Page 23 of Perfect Night
“We’d like to hear from the person who did the work. Charlie, can you talk us through it?”
“I really think Ocean needs to handle this,’ said Nathaniel.
“I’ll put it to you this way. You either let Charlie speak, or we’ll call it now and we can speak to someone else.”
That shut Nathaniel up. He nodded at Charlie to get on with it.
Charlie was staring at Sebastian with a shocked look on his face. It took him a few seconds to pull himself together, and then he made the point of addressing Candice directly. That was smart, as she’d asked, but Sebastian hoped it was because Charlie was still feeling something for him.
Charlie spoke passionately about why the social media campaign would work for Sebastian’s company. He linked it to their mission and values, something that didn’t come out as clearly in the rest of the pitch. He understood their customer base, and he knew that the strategy would attract new clientele, yet keep the existing ones.
Sebastian took a quick glance at the others. Ocean and the other one, whose name he’d forgotten, were enraptured by Charlie’s pitch, but not Nathaniel. He looked furious. Candice asked some pointed questions. Nothing aggressive, but they could only be answered by the person whose concept it was. That was deliberate on her part. She was the best customer-focused professional he’d ever worked with and had led award-winning teams. It took a lot to impress Candice. Not negatively, but she’d been doing this job a long time, and knew all the tricks agencies used. He could tell she was hanging on every word Charlie said, and that his confidence was building by the second.
Sebastian couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with pride by this remarkable man. Why was he working for an absolute arsehole? He had more talent than all of them put together, and he was at the bottom of the ladder. It was bullshit. Charlie could do so much better for himself. Sebastian wasn’t one for charging in and trying to fix things – okay, that was complete bullshit, butnot with his boyfriends. And now he was making assumptions about the relationship between them both. He couldn’t help it. He’d been attracted to Charlie before. After watching him in his element, he was besotted.
Nathaniel wrapped up the pitch after Charlie had finished, with Candice informing them the outcome would be communicated by the end of the following week. Everyone stood up, packing their things to go. Candice looked at Sebastian, surprised that he was still sitting down watching Charlie. He couldn’t let him walk out of here without talking to him, although how he wouldn’t make it look dodgy was a conundrum. He asked Candice for a quick word, saying his polite goodbyes to everyone, including Charlie, with the handshake perhaps lingering a bit too long.
“What’s wrong, boss?”
She always called him that when she was about to call him out on his shit.
“I need to speak to Charlie alone. Can you distract the others and get him to my office?”
She raised her eyebrows.
“We’re already acquainted.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Well –”
They were interrupted when Charlie came out. He looked surprised to see them both.
“Oh sorry, I was just wondering where the bathroom was.”
“I’ll show you,” said Sebastian, earning an eye roll from Candice. “Can you see to our guests, Candice? I’ll show Charlie the way out.”
He didn’t wait for a response, just walked toward his office, in the opposite direction of the toilet. He wasn’t sure if Charlie was following him at first, but felt him fall into step beside him. They arrived outside Sebastian’s office.
“In there.”
Charlie didn’t hesitate or look surprised that they were at Sebastian’s office. Once he closed the door, Charlie pushed Sebastian against it and stuck his tongue down his throat. Sebastian grabbed Charlie and swung them around, taking control. His knee was between Charlie’s legs. He could already feel how hard they both were as they vied for dominance of the kiss. It was only because Sebastian thought he was going to come in his pants that he pulled away.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” said Charlie, turning back into the uncertain guy he’d met almost two weeks ago.
“Don’t be sorry. It was hot. Did you actually need the bathroom?”
“No, I wanted to find you before I left. I deleted your number...”
Sebastian’s happy bubble deflated.
“But now I regret it. I just didn’t want to...”
“Didn’t want to what?”
“I thought you were just being polite. What do we have in common? I just didn’t want to get my hopes up.”
That made Sebastian smile. This guy was so adorable and didn’t realise how amazing he was.
