by KB Winters
As promised, Jeanine, Taylor, and Max were hanging out at the burger shop, soaking up the excess liquor in their systems with a tray full of cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes.
“She’s alive!” Taylor teased as I crossed the restaurant and squeezed into the booth.
I picked up a fry and popped it into my mouth. “Ha-ha. You’re hilarious.”
“You missed a great show,” Max said.
“All that matters is that she’s here now!” Jeanine said, silencing the two boys.
“Thank you,” I added.
Max handed me a burger and I dug in. My stomach rumbled in appreciation, and I realized it was the first thing I’d eaten all day. Well, other than the half a dozen cups of coffee. The three of them went on and on about the club, who was there, the music, and of course the hot female DJ that Taylor and Max seemed quite smitten by.
“Dude, your girlfriend is sitting right there,” I scolded Taylor as he wrapped up a very detailed description of her…assets.
Taylor wrapped an arm around Jeanine. “You don’t mind, do ya babe?”
Jeanine laughed. “I’m really not worried about it. If I thought you had a chance in hell with a girl like that... I might actually care.”
Taylor gave a mock look of hurt before laughing with her. “I have the best girlfriend.”
We all noshed on burgers and fries until the tray was empty and all our bellies were stuffed full.
“What time do ya gotta be home, Cinderella?” Taylor asked me.
I rolled my eyes. “Whenever I want. Shit, guys. You wonder why I don’t come and hang out more often.”
“Come on, Megan, don’t be like that,” Jeanine scolded. “We miss you—that’s all.”
“I wish I had more free time, but this is my last semester, and I have the internship too. That alone takes up way more than the ten hours a week it was originally supposed to be—and I also have that art showcase to get ready for.”
“Hey, at least you’re keeping busy. I should probably pick up an application before we head out,” Max said, nodding towards the front counter that was currently manned by a bunch of bored looking teenagers.
“Me too,” Jeanine added. “After the disaster at the symposium, I’d be lucky to end up with any kind of prospect come graduation.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. Jeanine had been all amped up that afternoon. I wondered what had changed to shift her mood so dramatically.
“Well, it’s been what, three days? And no one has called. From what everyone says, if you haven’t heard from the headhunters by now—it’s not gonna happen.”
“I’m sure you’ll get a call, Jeanine,” I said, reaching across the table to pat her hand.
Max and Taylor chimed in their sentiments and an odd silence fell over the table.
“Hey, if you want, I apparently have a connection at Timeless Timepieces now!” I tossed it out like a joke, but all three of them jolted to attention at the announcement.
“Timeless Timepieces?” Taylor repeated. “What are you talking about?”
I hadn’t told anyone about my chance encounter with Grant, and part of me wanted to keep it that way, but I knew they wouldn’t drop it, so I gave them a rundown of the meeting, and at the end, realized that it actually felt good to get it out of my own head, where it had been rattling around for the last few days. I knew the three faces across from me weren’t likely to provide any valuable insight, but it was good to get it off my chest anyways.
“Wait, wait. Let me get this straight,” Jeanine said. “Grant-freaking-Christiansen offered you a job at his billion—with a capital B—company and you said no?”
Crap.
“Well yeah, I mean, what would I do at a place like that?” I asked.
Jeanine’s face was turning a brilliant shade of red as she stared me down. “Oh, I don’t know, probably something awesome and even if it wasn’t, why would you care? You’d get a huge check every week!”
I reared back as though she’d slapped me. I’d never seen her like that before, and it was unnerving. “I didn’t think it would be a good fit for me.”
I tried to shrug it off but she stared me down and looked like she was about ready to yell at me again. She opened her mouth, closed it just as suddenly, and shook her head at me, a look of total disgust on her face before she got up and ran out of the restaurant. Taylor jumped up and chased after her without a word as Max and I watched them leave.
“Damn! What the hell was that?” I asked.
He waved it off. “She’s just jealous. She’s been trippin’ since the symposium thing. She has a shit ton of student loans. If she doesn’t get something lined up soon, she’s going to be stuck with the bill and no way to pay it off.”
“Oh.” I wished I’d never even brought it up. Although, to be fair, I had loans too, but I wouldn’t have treated her that way had the tables been turned.
“It’ll be fine, but Taylor’s my ride, so I gotta go. It was good seein’ you though,” Max said as he got up and started trotting towards the front door.
I slurped down the rest of my drink and dumped the trash they’d left on the table before going home.
The night certainly hadn’t gone as planned, but on the plus side, at least my dad wouldn’t be blowing up my phone at two am wondering where I was.
Chapter Five — Grant
By Friday afternoon, I had my answer — Megan Louise was working her internship at New Leaf Design Studio, a boutique printing studio that helped business design logos, letterheads, and custom printed merchandise. As soon as I had the address plugged into my phone, I ducked out of the office letting my assistant know I’d be gone for the rest of the afternoon.
I made my way to the little neighborhood shop that was located six blocks from the college campus. I parked along the street, leaving plenty of room in front and behind my Ferrari before getting out and surveying the shop. It was housed on the street level of an old section of town that had been converted and remodeled in recent years to have trendy student living options above and retail space below. The shop itself had a black awning stretched over the white French doors that led inside. There was a coffee shop on the right and a small gym on the left.
I stood by the car for a moment, straightening my tie, before crossing over and entering the small shop. I was greeted by a chime when I stepped into the cozy space and a redhead popped out from around the corner and smiled at me. “Hello, welcome to New Leaf Design Studio. Can I help you?”
I took three steps across the room to join her at the counter. She was a petite girl, probably a student and had a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. She eyed me up and down with a quick gaze, and I noted she pouted her lips as she waited for me to speak.
“Hello, I’m here to see Megan. Is she available?”
The redhead looked disappointed and gave a small sigh. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was used to men coming in asking for Megan. The very idea made my blood run hot.
“She’s not here.” The pout was now gone, and the girl looked a little put out.
I nodded slowly. “When will she be in?”
The girl made a show of looking up at the large clock that hung over a bookshelf. The shelf was packed full of leather bound binders that were probably filled with fonts, pictures, sketches. “She was supposed to take over for me half an hour ago.”
“Okay. Thank you.” With the new information I turned and left the shop. I wanted to ask more questions about Megan but didn’t want to risk campus security trying to crawl up my ass if the girl called them over to see about a potential stalker.
Instead, I wandered next door to the coffee shop. It had a large bar at the window with some empty seats, and I would be able to wait and see Megan when she arrived for her shift. The coffee shop was larger than I’d expected after being in the micro space next door. There were about a dozen tables scattered throughout, and almost all of them had multiple patrons crowded around them. The room was loud with the sounds of g
rinding beans, steam wands, and people chattering, and it was clear that it was more of a social spot than a study hall. I scanned the crowd as I waited in line at the counter, and did a double take as my eyes locked in on Megan. She was facing away from the door, but I recognized her profile immediately. Her dark, raven hair was piled up into a topknot on her head, and for the first time I noticed she had maroon colored streaks hiding under at the nape of her exposed neck. Her skin was displayed from her neck all the way down her back as the slouchy sweatshirt she was wearing draped off one shoulder. A sexy shoulder I wanted to kiss.
I abandoned the line and wove through the horde of students to get to her table.
“Hello Megan Louise,” I said, sliding into the seat across from her.
“Holy shit!” Megan jolted in her seat and spilled coffee down the front of her sweater. She pulled the top away from her skin and dabbed at it with a paper napkin that proceeded to disintegrate into tiny pieces as she frantically attempted to mop up the mess. “Grant? What are you—I mean, how did you—?” Her eyes bounced between her ruined shirt and my face, as though completely torn by where she should put her attention first.
“I told you, when I see something I want I don’t stop until it’s mine,” I said, smiling at her as I caught her admiring my chest. “I wanted to talk to you, so I made it happen.”
She gave up on trying to clean her shirt and tossed the crumpled napkin to the table. “And what is it that you want?”
To fuck you until you scream my name.
I pushed that thought aside knowing that first and foremost, Timeless Timepieces needed her, and with the state of things, that had to come first.
I pushed aside the textbook she’d been lost in when I first spotted her and leaned over the table. “I offered you a job, and you turned me down. I’m here to sweeten the pot. So tell me, what’s it going to take for you to say yes?”
She sighed and looked out the window for a beat, as though debating whether or not she had a price. Although, I’d learned a long time ago, everyone had a price.
“Grant, I’m sorry you wasted your afternoon chasing me down, but there’s just no way I can even take any job right now. So, it’s not personal, but I’m going to have to decline…again.”
“I’ll make sure you’re fairly compensated,” I pressed. I didn’t have a dollar amount in mind, but I assumed a college girl with a full time course load and an internship would probably be swayed by just about any offer I threw out. And I didn’t like to be rejected. For anything. And I would s to it that I wasn’t.
“I’m sorry,” she replied, shaking her head. “I’m really not trying to be difficult, I’m just being honest. I already have a full course load, and it’s my final year, so I don’t have wiggle room. On top of that, I have a stupid internship that eats up way more time and energy than you’d think. Granted, most of that time is spent studying or catching up on emails, but that’s beside the point.”
“I could work around your schedule. Think of it like being a consultant. You can set your own hours. I swear,” I countered. As it was, I’d already caught her late for work, and planned to make her even later. Surely a flexible schedule was important to a girl like her. Artists always seemed to flourish under a less constricted work pace.
She stared at me, not blinking, like I was a puzzle she couldn’t quite figure out. “Why do you even care? If I remember correctly, all I did to earn your favor was to tell you how many things sucked about your ad campaign.”
“Exactly, you gave me your honest, straight from the gut, unbiased opinion. A no nonsense, no ass kiss answer, and I needed that. Timeless needs that. Everyone I hire is too busy trying to impress me or tell me what they think I want to hear. None of them actually tell me when one of my ideas suck. I spent nearly a year on the Shock Watches campaign and in less than two minutes, you pointed out everything that was wrong with it. So, you can see how getting your eyes on something before I spend tens of thousands of dollars on it would be beneficial.”
She squinted at me. “But, I know who you are now. Cat’s kinda out of the bag. So, what makes you think I wouldn’t just agree with you and turn into one of the drones you apparently have on staff now?”
I laughed at her appraisal of my marketing department. It was pretty spot on. “Because that’s not who you are.”
Her pupils grew larger as she continued to study me. I half expected her to ask where the hidden cameras were lurking, like I was setting her up on a game show or social experiment. “I don’t know that you know me,” she said, her voice soft and quiet.
“I’m very perceptive.”
“Hmm. Well, like I said, I’m not into marketing, and I don’t think a job with your company is going to help further my art career. If you want my real, honest opinion on what you should do, it’s that you should get rid of the suck ups currently on payroll and replace your staff—and I don’t mean with me. I mean with qualified, educated marketers. Surely Timeless can afford to hire a few headhunters.” She cocked an eyebrow at me, as though waiting for validation of her point, before adding, “So, once again, thanks, but no thanks.”
I smiled at her resistance. I knew I would find a way to convince her, and it was exciting to try and figure it out. “Let me ask you one more question,” I started.
She sighed and rolled her fingers in the air, motioning for me to continue.
“Is it the marketing aspect that you don’t like, or the idea of working with me that has you so opposed?”
She laughed and shook her head. “You’re not listening. I don’t have time. It doesn’t matter what you offer me. Why are you so set on this?”
“I like you Megan. You have fire, spunk, and tenacity.” I knew I had her. I just had to list it out the right way. I had to present it--correctly. “What if, instead of marketing, you worked with our customer relations team? You would be involved in our social media presence to figure out what the people want, and then work with the art and marketing team to create campaign ideas based on the feedback of our target markets.”
She nodded slowly, processing my new offer.
“I’d make it work around your schedule and pay you a salary, regardless of the amount of hours you could actually devote to it.”
Megan’s phone rang, and I could see the name and logo for New Leaf Design Studio flash on the screen. She cringed and silenced the call. “I’ll think about it, but I’ll have to get back to you later. I’m late for my internship.”
“Here, take this,” I said, slipping her another business card. I figured the one I’d given her at the symposium had long since been pitched into the trash. She took the card, and I let my fingertips brush hers before handing it off. “Thank you for your time. It was good to see you again.”
She gave me another puzzled look, pocketed the card, and grabbed her belongings before carefully weaving through the crowd to get outside the busy cafe. I smiled when she paused on the front walk to look back. Our eyes connected but she quickly looked away. She shook her head, and I could practically hear her mental lecture to herself before she continued down the sidewalk and out of my sight. I leaned back in the chair and smiled to myself knowing it would only be a matter of time before she used my card and gave into the offer I’d just presented to her.
A part of me wondered why I couldn’t get her out of my head. What was this pull she had on me? Everything I’d said about her raw talent for marketing, her unabashed honesty, and her eye for graphics and art was all true, but I had to admit she was right—Timeless could hire the best headhunters and dig up an entirely new team with new ideas. People who were looking for jobs and not require all the convincing and coaxing. But there was something about her. I couldn’t let it go. It wasn’t only her beauty either. No, beauty was common. Something else was at work, another piece of her I hadn’t uncovered yet, but once I did, it would be the key to unlocking the rest of her. I had no doubt I would figure it out.
And I did so love a challenge.
In t
he meantime, all I had to do was wait for her call—and she would call.
Chapter Six — Megan
“You’re late,” Roxanne chided the second I stepped in the door at New Leaf Design Studio, where I was doing my internship.
“I know, I know. I’m so sorry.” I scurried around the counter and threw my purse down on the desk in the tiny office where interns were supposed to work, but usually ended up cruising social media pages until their time was done. I set my coffee cup down, wiped away the maroon lipstick from the rim, and turned to offer it to Roxanne. I’d only taken a few sips before Grant’s appearance and figured it would go a long way to making sure Roxanne didn’t turn me in for being late. “I brought you a latte to make it up to you. Sorry, it’s kinda empty. I had a little accident,” I said, gesturing at the mess on my shirt.
“Oh shit!” she said with hardly a note of concern as she greedily pulled the coffee cup out of my hands and took a long sip. “Thanks for this, though.”
I nodded. “Anything I need to know before you go?”
Roxanne pulled out a stack of new orders and explained the details to me, but I couldn’t concentrate. Grant’s chiseled face, velvet voice, and man scent was sucking up all of my mental capacity. How could I be expected to think about different filigree styles and margin settings when that delicious piece of man candy was likely still within walking distance?
“Got it?” Roxanne asked as she handed over the paperwork.
I took the pages in my limp fingers and gave her my best reassuring nod even though I had no idea what she’d said.
“See ya tomorrow,” she said, darting out of the office with my coffee cup.
Once the chiming from the door subsided, I was left in silence and my brain activity reached new levels of insanity. There were so many questions pinging around in my head that it was hard to latch onto one long enough to think of plausible answers before I was already formulating the next. How had Grant even figured out where to find me? Obviously he’d done some detective work or something—there was no way he just happened to pop into the same coffee shop next door to my internship location at the exact time I was there. Was he stalking me? And if so, why? I was probably among the top ten least interesting people at UCLA. I mean sure, my friends and family liked me, but they kind of had to, didn’t they? It was some kind of pre-requisite. Men like Grant were constantly surrounded by woman ten times flashier, exotic, traveled, and cultured than me. So, what was his deal?