He didn’t listen, claiming I was looking for a hot piece of ass to fuck, and that’s when he took the reins and found…Sam.
I slip my hands in my pockets and take my time walking back to my desk. She may charge an exorbitant hourly rate, but she doesn’t get to bark orders at me or run my office.
“Last night didn’t happen.” She types into the screen of her propped tablet, her nails clicking and her eyes glued to the screen.
“Excuse me?”
“If this is going to work, if you’re going to respect my opinions and ideas, you’re going to have to forget…what we did.”
“Already forgotten,” I lie, sinking into my chair and propping my hands behind my head.
“Good.” She drags a slow breath across her full lips and sits straight, pressing one final button on her device and lifting her gaze across the desk.
“I’m not calling you Sam.” I meet her stare straight on. “You’re still Odessa to me.”
She pauses, head cocked, and says nothing before returning her attention to her screen.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out to find that the girl I hooked up with last weekend sent me another topless selfie. Fourth picture this week. I don’t respond. It’s not like I’m going to see the fifth one and suddenly decide she’s girlfriend material, but I’m sure I’ll get another two days from now.
“Why are you smirking?” Odessa jerks my attention from the picture of the big-breasted blonde smiling in front of a bathroom mirror with a fingertip in the corner of her mouth.
“I’m not.”
“Please, Beckham. Let’s focus.” Her fingers rap against my desktop. “Your company. Tell me about it.”
“We have a website.” I sit back in my chair again, folding my arms across my stomach. My brother scolds me for being too relaxed. I feel it makes people more comfortable around me. I’m a man with more money than God, and I’ve got more game than the New York Knicks. “All that information is there.”
“Yes, but I’m more interested in how this company is described by its own Chief Branding Officer.” She adjusts her posture, tilting her head. “What do you do here and what’s so special about Townsend Energy Holdings?”
I release an inconvenienced sigh and sit up. “For starters, we’re innovative. Cutting edge. Progressive. Future-focused. Our biggest initiative involves working with national power co-ops to make alternative energy mainstream and affordable. By farming things like wind, we can bring sustainable, environmentally friendly sources of energy to homes and businesses all across America, working to reduce greenhouse gasses and limiting the need for oil drilling also benefits wildlife and climate change. Our ten-year plan includes bringing alternative energy sources to third world countries with a focus on sustainable agriculture. I can get into the global economics of alternative energy savings as well if you’d like.”
Her brows raise, and ripe satisfaction swells me from the inside.
“Smarter than I look.” I slip my hands behind my head as if my chair has just morphed into some Bahamian hammock. Speaking of which, I’d give anything to dig my toes into some white, sugary sand with an icy Corona in my hand. “I know.”
“Nah. You’re just a good bullshitter.”
I lean forward, my hands falling into my lap like dead weight. I can’t win with her. Any other woman would be drooling over some handsome asshole in a three-piece suit spewing words like “initiative” and “global economics.”
Odessa sits there, less than impressed.
“Anyone can memorize a script,” she says. “You sound like you’re reading off the About Me page of your website.”
“I wrote that page.”
“My point exactly.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“You’ve used those words so many times they’ve lost their meaning. I don’t feel any passion from you when you talk about your company. There’s your first problem.”
“The passion’s there. Believe me.”
Her brows rise as her lips press into a straight line. “I don’t.”
My head angles. I’m way too blown away by this woman’s audacity to remotely consider firing her.
And she’s lucky because cutting ties with people is what I do best.
“It’s not there just because you say it’s there,” she says. “I need to feel it. Every word you speak needs to convince me you eat, sleep, and breathe this company. When I spoke with Dane, he mentioned that you were essentially the face of the T.E.H. He said you handled networking and partnerships, that your sole focus was projecting a very specific image of the company.”
“Right.”
“What is that image?”
“We’re making alternative energy sexy.” I adjust the knot of my tie. “Isn’t that obvious?”
Her green eyes roll. Any harder and they’d be in the back of her head. “I need you to be serious.”
“I thought we hired you to handle social media?”
“No.” Her nose wrinkles. “You hired me – your brother hired me to help you handle your public relations efforts. We’re starting with branding. I need to get a grip on your brand and what you’re trying to do before I can fix anything.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
Fucking Dane.
“Dane said I needed help?”
“It was implied. Besides, I’m not sure why else one would hire a consultant if they weren’t in dire need of help. I’m not exactly cheap.”
“What needs fixed?”
“Several things apparently.”
I lift my receiver, speed dialing our Salt Lake City headquarters and placing the call on speaker. My brother’s assistant, Marlene, patches me through immediately.
“Dane speaking.”
“Dane, I’ve got our consultant here.” I don’t disguise my current state of displeasure. “You may know her as Sam.”
I peel my gaze from the black corporate phone and lock eyes with her, not eliciting so much as a single squirm from her.
“Hello, Dane.” There’s warmth in her voice though her face is blank. I refuse to release her gaze. “How are you this morning?”
“I’m well, Sam. Thank you. Yourself?” Dane asks.
“Lovely, thank you,” she says.
“I’m calling you today, Brother, because it seems there’s a bit of confusion as to what exactly our consultant’s going to be doing here at the New York branch.”
“What’s the confusion?” There’s an edge in his tone that tells me he doesn’t have time for this.
“Sam here says she was hired to help me fix our image,” I say. “I wasn’t aware that I needed help nor that anything was in need of fixing. I was under the impression that she was brought on to set up our social media.”
“I would’ve hired a college intern if that’s what we needed,” Dane scoffs. “Sam has a proven track-record of taking little-known start ups and growing them into superstars.”
“Little late on that aren’t we?” I release a haughty chuckle, grabbing a stress ball from next to my computer monitor. I’m not sure why I have it. Nothing about my life is remotely stressful. I toss it up in the air and catch it with a determined grip. “We haven’t been a little-known start up in quite some time.”
“True,” Dane says. “We’re big. But we can be bigger. It all starts with branding.”
“Right. Branding is my thing, and branding and public relations are two entirely different things.”
“Sam has experience with both. Didn’t you check out the link to her bio? I emailed you last week after I told you I’d hired her.”
“Anyway,” I say, my tone flat. “Just needed clarification, Dane. Appreciate it.”
I end the call.
“What now?” I ask.
Her mouth forms a smug smile and the flash in her eyes is a big, fat “told you so.”
“You need a better website, something modern and sleek yet approachable and user-friendly. What you have here is confusing.” She flips the screen of her tablet toward me. “Yellow and orange? No…just…no. Who designed this?”