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“Thank you. You do too.” In fact, as I look at Derek, I realize not only does he look good, a pretty common occurrence, but he looks different. Calmer or something. And then it hits me. He’s not wearing a tie and his top button is undone, giving him a cooler vibe than normal. “I like the no tie.”
His hand flies to his collar, and he adjusts it even though it wasn’t out of place. “Thanks, I just want this to go well for you.”
“Me? What about you?”
He shakes his head. “I’ve already talked to Philip. I told him that if we win, you’re the one who deserves the promotion. After all, the idea for the scavenger hunt was yours as well as most of the activities at the venues.”
Even though that is technically true, I don’t feel like I deserve the promotion any more than Derek does. We did it together. As a team. I have no idea if I would have been as creative without him pushing me and I’m a little worried about what will happen between us if I get the promotion. I would have no problem with him as my boss, but will he feel the same? “But… what about you?”
He shrugs and gives me a cautious smile. “I decided to go to the audition, so I’ll see what happens with that.”
“That’s great, Derek.” I have no idea what him getting cast might mean for us, but I’m happy for him.
“It is,” his smile falters, “but there is a down side.”
I’m about to ask what that is when Mark and Darla pass our desk. “It’s your turn if you think you still have a chance,” Mark says in a taunting voice, and it takes all my restraint not to jump out of my chair and slap the smug grin off his face. Restraint and a little bit of reality. I might like to think I’m tough, but Mark has the muscles to prove he actually goes to the gym.
Instead, I mutter, “Oh, we have a chance,” under my breath as I grab the laptop. “Let’s go shut him up for good.”
“Katie, before we go-” Derek begins but I cut him off.
“We’ll discuss it more after the presentation,” I say. “Right now, let’s focus on winning.”
Though he looks like he wants to say more, Derek nods and grabs the booklets of information we put together, then we head to the conference room.
Philip and a few other men are sitting around the large table when we enter. The way they stare up at me makes me feel a little like I’m a contestant on Survivor or some bake off show. Really any show where you can be eliminated. A tiny bead of sweat courses down my back. I wonder if these are the other bosses, the ones we never see. And then briefly I wonder what they actually do at the company, but there’s no time to dwell on that.
“Ah, Katie and Derek. How did you guys fare on this challenge?” Philip asks.
I’m not sure what answer he’s looking for, but I don’t like the look on his face either. He looks like he’s getting entirely too much enjoyment out of this. Like maybe there is no promotion and this has all been some huge ruse for his amusement. Or that it was real, but he’s already chosen his winner and is only letting us present out of pity. Neither thought makes me feel good, so I decide to lay it on thick. “We got along great.” I shoot a look at Derek, hoping he’ll back me up. “We might have started as opposites, but we learned to work together well, and I’d say we ended up as friends.” Or more than friends, but they don’t need to know that. No one in this room needs to know how my knees feel like Jell-O just thinking about kissing him again.
Derek smiles and nods. “I would agree. Katie and I see things differently, but her easy-going attitude helped me relax a little and find more enjoyment in life.” He flashes me a smile that I swear turns my insides to goo. “And, she’s a creative genius.”
I open my mouth to protest, but he gives a subtle shake of his head, so I take a deep breath and cue up our presentation. I need to focus on it anyway instead of the fluttering inside my chest. “We decided to come up with the idea of a scavenger hunt app. The city can have the app downloadable for free and they can advertise that there are prizes and discounts for those who use it.” I click a button and the picture of Derek holding his painted plate fills the screen. I’m almost struck speechless at how much he’s changed since then.
“For example, here at The Painted Plate, if you incorporate the symbol of the month - in this case the moon - then you are entered into a drawing for a prize. Also, Leslie, the owner there, offered a discount for repeat visitors. At Picture Perfect,” I tap the button to advance the slide and smile at Derek and me in costume - I chose my favorite picture, “patrons will get extra points for choosing the era of the month, and the owner, Marlene, is offering a ‘Buy one get one half off’ coupon so that people can have two photos in case they can’t decide on one.” I click the button and it switches to the photo Derek chose of us. The men chuckle slightly.
I continue clicking through the slides and explaining the offer at each place. Beside me, Derek nods and adds a tidbit now and then.
“This is all very creative,” one of the men says, “but what if someone doesn’t have a phone to download the app?” He is older, but I find it hard to believe the man doesn’t own a cell phone. His suit looks more expensive than my car.
“That’s okay,” Derek says. “The city can add a page to their website with the offers and people can submit a digital picture through email or a regular one through snail mail if they’d like. If anyone still does that.”
This time I smile at him, surprised by his quick thinking. He said he wasn’t good during presentations, but I disagree. Or maybe I really have rubbed off on him in which case, I can’t let him just give me the promotion if we win.
“And do you have a work up on how much this will cost the city? And where prizes will come from?” one of the other men asks. “It sounds like a nice idea, but it might be too expensive to implement.”
“Actually, we have that for you as well.” Derek hands each of them the portfolios we put together while I try to contain my smile. This is where he really shines. He spent hours going through all the possibilities and making sure it was affordable.
The men also look impressed, and after flipping through the pages, they look back up at us. “Thank you. We’ll let you know.”
It’s not quite the reaction I was hoping for, but I still feel like we won. “We should go celebrate,” I say as the conference room door closes behind us.
“We haven’t won yet,” he says, “but we can certainly go celebrate a great presentation. However, I need to talk to you first.”
The solemn tone of his voice steals a little of my joy. He’s not breaking up with me already, is he? “Uh oh, that sounds ominous.”
“Not ominous, exactly, but important.” He glances around as if looking for a place where we can have a private conversation. There aren’t many on our floor. Most of us work in cubicles and the few conference rooms have to be reserved by Philip.
