I looked down and noticed a water bottle tucked under her arm and the portfolio clutched in her hand.
"What?" I grumbled and scowled at her.
"Some pain meds, for your headache… And water."
I tucked my portfolio under my arm and held my hand out for her to drop the tablets into my palm and felt seriously confused.
I'd just bitten her head off on her second day of work and she was tending to me the way Penny would. "Take it," she barked, holding out the water now.
"What makes you think I need this?" Reluctantly, I popped the pills into my mouth, actually thankful for a change that someone so annoying was being helpful and not ticking me off.
"You're hung over," she said as I screwed the lid off the water and drank deeply.
It was exactly what I needed, and I found her gently prying the coffee mug from my hand as we rounded the corner toward the boardroom.
"So, that makes you better than me?" I asked, finishing the water but eyeing the coffee. It likely would've only served to dehydrate me more, and she was right. I needed water.
"I didn't say that." Her smile was dazzling, perfect white teeth and a dimple on her left cheek. My God, what was I doing noticing that? "I was a bartender in a former life. I know how to take care of men like you."
The words stung because I wasn't sure how to take them, but we turned into the boardroom and I didn't have time to question her intent behind them.
I let it slide, deciding that her kindness, and her ability to stand up under my scrutiny moments ago, probably warranted a bit of grace.
But I held on to the edge of my temper with a bit of tenacity because meetings like this required a bit of a steel backbone.
"Gentlemen," I projected, and the men, and few ladies in attendance, around the table settled.
Veda stayed by my side, waltzing right to the head of the table with me, and I watched Clayton's eyes track her movements.
Of course he would.
He probably hand-picked her to hover around me like a helicopter and report back to him.
Even Veda seemed to acknowledge him as he pulled up a free chair and situated it beside where I normally stood for board meetings.
All of it was obviously a show designed to upset me and get me rattled, and it was working.
I didn’t want it to be working, but deep inside my chest, I felt a swirling, a craving for a drink that I knew I couldn’t control.
Luckily, I had woken up without anything to drink at home and this meeting had been my primary focus.
When it was over, I could have a few sips to release the tension in my chest and the rest of the day would go better.
Everyone settled while I opened my folder and laid it out.
They'd all been given the same reports that I had in my portfolio, and as I picked up the file and started reading from it—the one Ms. Porter had corrected yesterday before our near kiss—I got a little flustered.
All I could think about was an unshakeable feeling that Clayton hired Veda on purpose because she had a striking resemblance to Emma, albeit a lot younger.
My eyes tried to track on each individual line of text, but they were bugging out and jumping around.
"So…" I continued reading, "top-line growth for Q3 came in at fourteen point one percent?—"
"Sir," Veda interrupted, and I almost lost it immediately.
My eyes snapped to her confident expression so fast, it made heads spin. I must've looked like a fire-breathing dragon. "The adjusted growth is eleven point four… Fourteen point one was the preliminary figure before the supplier rebate posted."
For the second time this morning, I found myself so utterly shocked, I nearly detonated.
