Page 31 of The Ex Project (The Heartwood #3)

WREN

The vote is tomorrow. Yesterday was a nice reprieve, a welcome break from the project and everything riding on me getting the project lead role.

But I woke up this morning with a keen awareness that I’m running out of time to finalize my presentation.

As such, I’ve been up since the crack of dawn trying to make sure all the final renderings are complete and my presentation is in order.

I had to scrap almost the entire concept I initially came up with.

I took Spencer and Ally’s suggestions to heart, and the result is less MoMA-inspired and more …

laid back. It’s almost giving hippie vibes, and less avant-garde.

I swapped out concrete in favour of cedar, made the place more homey and less cold.

There’s a living wall in the lobby and windows to let in sunlight from every direction.

It’s an arts centre I would want to spend my time in.

If I were staying here to see it fully built, I probably would.

The painting studio I designed is every artist’s dream.

It’s perfect for Heartwood. Needless to say, I’m confident it will win me the vote.

But it’s not exactly a build that VanTek typically gets involved with.

It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not ultra-modern so I don’t know if Rick will be as excited about it as I am.

I close my laptop, happy with the progress I’ve made on it today. I put the final finishing touches on the slides, and I’ve practiced my speech a dozen times or more. I’m ready. The only thing left to do is e-mail the final version to Rick and hope for the best.

I draft an e-mail, attach the PowerPoint and hit send.

And that’s when the nerves hit. I don’t know what to do with myself.

At first, I sit and stare at my computer screen, biting a stray hangnail and bouncing my knee up and down.

I refresh my e-mail several times, hoping a reply from my boss will magically come through if I will it hard enough.

Instead, on the fifth refresh, I get an e-mail from Hudson.

Seeing his name come up on the screen now makes me feel conflicted.

On the one hand, he’s still very much my adversary in this fight for the project lead role.

We made that clear with each other. We’re both in it to win it, and it matters to both of us for very valid reasons.

Reasons we can each respect. But on the other hand, the feelings I’ve been having for him are feeling less and less like anger and resentment.

It would be stupid, right? To let myself revisit the past like this. But the way my heart flip flops when I see his e-mails, his texts, or look into his eyes …

I stare at his name for a minute longer, trying to make sense of the excitement I feel about opening it. The subject line reads: Let’s get ready to ruuuuummmble !

I click on his name and the e-mail opens.

When it does, a giant image fills my screen.

It’s a poster that looks like it’s advertising a pro-wrestling match.

Miller vs. Landry , it reads. Hudson has very sloppily edited both of our faces onto sweaty, chiselled bodies.

He’s conveniently chosen an old picture of me, one where I still have braces.

Probably because he doesn’t have any recent ones and couldn’t get one without it being obvious that he creeped my social media.

A giggle slips out of my throat. Leave it to Hudson to turn an important town meeting into something like this.

For a moment, I forget about what tonight means for me.

I forget that if I don’t get this project lead role under my belt, I could lose this promotion to Brody.

Gag. And that would mean having to tell my family I’m still just a senior engineer.

Double gag . While Claire gets her coveted emergency medical director position at her hospital. Puke.

For a moment, I forget it all. And all I can think about is how nice it feels to be having fun with Hudson again. Ribbing each other and getting under each other’s skin.

The feeling only lasts a moment, because my computer dings with an incoming e-mail from Rick.

Wren,

This is not the direction we agreed upon for the project. VanTek has a reputation to uphold and this is not our standard of work. I suggest you revisit our most successful projects and align your design with those if you want an honest shot at this promotion.

Ric k

My heart sinks. All the time and effort I put into my design is now wasted.

It was all for nothing if Rick is going to force my hand like this.

I wish I could say this is the first time he’s made my life difficult, but he micromanages me in a way that he never does with any of the other engineers.

Almost like he doesn’t want to see me succeed.

And I won’t, at this rate. He’s turned this into a lose-lose situation.

All I can do now is hope people will be impressed by my initial concept, which means it’s back to the drawing board, and I have a lot of ground to cover tonight if I’m going to be ready.