Chapter Seven

Melinda

It was my first full day as the Junior Vice President of Creative Nature Marketing. Friday was a full day, but it was all paperwork, contract negotiations, and them handing me a piece of paper with my salary written on there. I was pretty sure I didn’t hide my shock at how many zeroes were running across the page. I had reached a financial goal that was leagues above anything I’d expected in the next twenty years. To be honest, I was more than a bit overwhelmed by how much they were throwing me in headfirst, but that check definitely was going to make up for it.

I looked down at my watch and sighed, standing and looking around my new office. Anthony had brought in new furnishings over the weekend and I could finally see the place starting to come alive. The desk gleamed, my diplomas on the wall, looked just right, and there was even a celebratory plant from Chastity, which hopefully wouldn’t die. Setting up camp, however, was taking a lot of time, and it was already three o’clock. I hadn’t even finished setting up, much less starting the work I needed to get done that day. I had to just accept that today was going to be a really long day, possibly even turning into a long night.

A loud groan escaped my throat as I lifted a box from the floor and carried it swiftly to my desk. It looked as if it was the last box I had to unpack. Anthony had sent books, references, and many other things he thought I might need to have in the office. They’d all been sent up that morning, and I had been sorting them all day. This seemed to be a box of heavy-as-hell books. I looked down at my phone on the desk and sighed as it buzzed.

I pressed the code on the front and opened up the text. It was from Chastity, who I hadn’t heard from since the party. I knew she’d had a hot date Friday night, but it seemed as if it had carried over until this morning. She had the craziest life, but she was still amazingly successful at her job. Sometimes I wished I was more like her. The text read:

Don’t screw up on your first day. Tell my intern I said hello. And Melinda, I love your stinkin’ face.

I laughed loudly and started to type her a message back. I knew that if I didn’t, she would continue to harass me until she got an answer. She did not like to be ignored in the least. She was a bit of a high maintenance friend, but I didn’t mind; she was like my sister. As I was typing, I jumped slightly at the sound of someone knocking on my open door. I turned quickly and froze, looking sideways at the giant vase of flowers in my doorway. They were so big, I couldn’t even see the delivery guy’s face. His struggle tore me out of my trance.

“I’m sorry,” I said, rushing over to the coffee table. “Just put them here.”

He struggled over and set them down, the multi-colored blooms bouncing around wildly. He stood there for a second catching his breath and smiling before pulling out his clipboard. He scanned the names on the list, stopping at my name.

“Miss Phase?”

“Yes, that’s me,” I replied.

“Wonderful,” he said. “This has been quite a hard one to travel around with.”

“I can imagine,” I laughed as I signed his clipboard. “Thank you.”

“You are more than welcome. Have a great day,” he said, walking out of the office.

I waited until he was out of the office and down the hall before turning back to the flowers. They were an exquisite variety of red roses and white lilies, their colors beautifully contrasting. Searching through the lush foliage, I finally found an envelope near the top of the vase, lifted the flap, and pulled the little card inside out. I was curious and excited all the same time since no one had ever sent me flowers. I knew they were probably from some bigwig I had never met, welcoming me to the company, or even from Mr. Cartucci. But still, it was something I had always dreamed of, so who really cared where they were from?

I read the card and my lips drew up into a slight smirk.

“For the girl who has it all. The promotion, the body, the laugh, and the evil bracelet used for drawing unsuspecting men in and then crushing their hearts. Xoxo, Troy.”

I shook my head and smiled in total surprise. The crazy guy. He sure did have some serious arrogance about him. I bet he thought that since I was a traditional girl I would fall all over him for these flowers. Now, I had to admit, I was pretty dewy eyed at first glance, but I was not falling for his little games. Not even if I was grinning from ear to ear and still touching the soft, silky petals.

“Wow, those are some flowers,” Mr. Cartucci’s voice said from behind me, making me jump slightly. “From anyone special?”

I shoved the card back in the envelope and tossed it to the side, turning around quickly to face him. He looked at me, and I wasn’t really quite sure what to say at first. I really didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell him his competitor was trying to convince me to go out with him. Or, let’s be blunt, to sleep with me. Because that was what Troy definitely wanted, no two ways about it.

“No, no one special at all,” I said, smiling. “Just one of my father’s friends who heard about my promotion. They’re all super excited to see me making waves out here. If you think those are impressive, you should see my place; it smells like a funeral home with all the roses everywhere.”

That was a complete and total lie, but I had to make it sound convincing since he had a look of disbelief on his face. Finally, he unfurled his eyebrows and laughed, telling me the same thing had happened to his secretary when she’d landed the promotion last year. I let out a deep breath, just glad that he wasn’t going to question me any further.

“So, I just wanted to give you a rundown of your first week,” he said, standing with his hands in his pockets.

“Oh, let me just move the boxes for you,” I said, trying to pick up the empty ones and put them in a pile so he had access to a chair.

“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” he laughed. “You’ll be meeting with the VP this week and shadowing him on his duties. He told me he would come down each morning and get you after his morning conference call with me, which is something you will eventually be sitting in on. I’ll upload the meeting schedule to your calendar when I get back to my office. Don’t worry about today’s meetings, just start out with tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” I replied. “I’m excited to jump on in.”

“Good,” he said with a kind smile. “If you need anything, let my secretary know. Eventually you’ll have your own. You’ll just need to hire her once you’re settled in.”

Hire a secretary? Hire my secretary? Whoa.

“Of course,” I replied, watching him walk out of the office.

My head was spinning both with his news and with all the stuff I needed to get done, so I walked over to my office door and closed it, but not before running my eyes over that nameplate one more time. I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, allowing my mind to settle and my thoughts to come back together. I opened my eyes and moved all the empty boxes to the corner, put up everything else that was sitting in piles, and then sat down at the computer to look over this week’s meeting schedule. I sighed at the realization of how many meetings I was actually going to have to attend. Half the time, I’d found they were a complete waste of a work hour. Hopefully things would be different up high. Hopefully, but not likely.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at my calendar that now had almost every day highlighted with either a face to face meeting or a conference call with the others. Luckily, when I clicked on any appointment, the system gave me the parameters of the meetings, so I would know what I needed to have prepared. It looked like tomorrow was a financial overview, which meant I had more work to do than I’d initially thought I would. I knew Mr. Cartucci wasn’t expecting me to be up and active in these meetings yet, but I wanted to show him I was one step ahead of the game and already have what was needed prepared.

As I leaned forward, I stopped, the beautiful red roses and white lilies catching my eye. My mouth was trying to curl up into a smile, but I was fighting it with everything I had. Troy was charming, handsome, and most importantly, distracting. For just a second, feeling overwhelmed by all my new responsibilities, I mused that maybe distraction by a successful and very sexy man was exactly what I needed.

I let the smile come through and then shook the thought from my head, knowing I needed to get to work immediately. The rest of the day went by faster than I wanted to, and I was still in my office at seven in the evening. Again, I was the only one there, but it seemed a bit different being able to close myself in my personal space and work to the twinkling lights of the New York skyline. There was something about it that just made me want to continue to work harder and harder. I had to be careful though; I suddenly almost felt more comfortable in my new office then in my house.

As I finished up my notes on the final numbers for the meeting in the morning, the office phone rang. I looked down, thinking it was the general line, but then realized it was my own business line. I looked up at the completely empty office and then back at the phone. Maybe it was Mr. Cartucci, since I’d told him I would be there late.

“This is Melinda Phase; how can I help you?”

“Junior VP extraordinaire, working late on her first night,” a familiar voice rang out.

Yet again, he surprised me, and I beamed in a way I was really glad he couldn’t see. “Hello, Troy. I’m sure you’re safe and snug in your penthouse not trying to get ahead of the game,” I chuckled.

“Touché, my dear, touché,” he laughed.

“How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t,” he replied. “Not officially. But after hearing your whole speech about no life and work ethic, I figured there was no way you wouldn’t spend your first full day as Junior VP, snuggled up in your new office trying to get ahead of the game. I’m sure you’re completely and totally prepared for the rest of the week already.”

“Close,” I laughed. “At least I was until you interrupted me.”

“I’m so sorry,” he apologized, not sounding remotely contrite. “Let me get to the point then, shall I? I’d like to take you out to dinner tomorrow night.”

“I thought we talked about this.” I smiled in spite of myself.

“No, you talked about it,” he pointed out. “And then ended it with a snarky remark. I’m here to tell you that your last answer was not satisfactory. Did you like the flowers that I got you?”

“Of course,” I said. “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

“I won’t take no for an answer,” he said. “I’ll send a car to your office at seven tomorrow evening. I’m guessing you won’t leave your office before then, so FYI. I’ll be taking you to a nice restaurant, so bring a nice dress to change into when everyone is gone. And don’t try to get out of it. I’ll just keep asking.”

“Fine,” I sighed, secretly excited.

“You enjoy your evening,” he said, probably grinning in satisfaction, thinking his flower scheme had worked its magic. “And I’ll see you tomorrow at seven.”

I hung up the phone and set my chin in my hand, staring down at the blinking lights, then glancing at the flowers. He had, surprisingly, bamboozled dinner out of me, but at the same time, I really hadn’t tried to refuse all that much. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, he might actually be good for me.