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“I don’t care what this rag reports,” Spencer said. “I’m used to the media. Coda isn’t.” Spencer rubbed his temples. If he’d never taken Coda to Connecticut none of this would be happening right now. But if he had never approached her, he would have missed out on the best weekend of his life.
“This will die down,” his grandfather said. “Coda is tough. She’ll be fine.”
“Right now we have ten minutes before the client gets here,” Pierce said.
“I don’t give a shit about the client.” Spencer banged his fist on the table. “I have more important things to deal with.”
“I’m sure Coda will understand,” his grandfather said. “You’ll call her and explain it to her after this meeting.”
“No,” Spencer said. “I’m going to Brooklyn right now and apologizing to Coda on behalf of my delusional ex-nightmare.” Hopefully Dakota hadn’t seen the article. It was still early enough that she could still be at home.
“You can get in touch with Coda?” Vince asked as he entered the conference room with a stack of sketches. “I need to talk to you about her.”
“What are those?” Pierce asked.
“The new logos but I need the artist to sign off. I can’t get in touch with her and up until a few minutes ago, I didn’t know you could either, Spencer.”
“What are you talking about?” Spencer said as he flipped through the artwork. “These are spectacular.”
“Are they from the new artist you mentioned?” Tyler asked. “When did we contract a freelance job?”
“What new artist?” Spencer continued to look at the designs. They were just as Coda had described. These were her idea. “Who did these?”
“Coda,” Vince said. “I’ve been working with her in the evenings. She has a knack for logos. She takes the client’s direction and does exactly what they want.”
“Why is she here in the evenings?” his grandfather asked.
“She cleans the office,” Spencer said. “That’s how I met her.”
“Really.” The old man grinned. “She was resourceful enough to come in at the bottom level. Very impressive.”
Spencer should have known Jack Cannon would appreciate Coda’s tactics. She was a go-getter. Exactly the kind of employee he sought out.
“Why didn’t you present these designs before today?” Pierce asked.
“In all of our early meetings, Tyler said no to simplicity. We said we wanted a flashier campaign,” Vince offered. “Coda designed these after we had agreed to move forward on what we had discussed as a team. She was just playing with the design. We used these logos so I could teach her a new computer program.”
“I wouldn’t have made that call if I had seen these,” Tyler said. “Huh, Coda?” He rubbed his jaw. “Did you call her?”
“I’ve tried all morning,” Vince said. “It wasn’t until I saw that horrible article in that rancid paper did I realize that you even knew her, Spencer.”
“Are you calling her from the main number?” Spencer asked.
“Yeah, but now I know why she might not be picking up.” He glanced at Spencer. “I wouldn’t pick up if I saw this.”
“She thinks it’s me.”
“Surely she knows that article means nothing,” his grandfather said. “Haven’t you called and discussed it with her? She knows you were never engaged. She’s your girlfriend.”
“We had a misunderstanding last night.” Spencer couldn’t explain the real reason Coda was upset with him. “I haven’t spoken to her this morning.”
“Coda never mentioned that you were seeing one another,” Vince said. “I had no idea until I saw the paper, but I should have put it together when you asked for what she had already designed. I thought it was a coincidence.”
“She told me to tell you. She said you would know what I meant. I thought maybe the two of you had discussed the logo before. I had no idea she had worked on it.” Spencer had asked her and she told him she hadn’t. She probably didn’t want to get Vince in trouble.
“I’ve tweaked her designs, because hers were raw, but the more I look at hers the more I realize they’re what the client wants. I didn’t want to present them to you until I had her permission. I figured we’d need to work out a contract with her. I was going to explain to you that I’d been mentoring her. I was pretty shocked to see that you two are dating.”
“Right.” Spencer studied her designs. How had he managed to screw everything up?
