“I’ll help you. But we need to set ground rules."
Brandon and I finish eating and thank the waitress, who comes to collect our empty plates before looking back at each other.
“What sort of ground rules?” he asks and leans forward, resting his elbows on the table.
“The first rule is that we keep the personal things out of this.”
All traces of humor and lightness are gone as Brandon nods. “Agreed.”
“And the second rule is no more attempting to kiss me.”
He rolls his lips together as a way to suppress the smile that I see wants to break free. I won’t deny that I like kissing Brandon, but as much as I liked kissing him, I don’t see how I can ignore our family’s broken relationship.
When he sees I’m not joking, he sobers up. “Okay. Deal. No more attempting to kiss you. Until you ask,” Brandon adds at the last second.
Rolling my eyes, I take a sip of water before asking my next question. “When do you need me to start?”
7
BRANDON
“Yep. Just tweak that color—” I point to where I’m talking about, “—and then run through it again.”
“I can do that.”
“Thanks, Hollis,” I tell him and head back toward my office.
I’ve been doing everything I can today to stay busy knowing Angie is set to stop by so we can get started on marketing. Avoiding my mom’s phone calls has been one of the things I’ve tasked myself with doing. I can’t keep secrets from her so avoiding her phone calls with the excuse that I have meetings all week has been my mantra.
“Brandon, how’s the marketing going?” Jerry asks, catching me on my way back to my office.
“Um,” I start, pulling out my phone to see if I have any messages, “hopefully gonna start brainstorming today.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” he says and pats me on the back. “Well, keep me updated.”
Jerry rushes away to his next stop before I can respond, and I round the corner into my office to see the comfortingblonde head of hair, belonging to someone I’m becoming quite familiar with, occupying the seat in front of my desk.
“Hey, you,” I greet and shut my door to a crack—keeping my promise and all that. I figure if the door is somewhat open, I won’t be tempted to kiss her. Instead of taking the seat next to her, I move over to the table that’s in the corner of my office.
“Hi,” Angie says as she looks up at me with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. It’s easy to see that she’s just as nervous about us working together as I am. Plus, there's me avoiding phone calls like it’s an Olympic sport. So that’s got me extra jumpy.
“I have everything set up here,” I tell her as I point to the table with printouts of past marketing campaigns.
She unfolds herself from the chair, sets her bag where she was sitting, and crosses the short distance to the table that I’m sitting at. Even with the summer weather, I notice she’s wearing black boots. In fact, her entire outfit leans toward darker clothes as if they’re part of who she is and not because she’s following a trend. Maybe that’s what draws me to her. She doesn’t follow the seasonal trends like everyone else. Plus, the way she carries herself—with a confidence that’s also timid. Angie’s soft honey scent, which is a surprise given her clothes, floods my senses, and I have to do everything in my power to keep from pulling her in for an unsolicited hug and burying my nose in her hair.
I look over at her to see her looking at me expectantly. “I’m sorry. What was it you asked?”
A smile teases at the corners of her mouth and the blush that spreads across her cheeks makes me want to punch the air in victory. Me, flustered, and her, unused to someone blatantly staring at her. That’s a win if I say so myself. “Iasked if these are all the past campaigns and if you have an idea of the color scheme you want to go with.”
“Color scheme?”
“Yeah, like branding. Every brand has something in its logo that stands out. Think of Philadelphia's baseball and football teams. They all have those colors and their team logos that scream what they represent.”
“Oh,” I say dumbfoundedly. “I guess I should’ve gotten all that first.”
Her body shakes with quiet laughter. “Don’t worry about it. Most guys don’t worry too much about colors. But that’s okay since we’re starting from scratch. I also assume you have no clue if your company has social media accounts?”
My eyes are wide as she looks at me, which causes a surprised bite of laughter to escape her. It’s no longer quiet, silently shaking her body, but it’s free. And just that tiny tease of sound is like music to my ears.
