Unmistakable: A Cinderella Retelling

8 ~ tardiness

My heart rate sky rocketed and all sense of reasoning flew out the window. How was I supposed to not make a fool out of myself in front of this fine man when his smile was good enough to make me swoon?

“Irv- Mr. Udo.” I stopped myself before I could call his first name. “Lovely seeing you again.” Even though we met last night, and danced together. I even felt his boner. Oh Lord, have mercy.

I shook his hand.

“Please call me Irvin.” He gave my hand a light squeeze before pulling it away. “Sit please, I’m excited to see what you have for us.”

I nodded and went to the other side of the table, sitting by the edge which was just opposite Irvin. Ngozi already had my laptop set up and the presentation ready for me.

I took a deep breath and looked up only to find Irvin’s eyes already locked on mine. Suddenly I couldn’t breathe because all I could see was him. The imprint of his hands on my waist and hips, and image of how close our bodies were as we moved to the tune of the music burned in my mind.

I felt a nudge by my side and I shook my head, breaking out of my thoughts and away from Irvin’s intense gaze. This was why I wanted to stay away from men, they were distractions, distractions I wasn’t ready to handle. My focus now was my career and it was going to stay that way.

I opened my mouth to speak and when I did, I didn’t make a fool out of myself. I went on to explain the new project, Zeus, it’s benefits and every other thing I could to convince Primer that it was something worth investing in.

It was a new type of security system that could control anything in the house, from doors to window blinds to lights, security camera’s, and everything else. It only responded to the voices of people you programmed it to respond to. Of course there were security systems like that already and Odits Tech had something like it already but this new project was better and more advanced.

When I was done talking, I looked at Irvin, the woman beside him who I assumed was his assistant with the way she was taking notes and a man who had come in ten minutes after I had started my presentation. The man who I was yet to find out his name was nodding, a look of satisfaction on his face. The assistant, still had her eyes on her note pad, still jotting away and Irvin had a blank look on his face as he stared at my now empty seat.

“I like it.” Irvin said, now looking up at me. This time I controlled my body to not give into his charms. “Sounds promising. I’d like to hear more about it and see how it works for myself.”

“Of course. You could come to–”

“I want it installed in my house.” He demanded, his voice holding no emotions whatsoever. He no longer looked like the man who flirted with me last night.

I straightened my spine, my eyes narrowing in on him. “I’m sorry, that can’t–”

“I believe you can make it work Miss Odita.” He smirked.

I gave him a blank stare, my brain trying to calculate what to say next that wouldn’t sound rude or disrespectful.

“And you would have a test run of it, just not at your house.” I feigned a smile, to truly hide what I was feeling. I wanted to slit his throat, gut him like a fish and feed his remains to dogs.

“Can we have the room please?” He said, his eyes never leaving mine.

When they had all cleared the room, he stood up and came to stand in front of me.

“What’s your point in all this?” I crossed my arm.

“Honey, you should know this already, if you can’t convince your customers that your product is worth their money, how would you sell?” He tucked his hands into his pants pockets.

A dry chuckle left my lips. I was having a hard time believing him. “Are you giving me business lessons?”

“I was just trying to help.” He shrugged.

“I never asked for your help.” I rolled my eyes.

“But it’s clear you need it.” He took a step forward, leaving little to no space between us.

I took a step backward. “If you would have let me finish before rudely butting in, all this talk wouldn’t be necessary. I can’t have it installed in your house.”

“Why? I see no reason why not.”

“I can’t have my workers installing a system like that at your house just because you want to test run it. If you want it installed in your house, you pay for it.” I heaved a breath. “You want proof of how Zeus works? You come to our site where we have it up and running.”

“And what if I choose not to?” He took another step closer to me. This time, I didn’t move from my spot.

“Actually, it’s your loss, not mine.” I smirked.

He recoiled, a frown on his lips. “How?”

“There are a lot of real estate developers lining up to have the first shot at using Zeus. If you refuse, we give the shot to someone else.” I moved closer to him. “We just thought that as our longest customer, we would offer it to you first.” I tilted my head up to look into his eyes. “But I guess we were wrong.”

I smiled and was about to take a step backward when his hand circled my waist, and he pressed me to him.

“Fine.” His eyes dashed to my lips for a split second before going back up to my eyes. “Send me the address.”

“I will.” My tone dropped. No longer playing or threatening him. “I would appreciate it if you got your hands off of me.”

I actually wouldn’t but I was trying to be professional. If I didn’t, he would have kissed me and I may or may not have been able to hold myself back.

He pulled his hands away as if I had burned him. “I apologize.”

I nodded, fixing up my shirt then my hair. After packing up my laptop and the papers scattered across our side of the table, I turned to him. “See you around, Mr. Udo.”

“It’s Irvin to you.” He smirked.

I shook my head and walked away, closing the conference room door behind me. Then I released the breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Thank you for reading!

Things are heating up between Irvin and Emily and I'm absolutely loving their chemistry.

I'm back to school and it's going to be a short semester meaning back to back lectures and all that. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. The update schedule is still the same Monday's and Thursday's but if there'll be any changes I'll let you know.

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