Tongue Tied

Chapter 19

I was down to only a handful of days left to get a meeting with Sean Ashworth and somehow convince him to switch from Harper Media to Corbin and Hilliard. The pressure was on. The stress was abundant. And the doughnut I was nibbling on for breakfast was about as stale as a ninety-year-old woman's libido. Monday was definitely living up to its reputation.

"Did we get Margaret on the phone yet?" I yelled to Michelle from my office. Her reception desk was just across the hall.

I'd been looking over the design results Shelby had provided me in response to the disc I'd given her the week prior. My poster ideas had turned out vastly more outstanding than the previous ones. I had brainstormed on what to change for a while but I really couldn't come up with a better idea. They looked great!

The commercial slideshows were a different story though. I liked the way I'd done them before, but I still doubted Sean would be very impressed. I'd spent so much time second-guessing my pitch that I wasn't even sure what the best option was at this point.

"I haven't been able to reach her." Michelle trekked into my office with a long, drawn out groan and the red coffee thermos she always carried around. She plopped down in one of the chairs across from me. "I'm so sick of calling Rutherford Laurence. I swear if I ever hear an answering machine with their company name again, I might have to break the phone," she thumbed toward the reception desk.

I rested my elbows on my desk and rubbed my temples. I'd been staring at my computer screen for hours and my vision was beginning to blur.

"I feel your pain," I sighed, squeezing my eyelids shut and blinking several times in attempts to get my sight back to normal. I was starting to think glasses weren't too far down the road.

"Have you heard anything else from Darin Forbes since Friday?" Michelle asked. She lounged back in the seat, staring up at the ceiling.

I shook my head, eyes still closed. I was envisioning how my next presentation - assuming I got to give one - to Sean would go. "No, and I don't want to either. He's got another thing coming if he thinks Mr. Corbin's going to go for that."

"Actually I heard we might consider."

My eyes flew open and my head snapped up to meet her eyes. "What?"

Michelle shrugged. "Like you said Darin said: if the price is high enough. I heard Mr. Hilliard is in deep debt to the bank he borrowed from to help build this agency. There's talk that we might get shut down. We're not bringing in enough in ad sales right now so it really wouldn't surprise me if they consider the offer."

"But where would all of us go?" I threw my hands up. "I need this job. You need this job. Renee needs this job to support her son. What do they expect us to do if we all the sudden lose our jobs? It's not like we can go knock on Vexcon or Harper Media's doors because they might get bought by Abernathy too."

I never expected to hear that my bosses might actually consider an Abernathy proposal. Why was I even bothering to try and get Rutherford Laurence on board if a few weeks after the deal was made, we go out of business? Once again, I felt like I was wasting my time. Then again, if I could get Rutherford Laurence before Abernathy could make an offer, the income from Rutherford Laurence would probably push us back to where we needed to be financially. Then Corbin and Hilliard might not have to worry about that debt problem.

"I agree." Michelle pushed her bangs back, letting her palm linger on her forehead as though she had a headache. She probably did. I would too if I had to try to track down Sean Ashworth's snot-nosed secretary all day.