Her grin turnedinto a laugh. “Well, then it’s worth it.”
“Glad you seethings my way.” I stood up, clutching my various necessities to my chest.“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Hey, Molly.” Herserious tone made me pause. “Be careful, okay?”
“You mean withHenry?”
She nodded once.“Yeah. It worries me that he hasn’t gotten the hint to back off yet. Make sureyou’re… I don’t know… on your guard.”
My mouth dried outat her concern. It was one thing to tell myself these things, but hearing themfrom a trusted friend escalated all of my wariness. “Thanks,Em. I appreciate you looking out for me.”
She waved me off.“You’d do the same for me.”
“Hey, that’s whatfriends are for.”
“It’s true,” shesmiled again. “We drink together, we survive boring meetings together, but mostof all we save each other from perverted bosses that try to feel us up next tothe copier.
I couldn’t evenforce a laugh, it was too close to the truth to be funny. “Gross.”
“Text me later,”she hollered at my back.
“Will do!”
Even though I tookthe long way around the office, I still made it to Henry’s office in no time.He sat at his computer, staring thoughtfully at paperwork. My nose wrinkledwith disgust automatically. I would rather be so many other places than hisoffice right now. Like getting a root canal. Or a Brazilian wax. Or renewing mylicense at the DMV. Anything would be better than stepping into this officealone with this man.
I plastered on aprofessional, but blank expression and knocked on the half-opened door. “Youwanted to see me?”
He looked up at meand smiled, his gaze traveling down the length of me before settling on myboobs. “Come in, Molly. Have a seat.”
With one lasthelpless glance around as my coworkers filtered out for the night, I finallygave up on escaping and did as he asked. He watched me sit down and cross mylegs before he stood up and joined me in the chair usually reserved for Ethan.
Turning to me, heleaned forward and plucked the pen I’d been nervously clicking out of my hands.“That’s annoying,” he said casually.
“Sorry.” I clearedmy throat, hating that I apologized so reflexively. “Nervous habit.”
“What is there tobe nervous about?” he asked. “I’m not scary.”
You’re terrifying.“I don’t evennotice I’m doing it.”
“Well, relax. It’sall good things today.”
“About the BlackSoul account?” I asked, mostly as a way to keep him on task. “Have you heardback about the new mock-ups?”
His smilestretched. “Yes, I have. Molly, they’re very impressed with your work. Theywanted me to pass on the word that everything is coming along perfectly.”
It should have feltamazing to receive praise from a high-profile client. This was what I’d set outto do. I’d wanted this account for the sole purpose of impressing them. Andyet… it fell flat.
I’d given up everyone of my original designs and interesting ideas to cater to their style andlackluster vision. They were the client, so of course it made sense. Butrealizing all of the concessions I had made to please them lessened any pride Ifelt in the project.
I wasn’t really themastermind behind a widely successful social media account—they were. I was thegrunt that simply did their bidding.
That was obviouslymy job. They were paying me to bring their vision to life, not my own. Myentire profession revolved around pleasing business owners and giving them whatthey wanted.
But for somereason, at this level, I had been expecting more. More freedom. More creativecontrol. More room to be innovative, and take risks, and try new things. Thereality was that I had less of everything. I had more of a leash than ever.
I was moredissatisfied than ever.
To Henry, I manageda weak smile. “That’s great.”
