LoveLines (8 page)

“Let’s not.”

“Let’s,” Camden pushed. “You’ve dated a shoplifter. A drug addict. A girl who claimed that her
roommate kept her locked in a dumpster. She was admitted to Mulberry not too long ago, if I recall, right? They diagnosed her with schizophrenia.”

Reece nodded reluctantly. “For the record, I only dated her for two months. And also for the record, she’s doing a lot better.”

“Hmm,” Camden replied. “There’s the one who put salt on all her food then complained incessantly of bloating problems. Oh yeah! And the one who wanted you to tie her up and beat the shit out of her every night.”

“All right already!” Reece snapped. “I get it. I haven’t had the best of luck with normal women.”

“Well, ‘normal’ is relative. I mean, none of us are ‘normal,’” Camden said. “Oh, shut up shut up. Round 4 is starting.”

The men suspended their conversation for the eight minutes it took to answer all the questions for Round 4. Camden turned in their answer sheet while Reece pigged out on the plate of cheese fries the waitress recently delivered. He didn’t mean to. It’s just that the more he thought about his past relationships, the more nervous he became at the prospect of spending the rest of his life alone because he didn’t know how to pick them. He shoved a cheese fry in his mouth. Perhaps Camden was right: he went after fixer-up women.
(Gulp of beer.) Why? Why did he go after the ones with great big issues? (A clump of cheese fries stuck together by a mass of coagulated cheddar. He opened wide.)
God. What the fuck is wrong with me?
he thought. (Another long swig of beer. Two more cheese fries.)
Can men get cellulite?
he wondered as he licked his finger and dabbed it all around the plate, picking up stray bacon bits.
Oh, Jesus, I’m gonna get cellulite,
he thought, sucking the bacon from his forefinger.

“Dude,” Camden said. “You’re, like, desperate eating over here.
That’s what chicks do.”

“This is my dinner!” Reece barked. “Leave me alone!”

Camden’s eyes went wide. He sank into his chair slowly. “Okay, man. It’s cool. You can eat as fast as you want.”

Reece buried his face in his hands.

“Aren’t your fingers greasy?” Camden noted.

Reece snapped his head up. “Oh, shit. Oh, that’s gross.” He picked up his napkin.

“Don’t do that,” Camden chuckled.

Reece held up the napkin
, grease-stained circles dotting the paper square. He looked at his friend.

“I was about to wipe my face with this,” he said quietly.

“I know.”

“I was about t
o put this shit on my face.”

Camden bit his lip to suppress the grin. “You’re tired, Reece. You think we
oughta call it a night?”

“There’s something wrong with me
,” Reece went on. “You’re right. I go after freaks. What am I thinking entertaining the idea of pursuing this girl? I know she’s OCD. No one looks that put together all the time. No one’s desk at work stays in a state of orderliness. All. Day. Long. You hear what I’m sayin’ to you? I’m talking all day. It’s not right. It’s not human. There’s something wrong with her.”

Camden nodded. It was a sympathetic nod mixed with “I told you so.”

Reece threw up his hands. “I’m done! Interest? Killed. Obsession? Over.”

“What about this game?” Camden asked.

“Not over,” Reece replied, and he tried his hardest to concentrate on the remaining rounds. The problem was that he saw a swinging ponytail in the distance and was distracted all over again.

***

“Did you see it?!” Christopher cried.

Reece grinned. “Yeah
. I saw it.”

“What do you think about the final product?”

“I thought it couldn’t have been better. I think the commercial is awesome.”

“What did you think about how the
y dressed the mom model?” Christopher asked.

Reece chuckled. It wasn’t exactly his vision, but it worked. She was still in the business suit he wanted, but Haute Digital thought a high
-fashion business suit would translate better—sharp angles and ruffles in weird places. Not your average everyday woman’s suit.

“Dude!
Check this out.” Christopher slid
Technology Now
, the most popular tech magazine, across the table. “Read that.”

Reece held up the magazine and cleared his throat. “
‘Haute Digital—a leading innovator in the phone/computer hybrid—tried a “fashionable” approach to marketing its newest phablet. Merging runway, couture, supermom, and a clever tagline (it’s “phablous,” people), the company left the competition in the creative dust thanks to the vision of Reece Powell at Beach Elite Marketing Firm in Wilmington, NC. A boutique firm specializing in both small and mid-level accounts hit the jackpot when it partnered with the multi-billion dollar phone company. And it looks to be a business relationship that will continue.

‘
The vision for a phone that has, up until recently, fared poorly with female businesswomen on account of its size has seen a surge in sales among working women. The sales for businessmen are through the roof, and that makes Haute Digital very happy’
. . .”

Reece’s voice faded as he read the rest of the article silently. When he finished, h
e looked at his friend. “They said my name,” he breathed.

Christopher nodded and did a little shoulder-pump dance. “Yeah, they did.”

“This magazine is read by, like, every techy and tech company in the world,” Reece went on.

“Reece, man, you don’t get it. This magazine never highlights marketing campaigns. That’s what a marketing magazine does. But they featured us—you! That’s freaking huge!”

Reece processed this. It was true.
Technology Now
focused on technology, not marketing. Why would they feature an article about marketing? Was the campaign that good?

“
Yous about to be a superstar,” Christopher went on playfully.

“I just put her on the runway and made her say ‘
fablous.’ That’s it,” Reece said. He felt the numbing shock creep through his fingers. They tingled, and then each digit seemed to dissolve. He smacked his hands on the table, trying to bring his hands back to life.

“Man, don’t downplay. Never downplay. People like this commercial. People like what you did. Haute Digital
loves
what you did. Be proud of yourself,” Christopher replied.

Reece nodded.
“Well, don’t discount yourself. You storyboarded the entire commercial.”

“Oh, I’m not discounting what I did,” Christopher said. “
Don’t you worry about that. I’ll eat up every compliment and freebie that comes my way.”

Reece laughed. “Freebie?”

“Yeah, like if someone wanna take me to lunch.”

“Is that usually how it works in marketing? You storyboard a popular commercial and then get free lunch?”

“Lunch, booty, whatever.”

Reece howled with laughter.

“We are celebrating tonight!” Christopher shouted.

“Where?”

“I’m gonna take you downtown, my friend. Show you all the bars Wilmington has to offer. We’ll start off low key at The Blue Post, right? Maybe shoot some pool. Then we’ll mosey on over to The Reel Café and get our dance on—”

“I like
that place,” Reece interjected, thinking of Bailey dancing.

Christopher continued, “Then maybe we take it up a notch and hit up Level 5.”

“What’s that?”

“Another rooftop bar.”

“Sounds like a plan. Sounds like I’ll be hurting the next day,” Reece said.

“An
d we’re gonna find us some honeys to hang with. Now that you’re a small celebrity—”

“In the tech world, Chris. No one cares about that. And anyway, what am I saying? I’m not a small celebrity.”

“You are!” Christopher argued. “And all you gotta say is ‘commercial,’ and they be like, ‘Oooo, what commercial? You worked on a commercial?’ and wanna sit in your lap.”

Reece laughed so hard he didn’t hear the door to the conference room open. Bailey stood in the threshold smiling, hugging
Technology Now
against her chest, beaming at her love interest.

“Well, look who it is,” Christopher said. “The girl who had us respell ‘
fablous.’ And subsequently land us in the biggest tech magazine on the planet! What’s up, Beboppin’ Bailey?”

“I highlighted the word,” she said, and held up her magazine. “See?”

“You highlighted my man’s name, too, I see,” Christopher noted, and Reece went hot all over.

Bailey blushed. “Congratulations to the both of you.”

“Thanks,” Reece replied. He was still flushed himself, and avoided her eyes. That wasn’t like Reece to avoid anyone’s eyes, but Christopher’s compliments along with Bailey’s well wishes were a bit too much. He wasn’t used to the praise. He’d never developed a marketing campaign that created so much buzz, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it.

Others started pouring into the conference room for the 8:30 meeting. Bailey was pushed aside as coworkers swarmed Reece, congratulating him and discussing the magazine article. She took a seat in the corner, still holding her copy of
Technology Now
, wondering if Reece planned to eat lunch with her today. He may forget about her altogether now that his life was so clearly going somewhere.

Dan was last to enter the conference room. Silence descended as colleagues held their breath, waiting for their boss’s reaction. He looked Reece square in the face and inclined his head.

“It’s a pretty damn good day, isn’t it?”

***

She had no clue he stood directly behind her in the snack line. And it was a long line. He thought they’d miss the first fifteen previews.

“Here by yourself?” he asked, tapping her shoulder.

Bailey whirled around, eyes wide when she recognized him.

“Wow. Now there’s a face,” Reece said, chuckling. “You look like you’ve been caught.”

She smiled uneasily. Hadn’t she?

“Here alone?” Reece asked.

Bailey bit her lower lip and nodded. “Go ahead and think it. I’m lame, right? Going to the movies by myself? That’s what lame people do, right?”

Reece considered this. “Well, then I must be pretty lame, too.”

“Oh gosh. I’m sorry. I meant for women.”

He burst out laughing. “Are yo
u always so hard on your own gender?”

“Not me,” Bailey explained. “The world. It’s totally fine that you’re here alone. Cool, actually. Completely different for me. It’s much more
, ‘Oh, look at that poor, sad woman over there. Does she not have a boyfriend? A friend? Does she not even have a home? Maybe we should take her home and feed her something.’”

Reece chuckled. “Now that’s just not fair.”

“Tell me about it,” Bailey mumbled.

She hung her head. She knew her eyelashes obscured her eyes which gave her the perfect opportunity to check out his clothes. He wore a gray
, striped long-sleeve T-shirt that hugged his chest and arms. Very flattering. She rather enjoyed studying the curves and dips of his muscles. It had been three long months since she’d touched man muscles, and it was excruciating standing there refraining from touching his. She let her eyes travel down his dark jeans to his Lacostes. God, he was a cutie.

“Well, why don’t you let me feed you, at least?” Reece offered. “I mean, since your life is so pathetic. It’s the least I can do.”

She lifted her face to him and cocked her head. “That’s funny.”

“Seriously,” Reece said. “I’m not here with anyone. You aren’t either. We could watch the movie together.”

“How do you know what movie I’m going to see?”

“Easy. It’s the one I’m seeing.”

Bailey shook her head and giggled. Was she flirting? She was pretty sure she was flirting.

“
Nuh uh,” she sang.

“Fine, we’ll see yours,” Reece said. “But if it’s a chick flick, you so owe me.”

“It’s one of those smart, ironic comedies about the families who are way cool and progressive,” Bailey explained.

“
Ohhhh, yeah. Those ones that try to make you feel like an idiot if you don’t get the hip, ironic jokes?” Reece asked.

“Exactly,” B
ailey replied. “They make me feel like I oughta retake the GRE.”

“I totally did that,” Reece confessed.
“For the fun of it!”

She laughed as they approached
the counter.

“For the lady?” Reece asked.

Bailey shrugged. “Just water.”

“Just water?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Hold up. You stood in this long line for ‘
just water?’”

She nodded again.