Page 64 of Never To Be Mine

If she wanted to revisit the issue after we sealed the deal with the bottling plant, I could definitely do that.

I showered, dressed, and headed to the office. Toby was already there when I arrived, hunched over his laptop with headphones on.

“Morning,” I called out.

He looked up and pulled one earbud out. “Hey, man. Check this out.” He turned his laptop so I could see the screen. “I cut together some more footage from the expo and the bottling process. Added some testimonials from customers. I think it’s pretty solid.”

I watched the video play through. He was right. It was solid, featuring real people talking about how B Well had changed their routine.

“This is great, Toby. Good job.”

“Thanks.” He beamed at the praise.

But as good as it was, I knew it wasn’t enough. We needed something bigger. Something that would really grab people’s attention and drive those sales numbers up. I needed half a million more orders.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled to Micah’s contact.

“What’s up?” he answered.

“I need your help with something,” I said. “I need something on a bigger scale than the thirty-second clips.”

“Okay. What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m calling you. You work in movies and you’ve been looking to direct something. Could you make a commercial for me?”

There was a pause on the other end. “A commercial alone won’t cut it,” Micah said finally. “You need something more. Let me brainstorm and I’ll get back to you.”

“How long?”

“Give me a day or two. I’ll come up with something.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

I hung up and looked at Toby, who had been listening.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just damn, you’re really going all in on this, aren’t you?”

“This is my business, Toby. My dream. Yeah, I’m going all in.”

He nodded, smiling. “Cool. That’s good. Can I be part of whatever Micah comes up with?”

I looked at him and the genuine excitement on his face. “Of course, man. You’re part of this team. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back from Micah.”

“Awesome.” He went back to his laptop, but I could see his lingering grin. “What do you think he’ll come up with?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “He got the creative gene. I didn’t.”

“Yeah, you did,” he said. “Look what you created.”

“Different creative gene,” I said, shrugging.

I tried to focus on work for the rest of the day. Answering emails, reviewing inventory, planning out production schedules for when Young at Heart’s facilities might come online. But my mind kept drifting back to Juno. The way she’d looked at me after we’d had sex. The panic in her eyes. The way she’d rushed to get dressed and leave.

I wanted to text her. Just to check in. Make sure she was okay. It was definitely not a one-night-stand situation that meant we’d never see each other again.

I wanted to talk to her. I actually liked our conversations. Well, the conversations that weren’t her calling me names. Not true because even those were fun.