THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID (7 page)

Our similarities
stopped there.

Avoiding any
further conversation about Will she started a topic anew effectively cutting
Will from our little circle. “Did you hear?” She asked.

“Did I hear what?”
The elevator doors opened and the mass of people that had collected while we
waited for an elevator car moved in unison toward the entrance.

“About the
merger,” she continued. Will stepped in behind us with his hands at the bases
of our spines. I could tell Stacey didn’t care for his herding technique
because one eye squinted while the opposite side of her mouth twitched with
grin/grimace combination.

“No.” We turned
around to face forward using socially acceptable elevator etiquette. Since he
had ushered us in, Will ended up in front of us when we faced forward. Stacey
took the opportunity to make eyes at me questioning Will’s intentions. I shook
my head and tried to get us back on track. “What merger?” I brought my coffee
to my lips while I awaited her answer.

“Norstride is
merging with Jubilee,” she finally revealed. The information that she shared
was bigger news for me than she could possibly know. Another choking fit ensued
as I had just started to swallow a sip of coffee.

Stacey took her
turn of pounding me on the back. “What the hell,” she stated. “Take it easy,
Dee. This is good news.”

“They’re merging?”
Cough, cough, cough. “Where will their headquarters be?” I asked still gasping
for breath.

“The whole company
is being relocated to Virginia. Can you believe that? I guess we will finally
start accumulating frequent flyer miles.”

I just stared at
her blinking. Stacey held her hands out, palms up and facing the heavens like I
had suddenly developed a mental disorder. “What the hell is wrong with you? Did
you leave your brain at home?”

Will half turned
around to answer. “No. Just her wallet.”

Stacey twitched
her head irritated that he had the audacity to put in his two cents.

Norstride was our
biggest pharmaceutical client. We had others but it was the mainstay of our
client list. We handled all of their press releases, company news, and
corporate announcements. Jubilee was a southern company that manufactured
medical supplies. Many of my friends’ parents from the town I grew up in worked
for Jubilee when I was a kid. I knew the company had grown but I didn’t realize
that a merger was on the horizon. Jubilee was also the place of business of one
Mr. Matthew (a.k.a. Hugh) Rowen. He had joined their legal team a couple of
years ago.

“Are you certain?”
I asked as my heart began to race faster.

“Yes! Don’t you
check your emails before you go to bed? It was announced late last night. The
function that we are attending Friday is when the big announcement will take
place. Both companies will be represented,” Stacey finished talking just as the
elevator opened on our floor. Will stepped out allowing us to pass. He held one
arm in front of the elevator door to prevent it from closing and one arm out
showing us the way.

“Bye, Delilah,”
Will whispered as I walked past him.

Even though my
mind was reeling with thoughts of Hugh, Norstride, Jubilee and the merger I
heard Will’s parting words and answered him robotically. “Bye, Will. Thanks
again for the coffee.” He gave me a smile as the people behind me pushed me
forward while others who had let them pass by piled back inside to keep going.
Will was one of them. He worked on the floor above.

“He’s weird,”
Stacey blurted luckily after the elevator doors closed and we were halfway down
the hall.

“He’s not weird!”
I defended fervently. “He’s southern.” I don’t know why I was getting all riled
up over Stacey’s opinion of Will.

“So all guys from
the south are weird?” she asked.

“No, Stacey! He’s
polite,” my southern accent showed up inexplicably. “Something that you aren’t
used to from the guys around here who grunt at you all day long and then expect
to get laid.” Now I was not only standing up for Will with my southern accent
but I was unnecessarily putting down the locals at the same time. Truthfully,
Will
was
a little strange but he had
also demonstrated that he could be sweet and endearing. His thoughtfulness in
my mind gave him a redeeming quality in a geeky sort of way. Sort of. Well kind
of sort of. Not for me but for someone. And he appeared to be relatively
harmless and he had bought me coffee when I was in dire need.

“I like grunting,”
she responded as we approached the door to the office we shared. No surprise
there.

“Well, then,
that’s why you find Will to be weird.” I accentuated my point with a wave of my
hand. “He actually knows how to have a conversation and then he buys a girl in
need a cup of coffee.”

Stacey turned to
look at me instead of entering. “Then he fucks her?” She raised her eyebrows
asking me if that meant I was going to fuck Will.

“No,” I stated
flatly and then sighed heavily realizing I was shoveling sand against the tide.
Stacey was set in her ways. I pushed past her and walked straight to my desk. I
turned on my computer so it could warm up while I tucked my enormous bag in the
bottom drawer of my desk and changed my shoes.

“Just so you know,
Delilah. All guys, even Will, just want to get laid. Mark my words,” Stacey
educated.

My ass had barely
hit the seat of my chair when our intercom crackled. I knew what that meant.
Before it started spurting instructions my eyes closed and my hands covered my
face in frustration.

“Conference room.”
Psht. “9:20.” Psht. “Over.”

That was Logan.
Our assistant.

We explained to
him on several occasions that the intercom wasn’t a walkie-talkie but he was
under the misconception that his curt and concise responses followed by an
‘over’ made him sound more serious or dedicated or some other bullshit like
that. When what it really did was make him sound like a four-year-old
assistant.

Since Stacey
hadn’t sat down she walked to the doorway and peeked her head outside where
Logan sat. “Get me a cup of coffee.” Then she made the ‘psht’ sound with her
mouth and said ‘over.’

The intercom
crackled again. “Say, please.” Psht. “Over.”

Stacey’s head was
still outside of the room. “No,” she answered speaking to him directly. Then
she made the ‘psht’ sound again and said ‘over.’

“Bitch,” he stated
through the microphone. Psht. “Over.”

Stacey came back
to her desk and sat with a huff. “Didn’t we fire him at some point?” Stacey
questioned. It wasn’t the first time he had called her a bitch.

“I thought so but
he keeps showing up and he keeps getting paid so make of that what you will,” I
answered still completely distracted by the overwhelming news of the pending
merger.

Stacey dropped the
subject of Logan’s dismissal and forged on. “We should bring all of our notes
on Norstride to the conference room. I have a feeling we are going to be
briefed.”

I peeked through
my fingers to look at Stacey. “Yeah,” I agreed. Stacey could be called a lot of
things, most in the category of offensive or insulting, but she was always
prepared and well versed for a meeting.

I felt her eyes
burning a hole in the top of my head as I mentally began the process of pulling
myself together. “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on with you?”
Stacey asked as she organized herself and her files.

I swallowed hard
because I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I would share with Stacey. I knew
first hand that she couldn’t be trusted and I had never told another soul about
what happened with Hugh. The only person who knew all the gory details was
Julia and she had lived through it with me. I dropped my hands from my face and
let them fall to my desk like they weighed a hundred pounds each. I looked at
the clock to see how much time we had. Ten minutes. Not nearly enough time to
craft a reasonable story.

“I’ll explain
after the meeting.”

I decided to
postpone offering any explanation to Stacey. Waiting would also give me time to
concoct a story to share with her. That was if she even remembered that
something was bothering me in the first place. It was always hard for me to
remember because we worked so closely together. But Stacey and I were not
friends. We were nothing more than associates at a P.R. firm.

Nothing more.

“Okay. Well then
snap yourself out of it for now. I’m not going into a meeting for our biggest
client with your mouth dropped open like that. You look ridiculous. So chop,
chop.” She snapped her fingers at me to get me started. One thing about Stacey,
she always meant business. But sometimes that was just what I needed. I did
what she said and snapped myself out of the bowels of fear that I was drowning
in.

“Focus,” I told
myself. So I did my best impersonation of a professional PR Executive who was
focusing on the job at hand. I started to gather my files on Norstride and any
information I had on Jubilee. My thoughts about Hugh Rowen and how he might tie
into this merger would have to wait.

Chapter 5

“Stacey Horner. I
would like you to meet Hugh Rowen,” I heard my boss begin. “He is heading up
the legal team that will be handling the merger for Jubilee and Norstride.
Hugh, this is Stacey and her partner…her partner…”

My boss Steven
Smith was looking for me. But I was too busy trying not to drop dead while I
plastered myself up against the wall outside of the conference room. To say
that I was totally panic stricken would be a massive understatement. My hands
were so sweaty they were sticking to the wallboard.

As soon as we had
approached the conference room, I caught a glimpse through the glass windows
inside that room. At first I thought I was hallucinating but then I realized
that Hugh Rowen was sitting at the table. So naturally, I instantly stopped
breathing and went into full panic mode. I wasn’t prepared to see Hugh
ever
least of all in a conference room
where I worked. So as soon as my brain registered that it was the love of my
life parked at that conference table I scooted past the door and threw myself
against the wall so he couldn’t see me. I remained paralyzed there while Steve
was beginning introductions. I could hear the entire conversation. I could even
tell that Steven was circling left and right trying to locate me in the room.
Then I heard him say, “Hugh, Stacey has a partner who you will meet. She must
be running behind.”

I heard feet
quickly padding the floor in my direction. A hand wrapped around the doorjamb
and grabbed my arm. The palms of my hands acted like suction cups and made a
popping noise when they were ripped from the wall. Stacey proceeded to drag me
inside. “Oh, there you are, Delilah,” Steven said with a smile. My eyes must
have looked like saucers because I saw a slow smile consume Hugh’s face. “Hugh,
this is the other half of the wildly successful Norstride PR team, Delilah
Welling.”

Hugh, who was
already standing, pushed his chair away from the table with the backs of his
legs and made his way around to get to me. He stuck his hand straight out to
shake mine while I stood there in complete shock. Holy shit. He was even more
beautiful than I remembered.

“So nice to meet
you, Delilah.” He was staring straight into my soul. He cleared his throat and
then turned his attention to Stacey who was without a doubt sizing up Hugh as
boyfriend material, a potential vessel for career advancement or (with my luck)
both.

I didn’t think it
was possible for the reality of Hugh to be better than the image I had etched
in my mind for all those years. He was only twenty-one years old when he stood
at that altar and he was the most beautiful male specimen I had ever seen then.
Now he was just as handsome but his features had lost their boyish roundness
and had become chiseled. He looked like a runway model dressed in a navy blue
power suit. Good Lord, I had to start fanning myself.

Stacey was no
fool. She wasn’t going to waste her golden opportunity. “It is
so
nice to meet you, Mr. Rowen. I just
don’t think that I could be happier about the merger. I know this will mean big
things for both companies and I genuinely look forward to servicing you,” she
smiled her beautiful smile and batted her meticulously lengthened eyelashes
while my eyes were crossing and I was just doing my best not to pass out.

Then my eyebrows
pinched together. Did I just hear what I thought I just heard? Did she say that
she looked forward to servicing him?

Then I heard
Steven clear his throat probably thinking what I was thinking. What the hell
was wrong with that girl? Out of the corner of my eye I saw Steven scratch his
forehead. “She means service your company,” he qualified.

Hugh ignored
Stacey’s comment and Steven’s correction. I would have sworn his attention was
focused on me but I really couldn’t see straight so that was a wishful
assumption on my part because he seemed to be facing my general direction.
“Maybe we should all sit down,” I heard Hugh suggest.

“Good idea,” I
mumbled faintly pulling my Peter Pan collar from my reddened neck.

“Would anyone like
a beverage before we get started?” Steven moved toward the far end of the table
and sat. He pulled the phone that sat atop the table closer to him and pressed
the intercom button to summon his assistant.

Maria, the person
with the most annoying voice in the world quickly answered. “Yes?” She droned,
her voice quivering in a way that made me upchuck in my throat.

“Maria would you
get us some coffees?” Steven asked pitching his body forward speaking directly
over the intercom. He pointed to Hugh who nodded and then Hugh turned his face
back to look at me. “Four please.” Steven didn’t care if Stacey or I wanted
coffee or not. We had all been in enough meetings together for him to know that
we would drink whatever sat in front of us. So he just ordered for us as per
usual.