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Compartmentalize.
First, nail this pitch.
Second, talk to Weston. That’s the only way to figure out where I stood with him, and I’d be damned if I was going to have an emotional breakdown right before this meeting. After…well, we’d see.
“Thank you, Amelia,” I said as she held the door open for me, and I headed into the conference room—
Only to find the video proposal already playing on the screen and—
What the absolute fuck?
Seth stood off to the side of the projector screen, smiling from ear to ear ashisspot ran instead of mine. Instead of the one me and my team had spent countless hours perfecting and testing and perfecting some more. Weston had told us to have two options, but with the way the owner had responded to my early tests, I thought we’d agreed to go with mine.
Seth’s video was heavy-handed with the male gaze, which was exactly opposite of what I’d been going for in my proposal. Why the hell had Weston gone with Seth’s? He’d told me my test proposal had gone over amazing last week. What changed his mind?
How could so much shit go south in the span of not even twenty-four hours?
I took my seat as quietly as possible, trying like hell not to crumble into a million pieces in front of the Nike execs. God, was this Weston’s way of cutting me out of his life entirely? Did he plan this? Snuffing all my hard work and then having Lena’s engagement come out at the same time?
Anger sliced through me so hot and fierce I could barely breathe around it. Weston was better than this…wasn’t he?
I forced myself to focus, glancing casually at the female execs at the head of the table, watching their reactions as they watched Seth’s proposal.
Fuck, it wasn’t good. Two of them looked confused, the other looked downright pissed.
Maybe her boyfriend got engaged to a model too.
God, I was angry. And hurt. And I couldn’t show either of those things right now. Not while the video wrapped up and Seth flipped on the lights.
“What did you think?” he asked, all confidence and bravado. He had no idea he bombed this deal. How could he not read the looks on their faces?
The three execs shared a glance, then plastered on their best, most polite smiles.
“We can give you the room,” Seth hurried to add, finally a sense of wariness settling on his face. “If you need time—”
“We’re good,” one of the women said, standing up and the other two following her. They shook Seth’s hand, throwing in a“thank you for your time”before heading out.
Fuck, fuck,fuck.
Seth stood there, silent and contemplative as the door shut behind them. The rest of my team blew out a collective breath, shaking their heads.
“What about our proposal?” Jake asked me. “Why didn’t we show them that?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, barely capable of keeping the anger out of my tone. I glanced over where Amelia was waiting for me. “Weston told you to go with this one?”
She nodded. “Those were his exact words.”
I swallowed the rock in my throat. “Where is he?”
“He just got here a few minutes ago,” she answered. “He’s in your office.”
Perfect.
I sucked in a deep breath, flashing an apologetic look to my team before heading out of the conference room. By the time I made it to my office, I was fuming, but I had the decency to wait until the door shut behind me before I let an ounce of it show.
“Hey, there she is,” Weston called the second I’d gotten the door closed behind me. “How did it go? Are we celebrating?”
“How did itgo?” I repeated his question, and the smile fell right off his face from the tone of my voice.
