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Richard glanced at her then turned his attention back to his ball.
“You’re late,” he said right before he swung the club lightly and hit the white ball. The ball cluttered into a fallen coffee cup a few feet away with a soft clink.
“Sorry.” Chess fully entered the room. “It won’t happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t.” He lined up another shot. Without looking up, he said, “Hand KGM’s files to Mark. You’ll be working on H-Street’s fashion show from now on.”
Excuse me? Why was Richard moving her to H-Street? That didn’t make sense at all.
Though Synovent was a decent sized company, it was just a passion project for Richard. He owned other bigger and more successful companies. Every two years, Richard hired a new Vice President. If this new VP was great at their job, they got moved on to one of Richard’s bigger companies where they got a larger salary and better opportunities to move up the ladder. If they didn’t do a great job, they got fired.
The current VP, Mallory, had impressed Richard and would be leaving Synovent for her new position within the next few months. That meant that her spot was opening up, and would likely be taken over by a team director. Apart from Chess and Mark, the company had one other team director, Evie Sutton. All three had put in applications to be VP.
Since there were multiple applicants, Richard had decided to pit them against each other. They’d all been given a big event to organize and promote. They would then be judged on who sold the most tickets, whose event created the most buzz online and offline, and the reviews from attendees and a panel of unbiased judges. Whoever scored the best would be VP.
To decide what event they’d be handling, all three contenders had participated in a ruffle. Three events needed planning; KGM’s movie premiere, H-Street’s fashion show, and Red Sky Studio’s new game release.
During the raffle (it was conducted in front of all their coworkers), Mark had been on his knees praying to get H-Street, and Chess wished him luck. She wasn’t interested in H-Street; the fashion scene just wasn’t her thing. So, when she got the movie premiere, Mark got his beloved fashion show, and Evie got the game release, everyone was happy.
But now Richard was switching things up? Why?
“But I won KGM,” Chess protested. “I don’t want the fashion-”
“A rep from Le Stride is in your office to discuss the details of their participation in the event,” Richard cut her off. “Don’t keep him waiting.”
Richard’s firm tone made it clear that this wasn’t up for negotiation.
Chelsea surrendered with a sigh. “Okay.”
She opened the door to leave but before she could, Richard called out, “And Chelsea…”
“Yes?”
“If Mark or Evie win this thing, I’ll be very disappointed.”
Chess grinned. She’d always known she was his favorite. “I won’t disappoint you.”
“Good.” Richard waved her out of his office.
Still smiling, she headed to Donna’s desk to pick up her purse then walked to her office. That smile dropped when she opened the door and saw who was in her office.
A man was slouched in one of the seats by her desk, looking as comfortable as could be, while playing with the stack of mail on her desk. Even when seated, it was clear that the man was tall given the length of his torso and legs. Elegance and money oozed from his navy, tailored suit to the Rolex on his wrist.
Though Chess only had a back view of the man, she immediately knew who he was. That square-shaped head with the close shaved hair was quite familiar. She knew those slightly protruding ears, that smooth caramel skin, those broad shoulders, and that large hand.
Shit!Her stomach muscles tightened in alarm, and she broke into a cold sweat. Instinctively, she began to back out of the office. She had no idea where she was going. All that she knew was that she needed to leave this room. She needed to get as far away from this man as she could before he saw her.
But luck wasn’t on her side.
Just as she took a step back, he turned in the seat. And their eyes collided.
The world stopped moving and an eerie silence settled between them. All the years that they’d been apart disappeared, and for a second, it felt like their breakup had just happened. A ringing began in her ears as her senses struggled to accept what was happening here.
Tazeem Khan was in her office.
They stared at each other in silence for quite a while before he broke into one of those endearing smiles that he was so good at giving.
“Hi, Chess.”
