A Waltz With Wolves (Book II in The Harrison Inc. Series) | ✓

Chapter Fourteen: 'Textual' Tension

**

The "meeting" between Alejandro and I went surprisingly well.

I say "surprisingly" because I didn't expect to enjoy myself as much as I did. Alejandro and I not only talked about business, but we talked about our lives; he actually wanted to get to know about me—what my favorite TV shows were, what 'The Notebook' was about, why Forever 21 is called Forever 21. It was just nice to take a break from the drama that dealing with Sebastian has brought me.

But the drama starts the moment I wake up the next day.

Today I, as Sebastian's publicist, have to meet with the social media specialists team to finally get Sebastian's twitter and Instagram up and running. After the exit I made yesterday with him, seeing him today may be a little awkward. But I don't mind—this is business, and when there's a check involved, I can put my personal feelings aside.

I decide to go for the long-sleeved black dress I bought two days before. It's very form fitting, accentuating my breasts and my hips, but still manages to make me look professional. And after doing my makeup and brushing my hair (brushing my hair without putting it up is still hard to get used to) I head out of the door for the meeting. Once I'm in my car, I get a text from Alejandro. With the car running, I'm frozen in my seat.

ALEJANDRO:

My assistant will be reaching out to you again about setting up a meeting with my Uncle. We didn't have much time yesterday to talk business.

I smile, but stop myself immediately. I don't know if the last sentence was sarcasm, but I don't treat it as such.

On my way to the meeting, I stop for coffee and an English muffin at a café close to the office building. I'm almost late, and I hate how I don't care as much as I should; I'm usually more punctual. But with breakfast being the most important meal of the day, I'm sure they will all understand. And apparently, when I make it to the office, they were fine with my tardiness.

Well, everyone except Sebastian.

The moment I walk in, the entire social media team stares at me. The muffin bag in my hand and the tall coffee cup in my other hand doesn't help the situation at all.

Mr. McGregor—the supervisor—speaks first.

"Ms. King," he says. His eyes are everywhere except for on my own eyes. "We thought something tragic had happened."

Apologize. That's the first thing I think of doing. But the thought of saying sorry doesn't sit well with me.

"The coffee shop was more crowded than I had initially anticipated," I answer, and without another word, I take a seat right between Sarah and Lucas, with Sebastian on the other side of Sarah. Setting my laptop bag down on the large table, I'm ready to get started. I feel Sebastian staring at me, and when I decide to look at him, he looks away; there's a tick in that sharp jaw of his.

It takes everyone a minute to adjust.

"R-right," Mr. McGregor gets up and stands in front of the projected screen, but no matter how many times he tries to talk, he fumbles on his words; he can't keep his eyes off of me, and it's odd for me to realize this. He isn't my type, of course, but it's nice to be getting the attention.

But Sebastian quickly becomes irritated.

"You were saying?" Sebastian suddenly blurts out in the midst of Mr. McGregor's mumbling mess. A few from the team laugh at him; I fight the urge to shoot Sebastian the nastiest look I can make.

"Sorry," Mr. McGregor apologizes, and once he gathers himself (making sure to pretend I'm not in the room), we start the meeting, where Mr. McGregor guides us through the aspects of Sebastian's twitter and Instagram (which I'm in charge of creating and monitoring). I'm taking notes throughout the entire presentation as is Sarah. And towards the segment about 'captioning,' I receive a text from Alejandro: