In the midst of the chaos that swirled around her, Lexi’s BlackBerry began vibrating on her desk. There was a text from Hope.
Leaving the Crowbar. Be there in fifteen. h “Damn it. She’s gonna kill me,” Lexi said to no one in particular. “Language, Miss White,” a booming voice chided, “my virgin ears.” Sean smugly grinned as he leaned against the wall beside her desk. “Damn, girl, you look hot.”
“What do you want, cue ball? We’re in full out crisis mode here. I don’t have time for this.”
“Man, you sound just like Vince. Creepy.”
“Sean!”
“Who peed in your cereal?”
Lexi sighed. “Sorry. The Stone presentation. There’s been a snag.”
“Shit.”
“My sentiment exactly.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
Lexi sprang to her feet. “Yes! Vincent needs someone to run new pitches with him, brainstorm new ideas and hammer out a plan, and then make the new presentation. Everyone in productions has checked out for the night or left town, and to bring another team in at this hour and get them up to speed on this project would take too long. But you’re here, so you can help him!”
“Hold up. I’m not the creative VP. I’m the one that gets the stuff for the ads. Vincent tells me what he wants, and I make it happen. I organize, I plan, i execute. I don’t think up the little jingles or draw the cutesie pictures. Trust me, the only creativity I have is in the bedroom. Now, if it’s that kinda campaign you’re talkin’ about, count me in.”
Lexi flopped back down in her chair, completely dejected. “No, it’s not that kind of campaign.”
“If you think having me stay will help, I can. I don’t have any plans. I was going to eat, and then head home and watch the game.”
“A bite to eat. Shit!”
“There you go using that foul language again, Lexi. You know that talk is completely inappropriate for the workplace.”
“Sean, shut up and listen. Hope will be here in ten minutes. I was supposed to go out to a nice dinner with her, then go dancing and watch her pick
up guys.” Lexi quickly appraised Sean in his black suit with a dark gray shirt underneath, open just enough to give a peek at his tan, muscular chest.
“I need you to take her out and show her a good time.” Sean opened his mouth to make a completely inappropriate comment, but before he could utter a word, Lexi cut him off. “And not that kind of good time either. This is it. This is your chance with her. Don’t blow it!”
A dazzling smile broke across Sean’s face. He straightened his posture, brushed the lint off his jacket, and winked at Lexi. “Gentleman Sean reporting for duty, miss.”
“Just don’t piss her off. Flatter her, charm her, romance her, but whatever you do, don’t call her ‘babe’!” Lexi called after his retreating form.
Taking a deep breath, Lexi got out of her seat and headed toward Vincent’s office to give him the news about her failed attempt at bringing the productions team back into work. She knew he would be furious, but at this point there wasn’t much they could do. There simply wasn’t time for a tantrum. They needed to get to work. Lexi thought about calling Elizabeth, but she too was out of town. Running out of options, she bit the bullet and knocked on his door.
“Who’s coming back?” Vincent eyed her as he rapidly tapped his pencil on the notebook in front of him.
“No one, Vincent. I called them all, but nobody picked up the phone.”
“As usual.” Vincent leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.
“Sean was here. I asked if he would stay and help,” Lexi said, second guessing her decision to send him out with Hope.
“Oh God, no. Sean and I cannot work together on this part of the project. We’d kill each other.”
“I’d call Elizabeth, but she—”
Vincent interrupted with an exasperated sigh. “She left this morning. No, don’t bother her. She isn’t scheduled to come home until tomorrow night anyway. Well, hell, I’ll just do it myself. I’ll pull an all-nighter. I did this all the time in college. The stakes weren’t as high though. I’ll get everything hammered out and then hand it off to whoever strolls in from productions tomorrow. Tony should be back. It’s the best I can do at this point.” Lexi bit her lip, obviously worrying about him. “Go. You’re all dressed up. You must have big plans.”
Lexi abruptly turned on her heel and headed for the door. She paused and closed the door, then kicked her black heels into the corner of his office.
“I’m not leaving you here alone. God knows what state this office would be in when you got through with it. Besides, I already sent Sean out to dinner with Hope in my place.”
“You really think that was wise?” Vincent grinned as he watched her pull her hair back into a ponytail and twist it into a knot behind her head.
Her light laughter filled the room. “Probably not, but it’s encouraging that I haven’t gotten a text threatening my life yet. You never know, sometimes you find the best things in the most unexpected places.”
“So I hear.”
∙ 14 ∙
Le xi grabbed a notepad and pen off Vincent’s desk and sat down on the couch in the corner. They had one night to pull an entirely new Stone campaign together, so there wasn’t a second to spare. “Okay, how do we do this?”
Vincent leaned back in his chair and spun in a slow circle, staring at the ceiling. “Well, first we make coffee, lots of coffee.” He strolled right out of his office, and Lexi heard him clunking around with the coffeemaker. When he returned to the room, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his tie was in his hand. He slowly flicked open his shirt at the collar.
“What were the other pitches you considered for this account? Was there anything good you didn’t go with that maybe we can tweak one way or another?” Lexi asked hopefully.
Vincent shook his head and pulled a file out of his drawer, then sat down on the couch beside her, spreading the contents on the coffee table.
“Stone was so hard to get a read on at the time; we didn’t have much to go on. And now, after getting to know him a little, I can see it’s all crap. He won’t like any of it.” His hands raked through his hair.
Lexi quickly skimmed through the papers on the table and agreed with Vincent’s assessment of the situation. “Fine,” she closed the folder and tossed it into the trashcan beside her, “we start fresh.” She raised her pen to the paper. “Show me what you’ve got, Mister Vice President. Impress me.”V incent gave her a cocky smile and started rattling off ideas that Lexi scribbled down as fast as he could speak. Every so often she added one or two of her own thoughts while Vincent paced the room, thinking.