“Grace,” he corrects, reaching out to shake my hand as if he’s meeting me for the first time. Clearly, a show for the audience in the room. “Happy birthday.” He holds out the box and I take it back from him as I spin around in my chair, away from him, and face the conference room table. My stomach churns violently. I want to barf. I chance a glance at Jamie, who meets my gaze and shrugs at the unasked question she sees in my eyes. What is Drew doing here?
“Breathe,” Jamie hisses quietly, reaching out and placing her hand over my shaking forearm. She squeezes it gently and I try to pull large breaths deep down into my lungs. The room is bustling as the rest of the agency’s employees filter in. Hushed conversations and small bouts of laughter fill the space as everyone settles into the remaining chairs around the conference room table. I focus on Jamie’s hand on my arm and continue to breathe steadily.
“Everyone!” Mr. Williams—the owner of Williams Global Advertising, the company I work for—announces as he comes bounding into the room, holding a small stack of papers. “I want you to meet Andrew McPherson, owner and CEO of AM Advertising who, as of this morning, procured Williams Global Advertising.”
Drew moves from behind me and walks over to the head of the table where the now former owner of our advertising agency, Kevin Williams, stands, a sad look in his eyes.
“Holy shit,” Jamie mumbles next to me. “Mr. McPherson purchased Williams Global. . .”
I don’t even hear what Mr. Williams says after that. All I know is that Drew—Andrew McPherson—is the man I slept with last night…and the man I slept with last night is now my new boss.
I stab my salad aggressively with the metal fork before I shake the lettuce I just stabbed off of my fork and back into the bowl. “Why don’t places that serve salads cut the lettuce up into smaller, bite-sized pieces? It’s annoying,” I question before finally shoving the bowl aside. I don’t have an appetite anyway, let alone the desire to try to shove giant pieces of lettuce into my mouth.
Jamie takes a bite of her sandwich and sits back in her chair, dabbing the corners of her lips with a napkin before she speaks. “Because bigger pieces of lettuce make the bowl look fuller. That’s how they cheap out on their salads.”
I don’t know why, but I laugh. A loud belly laugh.
“It’s why I eat sandwiches. More bang for my buck.” She smiles and winks at me. How she can eat a sandwich and not mess up her lipstick is a damn mystery and a beauty trick she needs to trademark. Also, the fact she can eat bread and not gain an ounce of weight is almost as annoying as the big lettuce chunks in my salad. She’s tall and lean, and I’m tall and curvy, a size ten to her four. She’s got boobs and I have hips. She’s blonde and I’m brunette. We’re polar opposites on almost every possible level, but she’s my person and I’m so thankful for her.
After the meeting this morning, I all but ran from the conference room to my desk, where I thankfully had a deluge of voicemails and emails waiting for me to return. News spread fast in the advertising world about the sale of the East Coast’s smallest, but most premier, advertising and marketing firm to the West Coast’s largest and most premier firm. It was a sale that was kept so quiet, no one in the industry knew it was happening, and everyone is still reeling with the news.
“So Jeff said after lunch we’re having another meeting where Mr. McPherson is going to share the go-forward organizational structure. Guess we’ll find out if we still have jobs then,” Jamie says, tossing her napkin on her empty plate.
The thought of losing my job makes me nauseous. I pinch my eyes closed. I cannot lose my job. My mom depends on the small amount I’m able to send her each month.
Jaime senses my mood and reaches across the table and squeezes my shaking hand. “Hey, don’t stress. If anything happens, we’ll land on our feet at another agency. People salivate over Williams Global employees.”
She’s right. Mr. Williams runs—or, ran—a top-notch, professional, and highly-profitable advertising agency. He built this agency from scratch and employs only the best. He pays us decently, treats us well, and the clients we bring in are a direct result of his employees and his no-nonsense approach of not having the biggest agency in New York City, but the best.
It’s just the stress of knowing one missed paycheck could utterly destroy me. Student loans, credit card debt, and the cost of living in New York City, even in a small, shitty, gross Brooklyn apartment takes every last cent I earn. And the guilt of not being able to help my mom brings tears to my eyes.
“We’re going to be fine,” Jamie reassures me, and I try to calm my inner hysteria. “We have to get back. Meeting starts in fifteen minutes.” She pushes herself up from the small metal table of the café that Jamie eats at nearly every day. I join her when I have an extra few dollars, which isn’t that often.
“Thank you for my birthday lunch.” I look down at the uneaten salad and feel guilty I didn’t eat it. I’m not really in the position to turn down meals, but I’m so anxious from Drew’s appearance this morning, the thought of food in my belly makes me want to vomit.
“You’re welcome.” Jamie reaches out and laces her arm through mine as we walk down the crowded Manhattan street and back toward our office.
Three
I rub the heels of my palms over my eyes, trying to shove back the headache I can feel coming on. Forty-eight hours ago, Kevin Williams asked me to buy his company, Williams Global Advertising. He had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, a diagnosis no one knows about except for me and our team of lawyers, and the call to purchase his company came at a bittersweet price.
Mr. Williams wanted someone with integrity and a good reputation to take over his company, while allowing his wife to be financially stable after his passing. His request was unmistakably hard, but a sense of peace in his tone made the decision easy. He was asking me for a favor, a favor I could help him with. My father worked for Kevin Williams twenty or more years ago, and Mr. Williams taught him everything he needed to know about marketing, advertising, and public relations, which he then passed down to me. To say Mr. Williams has been a trailblazer in this industry would be an understatement.
Williams Global and AM Advertising have always been friendly competitors, but I was honored that, of all the qualified people in this business, he asked me to purchase his agency...his legacy. I’ve been wanting to expand to the East Coast and this was the perfect opportunity to purchase a company that is not only profitable, but is also a perfect fit culturally with AM Advertising. He’s basically handing me millions of dollars in profitable clients and one of the strongest employee bases in the industry.
Within twenty-four hours of that phone call, our lawyers had worked up the purchase agreement and the funds were wired. Twelve hours later, I was on a cross-country flight headed to New York. The next few hours were a blur of quiet celebration, meetings, and subsequently bedding the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. Grace.
Tall and curvy, with hazel eyes that are more green than brown, and a smile that literally made my knees weak. It’s rare that I pick up women in a bar. Hell, it’s rare I pick up women at all, but something about her called to me. I needed her, and somehow, I felt like she needed me as well. Two consenting adults who needed to get lost in each other for one night. That was the deal, until I saw her this morning.