Anger coursed through my body. I lowered my hands to my sides, curling my fingers into fists. “You know, our agency lives by the credo ‘The client is king.’ But when you obviously saw the bottom of a bottle last night and dozed off in the middle of my presentation, honestly, I’m not exactly sure you’re someone we’d like as client.”
Beckett blinked several times, then narrowed his eyes. They were pitch-dark, just like his hair.
Good, I pissed him off.
But I wasn’t done.
“Why did you even agree to this meeting, to waste my time? You could’ve just told your assistant not to bother scheduling this. Do you know how much time I spent preparing this presentation exclusively for your company?”
“No, and I don’t care either. Please feel free to see yourself out. This is the most unprofessional pitch I’ve seen in a while. Correction: Your pitch was good.Youare the one who is completely unprofessional.”
I felt as if he’d slapped me.
“I don’t typically do this, but I will talk to Josh Alderman. He’s the owner of MarketingPros, isn’t he?”
Oh my God. He must know Joshpersonally. Why had Josh never mentioned it?
“I’ll tell him that he should be more careful in his recruiting. Employees like you can do a lot of damage to the company name.”
No, no, no.Oh, damn it. I was always impulsive, but this was so stupid of me. Why didn’t I keep my mouth shut and my head down?
But since I was probably going to get fired anyway, I had nothing to lose.
“Yes, please feel free to tell Josh exactly what you think. Then again, we’re very selective with our clients also. We’re looking for team players.” I was feeling stronger now, speaking the truth. “And you are clearly not the caliber of client we’re looking for. Drunkards are not on our list.”
Beckett stepped to one side, pointing to the door. “That will conclude this meeting, Ms. Dawson. That’s the door right there. Out.”
I blinked rapidly, grabbing my stuff.
I felt utterly humiliated. I’d never been thrown out of someone’s office.
Honestly, I was more mad at myself than him. How on Earth did I even get here? I disconnected my laptop from the projector, then put it in my bag. I’d sunk to his level, and that wasn’t me. I’d never done something like this before.
I looked up to see Beckett was still in the room. Why wasn’t he leaving? Was he waiting for me to start crying? Because I was very close to doing so.
I just needed to get out of here really, really quickly. I put the bag on my shoulder and hesitated for a split second. Should I bid him goodbye and shake his hand? No. The time for pleasantries was obviously over.
The man had tossed me out of his office, and Josh wouldn’t be pleased. I’d worked so hard to build my career, and now I’d thrown it all away… and for what?
CHAPTER 4
BECKETT
The secondI went into my office, Hillary popped in behind me.
“What just happened?” she asked as I sat behind my desk.
“What do you mean?”
“Piper sort of…”
“Made a run for it?” I finished for her.
“She looked really upset.”
“The woman was completely unprofessional.”
Hillary put a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Beckett. I should’ve realized from how insistent she was. I just figured she… Never mind. So, should I remove her agency from the list of contenders?”
