Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 108636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
I don’t look back as I ride the elevator all the way to the bottom floor and out of the building just like stupid Cinderella.
Beau Banks loves me, and I love him too. But this isn’t the kind of thing you fix with a glass slipper.
Truth be told, I don’t know if it’s the kind of thing you can fix at all.
There’s a round of applause as June runs out of the room, and I follow her down the hall with my eyes until I can’t see her anymore. I try to step around my dad, who’s gotten up to give me a hug, but my team crowds me too, giving me handshakes on a job well done after months of work and a last-minute change-up. The last week has been filled with late-night meetings and overnight pizza, and I couldn’t have pulled it off without any of them.
Still, the only person I want to see right now is June.
“We think both directions have potential, but yours felt truly personal, Beau,” Marcus Hughes states with a small smile. “It’s sex without overdoing it, and we think it’s the perfect launch for Midnight. We’re excited to be working with you and your impassioned team, and you can bet we’ll be back with some of our other companies that need a rebranding.”
I shake Marcus Hughes’s hand, elated and deflated all at the same time. At the start of all this, I couldn’t have named something that would mean more to me than winning this campaign. Today, I hardly care at all. “Thank you, sir. It was truly a firm effort to bring you the best options we could. I’m really looking forward to working more with you in the future.”
He steps away and lassos a finger, rounding up the rest of his team as they pack up their stuff on the table, and my dad’s assistant Denise escorts them out of the office. My dad pulls me into another hug and shakes my hand. “I’m proud of you, son.”
Chris shakes my hand too. “Good job, Beau. Interested to see where the next year takes us.”
I nod as he and Seth leave the room together, Seth trailing behind, a little dejected. I’d love to feel worse for him, and maybe I would if he hadn’t tried to rob my whole campaign right out from under my nose just like he did with my ex-girlfriend.
Ironically, I changed my team’s campaign pitch because of June. But not because she told me more about Seth’s scheming, but rather because my love for her is the ultimate inspiration.
Because I felt like this was the only way to reach her. Ever since Christmas Eve, she’s refused any contact with me, and this pitch felt like the only way for me to tell her how I really feel about her. To tell her that I love her.
Quite a risk, given the importance of the pitch, but I guess when you find the one person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you’re willing to put it all on the line.
Though, right now, after June disappeared from the room, I don’t have a fucking clue where I stand with her. And that reality is the only thing my brain is fixated on, even as my dad continues to tell me congratulations and comment on how great he thought my pitch was.
“Hey,” Avery says, shoving in where my dad and I stand at the front of the room. She’s out of breath, and her normally carefully crafted appearance is frayed around the edges. “I tried to catch up with her, but Steve says she was already out of the building before I got downstairs.”
Instantly, her words give me hope that my sister has finally come around to the idea of June and me together. Because if Avery is okay with us, then maybe, just maybe, I can get my June back.
“What?” my dad asks.
“June,” Avery and I say at the same time, and once again, his eyebrows draw together.
“I’m confused. Are the two of you speaking again? Have you made up with June?”
Avery rolls her eyes. “Geez, Dad, didn’t you hear Beau’s presentation? Of course we’re speaking.”
My dad just stares at her. “Say it slow for me because I still don’t understand.”
Avery stomps a little foot, and I remember everything I’ve always loved about my sister. She may be flighty and work-averse, but she also believes in doing what’s right for the people she loves. “Dad! Beau just professed his love for June, live and in color in front of all these people in here.”
My dad’s jaw gapes as he looks at me. “He did?”
“The whole campaign is their story!” Avery nearly shouts.
“So, we’re good?” I ask.
Avery’s smile is huge. “Are you kidding? My bestie for the restie is actually going to end up being my real sister one day. This is the best-case scenario times a million.”