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“Did you rethink your winter wonderland idea?” Mackenzie asked.
“No,” I said flatly. “It’s a good idea.”
She shook her head. “I don’t see it, but to each their own, right? You can run with that. It will set our projects apart more and make it easier for Elecoms to decide… and choose me.”
I burst out laughing. “That’s not going to happen, you know that, right? I’m the best in the business.”
“Then why does Griffin win most of the chain store campaigns?” she asked sweetly.
“Because chain stores are cheap and repetitive, and I like going for the stuff that’s unique and poses a challenge.”
Mackenzie laughed. I loved the sound of her voice—a little husky, a little sultry, alotof a turn-on.
“You keep telling yourself that,” she said.
“What would you do, then?” I challenged. “Compare diamonds to sunshine?”
“Actually, yeah,” Mackenzie said. “Have you ever watched the ocean when the sun sets?”
I frowned. “I don’t have time to go to the beach.”
“Maybe you should make some time,” she said. “When the sun hits the water just right, it looks like it’s made of gems, the light dancing and sparkling the way diamonds do in the light.”
I looked at the way she described it in her campaign mockup.
“And the night sky, too,” she added, flipping to the next page. “The sky is littered with them, a bowl of diamonds upended. It’s not just in our everyday lives, either. It’s in your lover’s eyes. It’s in the way water beads on a woman’s skin or raindrops rest in a man’s short hair. Jewels and gems don’t only exist in what we see, but they rest in emotion, in what we feel and how we treasure memories, holding onto them like precious stones, weaving them into necklaces of nostalgia. That’s what I’m aiming for—Toussaint’s jewelry should be something the world can reach for if they just focus on the way the light falls on it, the way the night brings it, the way love can be precious and the world is already beautiful.”
Fuck, her approach was good. She was right about my idea, too. It was cliché in comparison.
And that pissed me off. She was upstaging me, and if Johnson saw her passion for the project, the way she described the beauty with sentimentality, he would give her the project no matter how spectacular an ice sculpture or a flurry of snow could be.
“Well, I guess as long as we get our proposals drawn up right, we’ll be on the way to getting the deal sealed,” I said.
“Yeah, we will be.”
We worked for a while longer before we finally packed up and agreed we would do the rest in our own time. Tomorrow was another day, and that gave us a chance to finalize the concept idea for Johnson to look at on Monday.
“I better go,” I said.
“Sure. Thanks for accommodating me and the kids. And bringing cookies.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “Good luck.”
“I don’t need luck,” Mackenzie said with a sniff. “Best keep all that luck to yourself since you’re the one who’ll need it.”
I laughed and shook my head. I’d never met someone as competitive as she was—as competitive asIwas.
When Mackenzie opened the front door, the wind ripped into the house, bringing drops of rain with it. I stepped out to run to my car but stopped in my tracks.
“Oh,” I said.
A large tree had fallen onto my car, squashing it. That same colossal tree—how old were these damn trees?—blocked the gate with its incredible trunk.
“Oh, shit,” Mackenzie said, pressing her fingers to her mouth. “That’s… not going to go anywhere.”
The rain still poured down, as if the sluices had been opened and the sky wasn’t ready to let up soon.
“No,” I said grimly.
