Dear Max,
Then I guess I’m flattered that you’re flattered.
There was a long pause in the conversation again.Holding back . . . holding back.Were we going to cross the line?
Dear Max,
As much as I would like to continue discussing your obvious flattery, I really do need to get to that meeting.
———
Dear Leigh,
Pity, this conversation was just getting interesting . . .
———
Dear Max,
Perhaps we can pick it up later?
———
Dear Leigh,
I would like that. A lot.
We seemed to have dipped our toes over the line slightly, but not so much that the line could not be redrawn if necessary. I smiled to myself as the warm feeling filled my chest once more, but then I very deliberately stopped myself from smiling. Wait, what the hell was I doing,again? Dating detox. I sighed out loud, but semi-flirting with Maximillian felt so good. I closed my laptop angrily, cursing myself and Maximillian’s obviously irresistibly charming and flirty nature. I would need to be stronger. I needed to recommit myself to this detox. Surely I had more will power than this! It felt as if I’d gone on a diet on the first of January, only to be smashing an entire soft, silky Brie topped with candied walnuts and soft poached pear on the second.
Well, Maximillian was not a cheese and I was not going to eat him. No matter how delicious he seemed to be turning out to be.
CHAPTER 9
Ash
I was trying not to roll my eyes as I sat there giving my presentation, only to hear the scrawny creative director with the big black-framed glasses tell me, “You know what would look good?” I hadn’t replied, but of course he’d continued. “If we punch in on the actor’s face as he smiles!” I’d nodded vaguely and told him I would consider it, but was incredibly happy when Sebastian announced I was the only cinematographer he would work with because I was brilliant, and they should stay in their lanes, because nothing they could suggest would ever be better than what I would come up with. I tried to stifle my smile. I zoned out for the rest of the presentation as Melusi in the art department presented, then wardrobe and make-up and lastly the editor. My part was over. But my ears certainly pricked up when the words “location” and “the Film Place” started being thrown around. Melusi and I clocked each other across the boardroom table.
“The Film Place?” I asked.
“You know them?” the agency producer replied. “They’re kind of new.”
“I’m actually working with them on this job. They’ve been great, really went above and beyond.” The least I could do was get Max some more work, especially since he was new in town, and that would also give me another (real) reason to email him.
“The guy who runs it is Maximillian Adam,” I added quickly.
A terrible noise followed and we all turned, only to find the junior copywriter in the corner choking and coughing. She had sprayed a mouthful of coffee across the desk.
“Sorry, sorry.” She frantically wiped the table, but her face was the shade of a beetroot, and it didn’t look like it was from choking. In fact, I think I knew what it was from. Melusi and I gave each other one more knowing look, and then I fixed my eyes on her as I spoke again.
“Yes, I was sayingMaximillian Adamis the name of the guy who runs the company.”
I scrutinized her. Her hands began to tremble, her eyes widened until they looked like they might explode from her head. She cleared her throat and then rubbed her collarbones nervously.
Holy shit!She knew him! Either very, very well, or she knewofhim. When the meeting was over, my curiosity was too piqued to ignore, besides Melusi was now nudging me to go and investigate further. I would usually never do something like this, but I was driven by something far greater than professional etiquette right now.
“Hey, Lauren. Sorry, was it Lauren?” The very pretty copywriter turned and looked at me. She seemed young, no older than twenty-one, and Max didn’t come across as someone in his early twenties—he’d been overseas for twelve years. I hoped a possibly thirty-year-old was not sleeping with this girl who looked as if she was right out of high school.
“Yes, Lauren.”
