“Call me Vili.” The winger smiled at her while Jake remained stone-faced.
Deciding to take that personally since she’d seen him smiling at other people—hell, he’d even smiled at her during the wedding—she lost the battle to remain friendly and professional. “You’re doing a wonderful job with the tall, dark, and silent look, Jake,” she said with what others would see as a playful smile, but Jake would know for a pinpoint strike.
Vili gave a big laugh and slapped him on the shoulder while Jake’s eyes flashed.
“Good,” he said without cracking even a miniscule grin. “It means I can get this over and done with quickly.”
Jeez, why didn’t he just take out a sign: I can’t wait to see the back of Juliet.
Her blood heated, the fire of battle licking through her. Well, Jacob Esera wasn’t the only one who wanted to salt the earth and chant incantations to ensure their paths never again crossed. Too bad that was impossible with the contract between him and E. E. Designs.
Keeping a sweet smile on her face through sheer effort of will, she led them to the media team that’d be shooting both the print and television ads. Everett was also there. Many business owners would’ve left a campaign like this to an ad agency, but Everett had a distinct vision of how he wanted his designs showcased, which was why Juliet—instead of an outside ad exec—was overseeing the entire thing.
It wasn’t the first time Everett had taken this approach; he not only wanted full control of his brand, he had the kind of mind that came up with great ad concepts. As a result, Juliet had handled more than one shoot for him—though this one was, without doubt, the biggest.
Today, her silver fox of a boss, slender and tall, shook the men’s hands. “I’m so glad you decided to be a part of this campaign. I think it’s going to be phenomenal.”
Though Everett was doing a great job of sounding cheerful but composed, Juliet had seen him dance the Macarena in his office when first Leo, then the others, had signed on. This would take his design business to the next level—these four men were extremely expensive, but their impact was massive in a country where rugby was all but a religion.
Add in the other major rugby-playing nations where they had a following and Jake, Leo, Vili, and Christian were worth every penny. So regardless of her irritation with Jake for inciting this insane unrequited attraction inside her, she was happy for Everett. Her boss came across as urbane and sophisticated and more upmarket than down to earth, but scrape away the posh veneer and he was one of the good guys. It was nice to see him succeed.
While the technical crew and Everett spoke to Vili and Jake about today’s process and reviewed the creative vision on which all four men had already signed off, she fought the urge to go over and shake Jake. If he didn’t lose the stiff face and stop doing an amazingly lifelike impression of a robot, he was going to drive the crew crazy and draw out the shoot to a frustrating length.
Her phone buzzed in the midst of her attempt to send him “loosen up” signals with her mind. Glancing down, she saw it was Wesley, the billboard guy, aka CEO of the company that owned half the billboards in the city. She answered at once—her temp assistant had messed up a second time and lost a critical billboard.
Needless to say, Juliet couldn’t wait for her actual assistant to return from maternity leave. “Tell me you can do something for us,” she said to Wesley, her fingers metaphorically crossed.
“Juliet, my love, do you practice witchcraft?” he said in his raspy chain-smoker’s voice. “Because that’s the only way I can explain this.”
Juliet began to grin. “It’s not nice to tease a girl, Wes. Gimme.”
“Someone just pulled a booking. You’ve got the central Queen Street billboard, the big daddy.”
Juliet did a fist pump in the air… just as Everett, Jake, and the others turned around. Hanging up after confirming she’d personally arrange for prompt payment, she said, “We have the new Queen Street mega-billboard.”
If anything, Jake went even stiffer. Everett, on the other hand, was clearly fighting the urge to break out into song and dance again.
Vili’s teeth flashed white in that enormous smile that made him such a favorite with fans. “Me in my undies on Queen Street, huh? Not bad for a kid who couldn’t get a date for the school ball. Worth my mother’s wrath.”
Christian and Leo emerged right then from hair and makeup. Neither had been too smoothed or polished—Everett wouldn’t have booked rugby players if he’d wanted pretty. This ad campaign was all about playing off the men’s rough masculinity. Though, according to her body, Jake was plenty pretty.
The damn tingles wouldn’t stop.
Promising said body an ice-cold bath tonight if it didn’t behave, she forced a smile. “Vili, Jake, if you’d please head into hair and makeup.”
Face like granite, Jake went to turn that way when his phone chimed. Glancing down at the screen, he said, “Give me one minute. It’s my daughter’s school.” While Viliame continued on, Jake stepped away to have a quick conversation.
“Is everything all right with Esme?” Juliet asked afterward.
“She forgot her flute at home—but music class isn’t until later this afternoon, so I can drop it off after we finish here.” Curt words before he strode off to join Vili.
Juliet was tempted to ball up a piece of paper and throw it at his head.
Professional, Jules. Be professional.
Since Everett was here to oversee the shoot, she made her way out into the winter sunshine of the parking lot to make a number of calls, including one to their accounts department to expedite payment for the billboard. Suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, she dealt with all of them on a daily basis. She knew more about this end of the business than her immediate superior, Iris—which was why Everett paid her such a competitive salary.
“I would cry like a baby if you ever quit,” he’d said to her more than once.
Her expertise was also the reason why, as of twelve months ago, she was no longer listed as Executive Assistant: Operations and Supply on the company website.
Juliet’s new title was Vice President: Operations and Supply.
Creative Everett and his pragmatic right hand, Iris, had made it plain that Juliet was being groomed to take over Iris’s position when Iris retired in three years’ time. The slow transition of power was why Juliet was here at the shoot—Iris had overseen the contracts while Everett dealt with the ad creative, but Juliet had been handed the duty of ensuring it all went according to plan.
Iris was a call away if Juliet needed her, but this was her baby.
It made her laugh sometimes, that huge title and attendant responsibilities for a girl whose highest qualification was a diploma from a six-month course that taught office management. But she was good at her job, that much she knew—even Reid had never managed to convince her otherwise. Not that he hadn’t tried. But that was par for the course with the pinhead.
A tap on her shoulder had her turning around. “Everett. What is it?”
“I’ve got to join my mom at the hospital. Kalia and her team have a good grasp of what I want, but can you direct the rest of the shoot?”
“Of course. Is everything going okay with your mom?” She knew the other woman had been in for a number of surgeries.