This wasn’t over. Against all reason, he wanted her to like him. To be his friend. Or maybe not even that—they were opponents, after all. Pitted against each other. Friendship might be too much to ask. But getting her not to be so nervous in his presence wasn’t. He had no idea why she acted skittish around him. Had he done something to make her uncomfortable?
Even if she had overheard him and Lincoln talking yesterday, her uneasiness in his presence went further back than the last twenty-four hours, so the cause, whatever it was, had to be something else entirely.
Then again, maybe the issue wasn’t him personally. Maybe he reminded her of someone she had a reason to be nervous around. Either way, he’d made up his mind. Mackenzie was going to get used to him, one way or another. He’d prove to her that he was a nice guy and she didn’t need to be on her guard around him.
Well, at least personally. Professionally was another story. But that was a different can of worms.
He walked into Sofiya’s office.
“Go ahead and shut the door behind you,” she said.
That didn’t bode well. He did so, then took the seat across from her desk.
“I’ve received a communication from Shiloh Press about the book cover they commissioned from us.” She clicked her mouse, presumably to bring up the email.
Jeremy cleared his throat. “Yes. I sent them five different designs I thought expressed their notes and vision board.”
Sofiya folded her hands, the manicured nail of her index finger tapping her opposite knuckle. “They aren’t pleased, Jeremy.”
Mentally, he brought up his designs. The work he’d done on Photoshop to manipulate the stock image had been meticulous. No one would be able to tell the photograph had been remastered at all. What about the final product did the editors at the publishing house not like? The colors were sharp and vibrant; the lettering easily legible even in a thumbnail size.
“Their main points of issue are with the compositional flow and the lack of negative space in your layout to enhance the key elements.” She swiveled the monitor so the screen faced him. The first of his designs projected from the center. “The color palette you’ve chosen is pleasing, and I think it fits the genre and tone they asked for, but you’ve concentrated the color mostly here in the top left corner. If you repeated those tones throughout the cover, then you’d cause the eye to bounce around, following the lead of your pigment.”
Okay, he guessed that made sense.
“Also, as for white space, I agree with their assessment that you’ve tried to do too much. There are too many fixation points that compete instead of harmonize. In this case, less would be more.” She swiveled the monitor back to face her. “They’ve added more notes, which I’ll forward to you, and would like to see improvements and edits by end of the workday tomorrow.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He gripped the armrests of the chair, preparing to launch himself out of the seat and get right to work.
“I know you’ve got it in you, Jeremy, or I wouldn’t be considering you for the promotion.”
Unspoken message:Get this right. Your future job depends on it.
He walked out of Sofiya’s office and let himself fall into his office chair, then shook his mouse to wake up the computer. Movement from the corner of his eye snagged his attention. Mackenzie stretched on her toes to hang an ornament high on the tree. He had to admit the fresh-cut fir had been a great idea. Not only did it look amazing, it smelled good as well. In fact, the pine scent covered any lingering whiffs of citrus and clove from the few pomander balls that remained around the office.
The green branches now looked like they’d received a fresh dusting of snow. Unless he’d missed something in Sofiya’s office, a personal snow cloud hadn’t developed and dumped fresh powder on the pine. Mackenzie had also wound a fuzzy white garland of some kind around the whole thing. Whatever the garland was made out of gave the tree another layer of texture, a soft and dreamy quality. In contrast, what looked like frost-covered twigs poked out of the branches here and there. Glass snowflake ornaments caught and reflected the light, as did shiny silver-blue balls.
Everything looked perfect. In its spot. Just the way Jeremy liked it. And yet he wanted nothing more than to go over there and mess it all up.
Not because he wanted to sabotage Mackenzie or bring chaos to the beautiful order. He wouldn’tleavethe tree messed up. But he’d been so close to getting her to talk to him earlier that he could still taste the sweetness that victory would give.
His gaze flicked back to his computer screen. He only had today and tomorrow to figure out all the areas where he’d gone wrong with the design and fix them. He should really get to work.
Tink. An ornament fell to the floor and rolled to his feet.
Those designs wouldn’t go anywhere.
Hiding his grin lest his mischievous intent show on his face and alert Mackenzie, he picked up the shatterproof orb andwalked toward the tree that belonged in an enchanted winter forest.
“Need some help?”
Mackenzie startled, a piece of hair falling from the pile on her head to curve around her jaw. She shook her head slightly, dislodging her loose bun to settle off center. After giving him a timid smile, she went back to arranging one of the frosty sticks in the middle of the tree. She must have spray-painted them then rolled them in glitter.
“I’ll just...” He held up the sparkly sphere and pointed to the other side of the tree.
She ignored him.
He went around the trunk to a spot still devoid of much decoration. The bin of ornaments sat nearby on the ground. After hanging the one in his hand, he retrieved a few more and hung them in a clump with the first one. It looked as if a toddler had been trying to be helpful.
