“I do think they’ll like it, yes,” I admit, feeling a small spark of excitement at the prospect of presenting this idea to the client on Friday. It’s the kind of campaign I would actually be proud to lead.
“We did it, Mina! We fucking did it!” He grabs my hand and holds it tightly. Too tightly.
“Jesus, don’t come in your pants,” I say without thinking it through but Charlie needs no time to connect the dots and his face falls immediately.
“Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean—” I begin to apologise but I see then the spark is still in his blue eyes and his lips are curling up and his hand is still on mine and it’s squeezing my fingers again, so very keenly. A beat later, laughter tumbles out of Charlie’s mouth and I surprise us both when my own giggles join in and I let him keep hold of my hand.
Chapter Twelve
Let’s Get High
Charlie
“Are you going to stick around for after-work drinks tonight?” I ask Mina on Thursday afternoon after a long four days of working on our campaign as well as juggling our other projects.
“But it’s not Friday,” she says without looking up from her laptop.
“It’s Friday minus one day. Besides, when has that ever stopped anyone here?”
“Well, I won’t be sticking around.”
“Really? You don’t want to celebrate all our hard work just a teeny-weeny bit?”
“God, no.” Mina looks quickly around us. We’re sitting in a meeting room but the door is still open because we hadn’t technically booked this one so we could get kicked out at any moment. We’d just wanted somewhere quiet to go through our notes for the pitch deck that is now ready and waiting for tomorrow’s presentation to the client. Mina’s voice is low when she replies, “I think I need to go home and rest. This week has been… fun and I’m proud of the work we’ve done but I’m also exhausted. I’ve had an impossible-to-ignore pulsing headache since Tuesday morning and I really don’t want to risk an attack. Not with Aisha’s party coming up.”
“Of course, I understand,” I say, a little confused why she hasn’t mentioned the headache before. I also can’t help but wonder if the regret I feel is a pang of disappointment she won’t be staying. Or maybe it’s a little bit of embarrassment for asking her if she could come in the first place. Was it too eager? Too keen? Was it too I-can’t-stop-thinking-about-you?
Because that’s the truth of the matter. Even though every day this week has been long, I have found the working hours I spent in her company have whizzed by, possibly quicker than I would have liked. I’ve also found this project to be exciting and fulfilling in a way I would never have imagined a week ago. Mina is invariably focused, proactive and efficient. While I’ve been hesitant to say it to her, I do think we work well together.
Once we agreed on the Let Love Rule campaign, and it was approved by Garrett – with a solitary, half-hearted grunt – we were able to bounce further ideas and plans off each other without any of the tense one-upmanship that made our previous meetings go nowhere.
By the end of Monday we had a draft pitch deck mapped out. Once six o’clock on Tuesday rolled around, we had Toby and Kwazi busy working on the pitch deck design and Mina had already done the majority of the sketches for our A2 boards. Most of Wednesday was spent with me jumping between Mina’s desk and my team who were finalising both the pitch deck copy and content for our PowerPoint presentation. And today we’ve somehow managed to put it all together. The client meeting is scheduled for two o’clock in the afternoon so that gives us plenty of time in the morning to do a run-through and fix any last-minute problems.
“I’d feel so much better about everything if we knew we had permission to use the song,” Mina says zooming in on the artwork she worked on, checking tiny details in a way I’ve seen her do countless times already today.
“Of course Mr Kravitz will let us use his song,” I say, sounding completely confident even though I’m anything but. I am the king of faking it before you make it, after all. “He’s let brands use his music in ads before and it’s highly unlikely anyone else is going to want to use that particular song—”
“That’s not exactly reassuring,” Mina interrupts.
“Because nobody else has our creative intuition, that’s why!” I stretch my face into a broad grin. A comforting broad grin, I hope.
“I just know it will be one of their first questions,” she says, bringing her index fingers to both temples and massaging quick circles there.
“Stop,” I say and after a moment’s hesitation, I reach over and place my hands on her wrists, slowing her movement. “Don’t get stressed. The migraine goblins will get you.”
“The migraine goblins?”
“Yes, they will come and eat you up, swallow you whole and leave only pain, nausea and visual disturbances in their wake.”
Mina tilts her head to the side momentarily. “That’s actually a scarily accurate description of what a migraine is like.”
“Then don’t overthink a thing.” I don’t know when my thumbs started stroking her tattooed forearms but there they are, moving slowly and steadily, enjoying the silky smooth feel of Mina’s skin far too much. “Have a little faith that we’re more than ready to deliver the pitch tomorrow.”
She nods, slowly and carefully, almost as if she doesn’t want to shake my hands off her wrists. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Still, it doesn’t stop me smiling at her when I see her face soften and the corners of her lips curl tentatively while she looks at me.
“Here you are,” a voice interrupts and on instinct I pull my hands away from Mina at the same moment she leans back and straightens up in her chair. We both turn to see Garrett standing in the doorway.
“You’re not going to fucking believe it but the client have cancelled tomorrow’s meeting,” he says and his usual monotonous tone almost has a flare of annoyance in it.
