I couldn’t move.
I wondered again, just why I was letting her go? It had never been in my plan to have something permanent, at least not now, and there was a certain hesitation in me that I couldn’t brush away. “It’s not the right time,” I told myself.
But would it ever be? The question came back to haunt me.
I didn’t have a clue.
Leah
“I should have kissed him.”
The three of us were buckled in for the flight home, and up till this moment, I hadn’t said a word about the parting, but this regret kept repeating in my mind, and it was close to driving me crazy. I hadn’t even shed a single tear, yet these words refused to let go of me.
Tracy placed her hand atop mine.
Anne turned from her aisle seat to gaze softly at me. “Why didn’t you?”
“Who fucking knows?” I muttered not wanting to think about him or anything else for that matter that had happened in Alanya from this moment henceforth.
The pilot announced our departure, and we began to taxi down the runaway. I wore my headphones, as I slept the whole way across continents and a seeming lifetime, back to Indianapolis.
The moment I arrived back home, Cheryl greeted me at the door.
My corgi had been dropped off earlier that morning by my neighbor, Camilla, after being fed and pampered over at her house for the time that I had been gone.
Her tail was wagging as she circled me in excitement, and my eyes misted at the sight of her. I placed my bags down, lowered to the floor and allowed her to jump into my arms. “You missed me?” I asked, as she showered my face with sloppy, dog kisses.
I felt life begin to come into my heart again.
“Yes you did.” I laughed. “I missed you too, sweetheart.”
I held the puppy in my arms and for the first time in two days, believed that I would be okay.
“It was just a week,” I said aloud to myself as I petted her. “I’ll be over him in no time.”
Chapter 15
Leah
One month later
“Leah, have you seen the new Vice President?” Jeremy, our team’s Junior Illustrator asked.
The last thing I wanted right then was to pull my gaze away from the new project’s proposal request I was reading through, especially as the meeting was about to start.
“Leah,” he grumbled at my silence.
I turned a full smile ready for him. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I just got this brief from Henry, and I have to get up to speed before the meeting starts. I don’t know why he would send it so late to us.”
“Marlow took a few days off,” he answered, referring to our team head Henry’s secretary. “And a bunch of people also got sick on the executive floor. They’ve been out of the office for days. Apparently, a flu bug is going around.”
I lifted my head and gave him my full attention then. “What bug?”
“Norovirus-the flu. It started in the media and operations team. Mariah and Anthony are both going to be absent today too.”
I turned to see that the Content Manager and Project Managers usually favored seats in the conference room were unoccupied. “Maybe it’s only going around in their section.” I shrugged and returned to my documents. “At least, I hope it is. I can’t afford to get sick right now.”
“My cubicle is in their section,” he said dryly.
I turned an apologetic gaze to him.
“Well, you definitely won’t be able to escape it.” He shrugged. “I overheard Aarif asking Henry for a day off earlier today.”
“That’s Aarif. He never misses a chance to take a day off, so he might actually not be sick.”
“Well, I should probably take a page from his book and call in sick tomorrow,” he muttered just as the Chief Marketing Officer Bradley Miller and the acclaimed ‘new guy’ came in.
I had seen him around the building, in elevators and in passing but hadn’t paid any attention whatsoever. “That’s him right?” I leaned into Jeremy to whisper.
“Yes, that is him,” he replied with appreciation in his voice.
I turned to him with a cocked head.
His gaze, however, was lost on the suited and sturdily built man with just a dusting of grey at his temples and along his beard. He looked like Joe Manganiello’s twin, and was sinfully attractive. No wonder he had stirred quite the buzz throughout the company during the week.
“You interested?” I asked.
He scoffed in response. “If there wasn’t the chance that I’d be sued for sexual harassment I would have made a move on him tonight.”
I chuckled soundlessly under my breath. “Why tonight? What’s happening?”
He turned to me in surprise. “What’s been going on with you? You’ve been so out of it since you got back from your trip.”
I didn’t want to think at all about his comment, so I ignored him, but I still had one last question before we could no longer speak. I kept my eyes on the executives as they exchanged greetings and handshakes before settling down into their seats. “I’m guessing he brought this account along with him?”
“Earned him the prestigious position of Marketing VP. He’s our boss’s boss. Makes me want him even more.”
I smacked him with my folder just as the meeting officially began.
CMO Miller rose to introduce our new highly esteemed VP Daniel Coghlan. He narrated his accolades.
VP Daniel then rose to his feet and the meeting began. Our task was to introduce the new energy drink into the market, Vita100, a new undertaking from the enterprise that only previously dealt with energy bars. Bottles of the 3 oz drink was passed around and we all took our first taste.
The VP presented the creative brief and established the scope of works. Henry Simmons was officially appointed as Creative Director for the project.
As a Junior Copywriter, I usually didn’t bother much with which projects we were assigned per time, but given the competition we were up against like
