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It takes some effort but I managed to loosen my fingers so I can show him. “This is Chelsea, the stress cow. Lots of people use them.”
His eyes dance with amusement. “I don’t see anyone else squeezing the life out of a plastic farm animal, do you?”
I sit up straighter ready to let him have it but just then the plane hits a pocket of turbulence. My stomach feels like it’s now in my esophagus.
“OH MY FUCKING GOD! THIS PLANE IS GOING DOWN.”
This comes out way louder than I would have hoped. Milo chuckles under his breath as everyone turns around to stare at us. After a few moments, they finally turn around but James raises his eyebrows as if to say Are you okay?
I wave and force a smile so he won’t worry. When he finally goes back to his magazine the breath I’ve been holding releases in a gasp.
“I’ll be lucky if I still have a job by the time this trip is over,” I mutter under my breath. Obviously not quietly enough because Milo laughs again.
“Imagine that. Spent your entire life on the straight and narrow and it all ends on a private plane sitting next to the devil himself.”
When I glare at him, he shrugs in that nonchalant and completely hot way that totally does not get my panties wet.
“Just saying. I’m a big fan of irony. It just proves what I’ve always known.”
“And what is that, oh wise one?”
“That the universe fucks us all in the end.”
Dirty words coming from his mouth should not be so arousing. Especially when he’s completely right about me. Not that I’ll ever tell him that.
“Well, the joke is on you. You’re assuming I’ve spent my entire life on the straight and narrow. I could have been a real bitch in my past. Maybe this flight from hell is my karma for deeds done wrong.”
“Maybe,” he concedes with that infuriating smirk that means he actually believes the total opposite.
“You think you know so much about me. You think I’m just this boring, workaholic who goes home at night and curls up with a million cats. Admit it.”
His eyes focus on me then, like two electric blue lasers. “No, I don’t think that at all. But it sounds like someone else has made you believe that’s true.”
My last argument with William rolls through my head like a movie on repeat. Our relationship was never perfect, not even when things were new and interesting. But I’m not the kind of woman who looks for perfection anyway. I don’t care about socks left on the bathroom floor or who took the trash out last. All I’ve ever wanted is someone who gets me.
Milo is watching me again, this time with something that looks suspiciously like pity in his eyes. He’s intuitive, I’ll give him that. But damn him for using that on me.
“I heard about your breakup. Sorry. That sucks.”
I look out the window at the clouds passing by. Normally I don’t do this. Looking at clouds from this angle just reminds me of where I am, in a tin can hurtling through the sky. But contemplating the likelihood of total engine failure is preferable right now to Milo Hamilton looking at me with pity.
“Thank you. But I’m fine. All I want is to focus on why we’re flying to Las Vegas in the first place. To impress this client and snag the hottest ad account in the country right now.”
Milo nods. “I’m not sure if James even went home last night. He was in the office early doing research.”
I’m not surprised by that at all. Andre Lavin is the preferred designer of all of Hollywood’s leading men. Although he’s known for menswear, after designing both the bridal tuxedo and the wedding dress for Hollywood’s reigning power couple he was rumored to be launching an exclusive bridal line. This account could launch the Mirage Agency into the upper echelon of advertising overnight.
And if James is looking for a partner, whoever locks down this account is on the fast track.
“Let me guess, so were you?”
His tight smile confirms it. Milo hates to lose and no doubt he was in the office almost as long as James. But he might as well get ready because I’m going to be the one to lock this account down.
“I wanted to talk to you about earlier,” Milo leaned closer. “What did you mean when you said I stole an account from you?”
My blood froze in my veins. Had I said that? My thoughts raced back to that day when he’d first told me about the Lavin account. Clearly I hadn’t been thinking straight. I’d just been so excited.
Over the past few years, I’ve worked on some extraordinary campaigns. I put my heart and soul into each one and I know I’ve done great work here. But so far, most of the accounts have been mid-level. Even doing great work on them isn’t enough to show James that I have what it takes to be promoted. I’ve been waiting on the type of project that would really let me show off what I can do.
