AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m just glad I didn’t try to actually finish all that wine. Y’all would be carrying me to my room,” said Anne.
Gherring rubbed his belly, which didn’t protrude despite the am
ount of food he’d eaten. “I always eat too much at that restaurant. Every time. I should be more judicious, but it’s too good to resist.”
“There won’t ever be a next time for me. I’ve got to eat everything I can on this trip,” Anne said.
“You don’t know you won’t ever be back. You didn’t even know you were coming here until two days ago,” said Gherring.
Anne smiled. “You have a point. My life has changed so much in the past six weeks, I guess I really can’t predict my future.”
“I hear you might be living in Paris someday,” teased Jared.
“That’s not true,” said Anne, grateful for the darkness to hide her crimson face.
“It’s all the talk in the break room. All those women have evidently been after Henri DuBois for a long time. They’d only heard rumors until someone saw you talking to him the other day when they were getting coffee. It’s true, isn’t it?”
“We’ve become friends. That’s all.” Anne glanced at Gherring as he scowled out the window, his jaw muscles flexing.
“Whatever you say…” Jared smirked. “That’s not what I heard. I heard—”
“I hate to interrupt,” Gherring said. “But we need to plan tomorrow morning. We’ll meet in the suite at eight o’clock. I’ll have a light continental breakfast there. The meeting starts at nine.” He spoke with an edge of sarcasm to Anne. “Do you think you’ll have trouble waking up?”
“No sir. I’ll be fine. No need to worry.”
Seemingly oblivious to the tension between them, Jared said, “I’m gonna sleep like a baby. No, not like a baby, because they wake up all night. I’m gonna sleep like the parent of a baby on vacation.”
He chuckled to himself, while Anne kept her gaze trained in her lap, somehow sensing the heat of Gherring’s murderous glare.
Anne was terrified as she sat in the meeting room, waiting for the group to arrive. She’d been unable to eat any breakfast, instead pushing a crescent roll around on her plate, tearing it into pieces. Jared seemed unaware of her anxious demeanor. He chatted happily and showed her a picture of his baby his wife had emailed the night before. She tried to act interested in the photo, but her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might have a stroke. She kept her hands clenched in her lap to hide their shaking, but Gherring was not fooled. She knew he was counting on her, and she couldn’t let him down. Unfortunately, this thought made her even more nervous. Why hadn’t she simply refused when he told her she needed to speak? She was going to make a fool of herself and Gherring as well.
When the group arrived, trickling in, she fought the urge to run to the bathroom and throw up. She’d decided that was exactly what was going to happen, when Gherring pulled her aside and spoke in an urgent tone. “I’m worried about Jared.”
“Why? What happened?”
“It’s just that once before, during a previous meeting, he said something inappropriate. You know how he is. He speaks without thinking. And then he panicked and blanked out. He couldn’t even finish.”
“Oh no! Why did you even bring him? You should have left both of us at home.”
“I just had to give him another chance. You know, with a new baby and everything.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Just stick with him while we’re mingling and make sure he doesn’t stick his foot in his mouth. Then be prepared to bail him out if he blanks during his presentation.”
Anne nodded and hurried to guard Jared, who appeared totally at ease. Perhaps he was too much at ease. She listened carefully as he talked. Whenever he seemed to be getting a little too casual in his conversation or seemed ready to tell a story, Anne jumped in and asked questions, steering the talk back toward business.
Several of the female board members came to join the group, asking Anne about herself. She bypassed the questions about her work experience, but talked readily about her children. The other women were older and had grown children as well, and soon they were sharing pictures of children and in some cases grandchildren. She tried to listen in on Jared’s conversation as well, but so far, he seemed to be pretty tame. She wondered just what Gherring meant by inappropriate. She breathed a sigh of relief when the time came for the presentation to start.
Gherring stood up and addressed the group in fluent French. Anne caught a few words, but mostly just laughed when everyone else laughed, as did Jared. She’d never seen Steven Gherring speak to a group before. Even though she couldn’t understand what he was saying, she was drawn to him. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. His blue eyes were so clear. It was like looking at the sky. His voice was powerful, his presence magnetic. Everyone in the room was hanging on his words. It was an amazing thing to experience and observe. Finally, Gherring began introducing Jared and Anne. He switched to English for their benefit.
“So you will hear first from Mr. Jared Hanson, and later from Ms. Anne Best. As I said, this is informal. Please feel free to ask questions at any time. If your particular question will be answered further along in the presentation, we can let you know. But otherwise, we want to answer your questions as they occur.” He turned the podium over to Jared.
Jared began his presentation. Although he was only thirty years old, he was smart, confident, and well spoken. Was he overconfident? Perhaps that’s what got him into trouble. Anne listened carefully, ready to jump in at the first sign of trouble. She was so concerned with Jared she forgot about her own upcoming presentation. She’d worry about that later. There were a number of questions Jared fielded easily. He hadn’t shown any sign of going blank up to this point. Then someone asked a question Anne knew was answered on an upcoming slide.
“I believe that’s on slide forty or forty-one. Am I right Jared?”
Jared looked ahead on the presentation. “Yes, you’re right as usual, Anne. That answer is coming up three slides from now.” He sent her a grateful smile, but he didn’t look particularly stressed. She wondered what it took to make him forget everything. Or perhaps he’d already figured out how to prevent that from happening again. She had to make sure he did well. He needed this job to support his family, especially since his wife had chosen to stay home with baby Emery.
