Dangerous Play

28 » all in the presentation

"That's correct." Cool as ice, Kamilah's piercing gaze slid over him. "I have to admit, Finn, I agree with Mr. Northington. Consider me impressed." She didn't quite smile, but she no longer looked at him like a bug she wanted to squash. Finn considered it progress.

Zara Rashid sniffed in disdain. "It was adequate." Behind her, Eden rolled her eyes and mouthed, that's a compliment. He suppressed a grin.

The last woman at the end of the table of board members, Michelle Rollins, scrutinized him. Finn felt like he was on America's Got Talent, waiting for the verdict from the final judge. He'd gotten the business equivalent of three yeses, but Michelle could sway the others' opinions.

"You've certainly put in a lot of effort," she said. "And you'll be glad to know it paid off. Congratulations on a job well done, Mr. McMahon."

Finn felt a warm glow of pride in his chest, but there was something else he needed to do. His eyes slid across the table and met Eden's smiling gaze. He hadn't run this last part by her, so he could only hope he was doing the right thing.

"Thank you all for the positive feedback," he acknowledged, "but most of the credit actually belongs to someone else."

Everyone looked confused, while the smile slowly slipped off Eden's face. He swallowed hard and plunged on. "It was Eden who helped me with a lot of this presentation. We collaborated on the spreadsheets and graphs, but without her help and her ideas, this pitch wouldn't have been anywhere near as polished. I just wanted you all to know how passionate she is about the future of this company."

There was an awkward silence. Finn snuck a glance at Eden, only to find her expression unreadable. Finally, Kamilah cleared her throat. "Well, that was... enlightening. Finn, Eden, thank you for your time. My colleagues and I are going to evaluate your presentation, and I'll be emailing you the report later this week."

He nodded stiffly and headed for the door, keenly aware of Eden's presence behind him. She murmured a quick word of thanks as he held the door open, which he took as a good sign since she wasn't totally ignoring him after he'd blindsided her with that announcement.

When they were in the hallway and the door closed, she crossed her arms and faced him. "Care to explain what that was, Finn?" Her tone was carefully neutral.

Finn straightened and held her gaze. "I wasn't going to take the credit for this project when you spent the entire last month helping me with it. That's not fair to you, and that's not the kind of person I want to be."

"Who said I wanted any recognition?" she retorted. "Maybe I was fine without my name attached to the project."

He raised an eyebrow. "'Maybe'?"

Eden looked away from him. "You know what I mean."

"You don't have to have anything to do with your dad's company, but at least now they know what you're capable of. Besides, you'll be fantastic at whatever you choose to do in the future anyway, whether it's business related or not."

She let out a noncommittal hum, barely acknowledging the compliment. "Good job on the presentation, by the way. I wouldn't be surprised if they actually used some of those ideas to help with the merger."

"Probably only the parts we worked on together."

Eden pressed her lips together, but Finn could tell she was trying not to smile. "Alright, maybe I do deserve some credit. Those spreadsheets did look pretty sad in the beginning."

His jaw dropped in mock indignation. "You said they were good!"

"After I fixed all your mistakes."

"Good thing you decided to help, then. Imagine what kind of disaster that would've been if I had to do it all by myself. I probably wouldn't have even made it halfway before Ms. Rashid or Kamilah stabbed me with one of their stilettos just to shut me up."

Eden laughed, and Finn's breath caught. Maybe it was the adrenaline flooding out of him, or the thrill of acing his presentation, but the world seemed sharper, more vibrant. And brightest of all was the girl in front of him.

God, she was impossibly beautiful. He'd thought so when they first met and every moment afterward, whether she was teasing him, flirting with him, or arguing with him. But it was her smile that he'd noticed immediately and never wanted to forget.

"Don't be silly," she said. "They would never get their hands dirty. They would've hired a hitman afterward to take care of you instead."

"Right, because that's so much better."

As Eden flashed him another stunning grin, and his heart thumped harder than ever, he knew it wouldn't be stilettos, or a hitman, or presentation jitters that did him in. It would be this girl, who he'd irrevocably fallen for without any inkling he was headed that direction. Like hurtling down train tracks with no destination but ending up in the most beautiful paradise in the world.

And as Finn came to the conclusion that he kind of, sort of, definitely had feelings for Eden Sayed, he realized that he couldn't care less what came next as long as she kept looking at him like that. 

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AN: Finn is down so bad lol 

apologies for the long absence! end of the semester kicked my butt and now I'm in this internship where we do stuff every single day (including weekends...) on top of taking a summer class so my free time is down to less than zero. which means I have no clue when the next update is coming, unfortunately. 

also, I'm still upset that France got knocked out of the Euros yesterday bc I wanted them to win the whole thing, but hopefully they can do better at the World Cup next year... hopefully... 

hope everyone is having a great summer so far! 🎊