A Heart to Trust, A.L. Brooks [speed reading book TXT] 📗

Olivia doing something very, very silly. Like kissing that expressive mouth, the pink lips, and—

She swallowed, threw up her wall, and chastised herself for forgetting her situation yet again. “Right, well, we’re never going to know unless he sees it. So I think we should set up a meeting with him and show him what we’ve got.”

“We?” Jenny looked confused.

Olivia sat up straighter. “It doesn’t have to be both of us. This is your concept and you own it. But, well, if you are concerned about how he might react, then I’d be happy to be there with you.” She paused. “I don’t want you to be singled out if he’s angry. I encouraged you to work on this, so if he’s going to reprimand you, he can do the same to me.”

Jenny leaned forward. “You’d do that? You’d risk your place here too?”

“Yes.” Olivia’s voice was a croak; she hoped she wasn’t making a terrible mistake. “I would.”

Jenny’s mouth formed the word “wow” but no sound came out. She eased back in her chair and rubbed at the back of her neck, where the hair was shaved close to her skin.

I bet it’s so soft back there. I bet it would feel great to tug on, to pull her close to me and— Olivia shifted in her chair. Arousal, stronger than she would have imagined, had flared and sent a hot flush cascading down her body. For the love of God, stop!

“I’d like it if you were there.” Jenny’s voice was soft. “Not because of what you said. You know, to share the blame.” She sat up again and her eyes were steely. “But because this is a great idea and you’ve worked hard on it with me. You deserve to share the credit when Derek falls in love with it.”

Olivia stared at Jenny, at the determination and pride in her expression, and her stomach flipped once more. She held Jenny’s gaze. “Hell yes.”

At one minute before eleven on Friday morning, Jenny got up from her desk. Her knees shook, and she was pretty sure her hands trembled. But one look across the desks at Olivia, who also stood, was enough to calm her. She didn’t know how Olivia did it, but she looked cool, calm, and totally collected. As if this were just an ordinary day and there was nothing to fear.

If I had even half her confidence most days, maybe I’d be a little further along in my career already.

“Ready?” Olivia asked.

“Yes.” Jenny forced herself to speak the word with confidence and strength.

Maxwell gave them a thumbs-up. He didn’t know what they were doing, of course, but he knew something was up.

Chrissy was nowhere to be seen. She’d been out of the office a lot this week and, it seemed, avoiding Jenny when she was in.

Not my problem right now. Deal with that later. Jenny inhaled and let it out slowly, then undocked her laptop and walked toward Derek’s office, Olivia two steps behind her.

“Ladies,” Derek said as they walked through the door. “Have a seat.”

They sat opposite him and Jenny gave him her biggest smile.

“So, your meeting request said something about wanting to talk through some ideas around changes to Catwalk?” He looked between the two of them. “I don’t have a lot of time, and obviously the project’s pretty set now, but hit me with what you’ve got.”

Jenny took comfort from the fact that his body language was pretty open. She placed her laptop on his desk and opened the presentation file. Then she cleared her throat and spoke. She took him through the thought process that had led her to his office this morning, glossing over the fact she thought his project was a sexist pile of crap. Instead, she focused on what she thought the better benefits would be, both for the fundraising potential and for the publicity it would garner for C&V. She and Olivia had both decided Derek was more likely to listen to that than a feminist rant.

To his credit, apart from raising his eyebrows a couple times, Derek didn’t interrupt or speak until Jenny had delivered her concluding spiel. He meshed his fingers together, his hands resting lightly on the edge of his desk. “And this is all your idea, yes?” He looked at Jenny.

“It is, yes.” She was proud her voice didn’t wobble.

“And you’re here because…” He aimed this at Olivia.

Jenny held her breath. Would this be the moment Olivia revealed her true colors and betrayed Jenny?

“When Jenny told me her idea, I knew it was a brilliant variation on the project that should see the light of day,” Olivia said firmly. “I’ve been her research assistant for the work she’s done on this, and I’m here because you may have had questions about certain elements that were more my focus than hers. But I’m here mostly because I believe in this project idea a hundred percent, and I think C&V could pull off something amazing if they went with her idea.”

Jenny didn’t dare look at her; her chest swelled with gratitude and appreciation for Olivia’s strong words.

“Hm,” was all Derek said. Then he sat back and waved toward Jenny’s laptop. “Send me that file, would you?”

Jenny just held back her squeal. “Sure.” She clicked a few keys and emailed the zipped file over to him.

“Anything else?” Derek’s expression was unreadable, but a small nerve twitched just above his right eye.

Jenny and Olivia stood as if by some unspoken command. “No.” Jenny picked up her laptop. “Thanks for your time.”

Derek didn’t look at her as she spoke.

She followed Olivia out of his office, and they strode down the hallway, not speaking.

Olivia led them not to their desks but across the floor to the emergency stairwell in the far corner. She waited until the heavy door shut behind them, then glanced up the stairs toward the next floor; many staff members used the stairs to walk between the two floors C&V occupied, but it seemed there was