Wow, the guy needed to chill.Yes, she was disappointed.They were all disappointed.But they had cause for optimism.Her phone buzzed, so she fished it out of her pocket.
HOTSHOT:Come to the office.
His office?She started across the room.
“Where are you going?”Helena asked.
“Everyone stay here and tweak the pitch.An hour’s too long.We need to make it more interesting.Less of the facts and figures.”
“Serious people like facts and figures.”
“Serious people can take one look at our graphs and draw their own conclusions,” she said, opening the door.“Just do what you can.”
Thankfully, their conference room was still obscured by Dyce glass.Not only could it protect from the inside, but it concealed her path from the others.Already they were curious about her and Rourke and didn’t need more to whisper about.
She scanned the room before going inside.Rourke was alone.So the friends hadn’t spent much time together.
“…four at the end,” he said into the phone as she went inside.“Yeah, later.”He hung up.“Congrats!”
“Congrats?”she asked, going over to the desk.“For what?We didn’t get a deal.”
“You were never going to get a deal with Z.”
“And you couldn’t have told me that before giving us false hope?”
“These things have a way of working themselves out,” he said.“It’s a step closer.Z was your only guaranteed way in.”
“Okay,” she said, eyeing the boxes on his desk.
“Okay?You trust me?”
“In business, I do,” she said, gesturing at the boxes with her phone hand.“What is this?You moving out?Am I getting your office?”
His tight grin was false but warmed her amusement.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Reminding me how catty you are.Now I don’t feel so bad.”He nodded at the boxes.“These are for you.”
“What are they?Diamonds?”she asked, removing one of the lids.“Still won’t grant you permission to put it in my ass.”But there were no sparkling jewels.“Files?You’re giving me files?”
“You didn’t open the first gift I got you, so I’m trying again.”
Putting her phone on the desk, she retrieved the first folder.“With files?”
“It’s the semi-finalists.”
“Semi-finalists of what?”
“SIT,” he said, startling her.“Leon and his people narrowed it down to these forty-eight groups.”
“Forty-eight?”she asked, trying not to gasp.“That’s hardly narrowed down.”
“Yeah, I want it down to fifteen before the end of the week.”
“It’s already Thursday.That’s a lot of work.”
