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“Well,” she said, looking over at me. Zoey grinned mischievously. “We could go see what Percy’s up to. Maybe he wants to hang out with us while we watch a movie and order pizza.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“Yep,” she laughed. “I can’t think of a better way to spend the evening.”
And so, we did. We went back
to my place, ditched the wedding clothes for comfortable pajamas, and ordered pizza. Zoey looked awesome in my pajama pants and t-shirt, and we snuggled up on the couch, ate food, and watched movies until we fell asleep.
Perhaps it wasn’t the most romantic date in the history of the world, but it was our date, and she was my girl, and I was the happiest damn man in the world to get to spend time with her. When I looked over at Zoey, I felt a wild and calming peace. When I was with her, it was like nothing else mattered. The only thing that I cared about when we were together was making her feel like she was important, and judging by the way she was snoring on my sofa, I think I did an okay job.
16
Zoey
It was only a few days after the wedding when I had to meet with the most difficult client of my entire career. My supervisor, Annie, had told me he was a piece of work, but she hadn’t told me exactly what to expect. All I knew was that TechFlurry needed a new digital media consultant as soon as possible, and that they needed to completely revamp their social media presence. As soon as Zander Reynolds walked through my doors, I understood why.
My office wasn’t exactly huge. I wasn’t the biggest, baddest person at my place of business. I was, however, serious about my job, and I was serious about getting things done. I wasn’t going to waste time messing around when it came to things like getting the work done. The reason I was so successful both in California and now, in Kansas, was that I stood up for myself, and I believed in myself, and perhaps most importantly, I believed in the vision my clients had for their companies.
One of the reasons people came to me was that they were struggling to brand themselves effectively using social media. In those cases, I could help with creating effective branding materials, including images and graphics they could post. Some people would have me manage their social media pages entirely. Other people just wanted me to take care of the process of setting up social media sites they could use on their own.
The thing about using the Internet was that it wasn’t always easy for people, especially older people, to learn how to use. Figuring out how to juggle multiple social media sites, respond to messages appropriately and promptly, and engage with potential clients could be tricky. That was where I came in, and that was what I was expecting to do for Mr. Reynolds.
The moment Zander Reynolds walked into my office, though, I instantly knew there was a problem. The guy was late, for one thing. I didn’t care too much because I’d bill him for my time regardless. The other problem was that he had a smug-ass look on his face that I instantly wanted to slap off. That was a problem. If you met a client and right away, you wanted to smack them, that wasn’t going to be a good situation for anyone involved.
“Mr. Reynolds?” I asked, standing up. I smoothed my skirt and pasted a smile on my face. Getting a bad vibe just meant I’d have to work harder to get along with this dude, right? I walked around my desk and stretched my arm out to shake his hand. “I’m Zoey Lane. I’ll be assisting you today.”
Reynolds looked at my hand like it was covered in mud. Then he raked his eyes over my body like I was a piece of meat he wanted to chew on. Was this guy for real? He looked like he wanted to murder me or fuck me, but he couldn’t make up his mind as to which he should do first.
Again, not a great first impression.
“Mr. Reynolds?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Finally, I dropped my hand. He wasn’t going to shake it, but that was okay. Not everyone liked to touch new people.
Most of the time, someone would actually tell you that, though. They’d say something tensely polite, like, “Apologies, my dear, but I’m a bit of a germaphobe.” This guy didn’t even give me that.
“You’re not who I agreed to meet with.” Zander Reynolds’ words were clipped, short, and to the point. So, he was being abrupt, but that was fine. Again, I could work with abrupt. I’d just have to figure out what he wanted and give it to him as quickly as possible. If I could set up a plan for social media management, or whatever it was that he wanted, then I could boot his ass out and start working. Hopefully, this would be our only meeting. There was little we had to do after this that we couldn’t do remotely.
“Your appointment is with me,” I reminded him. “Now, why don’t we go ahead and get started? Annie mentioned you wanted full digital media management, as well as some assistance with your reputation management.” Apparently, he’d been dealing with some sort of lawsuit that wasn’t going very well. I didn’t know the details. I just knew he’d been slammed with a bunch of fake reviews that were impacting his sales.
“I was told I would be meeting with Mr. Lane,” Zander insisted. The only thing that was missing was a solid foot stomp.
“Nope, there’s no one here with that name,” I explained. “I’m Miss Lane, and I’m happy to help you. Why don’t you have a seat? We’ll go over what it is that you’re looking for when it comes to digital relations between you and your clients.”
Ignoring the fact that he snubbed me, I took a deep breath and tried to stay focused. That was what I needed to do, I knew. I couldn’t let some guy get under my skin, especially not at work. Chances were that my company would like to have this dude’s business, or at least his cash, and it wasn’t going to look super good for me if one of my first clients in Kansas immediately fired me from his project.
I gestured to the chairs in front of my desk, but instead of taking a seat, Zander went back to the door, closed it, and locked it. What the hell was he doing? Alarm bells were going off in my head. This wasn’t the way I normally did business. I rarely met with male clients with the door closed, and I never met with them with the door locked. That simply wasn’t how things were done around here. Nobody really accused other people of impropriety at my office, but I wasn’t going to be the first. It also didn’t feel very safe. I wasn’t a wilting flower, but this guy towered over me.
“What are you doing?” I tried to add a sharp edge to my voice, but I wasn’t sure that I’d done it because he didn’t leave. Instead of going away, Zander Reynolds crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me.
“You’re the one who’s going to have a seat,” he said. “And you’re going to listen to me.”
Nope.
Not here, not now.
He hadn’t done anything that I could specifically label as predatory. Locking the door was rude, but not illegal, after all, but he was freaking me out, and that was enough. I wasn’t going to wait for this guy to lay a hand on me to let him know he wasn’t welcome here. I worked with clients who offered mutual respect. I wasn’t going to work with someone who scared me. Annie would have to find someone else.
“I think you should leave,” I said, gesturing toward the door. “This is wildly inappropriate, Mr. Reynolds. I don’t lock my office door, and I certainly don’t lock myself inside with men I don’t know. Perhaps another media specialist would be better suited for your company’s needs.”
