“That’s too much.”
Now he was truly annoyed and it showed in his voice. “It’s the absolute lowest salary for that position. We don’t pay any lower.”
“Oh. Okay then.” She was humbled, realizing that she was negotiating with her fiancé, and also the CEO of the company.
Red smiled ever so slightly. “I think you might find that it would have been better to come work for me,” he said.
“I love my team.”
“But after today, will they still love you? That’s the question.”
***
It was strange walking into the building as Red Jameson’s fiancé. She was wearing a huge rock of an engagement ring, for one thing. It was also bizarre to think that in a short while she’d technically own half of this company.
Red had made it clear he wasn’t interested in a prenuptial agreement—she would be his true other half.
The knowledge made her both giddy and frightened all at once. She felt powerful and dangerous and suddenly regal. It was as if her spine had lengthened by two or three inches. Now, when she walked down the hall to her cubicle, she held her head high, smiled and nodded at the other employees as they passed by her.
After grabbing a cup of coffee, Nicole sat in her cube and got to work on Remi’s latest project. She’d finally completed the dancing cowboy assignment and now it was onto bigger and better—or at least different—tasks.
About two hours into her workday, she received a rare email from Edward. Usually she communicated with Glen or Remi, and almost never with Edward. This was an invite to the Monday morning creative team meeting. As an intern, she’d never attended it previously.
With butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Nicole accepted the invitation.
An hour later, she made her way to the conference room with its long, dark mahogany table and intimidating, black leather chairs. Everyone was sitting there already, talking—and their voices died down when she came in the room.
There were a few other faces present at the meeting besides the usual cast of characters, people who worked with the creative group that she wasn’t as familiar with. An older, salt and pepper haired man dressed in an impeccably fashionable suit. And a gorgeous younger woman that seemed to be only a year or two older than Nicole herself.
“Should I shut the door?” she squeaked, all of her earlier confidence dissipating like early morning fog did when the sun came up.
Edward nodded curtly. Then he turned to Glen. “So, now that the whole team is here, why don’t you start us off?” he said.
Was it her imagination, or did his comment about the “whole team” being here sound slightly bitter? She decided it was probably just her imagination. She didn’t even know if Red had told him anything yet.
Nicole took a seat next to Remi and tried to make eye contact with her friend and soon-to-be new boss, but Remi didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Maybe it was too early in the morning, or perhaps it was that things were more formal in the meeting.
Nicole opened her notebook and held her pen at the ready.
Glen blinked at everyone. “There’s been a slight change to this morning’s agenda,” he said. “As you may have noticed, we’ve got an addition to our weekly creative team meeting.” He smiled tightly and blinked three times, rapidly, as if using Morse code. “Miss Nicole Masters,” he said, gesturing grandly toward her, “who, I might add, has moved more quickly from intern to permanent placement than anyone in the history of Jameson International.”
Nicole felt her cheeks burn hot as everyone turned to look at her. To say the looks were less than friendly would have been an understatement. Remi didn’t even move a muscle, her eyes remained still and focused on Glen.
“Congratulations, Nicole,” Edward said softly. “Nicole will be the new assistant to Remi Danvers, and we welcome her to the team.”
It sure doesn’t feel like a welcome, Nicole thought. “Thanks so much,” she mumbled.
“Moving on,” Edward continued, and his voice seemed to fade into the distance, replaced by a high pitched buzzing in Nicole’s ears. She tried to focus on what he was saying, but she couldn’t.
Her heart pounding, her ears ringing, Nicole was suddenly dizzy.
She was having trouble catching her breath, and her heart was going so fast. She tried to sit up, adjust herself in the chair, anything to break this awful sensation that she was fainting or dying. Her hands were trembling. “Ah—excuse me,” she said, her lips numb as she spoke too loudly. “I need to run to the bathroom.” Standing and moving as fast as she could, Nicole hurried out of the meeting.