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Ben Esra telefonda seni bosaltmami ister misin?
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Chapter 6It’s a fucking video call.I should have known when I saw the meeting room change from Guy’s private office to one of our video conference rooms. We generally use those for calls with our other offices or when clients are remote.And sure enough, as I enter the conference room, one of Guy’s admins is setting-up the video technology, which can only mean one thing since the rest of us will be here in person. Lauren will be on the big screen.I know I shouldn’t care, but I’m instantly glad for the extra time I took on my hair and make-up this morning. I usually do that when I need to feel refreshed and ready for a grueling day.It may be petty, but I’m smiling inside at the thought of her seeing me in this particular pantsuit. Lesbians generally love me in this one.I’m the first one in the room so I take one of the chairs in the middle of the table, knowing Guy or Michelle will likely take the seat at the head. I’m engrossed in email catch-up when I see a mug of coffee set in front of me.I look up to see Jackie leaning against the conference table right next to me, blowing casually on her own mug of coffee.“I see somebody came dressed to impress today,” she says as she looks down at my tight, fitted black blazer.“Not really,” I say as I turn my attention back to the screen. Something about Jackie’s teasing tone bothers me. I’m just not in the mood this morning.Jackie seems to get that and simply sits down next to me, opening up her own laptop. After a few minutes of silence, she leans into me and whispers quietly.“What do you think this is all about?”The butterflies I had kept at bay until now erupt in my stomach at her words. I asked myself that same question all last night as I was trying to sleep and came up empty.“I have no idea,” I say as I turn to Jackie. She’s looking at me tentatively as if she doesn’t know what to say or how to act around me right now.“Ems, what’s going on? You look a bit tense. Are you worried about seeing Lauren?” she asks.I look up at the clock and see we still have five minutes before the meeting starts and it doesn’t seem fair that Jackie is going into this completely blind. Suddenly Lauren’s request for secrecy seems ridiculous in the face of this meeting. If things were reversed, I know Jackie would confide in me.“All I know is that Lauren is married to the daughter of Ellison’s CEO. And now they’re getting a divorce,” I tell her in a quick whisper.Jackie’s eyes widen, but just as she’s about to launch into what was most likely going to be an avalanche of questions, we hear the door on the far side of the room open.Michelle and Guy both walk in, but the jovial man who made his announcement about the Interplay win and Lauren’s move at yesterday’s staff meeting is nowhere to be found. This version of Guy looks like he hasn’t slept all night.“Hey, you two, thanks for joining us so last minute,” he says as he takes a seat across the table from us.His usually perfectly coiffed hair is disheveled. Michelle joins him on that side of the table, looking equally stressed but much more put together.“Lauren will be calling in momentarily so let’s wait for her before we begin,” Guy says.There’s a moment of awkward silence while we wait for Lauren to call in where nobody talks. Which is odd in itself, since there’s usually small talk before this kind of internal meeting, but both Guy and Michelle look agitated.After a minute we can hear the console in the middle of the table beep and Guy’s admin comes shuffling over with a remote to make sure the video comes in. Lauren’s face is suddenly on the screen.I barely get a proper look at her before I turn away from the screen to look at Guy and Michelle. That’s the only way I’ll get through this meeting. Avoiding looking at the screen as much as I can.“I guess introductions aren’t needed here. You all worked closely together this week,” Guy says.I can hear Jackie give a small cough next to me and I have to stop myself from kicking her chair. I still keep my eyes from the screen, which may look weird, but I’m just not prepared to see Lauren that big.“I’ll get right to it then. We received a Request for Proposal late last night from Ellison Tech and we’re bringing you two in to lead the pitch process,” Guy says.A million questions enter my brain and my resolve to keep my eyes from the screen is broken the second the words leave his mouth. I quickly snap my head to look up into Lauren’s face.Like Guy, she looks like she hasn’t slept much, but unlike Guy, she still looks stunning in her crisp, white button-up shirt. The top two buttons are undone, and I have to stop myself from letting my gaze land on the soft, tan skin there. It’s even harder stopping my mouth from watering at the sight.Despite the fact that she’s been traveling, her hair looks as shiny and styled as if she had spent the morning at a salon. But her eyes don’t hold the same mischievous glint I’ve come to associate with them. It’s her eyes that show just how exhausted she is. The same sadness I saw in the parking garage yesterday is resting just under the surface of her stoic face.“I’m a little confused. Why would an RFP for Ellison be sent to this office?” I ask.“Technically it wasn’t,” Michelle says. “It was sent to our west coast development almanbahis team since our offices have the largest technology practice. Lauren and I came together late last night with the leads in LA and San Francisco to discuss who makes sense to lead this pitch. We decided you two make the most sense given your background in both winning new business for Altitude and the technology space.”“Wouldn’t the Austin office still be involved since they handle all Ellison business? This feels like we’re stepping on their toes a bit.” Jackie asks.“Not for this one. Ellison has some specific stipulations,” Guy says carefully.Something about his tone makes me nervous. Everything about this feels weird.I look up at the screen to Lauren, who has been uncharacteristically quiet so far. In my experience, Lauren is usually the one to take the lead in meetings. And considering her new, regional role, she’s technically senior to both Guy and Michelle.But Lauren merely gives me an intense look as Guy and Jackie continue talking. Her frown deepens as we continue looking at each other and it’s not until I feel a kick of my chair from Jackie that I’m able to shake myself from what probably looked like a corporate staring contest.I turn back to the conversation in time to hear Guy explain Ellison’s guidelines.“Anyone involved has to sign a non-disclosure agreement. We won’t even be given product details until we do that. They’ll get a list of who’s signed. Nobody who currently works on Ellison business can be in on this.”I don’t even know where to go with my next question. I have so many and my mind feels like it’s moving too fast for my mouth. Ever since I found out about Lauren’s marriage, everything feels like it’s getting out of control. I’m suddenly being brought in to pitch the very woman Lauren didn’t tell me about?Luckily Jackie isn’t in the same emotional turmoil as I am and seems equally confused by the situation unfolding itself in front of us.“I think it’s safe to say the both of us are a little confused about this whole thing,” she says to Guy and Michelle. I’ve noticed that Jackie has barely looked up at the screen to Lauren.“I get it,” Guy says. “We had no idea this would be coming in last night. But this project is as high stakes as it gets for us. It could impact every retainer we have with them.”“What do you mean?” I ask.Finally, I hear Lauren’s authoritative voice chime in. I take a moment to sip my coffee before looking over at the screen. Watching Lauren speak is as sexy as watching most women take off their clothes. It’s so low and commanding and I hate the way she still affects me.“The Ellison family care about optics. It’s why they’ve done so well through the years. Altitude is their Agency of Record and rightly so considering our size and experience. We’re in that contract for another year and a half for Ellison Tech, Ellison Finery, and the Foundation. They won’t just fire us without a reason, it would be their own PR nightmare. So they’re opening up the playing field to our competition.”“Whatever agency wins this business, they will most likely be awarded the other retainers once our contract is up,” Michelle says next.“Do we know what the product is?” I ask.“It could be something related to expanding their cloud services,” Lauren says. “Or It could be something bigger like an AI product, which they’ve been rumored to be working on.”There’s a beat of silence as both Jackie and I just sit there, looking across the table. Finally, Jackie says what I’ve been thinking since I received the meeting invite last night, but definitely didn’t have the courage to bring up.“Why aren’t we addressing the real elephant in the room? Or will that be in the NDA?” she asks.I’ve always admired Jackie’s talent for getting straight to the point without pissing off her superiors. People here tend to give the creative leads more leeway in behavior than if you’re on the client services or development team, where you’re expected to be more buttoned up.I avoid looking at the camera and turn my eyes to Guy and Michelle on the other side of the table.Guy gives what he probably thinks is a casual smile but just comes across as a bit strained. “What elephant is that Jackie?”“That Lauren is married, or was, married to the client. That elephant, Guy” Jackie responds with a simple smile of her own. She’s still avoiding eye contact with the screen.When Guy and Michelle don’t respond and purely give each other a small look, I decide to jump in. Jackie’s combative tone is making me nervous and I really don’t want to give anything away to Michelle and Guy about my relationship with Lauren.“It’s not a huge secret. And it’s easily found if you use Google,” I say in a less aggressive tone than Jackie is taking, hoping they’ll just move past the fact that Jackie had no way of knowing Lauren’s marriage is ending.I don’t know what Lauren has told them, but I assume she hasn’t mentioned anything about me. I’ve been in the agency world for long enough to know that Michelle and Guy are not just going to come out and tell us everything. They’ll assume we don’t know anything more than whatever it is they tell us. Jackie is making it hard to keep up that façade.“We’re no longer together. But my past almanbahis yeni giriş relationship won’t affect your workflow,” Lauren suddenly says, and all of our heads turn to the screen. Her face is unreadable.It’s obvious that Lauren, Guy, and Michelle all decided not to discuss the personal aspect of this with someone as junior as a Vice President and a Senior Designer. Despite the fact that we’re only in this situation because of the personal relationship between Lauren and Ellison.“Lauren will be able to advise from afar, but she can’t bill her time to the development retainer, she can’t be in the room, and she can’t be given details that betray the NDA,” Guy says, obviously trying to steer the conversation off the subject of Lauren’s marriage.Guy and Michelle treating us like children is infuriating. They should just be transparent about the fact that this is just a long game for Ellison to eventually fire us from all their business.“But it doesn’t seem like we’re in a great position to win this right?” I ask, not able to hide a hint of anger from my voice.I asked the question even though I know the answer. Of course, this is some kind of set-up to fire us from the business. I’ve never heard of a client doing something like this when they already have an agency of record.This is about Lauren. And maybe she was right about Olivia. Because this is a pretty clever way of finding a rock star new agency while making the optics of firing your old, loyal agency much less unethical.“Altitude is the largest agency in the country and one of the global leaders. There are no other agencies at our level in the Southwest. Ellison can’t just fire us because of a personal issue,” Lauren adds a bit defensively.“But they can create a fake contest and fire us because of that?” Jackie shoots back, finally staring Lauren down on camera.Jackie’s never been one to back down to anyone based on title and stature in the company and it seems even Lauren Callahan doesn’t scare her.“It’s not a contest and it’s not fake. It’s a pitch, just like any other,” Lauren says with steel in her voice. “We may not have known that we wouldn’t automatically get the new business, but we did know they had been working towards something big. If we create the best pitch, the best strategic thinking, we can still win this. Olivia and Richard won’t be the only deciding factors.”“So, what now?” I ask, trying to relieve some of the tension between Jackie and Lauren.I have no logical reason to need them to like each other, but since Guy and Michelle seem to be at a loss as to how to handle this meeting, I feel like I need to move us along.“Now you sign your life away,” Guy says smiling at us as he slides over NDAs. Normally I would appreciate his attempt at levity, but right now my mind is a mess of questions and dread about what we’re getting ourselves into.“And then?” I ask.“And then we have a kick-off as a team. You won’t be alone. We’ll assign two members of the development strategy team to help with research and things like that. They’ll sign an NDA as well. Once we have the details, you’ll be mainly working out of Anchor to keep things confidential and away from the rest of the office,” Guy says.Anchor is the largest conference room in the office. Each Altitude office names their conference rooms based on features of that city. Most of the Seattle rooms have some aquatic or mountain theme. Luckily the room we’ll be in has a gorgeous view of the water.“There’s not much more we can do until we get the actual proposal from them and know more about the process. Historically Ellison has two rounds of in-person pitches, so we expect numerous trips to Austin for that,” Guy says as he begins to shuffle his papers together.“I’ll leave Michelle to witness your signing of the NDAs and she’ll send them on to Ellison today. Lauren, we’ll see you next week!” he adds excitedly, as if she’s not coming because she’s basically being run out of her own city.I find myself looking up at the screen one last time. Lauren is looking directly at me and says, “I look forward to seeing you.”~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~Jackie has another meeting, so she leaves as soon as we finish up with Guy and Michelle. No doubt she’ll be barging into my office once she’s done to discuss what just happened.I keep my Friday calendar fairly clear, so my day is light with meetings. It gives me a chance to catch up on all the work I missed while I was in meetings all week or focusing solely on a pitch.As I sit down at my computer, I can feel my stomach clench at the prospect of what I now need to do. Guy and Michelle will figure out a way to take most ongoing projects off my plate, but there’s still a lot of administrative things I need to figure out since I was due to be in a handful of pitches over the next few months.Before I can get deep into anything, I hear the phone on my desk ringing. I look down and can see, “L. Callahan,” flashing across the screen. I consider not answering it for a moment— she doesn’t know if I came back to my office after all, but the fact is, we do need to talk.I don’t even bother saying hello.“I can’t believe you put me in this position.”“I love your pantsuit,” she says as if almanbahis giriş I had greeted her in a friendly manner.“Lauren.”“I’m not sure I know what position you mean. The one where you have the opportunity to win Altitude one of the biggest pieces of business the Seattle office has ever seen?”“Cut the crap, Lauren. There are plenty of development leads that could pitch this. Why did you put me on this?”There was silence on the line for a moment and I’m pretty sure I can hear her sigh slightly. I’m not sure if she was expecting some big thank you from me, but this entire situation feels like one big mess that could have been avoided if I had just gone home that night instead of to my office with this infuriating woman.“No, Emma. You’re wrong. You are the only person who I think has the chops to handle this. Whatever you may think about me, I’ve seen you from start to finish on a pitch and you’re the only one who can get this done.”“You know we’re set-up to lose this,” I say back angrily.“Not necessarily. Ellison Tech is a global conglomerate. Olivia and her father hold a lot of power, but not all of it. They have stakeholders. A board. Investors. People who won’t let Olivia burn down the castle because she’s mad. Altitude has proven their worth to Ellison. She’s just doing what she can to get the upper hand.”“And now I’m a pawn in your divorce. Wouldn’t this be easier with someone you don’t have a history with? Considering who we’re pitching?”“I wasn’t flirting this week when I told you that you won us the Interplay business. You are exceptional. Better than I am. If there’s going to be someone to pitch this business, it needs to be you. You won’t have any contact with either Ellison until the pitch. And that’s just a show, like any other pitch, Emma.”“Jackie knows,” I say.This time I can definitely hear her sigh. “I gathered that based on her attitude during the meeting. I chose her because of her work on Interplay. But I can find another creative lead if you think it will be a problem.”“It won’t. Jackie is a professional. And she is the best. If I have any shot in hell of getting this done, I need her.”“And me? Will you need me, Emma?”Her voice sounds sultry, almost arrogant and my body betrays me by letting out a shudder. The anger I felt yesterday isn’t as potent, but It wouldn’t take much to push me over the edge again.It doesn’t matter that Lauren left her wife. I was still a complete rebound that didn’t know she was a rebound. And now my new boss is my ex-lover.“Considering your close ties to the account, I’m sure your advice will be invaluable, Lauren. Thank you for this opportunity of a lifetime,” I say back with more snark than I meant to infuse into my tone.“Emma.”“Look, we have to work together. Not just on this, but ongoing. Let’s just keep this professional. I need to focus on how we’re going to convince your ex-wife not to give away the millions of dollars that come to this agency. And I need your help to do that.”“And you really think we can just be professional?”Lauren’s voice is low, but it doesn’t sound like she’s trying to be quiet. It has the same husk I’ve heard before and I can’t do anything but clench my legs together.“Putting aside everything else, you’re my boss now,” I say as I lower my voice even more.The door may be closed, but I still feel like I need to be careful talking like this while people are working on either side of my office walls. I don’t have the luxury of Lauren’s most-likely massive EVP office.“No. I’m Michelle’s new boss. Michelle is still your boss. It would be inappropriate for an EVP to manage a VP,” she says dismissively.“Oh, that’s what’s inappropriate, Lauren?”“I hate when you say my name like that.”“Like I’m your co-worker?”“Like you hate me.”I pause at that. Part of me wants to just confirm her suspicion. This whole thing would be easier if I could just hate her. For lying to me. For putting me in this stupid situation. But I don’t hate her. I hate how she’s made me feel.“I don’t hate you,” I say quietly. “I’m just. I’m just so mad at you. You’ve really put me into a shitty situation here.”“You can do this. I promise you. I know how Olivia’s business works. She has so many more people to answer to than just herself. And yes, she will do what she can to sabotage us. But I have my own connections with her board and some ideas I don’t think she would ever see coming. Just, trust me, please.”I want to believe her. That she has some recipe up her sleeve to fix this and help me win. But I also know better. This is a no-win for me. I’m being set-up to fail and my impending promotion feels like it’s slipping further and further away.“I don’t know if I can do that.”“This is just another Interplay. Forget about who’s going to be behind the table. This is what you and I do best. We win pitches. Let’s just figure out how to win this one.”“This is so much different than Interplay!” I say and I have to take a breath because I can feel my anger rising again.It wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t acting so blasé about the whole thing. She’s acting like I was handed a golden egg on a silver platter and not what it is in reality— a disaster pitch waiting to happen.“It can be, Ems. We played well together once, we can do it again,” she says, and I can hear the faintest bit of husk in her voice.“This isn’t Interplay. Things are different.”“They don’t have to be,” she says and now I can hear a definite husk in her voice. I hate how much my body responds to it.
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