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There was a statuesque, stunning blond seated in the guest chair opposite him, and they both stood as she walked in. Was this his assistant? If so, shouldn’t he have laid her off with the rest of them?
“I’m Charlie,” the woman said, extending her hand.
Brooke mentally smacked herself for her assumptions. First, “Charlie” had been a woman, not the man she’d been picturing. Charlie was the head of HR—the woman behind the urgent emails they occasionally received. Second, Brooke had assumed she was Justin’s assistant…why? Because she was a woman? She really needed to get her misogyny in check.
“Brooke.” She returned the handshake.
As a petite brunette with a terminally optimistic disposition, Brooke always felt insecure around women like Charlie. Charlie was the type of woman who turned heads wherever she went. Brooke, on the other hand, bounced in and out of every room like a high school cheerleader. She’d tried to go the sophisticated route in her first job out of college, but she’d quickly realized it came across as awkward and confusing to people she met. Finally, she’d learned to embrace the parts of her personality that had made her popular in high school.
It seemed to work, but she’d never been forced to work directly with a billionaire CEO until now. Her instincts said someone like Charlie fit in better in this environment.
“We emailed back and forth all weekend,” Charlie explained to Justin as they all sat. “We’ve come up with today’s schedule.”
Justin looked from Charlie to Brooke, an unreadable expression on his face. “Go on.”
So, Charlie did. She handed her tablet across the desk, and Justin scrolled, seeing a schedule that was jam-packed for the next couple of days. There was a mid-morning staff meeting to reassure the remaining employees that the company was solid. The last thing they needed was for people to start quitting. Then there was a previously-scheduled meeting about a big upcoming tech conference that would go on with or without a three-hundred-person staff running things around here. After that, he and Brooke had to sit down for an information-gathering session so she could pitch some stories to some top tech and business reporters.
“My leadership team is gone.” Justin handed the tablet across the table to Charlie. “Exactly who will be in this meeting about the tech conference?”
“You, Brooke, the lead developer… Anyone else?”
Brooke looked over at Charlie. Really? On a thirty-five-person team, Brooke, the lead developer, and the CEO were the three to discuss the tech conference? Wait, did that mean…?
“Can we switch the flight from Alyssa to Brooke?” Justin asked.
Now Brooke’s attention was on Justin. “I’m going to the tech conference?”
He looked up from his screen, his stubbled jaw set in what seemed to be its usual “clenched” position. “Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s just—”
Just what? She was caught by surprise here? She’d spent the weekend grappling with the new reality where she no longer had a boss directing her. She’d have to take charge. It was go time for Brooke, and if she wanted to prove her father wrong when he’d said she couldn’t make it in Silicon Valley, she had togo.
“I’ll switch the tickets,” Charlie broke in to say. “Hotel room, too, I assume?”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” Justin said. “We can work out the rest of the details later. I just didn’t want to pass any deadlines with the trip since it’s next week.”
“Next week?” Brooke hadn’t meant to say those words out loud. She’d been screaming them in her head, but somehow, they’d made their way to her vocal cords.
Justin set the tablet down. “Ms. Alexander, if you can’t go to the conference—”
“Just…a lot of surprises this morning.” Brooke took a deep breath. “I need to update my calendar.”
“I’ll get the dates to you after the meeting.” That was directed at Brooke, but Charlie’s attention was on Justin. “We should discuss office space.”
“Office space?”
“Lot of empty space here now,” Charlie pointed out. “Property management is going to need to know what we plan to do. We can sell off some desks, consolidate, that sort of thing. But what we need to decide is which part of the lease we plan to keep. There’s also the issue of breaking the lease—”
“We can sublet.”
“We’ll have to look over the contracts.” Charlie tapped around on her tablet a few seconds before speaking again. “I think you’re probably aware that your office is the most expensive space by far.”
Brooke had been frantically jotting down notes on her planner, but Charlie’s words made her hand freeze, pen hovered over the page. Was Charlie actually going there?
“You’re suggesting I give up my office.” Justin sat back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest.
Brooke was caught off guard for a moment by the way the posture emphasized his muscular biceps and his obviously toned chest. She’d been a lot better off when he’d been wearing a sweater. That T-shirt was distracting.
