Chapter 2: Hailey

The sound of Denver’s morning commute was something I would never get used to. I liked being part of the hustle and bustle of the CBD. It was such a big change from the small town in Southern Colorado where I grew up. Being in the big city made me feel like I was finally a part of the grown-up world.

Everybody hated Mondays. I, on the other hand, always loved them. There was something about a fresh start to the week – a clean slate – that made me feel like the possibilities were endless. Was I a dreamer? Yes. I was probably also the only person in Downtown Denver that enjoyed going to work more than I enjoyed staying home on the weekends.

What could I say? I loved my job.

I stopped at Starbucks on the way into work, from the newly renovated Loft Apartments where I’d rented a really nice place that my dad helped me pay for until I found my own way. I ordered two White Chocolate Mochas and carried my prize to the office.

“Good morning, Hailey,” Clyde said when he opened the door for me.

“Nothing but good,” I said and thanked him for opening the door. No one talked to him other than saying thank you, if he got that much. At least I knew that he was engaged, that he liked children, and that he wanted to be someone bigger and better than a doorman one day.

I rode the elevator to the third floor where I put one of the coffees on Jessica’s desk.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Sugar and caffeine in a cup.”

She smiled at me and took a sip. “Since you’ve started working here I’ve gained so much weight. I’m blaming you.”

I shrugged and sipped my own Mocha. “I’m not forcing you to drink anything,” I said.

“No, but you’re tempting me and you know how bad I am at saying no.”

I sat down in front of my desk, opposite Jess. “Yeah, I know that’s why Brian sticks around.”

“Cow,” she said, but she was grinning. Jess and I had been friends since I’d moved to the city to study. She’d been two years ahead of me but we’d met through Brian, her now-boyfriend, who had been a tutor in my year.

“Seriously, though, I like you working here. It’s annoying because you feed me sugar all the time and you’re frustratingly cheerful, but still, it’s nice having you around.”

I shrugged and looked around the office. I loved working at Brand Marketing Public Relations. It was a big company with a huge portfolio but it felt like a small community rather than a job. I’d been working at BMPR for a month and I couldn’t have thought that my career life could be any better.

“If it wasn’t for you, I would never have gotten this job,” I said to Jess.

Jess waved it off. “You would have gotten anything you put your mind to. It’s just because we weren’t actively hiring that you might not have ended up here. It’s a good thing Brian has so many contacts.”

Brian and my boss, Otto, were cousins. It was how Jess got the job, too. And because she and Brian were dating it had been easy for her to pull strings to get me into the company.

“Come on guys,” Sarah called from the elevator. “Boardroom meeting.”

I glanced at Jess with raised eyebrows. She shrugged. We usually had our meetings on Fridays, not Mondays. We got up and walked to the boardroom together, taking seats next to each other. We waited for the others to filter in and finally, Otto followed, taking his seat at the head of the table.

“Right,” he said. “I hope everybody had a good weekend. I’m hoping to kick off this week with a bang.”

We all looked at him. Otto had dark brown hair, tan skin, and over-expressive features. He would have been a hit in show business if he hadn’t made it in public relations.

“I know we don’t usually do this, but we have an emergency.” He paused for effect, looking each of us in the eye. “Ken Nettles is looking for an agent.”

The others gasped. Murmurs rippled around the table. I frowned and looked at Jess who was talking to Tanya on the other side of her. Who was Ken Nettles? Everyone else seemed to know. I didn’t want to look like the only idiot who had no idea who he was, so I didn’t ask.

Otto smiled. He’d gotten the reaction he’d wanted.

“He needs someone to straighten out his son’s image.”

Another round of murmurs. Otto waited for the chatter to die down before he cleared his throat.

“So, who’s taking this on?” he asked. He looked around the table again, making eye contact with those who were known for their performance. Tanya. Maurice. Jessica. One by one they shook their heads. They all had projects they were already working on.

Jess nudged me before speaking up.

“What about Hailey?” she asked.

I blinked at her. What?

Otto frowned at me. “Do you think you’ll be able to handle something like this? Your credentials are great, but you only have a month’s worth of practical experience.”

My ears were ringing and my throat was dry. I nodded. Of course, I could do this.

Otto narrowed his eyes at me, thinking. Everyone was staring at me, Jess included. I wished they would look away. I was starting to feel awkward.

“Yeah, okay,” Otto finally said. “You can have this one. But you’re going to have to make sure you follow protocol. The Nettles’ are a big name. I don’t want to hear that Brand Marketing couldn’t pull it off.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. Jess nudged me again, grinning.

The meeting only lasted a few minutes longer, with Otto making sure we were all on track with whatever we had to do for the week before we were dismissed.

Jess and I were the last to leave the room. She linked her arm with mine.

“So, your first project Miss Woods. How does it feel?”

I took a deep breath and blew it out with a shudder. “Nerve-wracking.”

Jess laughed. “I felt like that, too, the first time. You’ll be great, though.”

I nodded. I was going to prove my worth to the company and to Otto himself.

“Who is Ken Nettles?” I asked.

Jess looked at me, shocked.

“I didn’t want to ask when everyone else already knew,” I added.

“You don’t know who Ken Nettles is?” Jess asked. “I know you’re a small-town girl but you studied in Denver for three years.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really do mainstream, you know that.”

Jess nodded. “That’s why I love you. Okay, so Ken Nettles is only the owner and co-founder of Nettles’ Women Foundation and Daybreak Solutions. Ring a bell?”

I shrugged. I’d heard the names on the news before but they didn’t mean that much to me.

“Ken Nettles is probably the richest man in the city – and probably the next one too. He runs both companies with an iron fist and we never hear anything but positive stuff on the news about his companies. It’s something along the lines of offering help for business startups, empowering the common man. He is stinking rich – a billionaire, but he’s one of those that does the right thing with his money.”

I turned the corners of my mouth down and nodded, impressed. “Sounds like a big deal, then.” My stomach turned. “What if it’s too big for me to handle?”

Jess shook her head and let go of my arm when we reached our desks. “Nonsense. You’ll be great. You can do this – you’ve always been good at hitting the ground running. Besides, imagine how it will look on your resume that you’re the one who worked with Ken Nettles as his PR agent.”

I nodded. If he really was as big as Jess was saying then it would look good for me to have this job. However, right now, I was more worried about whether I could pull it off rather than the credit that would come with it.

“Who’s his son?” I asked.

Jess frowned and leaned back in his chair. “I can’t think of his name, now but I do recall seeing pictures of him in the press.” She smirked. “More often than not, there’s a gorgeous woman or two hanging off his arm. The whole family is involved, but apart from Ken’s son, they don’t seem to like sharing their personal lives unless it’s serious or if the press catches them off guard. It’s one of those rich families that are still genuine, you know?”

I nodded even though I didn’t know at all.

Jess shrugged. “Google them if you need to know more. I’m sure you’ll meet them soon enough and then you can ask all these questions face to face.”

I snorted. “Yeah, going up to the most famous guy in the business world and asking him who he is might not be the best way to start.”

Jess giggled. “You’ll be fine, really. I believe in you. Believe in yourself!”

By the end of the work day, I was tired and stressed. I had heard from Otto that I would meet with Ken Nettles in the morning – the following day! I didn’t have any time to wrap my mind around it before it was thrown on me.

Jess hugged me before she left.

“Get a good night’s sleep and try to relax,” she said.

It was easy for her to say. She had two years’ experience and a whole lot of confidence, which I did not. I packed my bag and followed the shuffling crowd out of the building. As soon as I was outside my phone rang.

“Are you up for a drink or two?” Shane asked. I smiled.

“I could really do with a break,” I said. I needed a reason to relax after being assigned the new job.

“And to think, it’s only Monday.”

I smiled. Shane and I had been friends since our first year of college. He was a close friend and one of the few guys that had never hit on me. He treated me like a person, not a woman with a hot body, and I appreciated him even more for it.

I met up with him at Lemon, a new cocktail bar that doubled as a party spot on the weekends. He smiled when he saw me, waving from the bar.

“You look classy,” he said.

I looked down at my clothes. Black pants, a white blouse, and gold jewelry.

“It’s my office clothes, you know that,” I said.

He shrugged. “Still gonna tell you, you look good.”

“Thanks,” I said and smiled. He ordered a glass of white wine for me and a brandy and cola for himself.

“That’s a tall drink for the start of the week,” I said, nodding at his alcohol when it came.

“It’s just going to help the week get shorter,” he said. We found an empty table and sat down.

“So, how’s work?” he asked. I sipped the wine, relishing the dry liquid sliding down my throat.

“It’s going okay. I got a big job and I’m starting tomorrow. I’m nervous. The guy’s name is Nettles.”

Shane raised his eyebrows and whistled through his teeth. “That is a big job,” he said.

“Too big?” I asked.

Shane shook his head and looked around. “Don’t even go there. You’re better than you think you are. Keep telling yourself that.” He frowned. “I hate how everyone stares at you.”

I shook my head, not looking where he was.

“It’s not everyone. You’re overreacting. And guys stare, right? It’s just part of what makes them guys.”

“Guys only stare if you’re pretty,” he said.

I blushed but shook my head. Tension crept in and the atmosphere was strained. We were friends, Shane knew that. I didn’t want anything more with him. He had never outright hit on me but the little compliments now and then felt borderline romantic. I didn’t want anything more with anyone. I wanted friendship and companionship, I didn’t want to be treated like a piece of ass, which was what every man in my life had done to me. And, I wasn’t going to just give it away to anyone the way other girls did.

Was being a virgin backward thinking in these modern times? Maybe. But I liked who I was and I wasn’t going to compromise myself for someone else’s pleasure. I wanted it to mean something, but it didn’t mean I didn’t have desires, thoughts, fantasies.

“So, what do you know about them?” Shane asked, moving away from his compliment. I relaxed, the tension seeping away again until it was just the two of us, talking like old friends.

“Ken Nettles is the owner of two companies,” I said. “I don’t know much more about it than that, I’m sad to say.”

Shane shook his head. “You live under a rock sometimes,” he said. “You should go Google them.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, Jess said that, too. Guess that’s what I’m going to do for homework as soon as I get home.”

We spent the rest of the evening talking about meaningless things, catching up the way we used to. Shane’s compliments and the so-called fans all around me faded away and it turned into an evening where I could forget my stress about starting my first official contract the next day.

When I finally got home I was exhausted. My head ached dully even though I’d only had one glass of wine. I didn’t feel like sitting down in front of my laptop to run a search on the Nettles family. The harsh light of the screen would only make my head worse and Jess had said that I wouldn’t find out anything other than their public lives, anyway. Right? I would meet them in the morning. I was sure it wasn’t going to be as scary as I first thought.

Jess and Shane were both right – I just had to believe in myself and I would be great.

I climbed out of my office clothes and into my pajamas before crawling into bed, cocooning myself in my covers. In the darkness of the room, I could see the outline of the furniture, and the photos of home that I had blown up on the wall opposite the bed.

I was just a country girl, but I was going to prove I had what it took to survive in the big city. Jess had grabbed an opportunity for me.

Time to make the most of it.