A few minutes later I heard the elevator ding and then some commotion out in the hall. Frustrated, I bolted outside my office, slamming the door shut behind me.
Three women turned in my direction. Claudia peeled herself off of where she’d been leaning over Kat’s desk and stood tall, rolling her shoulders back. Her overly made-up face and unnecessary heels approached me.
“Scott, finally. Will you please tell the assistant to do her job when you have visitors?”
I pushed my jacket back, placing my hands on my waist, glaring at the vixen before me. “Her name is Katherine,” I barked. “And I think I heard her ask you to take a seat.”
“Mr. Hayes asked to not be disturbed during his meeting,” Kat nervously explained to me.
Claudia’s head shot back to Kat. “That’s because you haven’t told him I’m here. My colleague Rebecca is here as well,” she turned back to me with a softer expression, pointing out the other woman. “She’s one of my leads on the Ballard event that we need to urgently catch up on.”
I ignored the introduction. “Kat will let you know when we’re ready. After the two of you offer your apologies to her; she’ll usher you in,” I turned and walked back to my office, “Unless I made myself clear, you can reschedule.” I knew they wouldn’t. Claudia needed those names. Her timeline depended on it and her senior partners were no doubt pressing for the source of the funds. My connections were crucial to her little project.
About twenty minutes later, Kat pushed my door open. “I just brought Claudia and Rebecca into Donovan’s office.”
“Great, I’ll meet them there in a minute. Thanks so much, Kat.”
“Thankyou,” she said smiling. “But you know, I’m usually pretty good at handling—”
I held up a hand. “Oh—no need. I’m well aware you can hold your own. But it’s still not something I am willing to tolerate. And I’m going to make sure Donovan doesn’t either.”
She nodded and I followed her out of my office and into Donovan’s.
“And then he made us apologize to her,” Claudia whined.
Donovan chuckled just before I shot him an unamused expression. My old boss immediately cleared his throat. “Well, I’m glad you did. Kat holds an important position and we can’t have our guests coming in here and asking her to break the rules for them.”
So he did understand. Or just knew how to appease me.
I walked to the center of the room and tossed a folder on the glass table in front of the two women. “A few options,” I placed both hands in my pockets and strode to the window—an old habit of mine when I felt highly irritable or when I wanted to be anywhere but where I was. Usually, Donovan would pick up on it and take over.
“My recommendation is the top two, they’re offering top dollar for a spot at the entrance; not sure how fitting that would be; given the industry. The second might be a better fit, and they claim to have the capacity in the coming weeks to make custom samples for the gift bags.”
Claudia and her colleague scanned the rest of the short list of names on my list. They exchanged a few looks and muttered a few words before Claudia stood.
“Works for us. We’ll draw up the contracts ASAP. I’ll need logos, locations and main contacts from each firm as soon as possible; we’ll need to add them to our lineup of sponsors on the website.”
I shrugged from where I stood. “Don’t look at me, my job is done. The rest is you and the event planner,” I smirked. “I suppose if you were nicer to Katherine, she might be willing to take time out of her busy day to email you the contact info.”
Claudia huffed and turned to Rebecca, who stood immediately.
“Becky, call Elle and tell her to track these contacts down immediately and get the ball rolling.”
Rebecca grabbed her phone and stepped out.
Claudia sauntered toward me at the window, ignoring Donovan’s heckling. “Scott, this is very important. No screw-ups,” she warned.
I smirked and turned away from her. “Then I suggest you bring your A-game, Claud.”
“I’m serious. I’m not sure I’m liking the attitude I’m getting from this Elle when I speak to her so I want to make sure you didn’t purposely set me up with a total ditz just to spite me.”
I whipped around. “You think I’m playing games with you? Get over yourself Claudia. This is big for me too. That’s why I made sure Dean got the best on the job. Besides, I’ve just signed on as a temporary partner. This has my name all over it too. If anything goes wrong, trust me, she’ll have someone much bigger than you to answer to.”
Claudia nodded. “That’s comforting,” she hesitated then ran a finger along my tie. “So I guess we’ll be seeing each other there. I’m sure I could arrange for us to sit at the same table.”
I almost laughed, but instead, looked at her with empty eyes. “There’s no need for that. I already have a date.”
Her hand dropped. “Oh. Can’t wait to meet her,” she shrugged a single shoulder and turned, walking over to Donovan and offering him a kiss on the cheek before joining her friend outside.
