“She did.” I nudged Lilly with my elbow, trying to bring her out of the Greg funk she was in. She didn’t budge, nor did she make any acknowledgement about herbehavior.
“Just let me know if you need anything, Greg.” Lilly exited the room without another word or look in either of our directions. It was like she went from the super social girl I knew, to this robot I had never seenbefore.
“Thanks, Lilly.” Greg waved to her back, and I could see the look on his face. It was almost the same one Lilly had on this morning when she was talking about Greg. The tension between the two was unmistakable. I coughed lightly to try to turn his attention back to me, but almost let a laugh slip. These two. They weredoomed.
“All right!” Greg clapped his hands together. He had way more energy than anyone I knew, and that was saying something, since I grew up with Lilly. “I have your welcome packet ready to go at your desk. Just let me grab a few extra things, and I’ll show you around thefloor.”
Our floor wasn’t big. We didn’t need many people for our department, that much I knew about the publishing word. There were only 10 of us, and my desk was right next to Lilly’s. Greg walked me over to where my desk was. “Hopefully being here will let you settle in easily. Lilly has been with the company for years, so any questions you have she can answer. Also, next to you is Erica.” At the sound of her name, Erica bounced up and I could see her pitch-black pixie cut. “She is the only other royalty coordinator we have, so you will both be working hand inhand.”
Greg motioned for me to sit down. To my left was a basket and a vase. Fruit and whiteroses.
“We try to make it feel a little more like home here, so everyone always gets a fruit basket, and then Max decides on his gift. The roses give the office a nice feel,” Greg explained. It made me feel good that everyone had gotten this kind of treatment, even though it wasn’t something I was expecting. “I hope the move out here wasn’t sobad.”
“Not really. Definitely a lot of adjusting to do, but Lilly has that covered for me.” I hooked my thumb in Lilly’s direction. I didn’t have to look at her to know she was slightly mortified that I was bringing her to Greg’s attention. Lilly was all talk when it came to men, when it came to confronting her feelings, she neverdid.
I picked up the packet that Greg had mentioned and thumbed through the how-tos on getting all of my information setup.
“Here are the passwords and usernames that you’ll be needing.” Greg set a sticky note in front of me. “Since it’s Monday, you can take your time getting everything set up. I sent you an email for the accounts for the week. Let me know if you have any questions, but Erica will be helping out with yourtraining.”
As soon as Greg was back in his office, Erica and Lilly both bombarded mydesk.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you.” Erica went in for a hug. She was taller now that she was in front of me, and her tight curves made me envious. My hands went immediately to my hips, covering what I should have been proud of. “Lilly has told me so much aboutyou.”
Erica’s voice was soft, almost like she was shy but still sincere in her convictions. She seemed almost like a little pixie standing in front of me but who happened to be tall. I already likedher.
“I hope only good things.” I shot a wink over to Lilly as they both laughed. I could already tell by looking at them, that they were close, so I knew I needed to learn more about Erica. “All right, so what do I need to know before I start this crazyadventure?”
“You already met Greg, and I’m sure Lilly warned you about Max, but the only other executives we have are Chase Ruthen, who is in charge of the editing department, and Jack Moran, Greg’s half-brother, the head of publishing.” Erica moved her chair around the corner to join me. My brain was spinning with all the information. Corporate environment was new to me, so I wasn’t sure how often employees saw the executives, except through a glass window into their office. I snapped out of my head as Erica clapped next tome.
“Let’s start off strong today, ok? That way, if you have any questions, we can go over them.” I loved her demeanor, and that she could tell that I was trying to process everything. Erica handed me some paper and a pen.Notes, I should takenotes.
“I’ll leave you two to it, but we are breaking for lunch at one, come hell or high water. I’m already starving.” I had almost forgotten Lilly was still standing beside me. She squeezed my shoulder before heading back to herchair.
I scoffed, moving the fruit basket onto Lilly’s desk. She giggled, and happily accepted the gift. I offered the flowers to Erica because they just weren’t me. Not that I had anything against flowers, but my mother instilled in me that they were only given for apologies rather than actualgifts.
“Go ahead and pull up your email. Your client list for the week should be in there. Greg sends it every Monday morning, and if you finish it during the week, just ask him for a new list.” I maneuvered through the settings, getting my computer adjusted just how I wanted, setting up a spreadsheet and making file folders on my desktop. Ok, so maybe I was aperfectionist.
“When you start with a client, you’ll go over all of the notes from the editing department about the book and their estimations. From there, you will negotiate the pay with the client.” I took a deep breath. My brain started thinking up newquestions.
How would I know what was the right amount for theclient?
Could I convince someone their book wasn’t worth a certain amount without reading thebook?
“I can see you thinking. Don’t worry. The estimations that come in will give a range, based on what the editing department reads. It should state the first starting price, and then from there the negotiation can work within the confines of the range. If the client starts to go out of the range, we transfer them toGreg.”
Erica’s words sank in, and relief filledme.
“Pull open the first client and we can walk through it together.” We eased into a rhythm that worked for both of us, and before lunch Erica had left me on my own after I snagged a client that they had previously have a problem with. Not even Max could get through to this woman, but it seemed that I had the magictouch.
“You’re a machine!” I jumped as Lilly plopped onto my desk at exactly one. I didn’t even know where the time had gone. Erica joined us immediately afterwards. I looked up at the two of them, trying to regain my thought process. I had been so involved in my work, I almost forgot I was even here. “Let’s do lunch across the street at Baker’s. Their sandwiches are to die for, and it’s the only place I haven’t taken you yet that’snearby.”
Lilly dragged Erica behind her towards the elevator. I grabbed my purse, intending to follow them, but instead collided with Lilly’s back. I grabbed onto her to keep myself from falling over. I couldn’t see over the girls but noticed that the whole room seemed to stop what they were doing. I peeked around and only saw one thing, or rather, one someone. What stood before me seemed like every aspect of the perfect man I could think of, put together. Tall with a broad figure and gorgeous porcelain skin, with shaggy, dark brown hair and dark gray eyes. There seemed to be a pepper of hair along his jawline, just enough to give you a tease of what he would look like with a full beard. By the way the girls were staring at him, I could only guess as to who this man was. MaxWellington.
He stopped mid-stride when he caught my eye. The smile that crept along his face was swoon-worthy and nowhere near as innocent as it seemed. I had seen that look in my own husband’s eyes once upon a time. Max owned the room and he knew it, but he waited for theintroduction.
“This is Alexa.” Lilly piped up. His stance changed immediately as he straightened himself up. One hand went to the back of his neck, and the other combed through his hair. I felt like I had seen this move a hundred times on TV. He seemed curiously more aware of me and I didn’t know how much I liked that. “And Alexa, this isMax.”
I didn’t have time to moved towards him for a handshake, before his words boomed through the office and stopped me in mytracks.
