Her indifferent tone made me look up. “What?”
“The cardstock you’re looking for. Try soft-touch matte. Has that silky velvet feeling you might be looking for. It’s pretty impressive. Andveryexpensive.”
“That sounds perfect, do you happen to have a sample here?”
“Not recently. They’re not popular because of how expensive they can get, and not a lot of vendors carry it. But I’ll look into it, if it’s in the budget.”
“It’s in the budget,” I assured. “Claudia Heart made that very clear when I spoke to her. If it’s impressive, it’s not off limits.”
Mimi winked without another word and turned back to her screen. “I’m on it.”
I watched her for a moment and bit my lip. Had been practicing my apology for the past twenty-four hours and would probably still screw it up. “Hey. I’m sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have blown you off when you were trying to chat.”
She shook her head before I’d even finished. “No, no. I shouldn’t pry into your personal business.”
I decided there was no harm in telling one person about my insecurities. Heaven knows I’d never admit them to Char, even though my best friend probably already knew.
“To be honest Meem, when you asked me about my personal life, I felt like I got caught losing focus on a project I had no place to be given since I’m the most recent hire here. At Brightman, you didn’t make friends; everyone was a competitor. So I got a little defensive. Also, it’s totally something my mother would see and call me out on, which is probably why I have major trust issues, but we won’t get into that now.”
Mimi laughed. “Thanks,” she shrugged. “I’m not judging. Honestly, I’m just happy to see that you’re human. I’d read about your past events when you started. Pretty spectacular; and also very back to back. Probably didn’t leave much room for a social life. So I’m glad you found yourself a hot distraction.”
I bit my lip and smiled. “He is pretty hot,” I caved.
“You have to spill deets soon. We all need a time out from the insanity that goes on here and to be honest, lately you seem like you really need to talk about it. And honey, you can allow yourself time to get lost in your thoughts… otherwise… you’re just a robot.”
I laughed. “My old boss used to say things like that,” I relaxed and moved back to my seat. “It’s stressing me out. Things have just gotten so complicated, I’m afraid it’s not something I can make go away right now.”
Whether I broke it off with Scott or told him the truth, it would directly impact my job.
Mimi leaned in and whispered, “Then don’t,” as if it were the simplest solution in the world.
My eyes narrowed at her.
“Postpone it. At least until after the event next month.”
There was an idea.
“Clearly this has to do with Mr. Wonderful not knowing your real name—and whatever else there is tothatstory…but my point is Elle, it can wait. This opportunity can’t—and it’s got a real tight schedule. So whatever is stressing you out about it—save it until after the Winter Ballard.
I nodded like she’d just found the ultimate root of my issues. Of course. I couldn’t afford this distraction.
What was a few more weeks?
Maybe it wouldn’t be that terrible. I would just have to try and see less of Scott until the event and then pray that I hadn’t made a bad situation worse by waiting.
“Thanks for this, Mimi. You have no idea how much I needed someone to see both sides for me.” I glanced over her shoulder. “Geez,” I muttered. “Door’s still closed.”
“Oh yeah, that VIP is here again,” Mimi whispered. “Hey, maybe Starr will walk him over again at some point. You think your guy is hot, wait until you meet this tall, dark and deliciousness.” Mimi fanned herself and I laughed.
“I’ll just email Dean for his approval later. I need to get out and clear my head anyway.” I grabbed my jacket and headed for the elevator.
Finally—fresh air.
I definitely needed to soak some up before spending hours collecting options for centerpieces to send to Claudia, who was one frightening individual. By this point, I’d had three different occasions where I almost told her where to shove her “screw this up and you’ll never work in this town again” speech. Her demands had been outrageous and her attitude even worse. It was no question the woman wanted us to know who we were dealing with.
The sun was in my eye when I looked to one side of the street before crossing the intersection. Not seeing anything but glare and a red light, I started across and heard an obnoxiously threatening loud horn. I turned, to find a city cab flying over a speed bump and coming at me with no sign of stopping.
Before I could even think to sprint out of the way, a body slammed into me with his arms gripping my waist, hurling us both to the other side of the street, safely.
