“You’re such a humble man, Gideon Cross.”
“You make me look good, Mrs. Cross.”
We stepped into the elevator with a few other people and he took the rear corner, hooking me to him with an arm around my waist, his hand pressed flat against my belly, his chest warm and hard against my back.
I savored those few minutes with him, refusing to think about work or Brett until we parted on the twentieth floor.
Megumi was already at her desk when I approached the glass security doors, and the sight of her made me smile. She’d trimmed her hair since I’d seen her Friday night and polished her nails a bright red. It was good to see the small signs that she was reclaiming her spirit.
“Hey, you,” she greeted me after buzzing me in, pushing to her feet.
“You look great.”
Her smile widened. “Thanks. How’d it go with Gideon’s sister?”
“Awesome. She’s a lot of fun. It makes me melt seeing Gideon with her.”
“He makes me melt, period. You lucky bitch. Anyway, I put a call through to your line earlier. They wanted to leave a message.”
I shifted on my feet, thinking of Brett. “Was it a guy?”
“No, a woman.”
“Hmm, I’ll go check it out, thanks.”
I headed back to my desk and got settled in, my gaze coming to rest on the collage of photos of Gideon and me. I still needed to talk to him about Crossroads. There hadn’t been a good time over the weekend. We’d had enough on our plates having Ireland over.
He hadn’t slept Saturday night. I’d hoped he would but hadn’t really expected him to. It was hard for me, thinking of his inner struggle, his worry and fear. He carried shame, too, and an inherent belief that he was broken. Damaged goods.
He didn’t see in himself what I saw—a generous soul who wanted so much to belong to something greater than himself. He didn’t recognize what a miracle he was. When he didn’t know what to do in a given situation, he let instinct and his heart take over. Despite all he’d been through, he had such an amazing capacity to feel and to love.
He’d saved me, in so many ways. I was going to do whatever needed to be done to save him, too.
I listened to my messages. When Mark came in, I stood, and met him with a grin and bouncing anticipation.
His brows rose. “What’s got you so excited?”
“A gal from LanCorp called this morning. They want to meet with us sometime this week to talk a bit more about what they’re hoping to achieve with the launch of the PhazeOne system.”
His dark eyes took on a familiar sparkle. He’d become a happier man overall since he and Steven had become engaged, but there was a whole different energy to him when he was eager about a new account. “You and me, kid, we’re going places.”
I hopped a little on my feet. “Yeah. You’ve got this. Once they meet with you in person, you’ll have them eating out of your hand.”
Mark laughed. “You’re good for my confidence.”
I winked at him. “I’m good for you, period.”
We spent the morning working on the PhazeOne RFP, putting together comps to better grasp how we might position the new gaming system against its competition. I had a momentary pause when I realized how much buzz surrounded the upcoming release of the next-generation GenTen console—which happened to be a product of Cross Industries, making it PhazeOne’s primary rival in the marketplace.
Pointing the situation out to Mark, I asked, “Is it going to be a problem? I mean, could LanCorp possibly see a conflict of interest with me working for you on this?”