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Mason froze in place and stared down at me. “What?” he asked, his brows pinched together tightly.
Standing, I gathered my things and stopped in front of him. “It’s okay. You’d prefer to have people think you’re into a Charisa Phelps-type. I get it.”
He gave me a hard stare and was about to respond when I breezed by him to mingle with the other people who were walking into the conference room.
I moved across the table from Mason, set my things down, and sunk into a chair. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much that Mason wasn’t interested in me. A few years ago, the idea of a guy like Mason not wanting me would have never bothered me. I would have cared less. Now…now, it just threw me. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I was pretty; I had a mirror. I wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, but I had my fair share of men flirt with me over the years. So, what in the hell was wrong with me and why was I so consumed with what had just happened? He most likely didn’t want people to get the wrong impression because…well, he didn’t want people to think we were sleeping together. We were colleagues, so there was nothing wrong with that line of thinking.
Then why are you still thinking about it, Saylor?
Another woman sat down next me and we exchanged smiles.
“Hi, Jenn Roberts. You’re Saylor, right?”
Reaching for her hand to shake it, I replied, “Yes, it’s a pleasure meeting you, Jenn.”
“The pleasure is mine.” Her megawatt grin practically lit up the room when she looked over at Mason.
Wait. Did she just sigh? Oh, Good Lord.
Rolling my eyes, I scanned the room. I’d already met most of the people in here, though there were some I hadn’t even laid eyes on yet.
Mason cleared his throat before speaking. “Before we start, I want to introduce Saylor Night to those of you who have not yet met her. She’s our new marketing research analyst.”
All eyes landed on me, and I nodded and smiled. “I’m excited to be working here at Maxwell and Locke.”
“Ms. Night joins us after leaving behind a management position with Smith and Smith in Seattle.”
A few brows rose as if they were surprised by this bit of information. One or two people gave polite nods before everyone focused back on Mason. His assistant, Ashley, came into the room and handed him a box of protein bars and a file. He took it and stood there for a moment glaring at everyone while his eyes moved across the table. Then he opened the box and took out a few bars.
“Energy bars. How hard is it to create a marketing campaign for protein bars?”
The tone of his voice made me sit up a little bit more. He was clearly angry, and the man could go from zero to sixty at the speed of light. I’d sat in plenty of meetings where the whole room was bitched out. And I mean bitched out. I’d seen managers drop every curse word known to man when something went wrong and then two seconds later, they’d fix their ties and act professionally once again.
“The people sitting in this room are some of the best in the industry. So when a bestselling company in the U.S. approaches us about a major rebranding of their product line, do you know what they expect?”
No one said a word, so Mason went on.
“They expect a campaign presentation that doesn’t look like a bunch of fifth graders put it together.”
Ouch.
Mason flung the file onto the desk and papers went everywhere. I quickly scanned them. My eyes widened in shock when I saw one of the taglines.
Keeps you pumping all day.
“This is nothing but shit. I wouldn’t present this to my dog, let along a multi-billion dollar company.”
Reaching across the table, he held up a picture of a shirtless, built man. I read the tagline and had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing.
It keeps that important muscle hard all day.
He shook his head and stared straight at a gentleman sitting on the other side of Jenn.
“Is this some kind of joke? Are you that much of a moron that you’d actually put this in an ad campaign? Are we trying to sell fuck pills or a goddamn protein bar?”
I winced as Mason continued to unleash on the guy.
“You focus on the natural aspects of the protein bar. Is that not what the client said they wanted? What do you think that means?”
