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22
Merry
I sat at my desk Tuesday, staring blankly at my computer. I could barely think straight. The whole mess with Quentin was hanging over me, and I felt like the world was pressing in on me from all sides.
I still couldn’t believe I’d had sex with my boss in my office. I wasn’t raised like that, and it was so completely out of character, I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. Up until that morning, I didn’t think I’d ever even considered that people actually did that in real life. Movies and TV shows, absolutely. But not in the real world. And definitely not in my life.
Unable to concentrate, I ended up spinning around in the chair, staring up at the ceiling. The longer I sat in the office, the more the memories of what happened there the day before caused heat to burn across my cheeks and my heart to flutter in my chest. I felt like a crazy person. I wanted to put the entire thing behind me, but I couldn’t keep the memories from rushing through my brain.
I needed to get over it. This was not the time for me to get distracted and be unable to focus on what was in front of me. There was way too much for me to be doing to spend my day spinning around in a desk chair contemplating my boss’s body and how it felt on mine. I really needed to get to work if I was going to even get close to accomplishing the goals I had for drumming up interest in the race the next night.
But it wasn’t just the race itself I was promoting. The tailgating event being hosted in the parking lot before the race itself was my idea. During one of my meetings with Quentin, I’d suggested putting together an event outside of the traditional race experience to let fans get more up close and personal with the team and also socialize with each other. The more energy and excitement we could build up, and the more of a bonded atmosphere we could create among the fans, the fiercer the loyalty and devotion there would be. And that meant more ticket sales, more merchandise sales, more successful appearances, and a bigger presence online. In order for that to work, I needed to spread the word and get as many people interested in coming as possible.
The company was already popular, and the fan base was there. Now it was a matter of taking what was already successful and crank up the visibility, power, and reach. Quentin’s millions were evidence the potential was there. If it was tapped, the effect could be astounding.
I was able to push the memories into the back of my mind by midmorning and bury myself in work. I didn’t come up for air until I heard a knock on my door, and my heart jumped into my throat. Fortunately, when I croaked out for the person to come in, it was Brandon’s face that popped into my office.
“Ready for lunch?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I told him. “I didn’t even realize it was getting so late. I’m starving.”
“Great. What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Actually, I want to introduce you to the place we get food from usually a couple of times a week,” I said. “It’s a little box lunch place not too far from here. We can call and have it delivered, then go outside and eat.”
“That sounds perfect,” Brandon said.
It didn’t take long for the food to be delivered, and we brought it outside to sit under the tree I’d become so fond of during the time I worked there. Before the food got there, I had sent Brandon out to the car to grab the blanket I kept in the trunk for occasions just like this.
We spread the blanket out across the grass and unpacked our lunches. The first few moments were spent in the time-honored sibling tradition of dividing up food and trading items so we could each build our own ideal lunch.
“So, how has your first day been?” I asked, plucking the pickle slice from my little white paper cup of the best potato salad I’d ever tasted and popping it in my mouth.
“Really great. Everybody is so nice here. I already feel really welcome, and since I spent all that time with Artie, everything is smooth and pretty easy so far,” he told me.
“That’s good to hear. I told you the people here were awesome. That’s why I was so glad you got the job. It’s a great place to work.”
“You sound like a promotional brochure,” he said with a laugh as he picked up his cold roast beef sandwich for a bite.
I nodded. “I feel kind of like one. It’s the marketing side of doing social media. The company doesn’t have a real marketing department, so it’s just me.”
