Maxine

Chapter Three

Sam reappeared with our refreshments. "Is there anything I can get you while you wait?" I smiled, "We're good, thanks Samantha." She grinned from ear to ear and left us alone. I checked my phone, 11:51. Any moment and Mr. Sims should be here.

I checked my emails while I waited. One new email

To: Maxine Blake
Subject: Lunch

Dear Ms. Blake,

   I'm running behind schedule but I will be arriving shortly. Please forgive my tardiness, I should be there before 12:30.

                           Sincerely, Derrek Sims

I sighed, hopefully he wouldn't be too terribly late. I began to set up my laptop. The sleek silver device glowed in the sun. I pulled out a wireless mouse and a pad to go with it. I plugged in my thumb drive and turned on my phone's hot spot and accessed its WiFi.

I felt someone looking at me so I took a quick look around. A couple of guys across the street eyed me warily so I ignored them deciding they were the guys Alpha Terrance instructed to watch me. I sat back and twiddled my thumbs until Mr. Sims arrived.

I was unimaginably bored. I wonder if this is how Old Man feels when I'm away. Speaking of away I should break the news to him. He was relaxing in the shade so I spoke up, "Hey Old Man, I know you were expecting to go to the woods after the meeting but thanks to this morning we'll have to postpone the trip."

He looked at me with his puppy dog eyes and my heart broke just a little, "I know it sucks buddy, but we are in a bit of a pickle." He put his head down and closed his eyes and my heart broke more. "Do you always talk to your dog?" My head whipped in the direction of the voice and bam.

Mate.

He was tall and muscular with dark hair and a warm honey color for eyes. He was lightly tanned and beautiful. I took a deep breath.

Human.

Crap, I stood up and held out my hand, "You must be Mr. Sims, I'm Maxine Blake." He took my hand immediately and sparks shot up my arm. He pulled his hand back and laughed, "You shocked me, and please. Call me Derrek." I smiled, "We should get started." He took the seat across from me.

I pushed away any feelings that rose up within me. I'm not looking for a mate, this doesn't fit in my plans and my plans are final. "So, what exactly are you wanting that needed to be discussed in person?" I waited for a response, but none came so I finally looked up from my screen into his eyes. 

I wasn't expecting him to already be looking at me. A slight blush came to my cheeks and he shook his head, "I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting you to be so young, or so..." He took a deep breath as I laughed.

"My age is common knowledge along with where I live, well at least to my customers it is." He seemed at a loss, "I guess I just expected it to be a lie, you're so young but you seem so mature." I smiled, "I try to be when it comes to business, now... shall we get down to your guidelines?" He nodded, "Of course, for the back-" 

He was cut off as Sam came up, "Can I get you something to drink sir?" He smiled politely, "Water will be fine." She smiled and vanished inside once again only to reappear within seconds. "Can I take your order or will you need more time?" He peeled his eyes away from me, "Umm, sure. Do you have a turkey club?" She nodded. "Then I'll have that." She then turned to me, "The usual for you and Old Man?" 

I smiled, "Like always." She laughed, "It'll be out in just a moment." She walked away, this time allowing silence to fall between us. I broke the silence quickly, "So back to where we were." He cleared his throat, "Yes, the background I would like to be a grey scale, I want crisp black lettering. I really want to have a nice flow maybe every category could have it's own block with an embedded link that can take them to the product."