Hating the CEO

Chapter 9 - 4th of July party

The day of the Brady Corp. party had come. Even though it wasn't the first party Julia had organized, far from it, she couldn't help but feel nervous. She knew very well what, or rather who, was the reason for her anxiety. Jack Deschanel.
Even though he seemed to have liked whatever she planned for the party, and would not interfere with Julia's and her team's decisions, he was still around and watching. She couldn't help but feel that he was waiting for her to make a mistake.
"You don't care what that chauvinistic CEO asshole thinks," she told herself looking at her reflection in the mirror that afternoon. The event was a casual one so she put on skinny jeans and a white cashmere sweater.
The party was starting at eight, but Julia, Lizzy and Josh had to be there hours earlier to make sure everything was ready and going per their plan.
When she arrived at the venue, The Ritz, Lizzie and Josh were already running around.
"You don't care what that chauvinistic CEO asshole thinks," she whispered to herself one last time.
"Julia, thank god!" Josh exclaimed, panicked. "They seem not to be able to start the fire under the barbecue!"
"Tell them to put some scrunched newspapers under the charcoal, Josh." Julia answered calmly.
"Got it!" Josh turned around and moved towards the hotel patio where the barbecue area was arranged.
"And Josh?"
"Yes, Julia?"
"This needs time. Give it twenty to thirty minutes to come to the right temperature."
"Got it!" Josh repeated and was gone.
Julia chuckled, remembering another barbeque in Seattle. During one of the first weddings she'd organized, the father of the groom had insisted on showing everyone how to properly light up the grill. The guy used too much of the lighting gel and ended up with a burnt bow tie.
The chuckle froze on her lips when she remembered that during Nicholas' sister wedding they also had a barbeque. Nicholas was against it, but his sister, the bride, would not hear no for an answer. A chill ran down Julia's spine at the memory and she winced.
"You OK, Julia?" Lizzie showed up out of nowhere.
Julia looked up at her surprised. Pulled out of her unpleasant thoughts she needed a moment to remember where she was.
"Julia?" Lizzie shot her a worried look.
"All good, Liz!" Julia answered too cheerfully, but hoped Lizzie would not notice. "So, everything ready?"
"Well... The main room is ready, the charades room is ready, the concert room is ready and the band should arrive within the next two hours. You've heard about the barbecue from Josh already..."
"What else is not working, Liz?" Julia asked, happy to be able to focus her thoughts on something else.
"The movie room... I mean the room is ready, it's just the guy who was supposed to operate the movies seems to have some issues with his laptop." Lizzy sighed.
"Anything else?"
"The photo booth has not arrived yet. And it was supposed to be here two hours ago."
"OK," Julia took a deep breath. "It's not so bad..."
"Not bad?!" Lizzie started to look panicked.
"Relax, Lizzie, with a party as huge as this one, we really could have so much more going wrong right now." Julia patted the stressed girl on the back. "You go to the movie guy, see how serious the laptop issue is. If he can't fix it within the next 30 minutes, get Jerry from IT to come down here. I will take care of the photo booth."
"On it!" Lizzie ran off, but stopped before disappearing in the main room. "Oh, and Julia?"
Julia looked up from her phone where she was already searching for the number of the guy that was supposed to deliver the photo booth.
"Yeah?"
"You look really pretty." And she was gone.

"You look really pretty, Julia," Ginny Starr said as they were standing in front of the church. Her wedding was supposed to start in a few seconds. "Doesn't she look pretty, Nicholas?" Ginny turned to her brother who was supposed to lead her to the altar.

"She looks stunning," Nicholas said and ran his hand along Julia's back.

Julia flinched at yet another memory of Seattle. What's going on with me, why are all these memories coming back today?
She forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths and dialed the number of the photo booth guy.

Around eight Brady Corp.'s employees, customers and other guests started arriving. She could see everyone was determined to have a good time. So as long as they would get food and drinks, she knew they would be happy.
"Where can one get a decent drink around here?" she heard someone ask behind her. She turned to answer, but froze seeing Jack approach her.
He wore blue jeans and a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up. She tried not to think how sexy that made him look.
"You better stick to the orange juice, mister," Julia answered, not yet sure whether she wanted to make a joke or be rude. "You are a CEO, you have an image to keep up."
"Orange juice, you say..." Jack seemed in a good mood and took Julia's comment as a joke, rather than an opportunity to retort in a mean way. "I'll have one whisky, as long as the party coordinator approves?"
"Jack Deschanel?!"
They both turned at Jack's name being called out in an enthusiastic way. The CEO of Brady Corp., Jason Novak, was coming their way.
"I approve," Julia whispered as Jack started walking towards the CEO.
He turned to her surprised and sent her a wink.