Page 45 of Never To Be Mine

It was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, and I had no idea why.

She set the bottle down on the table with a loud thunk. Looked the exec dead in the eye.

“Still gross,” she said flatly.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

“But I freely admit most people love the taste,” she continued without missing a beat. “And regardless of how it tastes to me, the health benefits are worth it. I’ve done the research. The nutritional profile is solid. The ingredients are quality. And people are lining up to get it. The numbers don’t lie.”

The room was silent for about two seconds.

Then the woman to my left burst out laughing. “I love that. Honest.”

“Exactly,” another exec chimed in. “People respect authenticity. And frankly, I think it tastes great.” He picked up his own bottle and took a sip. “Better than most of the other wellness drinks we carry.”

The others murmured agreement. One of them was already pulling up something on her tablet.

“Half a million units to start,” the man at the head of the table said. “Test run. We’ll place them in our West Coast locations first, see how they move. If the numbers are good, we’ll expand nationwide.”

I felt the air leave my lungs. Half a million. It wasn’t the full million I needed, but it was halfway there. Halfway to everything I’d been working toward.

I cleared my throat. “That’s fantastic. Thank you.”

We spent the next twenty minutes hammering out details. Delivery schedules, pricing, marketing support. Juno jumped in a few times with questions I hadn’t even thought to ask, her business mind working twice as fast as mine.

By the time we stood to shake hands again, I felt like I was floating.

We stepped out of the conference room and into the elevator. The doors slid shut, and suddenly I couldn’t contain it anymore.

“We did it,” I said, turning to her with a grin. “Holy shit, we actually did it.”

“You did it.” She sounded surprised. “That was impressive. You had them eating out of your hand in there.”

I blinked at her. Was she actually complimenting me?

“They loved you,” she continued as the elevator descended. “You speak with a lot of confidence. And you certainly sound like you have the knowledge. You knew your product inside and out. Every question they threw at you, you had an answer ready. That’s what closes deals.”

“What about you?” I asked, still riding the high. “You called it gross and they loved it.”

She laughed. “Sometimes honesty is the best strategy. Besides, I wasn’t lying. It’s not my favorite thing I’ve ever tasted.”

“But you drank it anyway.”

“I did.” She met my eyes, and something passed between us. Something I couldn’t quite name but definitely felt. “For the deal.”

“Right. For the deal.”

The elevator opened into the lobby. We walked out into the bright Manhattan morning. I felt lighter than I had in months. Success was within reach. I could feel it.

The city noise greeted us. All the horns, conversation, and engines. Today it sounded like a celebration.

“Let me buy you lunch,” I said.

“Don’t we need to get back to the hotel and check out?”

I shrugged. “Late checkout. Come on. We just landed half a million units. That’s worth celebrating.”

She hesitated, and I watched the internal debate play out on her face. Part of her wanted to say no. Hard to know if it was because she really disliked me or because she wanted to maintain that professional distance she’d been clinging to since we met.