Echoes of Summer

by Bastian, Laura D.

  She immersed herself in the cereal company account and got everything lined up for the next few weeks. A knock on the door forced her to pull her eyes away from the computer screen. She shifted her gaze to see Stephen through the glass door. Why didn’t he just come in? They had an appointment. She glanced at her clock to make sure it was time and waved him in.

  As he opened the door, she finished a few minor things then opened the folder with their pitch for Doewin. She was torn between just handing it over to him or maintaining control of the pitch since she’d worked so hard on it. She didn’t want to just give it away. Especially to him. She wanted to show Mr. Carlson she’d brought in this contract.

  Adjusting her business smile on her face, she turned to him.

  “So, who will head this discussion?” Stephen asked before she could speak.

  Madison’s eyes widened. Was he really asking her opinion, or just trying to stake his claim. Oh, she wished she knew him better. Or not at all. The past was eating at her, and she hated the way it made her feel lost.

  “You’re supposed to be the expert. What do you suggest?”

  “I say we do this together. You present your ideas since they’ll be expecting you, and I can build on it and wrap up the presentation. Fill in anything you might miss. It will also give me a chance to watch how your company works with potential clients. That way I’ll know if we need to work on anything like that.”

  Madison nodded. “Sounds reasonable.”

  They discussed the presentation for a while, then Stephen leaned forward and grabbed another one of her Butterfingers. What was with the man? Why couldn’t he pick one of the other kinds? She would have to stop filling the candy jar to keep his thieving fingers out of it, but that thought made her annoyed, and she fumed inside.

  “What do you say, Madison?”

  She lifted her head and stared into his eyes, completely lost on where the conversation had gone. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I wanted to know if you’d like to do lunch. I’m starving.” He grabbed another candy bar, but at least this time it was a Snickers. “I always work better on a full stomach.”

  Madison shook her head. “No thank you. I brought something from home because I planned on working through lunch again. I’ve got a lot of accounts that have been neglected with this Doewin thing.”

  “Maybe another time,” Stephen said.

  Madison didn’t respond but stood and motioned for Stephen to leave the office ahead of her. “I’ll see you in the conference room.”

  Once he was out the door, she walked to the breakroom hoping he would head to his office or go out to one of the nearby restaurants for lunch like he’d indicated, but he followed her.

  “I think I’ll check the vending machine,” he said when she looked at him for an explanation of why he was behind her.

  She nodded, grabbed her leftovers from the fridge, heated them in the microwave for less than a minute, and left the breakroom as fast as she could before he tried talking to her again.

  ***

  Stephen couldn’t decide if anything in the vending machine was worth buying. The sandwiches didn’t look very fresh, and he wasn’t in the mood for any of the frozen entrees. He wished Madison would have agreed to go to lunch with him. Or that he had gone alone. Instead, he’d had the stupid idea to follow her into the breakroom in an attempt to spend more time with her. He turned around to see where she’d sat and was surprised to find himself alone.

  He hadn’t even heard her leave. This woman was good at disappearing.

  He was going to have to step up his game and figure out a way to talk to her. Something about her was so familiar, and he wished he could place it. Maybe it was just that she was the kind of person he’d always wanted in his life. Beautiful and kind. And the fact that she wasn’t threatened by having him observe the project she’d been working on. Showed she was confident, and that was what an ad exec needed. Yet she’d seemed relieved he was there to take over and let her get back to what she preferred doing. He’d have to stretch her. Mold her into the best Carlson had. She did have talent, though. He wouldn’t have to work too hard to get her to the point she could take the business in the right direction.

  It was refreshing to work with someone of her transparency and openness.

  He hoped they’d be able to collaborate on many of the new accounts he’d be working on. Not that Robert didn’t seem capable, but Madison was younger, and she’d be able to adjust to the changing market easier.

  He punched in the number for one of the less-offensive-looking sandwiches and sighed when he opened the package. Yeah, roast beef on white bread with a pathetic slice of tomato and some sort of white cheese really wasn’t going to cut it. He glanced at his watch and called for some spicy Indian curry.

  He arrived to the conference room at 2:15 so he could be early and get set up, but Madison was already there with the presentation out and the flat screen opened to the slide show.

  This woman was on fire.

  Chapter Five

  As the representatives from Doewin arrived, Madison greeted them and introduced them to Stephen. He schmoozed them right out the door, and Madison wondered if he was going to keep things the way they’d planned. After the initial introductions were over, and Stephen showed them to their seats, Madison turned on the screen and began the presentation.

  Stephen didn’t take over exactly, but he added comments with each slide, going into more detail than what they had gone over just hours ago. As the presentation continued, Stephen got more and more animated, taking her ideas and elaborating on them. As he got into it, Madison could see that his enthusiasm was contagious, and the representatives from Doewin were practically eating out of his hands. The woman especially.

  They’d be signing with Carlson Agency for sure, but Madison fumed inside. How could he do this to her? Mr. Carlson looked impressed with Stephen, yet rarely even glanced at Madison, making her fear she might be in jeopardy of losing footing with her boss, yet the ideas had almost all been hers in the first place.

  As the presentation wrapped up, Madison felt like her only role in the whole thing had morphed into changing screens while Stephen got the clients laughing at the potential commercials they could do. She admired and hated him for it.

  Mr. Carlson leaned forward in his seat and took control of the conversation as Madison closed the presentation. “As you can see, you’d be in good hands with Carlson Ad Agency. What do you say?”

  The woman glanced at the man to the side of her. He nodded, and she leaned back and crossed her long legs under the table. “I’m very impressed and believe we can go far together.”

  “Wonderful news, Ms. Daws,” Mr. Carlson said. “We’ve got a standard contract written. Madison will get it to you. Have your legal department check it over, and we’ll meet again tomorrow to sign if you’re in agreement.”

  Ms. Daws’ eyes widened in surprise. Most clients expressed appreciation that they weren’t bullied into signing anything right away and always came back to say the contract was fair and generous. It was something that made Madison happy to work for Carlson Ad Agency.

  Stephen looked surprised as well. Before he could speak and ruin their tradition, Madison stood and shook hands with Mr. Gregor and began walking toward the door. “If you have any questions, give me a call. We’re looking forward to working together.”As Madison pulled out her wallet for the business card, her driver’s license slipped out and fell to the floor.

  “Thank you, Madison.” The representatives from Doewin took the business card, shook her hand, and then left the room.

  Stephen, out of nowhere, bent down to pick up the driver’s license and Madison cringed. As his fingers reached it, he slowed down and took a moment to lift it. His gaze never left the card, and Madison had a horrible feeling he was checking out her weight.

  She’d lied on it of course, but it still wasn’t something she wanted him to think about, or even notice. Madison held her hand out for the
license, and Stephen’s eyes met hers, searching her face in a way that made her uncomfortable.

  “Bea?” His voice was soft and unsure, nothing like it had been moments before during the presentation.

  Madison closed her eyes. Of course he would have seen her legal name. And now he’d finally made the connection as to who she was. Did she admit she remembered him, or pretend she was just now coming to put two and two together?

  “Yes,” Madison said. “My name is Beatrice. I go by Madison at work, though.”

  “You’re the Bea from King, Montana, where my grandparents lived.”

  Madison scrambled once more, trying to decide the best way to deal with this mess. It would have been much better for him to have never remembered her. Now they’d have all that awkward stuff from their past.

  “Yes.” Madison sighed. “One and the same.”

  Stephen’s gaze roamed her face and hair. “You were brunette back then. And a skinny little—” He stopped short and blushed and cleared his throat. She’d been a little on the awkward side and a bit of a late bloomer. “You remember me, right?”

  Madison struggled to keep her emotions in check. Oh, how she wished she could forget it all. She nodded slowly. “I remember.”

  “Oh my goodness. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you after all the fun we...” He cleared his throat. “I feel so foolish. But I’m so excited to see you again. I can’t believe we’re actually working together. We really need to catch up.”

  Before Madison could find a way to avoid the requested date she knew he was going to ask for, Mr. Carlson interrupted. “You two know each other?”

  Stephen cleared his throat. “We dated a few years back for a while. Knew each other as teens.”

  Madison looked at Mr. Carlson, who raised a brow then looked them both over. “You both good to work together?”

  Madison nodded. “Yes. There will be no problems at work.”

  “Good. I’d hate to think the past might interfere with your future here. You two are a perfect team.” He patted Madison on the shoulder then did the same to Stephen as he positioned himself between the two.

  How could he have thought that? The whole presentation had ended up with Stephen taking control of it all, talking over her in every one of her ideas, and she’d succumbed to it without doing anything to show she still knew what she was doing. Mr. Carlson had never seemed like a sexist kind of guy who didn’t value a woman’s input.

  “I have a wonderful idea,” Mr. Carlson continued. “I’d like you two to join efforts while Stephen’s here. I think with you both coming up with ideas and presenting them like this, we can bring in more big-name companies. Madison, I know you can keep up with the accounts for a while, but I’ll look into hiring someone to assist in that aspect. In fact, Robert might be able to do a lot of that kind of stuff from home. You can take it back when he returns. I’ll run it by him, but I want the two of you to brainstorm on the potential client list I showed you. You’ve got great chemistry together, and I’d love to see how fast our business can explode with you two.”

  Madison closed her eyes. Explode was right. There was no way she could work with Stephen like that. Too messy, and how could she keep Milo a secret if she was always with him? She didn’t want to explore those feeling for him, knowing he wouldn’t return them, or if he ever did, she didn’t trust them to stay. He’d tossed her away so easily before, how could she survive the hurt if it happened again? Besides, his time here was temporary. Just like it had been in King.

  Chapter Six

  Stephen stared at the computer screen in his office. He couldn’t believe Madison was Bea from years ago. He’d thought of her on occasion, but had usually ended up remembering the last time his family had been complete. They’d found out his mother had cancer right after returning to Hawaii after finalizing the sale of his grandparents’ farm. Her cancer had already advanced to stage four, and there had been nothing they could do. It had been quick and brutal, stealing his mother’s life away from his family.

  And though he’d wanted to contact Bea, her parents had made it clear she was off limits. They’d caught him sneaking out of her house one night and had threatened to charge him with everything they could think of if he didn’t clear out and stay away from her. They’d listed all his faults, knowing from his grandparents about some of the trouble he’d gotten into at home and why he’d been sent to King, Montana, every summer. They were still livid about Bea and him getting arrested for throwing water balloons at a car during the Fourth of July parade the summer before. How were they supposed to know the cold water would shatter the hot windshield?

  He’d tried calling and sneaking over to see her, but her parents had taken her on a shopping trip in preparation for college, but he knew it had been to get her away from him until he’d gone back home.

  He’d lost his phone in the ocean when he’d gone out boating to come to terms with his mother’s diagnosis and hadn’t had Bea’s cell phone number anywhere else. Her parents wouldn’t answer the house phone when he’d tried calling either. But Bea had never tried calling or finding him, making him think their time together had meant nothing to her.

  He should have never let her parents run him off, and if he hadn’t gotten distracted with his mother’s illness, he would have contacted her sooner. By the time he’d been ready to track her down, he’d figured she would have already been off to college dating someone. He’d looked for her on all the social media sites, but Bea Perry didn’t exist. And no wonder, if she’d changed her name to Madison.

  She must have thought he was a complete jerk, or just a horny guy after a summer fling. But now that he’d run into Bea again and was working with her for a few months, he was going to have to make things right.

  He thought back over the last twenty-four hours and understood a little bit of her hesitance. She’d remembered him. That had to be a good thing, right? He’d meant enough to her that she hadn’t just dismissed him completely when they’d lost touch.

  And seeing the type of woman she was today, blended with the memories surfacing from that summer, he really wanted to see where things could go.

  But how could he go about it? He was sure he was in the hole after having not recognized her at first. That would be hard to come back from. And by working together, he’d have to go slow so she didn’t get skittish or think he was harassing her. He’d have to check the company policy with HR to make sure it was okay to date.

  He hoped so. He very much wanted to rekindle what they once had.

  ***

  Madison flipped through the potential client list, not even registering the names. Her mind was on Stephen and the look of complete surprise when he realized who she was. She wasn’t sure if he had been impressed or horrified. This would make for a very uncomfortable couple of months.

  He was good here. She admitted that. And with his talents and her familiarity with the company, they could really do some good things for Carlson Ad Agency. Besides, she was a professional. She could keep things on the business level. It was never a good idea to date a colleague. And she really didn’t want to bring Milo in to the mix. Staying away from Stephen was the best thing she could do.

  As she thought of him again, she sighed. If she were truthful, she kind of did want to see where things would lead. But she’d worked too hard in the company to let something temporary like Stephen get in the way.

  She really didn’t know the man. So much could have changed over the last eight years. Though, when they’d been together that summer, he had seemed kind and reliable, nothing like her parents had accused him of being. Yet the moment he left, she’d obviously no longer been important to him.

  Madison focused her attention on the potential clients only to be distracted again when Stephen knocked on her door. He held his laptop up. “Do you have time to go over the list?”

  “That’s what I’m doing now. Have a seat.”

  Stephen entered the room, grabbed the chair he’d used yesterd
ay, and brought it around to her side where he’d sat as they’d worked. He didn’t bring it too close, for which Madison was thankful, but it was still disconcerting to have him near.

  Instead of opening his laptop, he set it on her desk and looked at the open file on hers. “I’ve heard of a few of these companies. Some I’ve had contact with, and it should be easy enough to bring them to Carlson.”

  “That’s good,” Madison said. “I know Robert made some initial inquiries to these companies, and a lot of them showed some interest in hearing what we could do. I’ll follow up with them.” She sighed at the workload ahead of her. She still had to take care of the client accounts since Robert wasn’t ready to take on that part yet. Hopefully, she’d still be able to leave the office on time each night. Though, Karen would be good about keeping Milo later, if it came to that.

  It would be easy enough to train Carrie to replace her if Robert couldn’t do it. Carrie had been doing a lot to assist her while she’d helped Robert. Madison would have to suggest her to Mr. Carlson.

  “I think I’ve got time to contact a few of these companies before the end of the business day if I get started right now.” Madison hoped he’d take the hint and leave so she didn’t have to spend more time with him at that moment.

  Stephen pushed his chair back away from her desk but didn’t stand. “I’ll work on some suggestions for pitches.”

  Madison nodded and turned to her work, but the man still didn’t take the hint and leave. Instead, he did what she was dreading and brought up the past.

  “Don’t you think we should talk about things?”

  She could divert the topic and claim they had already discussed how they would be working together, but he was right. They needed to air out the past and make rules for how things would go in the future. And she might as well start it out on the right track and set the rules.