What Did I Get Myself Into?

Chapter 2

Monday morning comes faster than I anticipated. I spent the weekend trying to teach Rex a new trick. I went to brunch with my best friends and enjoyed the bottomless mimosas too much. Despite the boozy weekend, I enter the office with a pep in my step. I grab some coffee and head to my office with no interruptions.

I have about 6 hours to kill, until I meet with the client. I spend most of the time getting status updates on other projects that I'm managing and reviewing my notes so I don't sound stupid in front of this man. I grab a light lunch at my favorite cafe next door. When I finish, I go and meet Charles in his office until the meeting. We're chatting about our approach to this job when his assistant notifies us that the client is here. We both stand and leave the office to greet him.

I immediately feel someone staring at me and begin to feel uncomfortable. When I look up, I see an incredibly handsome man raking his eyes up and down my body. It's nice to know that I still have it. Charles breaks the nameless man's trance by introducing himself. He quickly recovers by putting on a charming smile and shaking Charles' hand. He said that his name is Darren Jones.

Darren is the epitome of gorgeous. Rich, dark and unblemished skin was the first thing I noticed. When he smiled, I noticed how bright his teeth were. Unlike most of the men that I meet at work, he has a full beard instead of a clean shaven face. He easily dwarfs me and that is no small feat because I'm six feet tall. He's probably about eight inches taller than me. His suit is tailored perfectly to accentuate his athletic physique. He's every woman's wet dream but I have to remain professional.

Now, it's my turn to introduce myself. I reach my hand out and say, "Nice to meet you Mr. Jones. My name is Jade Gordy and I will be leading this project." As our hands touch, I instantly feel a shock that I've never felt before. I know he feels it too but he doesn't show it. He smiles brightly and tells me it is his pleasure to be here.

Charles leads us to the conference room. I hand them both a copy of the preliminary plans. As I'm speaking, Darren is listening intently and maintaining contact. I stutter for a split second when I look up and meet his eyes. He seems so intense. I'm more than halfway through my presentation when I realize that it's been a long time since a man looked at me with such desire.

I continue," Mr. Jones, if you would look at page 5, you will see our preliminary schedule."

After he looks at it, he says," Don't you think that this schedule is a bit ambitious."

"Well since the team will not be using the facilities, it allows us more time to be on site. Also, I'm sure you're aware of our early completion rate or you wouldn't be here."

He looks up at me, smiles and nods for me to finish the presentation. Once I'm done, Charles adds any additional information that I missed. Next thing I know, we're all on our feet walking out of the conference room. Once we get back to the elevators, we exchange contact information and goodbyes. Darren gets into the elevators and he smiles at me as the door closes.

Charles turns to me and says he thinks that the meeting went well. I agree and turn to walk back to my office. When I sit down, my curiosity gets the best of me and I look Darren up on google. His social media accounts pop up and they look completely normal. I click the pictures tab and immediately notice that he has a different woman dangling off his arm in almost every picture. After seeing that, I wrote him off completely. I get back to work and set myself up to have a successful Tuesday.

Just as I'm about to leave, I get an email from Darren. I click on the email. I feel a sense of excitement while I wait for the email to load. He wants me to come to his office and meet his team on Wednesday. I check my schedule and reply that I'm free from 2:00PM to 3:30PM. He quickly replies with a meeting invite. I pack up my things and head home.