Nerd Girl (10 page)

Mia pouted. Apparently it was her life’s goal to fix everyone up.

I laughed. I adored my new colleagues. “I’ve known you guys for less than a day and you’re already trying to set me up with someone! I’m in trouble here, aren’t I?”

They all nodded and smiled with mischievous delight.

Vivek winked. “You’re Mia’s new pet project,” he confirmed.

His comment triggered applause from Mia and a look of empathy from Amy. I smiled all the way back to my office. This was going to be a fun team, but I could tell already it was going to be hard trying to keep any secrets from the likes of these people.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday morning planning out my action list for the next couple of weeks. I spent some time with Amy and she gave me an overview of the org chart and their corresponding subsidiary organizations. I had scheduled several regional calls for the following week. Catherine had asked me to rework the scorecard template as well, so I needed to figure out what it was going to look like before my calls early next week. By mid-day Friday, I came to the realization that I would need to work a little over the weekend.

As I wrapped up my morning activities, my cell phone rang.

“Hi, beautiful!” Ever since I could remember, that’s always been Dexter’s standard greeting for me.

“Dexter! How are you?” I asked cheerfully. “Are you in the country?”

Dexter was one of my favorite people in the world. We met in Mr. Shireman’s seventh grade Spanish class. I remembered the day clearly because Dexter never lets me forget it. On the first day of class, Dexter sat in front of me, turned around and introduced himself. His recollection of the memory was that I just stared at him like he was a freak. When you’re a moody pre-teen, starting cheerful conversations with another preteen you didn’t already know, well … it just wasn’t very common. Dexter was overly cheerful, skinny, and looked about two years younger than everyone else in the class. However, despite my initial reaction and surprise from his overt friendliness, he continued to pursue a conversation with me. That morning had been the start of our lifelong friendship.

“Good, good. Hey, listen, I’m heading to Seattle today. I’ve been in Miami all week, but sitting here in Denver for my layover.” On cue, the airport loudspeaker announced his flight in the background. “I was hoping we could get together tomorrow night or Sunday morning. What do you think?”

Dexter lived in London and really only called me when he was “in the neighborhood.” But being in the neighborhood could mean Florida. As long as he was on the same continent, he felt it worth stopping by Seattle for a short visit to see his parents. He always made the effort to see me, too, and thank goodness, because I wasn’t getting to London any time soon.

“Yay! I was actually planning on going out to dinner with Anna and Ethan tomorrow night. We’ll be discussing wedding plans, but why don’t you join us? They’d love to see you.”

“Oh, that’s right! The big day is coming up. I still feel so bad that I can’t make it. Work is crazy and we’re right in the middle of a big remodel. I’m only here due to a business trip.”

“Oh, Anna completely understands. Don’t sweat it,” I reassured him.

“Well, I guess I can give her and Ethan my congratulations this weekend then,” he said cheerfully.

“She’ll be totally excited to see you,” I added. “Let me give her a call later today and see on where she wants to meet up for dinner. I think she made reservations somewhere. I’ll leave a message and let you know what’s going on.”

“Perfect. My flight won’t get in until almost midnight tonight, so just send me an email or call me at my folks’ house in the morning.”

“Okay, sounds good. I’m so excited to see you, Dexter!”

“Me too!”

I looked at the clock and saw that it was time to leave and head over to the All Hands meeting. The meeting was being held in the Lincoln Square Building, which was about five miles west of the main campus. Lincoln Square was a modern high rise in the heart of downtown Bellevue. The meeting held there because, in addition to being an office building, the bottom three floors were made up of restaurants, retail shops, and a neon-lit, ultra-modern bowling alley. A morale event was planned at the bowling alley immediately following the meeting.

When I arrived at Lincoln Square, I took the elevator on up to the 15
th
floor to the conference center. I swiped my badge and walked through the secured doors into the conference lobby, stopping almost abruptly when I noticed the stunning views facing west. I could see Lake Washington, and beyond the lake, the faint outline of the Seattle skyline and the Olympic Mountains. As I headed into the main conference room, several hundred people were milling around trying to find a seat. I spotted Mia waving to me from the far right side of the large room and headed over to sit next to her.

From what I could tell so far, it was your typical All Hands meeting. The Corporate Vice President of Marketing kicked it off. He reported directly into the company CEO, so he was a big wig. He talked about the year in review and the importance of executing seamlessly for GA. He went over revenue and sales numbers, organizational health meters and attrition and hiring rates. The next fiscal year would be critical with the new Portals 8 platform, a fundamental shift from the traditional Portals operating system, etc., etc., etc …

The VP’s directs, which included Stephanie Wheeler, took turns reviewing their organization highlights. Pretty run of the mill stuff, but it was still interesting for me to see all the executives I would be working with.

When Stephanie finished her twenty minutes, she introduced the next speaker. “We have a guest speaker today for our All Hands meeting. Many of you already know him. He’s the Corporate Vice President for the US Subsidiary. Our teams are obviously co-dependent, but with such an important launch coming up, we thought it would be valuable for all of you to see how the US Sub is going to be taking the Portals 8 message to our customers …”

Stephanie continued with her schpeel, but by now, almost an hour and a half had gone by and my attention span had started to wane. I turned on my laptop to start sifting through some email before the weekend. In the background I heard some light clapping, then Mia elbowed me hard in the ribs and I couldn’t prevent an “Ow!” from escaping my lips. Fortunately, my exclamation got lost in the surrounding applause.

I glared over at Mia, giving her the evil eye. “What was that for?” I hissed, rubbing my side.

She nudged her head towards the man walking up to the podium and then whispered in my ear. “That, my dear, is Mr. Hottie #1, Ryan McGraw.”

I looked up in the direction of her stare.

Oh. My. God.

My eyes grew to the size of saucers and my mouth dropped open. I was in complete and utter shock. My Ryan was Ryan McGraw, Mr. Megasoft CVP, master of the MS universe, Mr. Executive Hottie that was the topic of lunch conversation yesterday, the man who hit me with his car, the man that I had the most memorable, amazing connection with one night, the man that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about for two weeks!

Mia chuckled. “You can close your mouth now.”

I snapped my jaw shut, realizing I was gaping at him.
Him
. Ryan McGraw.

“I’d like to get me some of that,” she said crassly under her breath.

I looked over at Mia in surprise. “Mia,” I hissed again. “You’re supposed to be in a relationship, remember?” A part of me was feeling possessive and I didn’t want her saying things like that about Ryan. Of course, she didn’t know I even knew him, but still.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look,” she hissed back and smiled. “He’s hot, though, don’t you think?”

“Um, hmm …” I didn’t know what else to say. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I wanted to go get some air, but I was frozen. If I got up, he would see me, so I sank down lower in my seat, hoping to God he wouldn’t notice me.

My mind was racing. It had to be him in Catherine’s photo. He worked closely with her team; it made sense now that they would be in launch event photos together.
Oh, God.
I started to panic at the thought of ever coming across him in a formal business setting. Would I ever be in a meeting with him? Would I ever need to, God forbid, present to him? I should thank my stars that he worked in the US Sub and not the corporate team. How could I have been so naïve? I was completely mortified for some reason, yet at the same time, I was cheering inside because at last I finally knew who he was.

I looked over at Mia, and fortunately, she was staring at Ryan, riveted, no longer caring about my reaction to him. I couldn’t tell if she was actually paying attention to his presentation or just appreciating the view; maybe both.

Trapped in my chair until the end of the meeting, all I could do from then on was watch him speak. I tried to bring my hand over my forehead to help me hide, but I couldn’t help looking at him through my fingers.

He was just as attractive as I remembered him. My memory of him didn’t do him justice. He wore a navy blue sports coat over jeans and a light blue button down; very MS executive attire. He sounded confident and relaxed. He was obviously comfortable up there and acted as if he was having an everyday conversation with someone. He didn’t seem to notice that there were hundreds of people in the audience. If that were me, I would be stuttering from nerves and I’d probably pass out mid presentation for not taking enough breaths.

How could a CVP be this good looking? How could this man be the same man that had his arm around me when he walked me to my car a couple of weeks ago?

I had never considered dating an executive here. I never found any attractive enough. Besides, even if I did, they were in a different social league. The idea of dating Ryan wasn’t too unreasonable, was it? Oh, what the hell was I thinking? I couldn’t go there; not now, knowing who he is.

I followed him with my eyes as he walked comfortably around the front of the room. I watched him move his hands as a way of emphasizing his key points. He was a good speaker. He pulled in the audience; everyone was captured by his charisma and charm. I stared at his chiseled jaw, watching the way his mouth moved when he spoke. I remembered that glorious grin, the dimples that were my undoing, and the way he smiled at me over the candlelight at our dinner. His hair was a little disheveled on top. It was sexy and I found myself imagining my fingers running through it, just like I did last time I saw him. I bit my lower lip, watching his mouth move and wondering how his lips would feel on my neck, my body, my …
My God, Julia! Stop it!
I flushed, embarrassed I even let my thoughts go there. I sneaked a quick peek at Mia and thank God she was still focused on Ryan and hadn’t noticed my discomfort.

I wondered if he had any idea of the impact he had on the females in this room. I wondered if he had any idea what that fateful evening had done to me. Had he even thought about me since then? Now that I knew who he was, did it even matter? Would I ever have the nerve to speak to him again, knowing who he was? It would be inappropriate for me to date him now, assuming he was even interested.

I wondered if dating him would be considered an HR violation. Maybe I needed to have a hypothetical conversation with my good friend, Bridget, in HR. As all these thoughts ran through my brain, I rubbed my forehead nervously. I was completely beside myself.

His presentation was ending. He thanked the audience and walked back to his seat surrounded by light applause. I followed him with my eyes to our side of the room. He sat in the front, only four rows in front of me. I hadn’t noticed him sitting there earlier. Even the back of his head looked sexy. I glared daggers at the back of it.

Julia, get a grip!
One minute I was ogling him and thinking dirty thoughts and the next minute, I was angry and upset with him. Why was I feeling such conflicting emotions? None of it was making any sense. I was a seriously freaked out head case right now.

Next on the agenda was a young, hipster guy who gave a demo of all the Portals 8 features. The lights dimmed and rock music started blaring through the speakers. I blankly stared at the projector, watching the touch screen do cool things to crop photos, surf the net, and display productivity apps. My eyes kept returning to the back of Ryan’s head. The hipster demo guy finished with loud applause for his witty commentary and edgy presentation. I wouldn’t have been able to repeat a single word he’d just said.

Last on the agenda was the announcement of new employees who had joined the org within the last quarter. They listed out all of the names, including mine, on the large screens displayed behind the podium. The CVP then requested all the new employees to stand.

Seriously
,
had I just heard him right?
I can’t do that!
Ryan would see me.
Maybe I could just opt out of this and no one would be the wiser. I sat firmly in my seat, ignoring the request from our CVP, hoping I could just fade into the crowd.

“Julia! Get up!” implored Mia.

“No!” I whispered desperately. “Shh... Really, I’m fine. No one cares.”