by Jessica Gray
Michael nodded his head, “Will do.”
“Get out of here and I’ll see you in a few hours.”
Michael acknowledged David’s words with a nod of his forehead and then headed towards his own office to shut down his laptop and pack his gear. He lectured himself for the next several hours as he packed and upon arrival at the airport, had himself firmly in hand – this was just another job and the people he was going to be working with didn’t matter as much as their ability to perform their job duties. He was going to keep this purely professional; he would talk with Victor about that very fact, and get the project completed in record time. If he had to see Evelyn, he would treat her as he did any other female he worked with – with polite indifference.
Business Meeting
Evelyn resisted the urge to check her lipstick and outfit one more time. She had arrived at work two hours before her normal time of 9 o’clock, and had personally made sure the reception area and conference room were neat and tidy, fully stocked with refreshments and office supplies, and for the last hour, had allowed her nerves to turn her into a pile of vibrating chaos.
She had attempted to work on several projects currently needing her attention, but had found herself looking up every time she heard the outer office door open. Finally, she had put the files away and now stood in front of her office window, looking out at the mountains and trying desperately to slow her breathing down.
Hearing her door open, she looked over her shoulder to see Victor entering. Taking one look at her face, he immediately shut the door and slanted the blinds looking out over the rest of the office. Going directly to her, he pulled her into his arms for a hug and held her for a silent moment. Once he felt the tension start to leave her shoulders, he stepped away and placed his hands in his pockets.
“Thanks,” Evelyn gave him a grateful smile, “I needed that. I can’t believe how nervous I am. This is crazy, right?”
Victor shook his head, “No. It’s not crazy. You still have feelings for Michael.” Victor wasn’t asking, he was simply stating what he knew to be true. He only hoped that Michael and Evelyn would have a chance to deal with the personal issues that had held both of them back these last three years.
Evelyn started to shake her head, needing to deny any feelings for Michael still existed if she was to have any chance at handling the upcoming meeting. Seeing that Victor wasn’t going to allow her to get away with burying her feelings on this issue, she chose instead to change the topic. “Do we have everything we need to get right to work this morning? I understand that David Matthews is going to be with us for the first three days. His admin faxed over a priority list this morning and I’ve checked it twice to make sure we have the necessary facts and figures to handle it.”
Victor nodded, “I got a copy of the list as well. The only item on the list we don’t have a complete handle on is the PR budget figures. Global Tech had their own team work on developing a strategy to earn the locals support of the project. Knowing how they’ve worked in the past, I’m going to assume that they will be running television as well as print ads to garner public support. We shouldn’t have to worry too much about that end of things, Global Tech has done this so many times, I’m confident that they will have this piece already worked out upon arrival.”
“I sure hope so. Dealing with the media, in any form, makes me nauseous,” Evelyn said with a fake shiver.
“I hear you there. The last time I had to talk to one of those media guys I could actually feel myself turning green. We’ve never professed to handle the PR end of things, and frankly, that makes me very happy. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?”
Evelyn quickly nodded her head in agreement, “Let’s.” Hearing voices in the reception area, she closed her eyes and took a nice, slow breath. Letting it out, she opened her eyes to find Victor watching her closely.
“I do believe this show is about to get started. Are you ready?”
Evelyn nodded, ”Sure, about as ready as I would be to face a firing squad.” Walking towards her office door, she stopped as she reached Victor when he didn’t open the door, but stood watching her.
“Evelyn, chin up. Right now, Michael Jennings is just another project manager here, along with the CEO of Global Tech for a meeting. Focus on David Matthews if that helps. I hear he’s gorgeous, has a great personality, and would make it onto your safe list; since he is happily married to a former super model.”
“Super model, huh? Well how am I supposed to compete with that?” Evelyn queried with laughter in her voice. Shaking her head in amusement, she reached around Victor and opened the blinds, allowing her to see the men standing in the reception area, waiting for her and Victor to make their arrival. Glancing at Victor, she nodded at her door, “Let’s get this started.”
Victor gave her one more glance, and then opened the door for her and waited for her to precede him into the reception area.
Leaving the security of her office, Evelyn turned towards the conference area and waited for Victor to greet their guests and direct them her way. She nodded at the men, as the introductions were made, glad that her distance made shaking hands impossible.
She had briefly let her eyes wander over Michael and had caught her breath at how good he looked. The years had been kind to him, and he hadn’t changed at all to her eyes. His 6’4” height, broad shoulders, and toned physique had all of her senses standing up and paying attention. This was so not what she needed right now, hormones go back to sleep!
Turning her attention to David, she let her eyes take in his appearance. Victor had been right, the man was gorgeous; even more so because he was already taken and she could be free to talk with him without the ever present male-female attraction thing getting in the way. She would focus on him, and everything would be fine.
“Gentlemen, if you would join us in the conference room. I believe you’ll find refreshments on the back table, please help yourselves. Evelyn and I will join you shortly.” Victor could see that Evelyn needed a minute to collect herself after her first sight of Michael in three years.
After closing the conference room door, he took her elbow and led her down the hallway a short distance, “Are you okay? It looked like you handled that well.”
Evelyn nodded, “You were right. David Matthews is a hunk.”
Victor knew what she was doing, but wasn’t going to call her on it. Whatever defense she wanted to use to protect her heart during these meetings, he would help her with. “Told you. You ready to go in there?”
“Sure. I’m good.” Evelyn would continue to tell herself this all day long if necessary to make it a reality.
“Okay then. Mandy, please hold our calls for the next couple of hours unless it’s an emergency,” Victor told the receptionist.
“Sure Mr. Fernandez. Holler if you need anything while you’re in there.”
Victor smiled and shook his head, their receptionist’s accent never failing to make him smile. Straight from the hills of Kentucky, her southern drawl was both charming and suited her personality perfectly. Victor dragged his thoughts away from the buxom blonde bombshell currently handling DFJ’s phone calls, and brought it back to the meeting about to get underway. God, please let this go smoothly for Evelyn and Michael. She’s suffered enough for the sins of her father.
*****
“Well, Victor, I think everything looks great, so far. I especially like the interior designs and business projections. Has anyone on your team tried to pre-sale the spaces in this new development?” Michael asked. For the last 45 minutes, David, Michael and Victor had been discussing various aspects of the project, with very few words being interjected by Evelyn.
Michael had been blown away by his first glimpse of her in three years. She had let her hair grow out and her figure was even more tempting. He briefly wondered if she still used the same shampoo and perfume. He could remember the smell of her hair…Giving himself a mental shake, he brought his attention back to the meeting.
“
I’ll direct that question over to Evelyn,” Victor parried. Since the meeting began, Evelyn had held back and only spoken when he had given her no other choice. Normally, she would be steering the meeting along, but today she had kept quiet, studiously writing notes as the men around her discussed her ideas and designs. Victor had had enough.
Evelyn met Victor’s gaze and wished for a hole to open up in the floor and swallow her. He was putting her on the spot and forcing her to become a part of the proceedings. Swallowing, Evelyn directed her gaze and comments to David, “I have been in contact with several of the companies that have utilized commercial space in some of our other projects. So far, I’ve had around a 50% positive response rate, but no commitments as of yet.”
“Why not?” Michael asked briskly, without looking at her. If he didn’t look at her, he could pretend she was just another businessperson giving him information.
Evelyn was taken aback by his tone of voice, “Well…I haven’t been able to give them firm figures on rents, or tenant fees…”
“Again, why not? Don’t you have some idea of what those fees are going to be?” Michael heard himself, and mentally kicked himself for being such an ass. He felt David’s stare and realized that he needed to get better control of himself. Sighing, he looked up and met the wounded look Evelyn was trying to hide. Great, now he felt like he had just kicked a puppy!
“What I meant to say, was – why haven’t these companies been given some range of numbers and asked to make a preliminary, conditional agreement?” Michael hated himself for the fact that Evelyn had immediately looked down when his eyes met hers. It had given him the opportunity to study her a little more closely, but with David and Victor looking on, he quickly turned his attention to Victor.
Evelyn was trying hard not to let Michael’s indifference get to her, but she was quickly losing the battle. If this meeting didn’t wrap up soon, she would have to excuse herself and take a moment to find her inner strength, which seemed to have vanished.
“I have discussed some preliminary figures with them, however, given the state of the local economy, no one is willing to enter into a contractual agreement without firmer numbers in place and a completion time. Until a few days ago, we didn’t have the information Global Tech has since provided us. We should be able to come much closer to providing them these figures shortly.”
Michael nodded, “Great! Victor, let me know when you get a company ready to sign. I’ll take care of having our legal team draft the tenant agreements, and start working on lease documents.”
David watched his friend and co-worker, and then turned his attention to the young lady sitting across the table from them. Michael was known for his ability to put anyone at ease, however, he had gone out of his way to avoid speaking to Evelyn during this meeting. What puzzled David more was that when Michael had spoken to her, there was an edge of anger and bitterness hidden beneath the question. Michael needed to pull it together and do some explaining later.
“Well, I believe that about wraps things up for today. I will need the updated design figures for the residential quarters we discussed; tomorrow will be soon enough.” Michael directed his comments to the room in general. He knew that those figures would come directly from Evelyn, and that providing them by tomorrow would necessitate her working all night. Not his problem. Maybe hubby could be convinced to help her, he thought snidely.
Evelyn looked at Michael sharply, and then at Victor, “Tomorrow. That’s impossible. We just added this to the project an hour ago. Putting together those types of figures will take days, if not weeks.” She looked at David and Michael as she finished speaking. Michael knew first hand what kind of work would be necessary to put those numbers together. It was as if he wanted her to fail and he was trying to find some reason for Global Tech to back out of working with DFJ. I really want to give him a piece of my mind!
David looked at Michael, and shook his head. When Michael made no effort to retract his timeline, David stepped in, not wanting to ruin the relationship between his company and DFJ before the first day was over. “What Michael meant to say, was that the sooner we can pull together the figures for the residential quarters, the sooner we can put the entire project together and get board approval for the additional expenditures. Miss Davenport, based upon your experience, when would be the earliest we might get that information put together?”
Evelyn looked at Michael’s bent head one more time, and then turned her attention to his boss, “Well, maybe by the end of the week if I put all of my junior staffers on it today. “ She looked at Victor for confirmation.
Victor wanted to strangle Michael for trying to make Evelyn look incompetent and incapable of performing her job. “I believe that might be possible, however, we have several other projects going and can’t possibly pull everyone off of their current assignments.” Victor met Michael’s eyes across the table, and made sure he conveyed his opinion about Michael’s actions through his eyes and facial features. When he saw that Michael understood his unspoken message, he released his gaze and focused again on David.
David watched the interplay between Michael and Victor Fernandez and immediately noticed the silent communication. There was definitely history between the people sitting at the table. Time to end this meeting and find the underlying cause of it. If Michael had withheld information that was going to put this project in jeopardy, friend or not, the board would leave David no choice but to get rid of him.
Rising to his feet, he gathered his papers together, “Victor. Evelyn, I think that is enough for today. I for one am looking forward to hitting the hotel and taking a nap. The overnight flight was fairly rough and I feel the hotel bed calling my name, even now.”
Evelyn smiled at David, amused that this high-powered CEO seemed so down to earth as he discussed taking an afternoon nap. He didn’t appear to be much older than Victor was, and she placed him in his early 30’s.
“Would you gentlemen be interested in joining Evelyn and I for drinks and dinner this evening?” Victor asked. He felt the sudden death-glare coming from Evelyn, but ignored her. That earned him a kick under the table, to which he barely managed to muffle his curse. Scooting his chair out, he stood and took his legs out of harms way as he waited for David to respond.
David looked at Michael and could see that he was about to decline, rushing he said, “That sounds good. I hear our hotel has an excellent restaurant on the first level. Shall we meet there, say, around 7 p.m.?”
Victor nodded, “The Four Seasons had excellent food. We’ll meet you both in the hotel bar at 7 o’clock.”
As David and Victor exited the conference room, Evelyn saw Michael quickly gathering his own papers together. He looked like he couldn’t wait to get away from her. Her anger at his disappearance, and at having denied her the opportunity to make things right years ago came rushing to the surface. Before she even knew what she was doing, she had rounded the table and was standing a few feet away from him. “Michael, I was hoping we could talk for a minute, privately?”
Michael refused to look at her, “Miss Davenport, I can’t imagine what we would have to discuss that couldn’t have been discussed with the other gentlemen in the room.”
Reaching out, she placed her hand on his arm, and turned him towards her. Michael needed to hear her out and she needed to say what she hadn’t said three years ago, “Michael, I made a mistake. I tried to tell you that afternoon after you kicked me out of your apartment, but when I got back there, you had already left for the airport…”
Michael raised an eyebrow at her, clearly showing that he didn’t believe her. “So you say. Why would you have come back? You had already made up your mind and nothing I had to say mattered.”
Evelyn shook her head, “That’s not true. After I left you, I came home and talked to Victor and…”
Michael held up a hand to stop her, “I really don’t care to hear anymore. What’s done is done. I’ve moved on and it looks like you need to do the same. If you re
ally feel the need to share, please find someone who wants to hear it. Maybe Harry is a good listener?...”
Evelyn stuttered at how rude Michael was being, and who was Harry?...
“If you’ll excuse me. I believe my boss is waiting on me.” Michael grabbed his jacket and briefcase and left her standing in the conference room with her mouth open in shock.
Victor entered a few moments later, to find Evelyn still standing in the conference room, with tears running down her cheeks and her arms wrapped around herself. Going to her, he pulled her into his arms once again, and tried to calm her down by murmuring meaningless words.
