Like a laser, he honed into the truest part of her statement. “Bitter life? Is Joan that much of a tough boss? Or you have something else going on?” Blue eyes studied her over the rim of his beverage.
His selfless curiosity had the effect of a truth serum. She fought the urge to tell him everything. Her dead parents. Her own culpability. The burden of having your future wholly dependent on yourself. Not knowing how life would turn out. He’d already seen her anxiety over photos of injured veterans. How could this anointed Golden Boy relate?
“You two know each other. I’m not going to talk smack about my boss.” She stirred her coffee and reminded herself to tread lightly. Phoenix and Joan had worked together. They weren’t friends, but Joan spoke of him with respect.
She waved a hand over her leggings. “I’m trying a new dance class.”
“Dance? What kind of dance?”
“Would it be embarrassing to admit that my gym has this hip-hop class that they strobe-light like a club?” She sipped her drink, wondering why she was discussing dance rather than non-profit work.
“Not if you’re trying to be the next TikTok influencer.”
Orchid burbled into her beverage, trying to decide whether she could swallow before laughter made her spit. The coffee made it down safely.
“You know TikTok? Because I couldn’t find you online, except interviews about your business.” Her face warmed wondering what he would think about her surfing the web to learn about his life.
“You don’t need firsthand experience to understand something. Which you know, since aren’t you launching a men’s beauty brand?”
She could feel her eyebrows lift over this unexpected detail. The launch hadn’t even hit the trade rags yet. “How did you know?”
“Joan mentioned it. Probably when you were late,” he teased.
“I wasn’t late.”
“Or maybe you were in the men’s room.”
“I’m never going to live that down.”
“It’ll be a great ‘how we met’ story for the kids,” he said, then dipped his chin as if he hadn’t expected to say that.Where had that come from?
She chuckled.
The surface of the table, the people around them, all seemed to evaporate. Reflected in his irises, she envisioned blue-eyed, quarter-Asian toddlers on a grassy field. Giggling cherubs rolling with Phoenix, who was dressed in track pants and a well-fitted t-shirt. A white-shingled house sprawled behind their cavorting. The crisp fall colors were so clear, it was more a premonition than imagination.
Wait, no. He was the third serving of candied yams. They had seemed like a good idea, until her Thanksgiving pants no longer fit. She needed to back away. She’d only cast ruin onto his perfect life. She warned herself against indulging.
Orchid shifted until her ramrod back said all business. “Speaking of us, I asked for time to express interest in your non-profit work, if you’re still interested in me. For work, that is.”Heart, do not betray me.
She watched him regard the pivot in her posture. “Honestly, I’m down a strategic planner and could use the help. Do you have experience writing briefs?”
He wanted someone to write the briefing document that would guide the ad agency’s creative teams to craft advertising ideas. That’d be the ideal experience to prove her creative chops to Joan. “As a marketer, I’ve written other types of briefs: naming briefs, product briefs. I’m sure I could add good perspective to your ad brief. Will you be conducting research as input?”
“The client’s planning some focus groups.”
Her attention perked. “I’d be happy to join. What’s the product?”
He hesitated, and softened his tone. “I can’t put you on an account that needs ongoing support so I’m thinking of our pro bono work. It’s the ad campaign to help military vets. How would you feel about that?”
His demeanor was gentle, yet she felt a prickle behind her lids.Those broken bodies. This was her burden. Forever the orphan who couldn’t bear human suffering. She needed this chance, so she did what she always did: submerge her pain. Stuff it down with the hurt little girl inside. “I’m fine with that. I’m sorry about my reaction. The pictures took me by surprise.”
Phoenix opened his mouth, then paused, as if he didn’t want to hurt her. His aura of care made him look wiser than his years. “There’s no need to apologize. But I want to make sure this ad campaign is right for you. I’d give you something different but there’s nothing else right now…”
He was giving her a chance. She wasn’t about to let him down. “I don’t have anything against the military.”
He waited, swilling his now cool espresso.
“I’m not so great with seeing people hurt,” she finally said. She swallowed the bitter dregs at the bottom of her Frappuccino. She felt a wisp of something on the edge of her lip and wiped away a dollop of whipped cream.
