His office door was open, and she blew in like the north wind, not even waiting until she was fully seated or had set her tablet down before she asked, “So, how did your dinner with Bex Sterling go?”
Unbidden and immediately, his mind filled—once again—with all the emotions from the night before. The water spilling in his lap. The waiter dropping his food and how he reacted. The embarrassment at the two sisters talking about his article. How amazing Bex looked in that dress and cowboy boots. How infuriating it was that the woman couldn’t agree to do a simple interview.
“Not well. There won’t be an interview. So let’s go over the plans we have in place for the product launch, and brainstorm ways we can get it where we need to be.”
“Wait. Why? What happened? Did she just say she didn’t want to? After so many of her viewers requested you?”
Roman let out a huff of a breath that Charli wouldn’t just let this go. Not that he thought she would, but it sure would make things easier. “We just agreed that it wasn’t a good match. End of story.”
“But it is a good match! Did she give you a hard no? Because I don’t think we should let that stop us. I bet I could smooth things out with her.”
“Charli. The interview isn’t going to work out. This meeting is about finding other options. We need to turn our focus to that.”
Charli leaned back in her chair—something she so rarely did that it’s piercing effect felt stronger. Especially because she also crossed her arms, studying him. She stayed silent for a long moment before she said, “Remember shortly after you hired me, when you formed your inner team? In that first meeting with Daran, Sloan, Melinda, Wells, and me and you—all of us together—you said that we needed to respect your decisions.”
“Exactly.”
“But,” she said, emphasizing the word in a way that told him he wouldn’t like what came after, “you also said that we should call you on it when we thought you were making a decision based on emotion instead of logic.”
He crossed his arms. “Spit it out, Charli.”
“You have issues with this interview that are personal. You know how important it is to come out of the gate strong with the release of Nudge Out. And you also know that our advertising budget alone isn’t going to get us where we need to be, and that it’s important to find out-of-the-box ways to meet our goals. Doing that is what this business was built on. You couldn’t have led us to where we are now without doing exactly that.”
She leaned forward, like she wanted to make sure he was absorbing everything she said. “This business is healthy because we all believe in that vision. It’s why Business Success named you one of their Top Ten CEO’s Under Thirty and it’s why those investors are thinking of forking over so much cash. This interview exactly supports that vision.”
He growled and looked to the side. Deep down, he knew that. It was what made him so frustrated.
“So, talk to me. Help me to understand why you are resisting this so much.”
He didn’t want to admit to Charli that he was worried about whether his peers would think he sold out if he did a frivolous interview. Especially one with a lot of viewers. Would they be making fun of him behind his back? To his face? What if he made a fool of himself? He wasn’t a natural in front of the camera, so chances were pretty good that he would end up being the punch line of jokes everywhere.
And what about the fact that he was attracted to Bex? She wasn’t the type of girl he normally dated, and she definitely wasn’t the type to fit into his family. Bex was the kind of girl who thought she should get everything she demanded. He had experienced that enough in his life, though, to know it wasn’t for him.
So obviously being attracted to her was a terrible idea, and he should stay as far away from her as possible.
Being attracted to her aside, what would his dad think about the interview? He ran his hands down his face. If his dad found out he did an interview that was even more casual and less professional than his one in Business Success, he would definitely not be proud of him. That was the only part that he was willing to admit to Charli, so he said, “My dad will hate it.”
“Your dad doesn’t have to know.”
Even if he didn’t ever find out, Roman shouldn’t be spending the kind of time a multi-part interview would require when they had an app to launch. “This is clearly a time I should be focusing on the business, not some silly interview.”
“This is focusing on your business. I can set up a meeting with Bex Sterling and be there to mediate.”
There were so many things about this interview that made him nervous. He couldn’t agree to it.
“The bottom line is,” Charlie said, “you care about the health of this company. That’s obvious in every single choice you’ve made. Make the healthy choice here, too.”
She was right—he would do anything for this company, and he knew this was the healthy choice for it. But was it the healthy choice for him?
Probably not, but against his better judgment, he found himself giving her a nod of permission to set up the meeting.
5
Bex
Bex had spent the morning with Nikki, going over the edited video for their Sterling Sisters segment, updating her schedule for the next two weeks, and brainstorming all of the ways they would advertise and interact with fans during the judging period for the Eddie Award. Her roommates were all out of the inn working with clients, so once Nikki left, the place felt empty, which didn’t happen often. It was days like this, when she had hours of administrative tasks to do, that she liked to take her laptop to a crowded coffee shop or deli to work.
But first, since the interview with Roman didn’t work out, she needed to get Corbin Shields’s publicist emailed. She brought up the email draft Nikki had written and was tweaking the wording when she heard the front door open. A moment later, it opened a second time, and then she heard talking coming from the front of the inn. Curious, she got up from the desk at her favorite spot to work by the big back windows of the family room and headed to the lobby and then, following the voices, to the kitchen.
It was Addison and Ian—neither of whom she had expected—but they were mid-kiss when she walked in. Which she totally would’ve expected if she’d have known it was them.
“Check you two out, both home in the middle of the day.”
“I only scheduled the first half of my day with clients,” Addison said. “The rest of my day is here, organizing for a big job.”
Ian opened the fridge and started getting out items for sandwiches. “And since my afternoon is better when I get a boost of Addi, of course I’m going to come home for lunch.”
“Aww. You two are as sweet as ice cream on apple pie.”
Addison joined Ian in the sandwich making, standing shoulder to shoulder like they were magnets and couldn’t help being stuck together when they were near. “What are you up to today?”
“About to send an email to Corbin Shields’s publicist. Speaking of which, what is the deal with Roman? Other than last night and the wedding, I don’t know him a ton, but he always seems guarded. Like we aren’t seeing the real him. Please tell me he wasn’t like that in college, because if he was, I just can’t see how you two became friends.”