately, we’d been sitting there for almost half an hour, and all we had was rivets.

Before I’d zoned out, we’d had a few solid ideas floated. Maybe not fully baked, but the beginnings of something. Victoria had halfheartedly scribbled down a few words, but I didn’t see any of the bigger concepts on the board.

Just…metal.

As I looked around the room, no one else looked back. It seemed I wasn’t the only one distracted by my inbox. Or maybe Victoria’s high-handed running of the meeting had squashed everyone’s interest in collaboration.

Resignation set in as I considered my next move. Was there a way to salvage this without totally destroying the delicate dynamic Victoria and I teetered on?

“The creative brief requested something unconventional. I’m wondering if going with a metal and steel concept seems a little…” My brain scrambled to find a word that wouldn’t insult her .

“Basic?” Leave it to Dylan to cut right to the heart of things. A few of my colleagues shifted around the table, and I caught more than one smirk.

Victoria would have glared if anyone else in the room had said it, but she chuckled like she and Dylan were in on some kind of joke together. “It takes a lot of brainpower to get to a final design, but often the most effective ideas are the most obvious.”

Dylan shook his head, clearly unconvinced.

That made two of us. “It’s something the Worther team would come up with.

Don’t get me wrong, Worther has good talent, but we play it safe.

” He leaned forward, giving her a bland smile, lacking his normal charm.

“Worther is too traditional. That’s why we’re counting on Jinx to do what you do best and win this business with something truly extraordinary.

Like that tablet campaign you did two years ago.

The mural one?” Dylan’s attention shifted to me, and so did everyone else’s.

“Um…”

“That was you?” Noel leaned into the table to look at me. “I bought that tablet because of that ad campaign.”

“Well…good. It worked then.” I laughed, weakly, but I could already see the curious glances exchanged around the room.

“Wait, the one that featured all those local artists in major cities?” Henry asked. Noel nodded, still staring at me, looking a little…impressed.

“They had all the artists design and plan the murals on the tablets, then put them up overnight. They paired it with this massive campaign to showcase the artists and their stories. It made some of their careers completely take off. ”

“Changed the brand narrative, too,” Dylan added.

“I, uh, can’t take credit for that part,” I assured them, sinking lower in my chair.

The campaign had been fun, and it had been a hit.

We’d known the company wanted to break into more creative applications, so the brand had doubled down on our work, creating scholarships and artist residencies, too.

“But that’s the power a rebrand can have.” Dylan may have been addressing the entire room, but I could feel his eyes locked in on me.

To avoid his gaze, I looked around the rest of the table. Bad move.

Everyone was waiting for me to say something. After months of sitting in this back corner, Dylan had put a big ole spotlight on me. I could practically hear his voice in my head.

Come on, Angel. Show ‘em what you got.

“Well, I,” I began, toggling back to my notes from earlier in the brainstorm.

Where were those sparks of ideas I’d written down that Victoria hadn’t?

I scanned them. Nothing. “That campaign was a true collaborative effort, you know. We had a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds who worked to make that a reality.”

When I looked up again, they were still waiting, watching like I was supposed to say something profound.

“We knew they wanted to break into a new market, so we stopped thinking about the product and started thinking about what they wanted it to do, you know?”

Out of the corner of my eye, Dylan cocked his head. It was enough encouragement that my thoughts shifted into a somewhat more productive pattern .

“What do we know about Botto? They’ve been traditionally in the manufacturing space, making robots for assembly lines, but they feel like the future is in food service.

Fast-food places; robots that can cook food faster and more safely than humans.

” My brow furrowed, something tugging at my brain.

I looked at Henry. “Didn’t you used to work at one of the big regional burger brands? ”

“Oh, yeah. Big budgets. Fun, but major burnout,” he replied.

“What was the goal there? I mean, we want to get in with fast-food people. You infiltrated their inner circle.” The very weak joke got a soft laugh from around the table.

“Big on humanizing the brand. Social media campaigns to get more reactive to trends, almost snarky. They want to seem like a person, instead of a soulless corporation, you know?”

“Personal,” I murmured, considering. “Maybe that’s it. Robots are so im personal. In-human, even. Maybe we play that up. Chassie, you create anime, right?”

Usually quiet, Chassie glanced up, their eyes widening at being addressed directly. They were younger and didn’t have a huge role in creating the campaigns, but I’d insisted on everybody I could get my hands on for this meeting.

“I…dabble.”

“How would you start creating a character if you were beginning a whole new series?”

Down the table, hands poised over keyboards. Noel was already jotting something in her notebook.

“Well, I, um, I would consider the storyline. The hero’s journey. Their characteristics.” Chassie continued, picking up steam as we nodded along. I grabbed my printout of the creative brief and slipped from my chair, picking up a marker on the way.

Our meeting ran over by an hour, but by the end, our board was filled with little cartoons and concepts for Botto, the aspiring chef robot our collective brains had created.

I was chatting with Noel about identifying a color palette when Meery popped in, handing Dylan a drink tray with two coffees.

“This just came for you, Dylan. Tess, we still good to meet at six? I can’t wait to get my hands dirtyyyy,” she sang, wiggling her perfectly manicured fingers.

“Absolutely,” I confirmed, watching Noel rush out, still scribbling in her notebook. Victoria had bolted from the room the second everyone had started closing their laptops.

When the door shut behind Meery, it was just me and Dylan.

I glanced at the tray in his hands. “You have anything for me?” Brainstorming was thirsty work.