Penny
After the party and hanging out with Garrett's family, going to work that Monday was rough. Now that I didn't have the article hanging over my head, I felt a lot freer. I stayed up all night baking and making videos. I was yawning when I pulled up in front of Garrett's estate.
He kissed me, the kiss promising intense pleasure. His hand briefly pressed between my legs. When he pulled back, he had a slight smirk on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing. I have plans in motion."
Unfortunately, those plans didn't include more kissing when we arrived at the office. Garrett had meetings all day.
Bronwyn was waiting by his office when we walked up.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked him, resting her hand lightly on his arm. I wanted to slam a pumpkin over her head, like they did in the cartoons.
"You're good with graphics and promotion," Garrett said to me as he set his stuff down. "I saw your website and your Instagram page. Josie, who is a marketing genius, is very impressed with your work. Maybe you can work with Bronwyn on a pitch presentation to the city. We're going to need to present at the next town hall, assuming Sebastian agrees to sell to us."
"Of course I can do that," I said, trying to keep the annoyance off my face. The last thing I wanted to do was spend any more time with Bronwyn.
She kept her smile plastered on her face until Garrett left, then she turned to me with a scowl.
"I know you have some sort of scheme going," she hissed at me. "All through high school, you were that weird kid sitting in the back of the room, drawing your little sketches. I always knew you were up to something. Now you breeze in here, and in not even two weeks, you have Garrett wrapped around your little finger. I'm going to find out what kind of fraud you're pulling."
"You are delusional," I said, shaking my head. "You're mad because he chose me, not you. Do you really think Garrett is going to suddenly wake up one day and see that you are what he wants? Think again."
"I'm going to dig until I find out what's going on," Bronwyn said. "I will turn up every secret, every terrible thing you've ever done, and present it to him on a silver platter."
"Maybe you could work on your own life," I shot back.
"My life is great," she sniffed. "I have a good job and a nice condo."
"But no handsome billionaire boyfriend," I said cattily.
"Why don't you stay here and think about how to spend Garrett's money, and I'll do the presentation," she said, flipping her perfect curtain of hair over her shoulder.
"I'll do the presentation," I snapped. "And I don't appreciate your implying I’m some sort of gold digger. You're the one who thinks of Garrett as a meal ticket. You were always like that in high school, going after the guys from the more well-off families."
"I can't help that I'm ambitious," she said, examining her perfectly manicured nails.
"You're not ambitious, you’re a snake."
* * *
The restof the day was tense. I managed to put together the outline of a presentation. Garrett and his brothers had settled on the old belt factory. However, we had to sell the site location to the townspeople to convince the city to approve our plans.
"Jobs," I muttered. "We need jobs. I wish we could do a clinic."
"Too much liability," Bronwyn snapped.
I wonder if we could propose some sort of makerspace, where people can rent out space to make jam or small products and whatnot.
I would run it by Garrett. I didn't want Bronwyn to steal my ideas.
His last meeting of the day was with us to go over the presentation. When we walked into the conference room, he was there with his brothers. Weston and Blade were already present and arguing with Garrett.
"I just don't understand why you have to give him that piece of land," Blade complained. "We already said we are moving our company here. We have to put it somewhere."
"You don't have to put it right at that spot," Garrett retorted.
