The Unexpected Kiss #OnceUponNow #justwriteit

An unexpected run in

Everyone's sight trained on me as I stood from my seat at the table. The boardroom seemed unusually large today. My mouth went dry and my voice seemed to vanish as I took the lazer pointer from Mr. Guy. The presentation perfected weeks ago as the anticipated day quickly approached. Now everything I'd memorized for the past two weeks disappeared.

I stood there staring at the room full of managers, the CFO, the CEO, the owners of Tru, and my project teammates.

Why did they choose me? Why did I agree?

Sweat beaded on my forehead and my hands clammed up around that pointer. The first slide blared into the darkened room like a mocking picture of failure. To my horror the CEO looked down at his watch and let out a very audible sigh.

Shit.

"Come on, Emma," Adam whispered loudly to my left.

I opened my mouth to say something, only a squeak came out. Mortified I looked to my teammates in desperation.

Adam jumped up and stole the pointer from my hand, "Ladies and gentlemen, today we bring to you the new ad campaign for Tru Fragrance."

Feeling defeated I plopped into the nearest seat and buried my face in my hands, hiding the tears that flowed down my cheeks. The next hour went by excruciatingly slow. Melissa, our project lead, kept kicking the back of my calves.

"You really messed up this time, Emma. I'm going to ruin you if this campaign falls through!"

"Adam is doing fine," I mumbled back.

"He's not supposed to up there right now. You are!"

My cheeks burned with embarrassment as I glanced around the room. The two owners of Tru were whispering back and forth, the CEO shook his head at me, and Melissa continued kicking my calves.

The lights came back on, brighter than ever, and we were ushered out of the boardroom.

"I swear if shit hits the fan, it's completely your fault, Emma." Abigail said.

"I know!"

"Adam, I'm so sorry that she did this to you. I mean, you shouldn't have had to do that." Melissa rested her hand on his bicep, batting her long eyelashes at him.

"It's not that big of a deal, Melissa. I knew Emma got stage fright, we should never have asked her to go up."

"She needs to learn to grow up," Melissa quipped rather snidely.

I turned and started down the hall as the doors opened and the tall, statuesque blondes who owned Tru. Their stone expressions sent my heart sinking to the bottom of my stomach. Standing frozen in my spot, I glanced up at them and then the CEO as they all walked past. Nobody so much as glanced in my direction.

So much for a raise or promotion this year.

Puffing out my cheeks, I kept my eyes to the floor as I hurried through the cubed room to my desk. Surrounded by the tall, grey walls my head hit my desk as a groan escaped my lips.

"Rough meeting?" my cube mate asked.

"Ugh, don't ask, Dory."

"That bad, huh?"

"I completely froze. Not a word came out! Adam, of all people, had to come and save me."

"Oh hottie three cubes over?" she asked.

"Uh huh."

"Did you finally talk to him?"

"No, of course not. Melissa was all over him."