Tongue Tied

Chapter 15

                   

"What are you going to do about Rutherford Laurence?" Michelle asked, throwing back the rest of her vanilla frappe.

Renee, Michelle and I had decided to go to the little coffee shop across the street from Corbin and Hilliard for lunch. I'd told them about what happened with Darin and Alec at the gala, though Renee already knew most of the story. Michelle's mouth hung open in surprise when I told her I'd not only had a good conversation, but I'd slow danced with the vice president of Abernathy Advertisements, and he'd bought me a drink. Win, win, win?

Rutherford Laurence, however, was a different set of issues. I was down to twelve days to come up with the perfect pitch, somehow talk Sean into giving me the time of day, and pull off the biggest agency swap of the year. No pressure, right?

"Well, there's two ways I could go. I don't know if I should take a chance on whichever one I think is better, or do both and probably waste a lot of time only to get a no." I shrugged, sipping on my mocha and shivering a little.

For mid-fall, though we lived near the beach, it was pretty chilly even inside the coffee shop. I'd made the mistake of leaving my jacket hanging on the back of my office chair when we left and I could feel goosebumps through the material of my long sleeves.

"What are the two options you're thinking of?" Renee asked. She'd been poking at her cinnamon roll for twenty minutes and I was beginning to wonder if she was even going to eat it.

I groaned, leaning back in the flimsy wooden chair. I was sitting right next to a window and I could feel the cold air seeping through cracks in the seal.

"I know Harper Media went with the dark, depressing, negative ad, so I'm debating doing one of those and hoping I design it well enough that Sean will like it more than theirs," I explained. "Or my other option would be trying to pitch that revised positive presentation. I still think it has a lot of potential, and between the two, I think most people would be more influenced by a positive ad."

There was no need for me to explain my reasoning. Everyone I worked with knew I believed positive advertisements were stronger and better than negative ones. It was evident in every advertisement I worked on. Unless the client specifically requested a depressing ad, I never created one. Nine times out of ten, my ads were well-received and wildly effective.

"But you're also thinking of doing both." Renee frowned, trying to comprehend the blob of information I'd thrown at them. It was getting difficult to keep up with all the different options and what may or may not be the best idea.

I nodded slowly, unsure of if I was still debating that idea or not. "Yeah," I said, staring at my coffee cup. "I think."

Michelle took the cloak of silence as an opportunity to bring up the gala again. "So... This guy Darin..." she giggled. "What do you think of him?" She and Renee wiggled their eyebrows in unison.

"I don't know, guys," I waved my hand. I was still pretty upset over Alec and Blondie, though I had no real right to be, and the last thing I needed to think about was anything romantic involving Darin Forbes. He probably wasn't interested in me anyway. "He's nice."

"Nice?" Renee accidentally spit out some of the cinnamon roll she'd finally decided to take a bite of. "From where I stood in the room, he looked a little more than nice, Bree."

She pointed a finger at me with raised eyebrows and I wondered just how much she had witnessed at the gala, which led me to wondering how anyone else - not counting Alec - may have perceived our encounter.

Michelle clapped her hands with a goofy grin. "What are you going to wear for your date?" she asked excitedly.

"It's not a date," I groaned.