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Jessica’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Have you spoken directly with Ms. Jones?”
No. After her emails, phone calls and attempts at booking in-person appointments with the other companies on Pamela’s list, she’d decided to go all in on the Pearson Group and show up with an arrangement that would show Ms. Laura Jones what she was capable of. Better to make one final attempt and close her shop knowing she’d given it her all than to always wonder what if.
She just hadn’t anticipated having to make her pitch to the mysterious CEO.
“I assumed with her being the events manager—”
“The majority of our staff are at a corporate training seminar in Shanghai this week.”
Okay. She could handle this. Though why the CEO would have any interest in meeting with a struggling florist was beyond her. But instead of questioning her good fortune, she needed to grab the opportunity with both hands.
“All right. It’s kind of him to make time for me.”
A perfectly-tweezed eyebrow arched upward as something akin to amusement crossed Jessica’s face. “It’s not kindness. You piqued his interest.”
“Hopefully in a good way.”
A pale shoulder moved up and down in an elegant shrug. “That remains to be seen. He has five minutes.” She glanced at her watch, silver and trimmed in diamonds judging by the way it glinted in the light. Probably Cartier. “Starting now, not a second more. Follow me, Miss Moss.”
Steeling her spine, Alexandra tucked the portfolio under one arm, picked up the arrangement and followed the secretary out the door.
This is further than you’ve made it all week. Don’t give up now.
The inner pep talk did little for the sudden light-headedness plaguing her as she tried to keep up with Jessica’s rapid pace down a hall enclosed by glass, empty offices on one side and views of New York’s impressive skyline on the other. How the woman managed to walk so quickly when she was sporting four-inch stilettos was beyond Alexandra. She could barely keep up in her plain black ballet flats.
Her nervousness reached a fever pitch as the secretary turned a corner and stopped in front of double mahogany doors polished to perfection. Was it possible for one’s heart to beat so fast without passing out? The entire future of her company was riding on how she conducted herself in this meeting.
No pressure. None at all.
“He’s waiting.”
“Okay. Thank you. And his name?”
“He’ll tell you.”
Alexandra blinked. “What...”
Jessica gave her another look, one that was almost pitying, before she brushed past Alexandra and walked back down the hall, her heels clicking ominously against the floor as she disappeared around the corner.
Slowly, Alexandra turned back to the double doors. She’d met plenty of eccentric and egotistical millionaires in the twenty years she’d been known as Alexandra Waldsworth. The man waiting for her behind the double doors probably just enjoyed being the one in power.
The rational excuse didn’t dispel the tension that tightened around her spine with a vise-like grip as she knocked on the doors.
“Enter.”
The muffled voice, deep with the faintest of accents, wrapped around her. It almost sounded like...
Focus.
She pulled up the memory that had pushed her to succeed all these years: her father in his orange prison uniform glaring balefully at her from behind the glass of the visitor’s booth. A moment later she’d stood and walked away as he’d hurled one final insult at her:
You’ll never succeed. Not without me!
He’d thought to shred her confidence, to make her turn around and come crawling back. But it had done the opposite. It had released the shackles around her spirit, set her free as she’d walked away with the resolution to prove him wrong thundering in her veins.
That she had come to that realization a little over a year after she’d hurt the man she’d loved had come with its own pain, one that had faded over time but still kicked up every now and then.
Focus on the future. Focus on now.
