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“He’s not really my boss,” she clarified. “I work for marketing. My boss is Alyssa.”
He looked down at the sheet of paper in front of him. “I see. Alyssa Kennedy?”
“Yes.”
“She’s your boss.”
“Yes. My immediate supervisor.”
Brooke felt the odd urge to point out that Alyssawasher boss because, let’s face it, everyone knew Brooke was history here. Why pretty it up? Speaking of which—
“I know why you brought me here,” Brooke said. “So, I’m going to make it easy for you.”
The consultant-dude held up his hand to stop her, which immediately put Brooke in fighting mode. Just who did this dude think he was?
“Actually, I’m going to stop you there,” he said. “You’re not on the list to be fired.”
Brooke’s eyes widened. What was going on here? He was joking, right? Because if he wasn’t joking, she wasn’t fired, and she’d just called the head of the company…
Oh, no.
The consultant-dude continued, seemingly oblivious to the internal meltdown happening to the woman seated just a few feet away. “As I said at the start of this meeting, we’re doing some restructuring. Part of that restructuring means slashing entire departments. Marketing is at the top of that list.”
“You’re slashing the entire marketing department?” Brooke asked.
Immediately, she pictured her team. The team she’d spent countless hours with over the past nine months. Alyssa had been her mentor, but there were twelve other people. Unlucky thirteen. Huh. Maybe that’s why they were all getting the ax.
“Technically, yes.” The guy’s voice pulled Brooke back to the present. “We won’t have departments anymore as much as people. You’re the only person we’re keeping from marketing.”
“Me?”
She had to have misheard. Why would they keep Brooke, the most junior member of the team? She’d been top of her class at Sacramento State, granted, but that was nothing compared to the impressive resumes of everyone who sat around her every day.
“You sound surprised.”
The consultant, who was even more attractive now that he was delivering good news, leaned back in his chair and looked at her. He had a kind face, which was odd. She would think a guy who made his living destroying people’s lives would have a rough, hardened demeanor about him, but this guy looked like the person you rooted for in an action-adventure movie.
“Well, you’re telling me my entire team is about to be unemployed,” Brooke said. “It’s a bit…surprising, yes. That’s a good word for it.”
She gave herself marks for turning the situation around. She really was surprised that they would keep her versus all those kick-butt people out there. In fact, she would have been far less surprised if literally any of the other twelve people had been the chosen ones. But if she wanted to succeed in her career, she knew she couldn’t let that show.
“You’ve been doing our social media,” the guy said. “It’s gotten a little notice.”
Yes. She’d been handling the social media for TravTech, which had rolled out a new feature for its peer-to-peer tutoring app. Tutoring was TravTech’s specialty, and Brooke had found a way to make their social media accounts fun and personable, rather than bland and spammy as they’d been. It was interesting this consultant-dude had noticed and was talking about it as though—
“Did you say ‘our’ social media?” she asked.
The guy’s eyes widened. He looked off to the side thoughtfully for a second, then moved his intense gaze right back to her face. She saw no drop in confidence as he seemed to realize he’d given something away. Instead, he nodded.
“Oursocial media. I’m Justin Travers.”
2
Justin had been waiting for just the right moment to give away his real identity. He had no idea who Brooke Alexander thought he was, but apparently, she hadn’t the slightest clue that he was the CEO of the company that had issued her paycheck for the past nine months.
He could wait for her reaction, but he really didn’t like to make people uncomfortable. He was already having a hard enough time ignoring the bright green eyes and cheery, optimistic demeanor. Honestly, his first thought as she’d walked toward the room was that she was the one bright spot in what was becoming the worst month of his life. Just looking at her seemed to pull him out of his slump somehow.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “I really thought you knew who I was at first. And then…well, let’s say I deserve every single piece of negative feedback I get today.”
