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Not because ice golf is amazing. It took my breath away because the lobby in front of the ice was filled with well-dressed men. They were almost all athletically built, wearing suits and shoes that cost more than my rent. They were talking in small groups, and booming masculine laughter rang out repeatedly.
It took me a hot minute to find Melvin from my perch, since the room was crowded and everyone was so tall. Melvin looked as little as I usually felt, which wasn’t his fault, given the crowd was made up of athletes and former athletes.
Then I turned my attention to Sara, who casually made a lap around the room, clearly spotted Melvin, then took a seat in a plush chair at the edge of the lobby.
What was she doing? I stared for a moment before it dawned on me. It didn’t calm the dread, though.
Sara sat still and watched. Sometimes she nodded to someone she knew, but she didn’t talk to anyone. She just watched.
Melvin went from group to group asking for Mr. Sharpe. Over and over. With each new cluster of dudes, he walked over and said, “Hey!” with a grand gesture, shaking hands and pounding their backs. At one point, a man said, “Sharpe? Over there,” and pointed in Sara’s general direction. And Melvin rushed off to that corner of the room, never glancing at Sara.
“She’s waiting to see how long it takes him to make his way over,” I mumbled to myself as I peered over the ledge.
After about twenty minutes, the fear began to calm, but the angerstarted to ramp up again. Melvin hadn’t glanced at Sara once. There were a few other women in the room, of course, but he hadn’t glanced at them either. Sara seemed to wait a few more minutes before she got up and walked past him. “Are you looking for someone?” I heard her ask loudly.
“I am, but it isn’t you,” he retorted irritably. She nodded thoughtfully, then glanced up to the box where I was hiding before leaving the arena.
A few minutes later, I heard the door open behind me. “Your story checks out,” Sara said. “I think he’d try to drink my coffee, too.” She took a seat next to me.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “He really is the worst.”
“On a brighter note, though, I’m going to give you the account.”
“What?” I yelped.
She nodded. “If you can pull this off, S.J. Sporting will have the corner on the entire market. This could open us up to other teams and leagues across the country.”
I wiggled in my seat. “Thank you, Sara. I appreciate this opportunity. If I’m still employed tomorrow, I’d be happy to work with you.”
“You will be. I have one condition. I work with you. Not with him.”
That one might not go over well. “How about we don’t specify that in writing just yet.” Sara opened her mouth, but I held up my hand. “We’ll work together, promise. I’d just rather not make Melvin any madder than I have to at the moment. Is that okay?”
She nodded. “I understand office politics can be tricky sometimes.” She pulled out her phone and fired off a quick email to Melvin, cc’ing the head of Apollo IT and me.
Mr. Hammer:
Our meeting tomorrow is cancelled. I ran into Indiana Aaron and have been thoroughly impressed by the interface proposal. We will be going ahead with Apollo IT for this project and are drafting up a contract for approval.
Best,
S.J. Sharpe
S.J. Sporting
I winced but smiled quickly when Sara looked back over.
“Let’s go back to my office to draw up the paperwork.”
“You might need to speak with Shane Dalton about the contract. He handles the finances for the Artemis team. He’s actually in Denver today, so let me drop him a quick note…” I opened my texts.
Hey Shane, looks like Artemis is going to get the S.J. Sporting account! S.J. is going to need your help getting the paperwork in order.
There was an unusually long pause before the jumping gray dots indicated Shane’s response.You’ll have to ask someone else. Seems I’m no longer working with Artemis. And maybe no longer working at Apollo after today.
I gasped.What?
Melvin thinks I came to Denver early to tell Indiana’s daughter he was going to steal his idea. He flew in today and headed straight for the meeting. A heads-up would have been nice, Ana.
