6

C H A P T E R T H R E E

BREE

A

s soon as I walked out of Alex’s office and Theo’s phone went to voicemail, I was abruptly pulled aside by one of my architect designers on Sphere. Shelly insisted on talking to me, but I held a finger up when my phone rang in from Theo, and I answered the call.

“Hey, are you in your office? I just spoke with Mr. Grayson, and he’s tightlipped about your future with Stone Company. We need to talk about what’s going on and what he said to you.”

“In my office, but you need to talk to Shelly. She’s looking for you,” Theo responded.

“She’s right here, and I will, but I need to talk to you first, Theo.”

“Our conversation must wait,” he said. “Sphere just called me, and they’re pushing up the meeting to noon.”

“Why wouldn’t they have called me?” I answered in confusion.

“No idea. Something’s up. Are you taking Mr. Grayson with you to meet with them? You all need to leave right now if you want to make the noon appointment.”

“Noon? You’re right. Something isn’t sitting well with me about them calling you to move up our meeting.” I rubbed my forehead. “Alex and Danny are going to be there with me. About our conversation, that’s on hold for the time being. Can we talk at lunch or something?”

“Yes, and don’t you dare worry about me for a second. My situation isn’t as urgent as saving this deal. You need to focus on Sphere. Get your eyes on whatever they must’ve seen on those mock-ups. Some errors must’ve slipped past you.”

“What? Nothing slips past me.”

“I know. So, make sure it’s clean and ready to go for the meeting,” Theo said.

“Got it. I’ll call you when we’re done.”

“Good luck. You got this, Bree.”

“Thanks.”

I felt like I walked out of Alex’s office, and a tornado ripped me out of the hallway and threw me into the middle of chaos.

“Shell,” I looked at my designer, “send me over everything. Is Danny bringing the—”

“I’ve got everything we need. Thank you anyway, Shelly,” Alex said as he approached, calm and assertive. “You ready to do this? We need to leave.”

“I know. I need to get to my office, grab my stuff, and I’ll meet you out front. Can you call an Uber for me? I need to—”

“I’ve got it all taken care of,” Alex said as I looked up at the man who towered over me in heels.

I held onto his smooth vibes. This guy was calm, cool, and collected amid a brewing storm. Then again, he wasn’t likely losing his vice president or, from what Shelly’s expression told me, a multi-million-dollar deal due to errors I apparently missed in our final mock-up.

AFTER GRABBING MY BRIEFCASE, I left my office and moved through the building with a steady foot, ready to head out.

I wasn’t going to freak out that we were possibly going to lose this deal, or about the errors on our final project that were missed, the reason Sphere moved our appointment up, or, most importantly, the fact that it felt like everything was falling apart all at once. Theo and I would work things out later. Now, it was time for me to focus on keeping this deal no matter what I did. I was known for fixing last-minute errors, and for all I knew, Shelly was overreacting. The vibes in the office these days made it seem like everything was going to hell, so it was my job to rise above and handle business.

When I walked out of the front doors and turned to the parking structure, I spotted Alex first. He stood in conversation with a man who appeared to be the driver of the fancy Rolls Royce parked outside the parking garage.

I didn’t have time to argue that this wasn’t the particular Uber I would have expected, but who cared? It was transportation. I had to sit down, go through these mock-ups, and, hopefully, fix errors during the drive to our appointment.

Alex turned to me, easily matching the beauty and stateliness of the Rolls, and before I could sit in the car, Alex moved to where the chauffeur had greeted me and offered his hand to help me into the back seat of the vehicle.

I stopped and turned back when I heard Danny approaching from behind us, whistling like some high school guy who was checking out a hot chick.

“Sorry I’m late. What the fuck with this badass car?” He smiled and clapped Alex on his arm. “It’s pretty damn good to have you around, Mr. Grayson.”

“I know,” Alex answered as he looked at Danny over the silver rims of his Ray-Bans. “We’ll see you there. You’re in the car behind us.” He nodded toward a microcar car parked behind the blacked-out Rolls Royce, and I wondered how the driver could sit inside it without getting leg cramps. “We’re running late.” Alex grinned at Danny, whose cheeks were red with anger, as Danny squared up to him. “Is there a problem?”

“Yeah, there’s a fucking problem,” Danny said, trying to size up Alex, who was at least three inches taller than the six-foot man. “I’m not riding in

that tiny-ass car. I’ll sit in the front seat of the Rolls.”

“Bummer for you,” Alex dismissed the confrontational tone with a sigh. “Because you’re not riding in the car with Ms. Stone and me. Breanne and I have quite a bit of business to go over with our pitch to Sphere before we arrive at this meeting.”

“This is bullshit.” Danny looked at me.

“Just get in the other car, Danny,” I said, looking at the guy acting like an overgrown toddler, throwing a fit. I’d trusted Danny with this project, and he dropped the ball at the last hour on me, and now he was looking at me for help? I don’t think so. “And by the way, I just want to thank you for not catching errors in our final project. This should be super easy to fix in a damn car on the way to our appointment. This is our last and only chance to nail down this deal.”

I was furious that this man was more worried about the car he was driving in than the fact that we had errors in our presentation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get the finals over to you until today.” He exhaled, annoyed.

“Sorry doesn’t pay the bills,” I said as I slid into the backseat of the Rolls.

“I couldn’t have said it better,” Alex said. “We’ll see you at the site. I would suggest taking the car I called for you. We’re already pressed for time and now having to fix last-minute errors, thanks to you…” Alex paused while taking blueprints that were shoved into his chest by Danny.

“I’ll take my car, thanks.”