My hands went shaky at the timbre of his voice.
“That’s why I hired you,” he continued. “You seem like the kind of person who gets things done by any means necessary. So if that machine needs an extra hole, I have no doubt you’ll punch one in it yourself.”
Okay, so I was wrong. The man was being professional, not flirty.
Why was I disappointed?
“In any case, I hope you figure it out soon,” he continued. “The whole team will be here shortly.”
“I’m trying,” I grumbled over my shoulder. “But you didn’t hire me to be a projectionist. And your IT guy is busy.”
“Well, at Ashford we all pitch in as needed. You’ll get used to stepping up.”
And on the one hand…yes, that was fine. I had no problems with stepping up. But on the other, I couldn’t believethis guy, of all people, was lecturing me about following through. After walking out of my life without any sort of explanation, making me feel like he’d hired me for the week like an escort.
“Right,” I narrowed my eyes at him. “And if I need any lessons on steppingout, I’ll come to you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Harrison asked, genuinely confused, which just ticked me off even more. Bad enough that hedidwhat he did. I wasn’t about to let himforgetthat he did it. The laws of karma required him to feel guilty about it for at least the next fifty years.
I stood up and strode closer to him, fuming. “You know exactly what I mean.”
He sighed. “Aspen? Again? Come on, Gwen, you need to get past that.”
“I’m sorry, what? Get past being ditched when you were done with me, like I was an escort you hired for the week?”
“Oh come on.”
“Not even anote,” I fired back at him, stepping closer until I could see the gold in his green eyes. “You just vanished.”
Harrison’s jaw tightened. “This isn’t the time or place to get into it, but I do apologize for the way I left things. I was dealing with?—”
“Hey, folks, I heard there was a projector emergency in here?” A dark-haired man walked in clutching a small canvas bag. He reached his hand out to me. “I’m Rakesh Durvasala.”
I finally managed to stop fuming at Harrison and looked at him. “Gwen Ackland, and thanks for getting here so quickly. I have a pretty important presentation coming up.”
“On your first day?” Rakesh let out a low whistle. “Okay then, let’s get to it.”
As expected, he had my laptop connected within minutes, which gave me time to collect myself and prep for the meeting to come.
The meeting time arrived, and people started filtering in. Janet, Brianna, Jim, Thomas, Jack, Claire…I forced myself to remember each name as they took their seats around the table.
Harrison stood up at the head of the table and the chatter in the room stopped abruptly. “Folks, you’ve all had a chance to meet Gwen now, so let’s get started. I want everyone locked in as we work through the plan.”
I straightened up. “Good morning,” I began, glancing around at the team. My palms went sweaty. I’d given more presentations over the years than I could count, but it had never felt like I had quite this much riding on one before. Harrison—for all his many,manyfaults—had taken a big chance, bringing me on the way he did. Now was my one and only opportunity to prove him right.
“I’m happy to be here, and I’m excited to map out a new way forward. If I were to sum up the plan with one word, I’d choosesincerity. It’s what the Rushies value most about Scarlet, and it’s the best way to win their forgiveness.”
A few people nodded, which gave me a shot of confidence. I started the projector.
“That said, Rushies also like showmanship, which is why we’re going big.”
Harrison cleared his throat and frowned. I pressed on and moved to the next slide.
“Scarlet is in the middle of a major press junket in conjunction with the announcement of her new album and world tour.”
“Love, Scarletis going to be her biggest album yet,” someone added.
“Exactly,” I agreed as I switched the slide to her cover art. “She’s hitting every late-night talk show, includingAfter Dark with Ryan Richardson. I’ve worked with the Richardson team before, and I have strong contacts there, so the plan is to have Ryan present Scarlet with a dozen yellow roses from you, Harrison, right after she performs on the show. They’re her favorite flowers, plus the yellow ones symbolize friendship, so it won’t seem like a come-on. Then he’ll give her a check fromAshford Jets for her animal rescue charity, which is her literal pet project.”
