Taking His Hand (Under His Roof #2) (13 page)

But Aria beats me to it, glancing in Kate’s direction and saying, “And you? Blue Devil or Tar Heel?”

“
No, no. I was a Tiger.”

Before I know it, there’s a fun, rather loud conversation about the ACC and every sport ranging from football to women’s basketball to swimming. I don’t have a lot to contribute, but do add that I went to Appalachian State and hide my annoyance when this admission is greeted with laughter.

Jacob orders another round for everyone, asking the waitress to put it on his card. When I protest—our firm always tries to pick up the bill for these meetings—he waves his hand, dismissing the idea. Kate and Jacob are both leaning slightly toward Aria, their body language indicating they’re having a nice time.

I relax, pleased.

By the time we get around to discussing their ad campaign, I’m buzzed and push my second half-finished martini aside.

“
Well, we’ve been thinking a lot about the redesign…” Kate says, opening her own file and spreading out some design drafts in front of her and Jacob.

Redesign?
I flip open the file, trying to appear casual, and frantically scan for any note of a redesign. Maybe it was in an email I missed?
Shit
.

“
Is that what you use in Durham?” Aria asks, leaning over Jacob’s shoulder to peer at the papers.

“
Yes. As you can see, it’s industrial. Here in Asheville, we want hip. We want to appeal to whatever these…” Kate pauses, looking around the hotel bar with mild disgust, searching for the right word, “…whatever these
mountain
people seem to like.”

“
That’s really smart,” says Aria, beaming at them. Then she turns to me, eager. “So, what’d you come up with?”

Shut up, Aria!
I’m screaming in my head. Her smile fades slightly when she sees the look in my eyes.

I decide to opt for honesty.

“
Listen, Kate, Jacob,” I say, facing them. “I apologize, but for whatever reason I missed your plan for a redesign.”

Kate frowns, and Jacob rolls his eyes.

“
However, if you just give me a moment, I can come up with some rough ideas for you right now.”

She looks at her phone. I’ve lost her attention. Jacob leans over and murmurs something in her ear.

I decide to have a take-charge attitude. “This meeting won’t be a loss. Trust me. I understand that you want to change things up a bit. That’s fairly typical for clients starting up here in Asheville. So, we’ll discuss what parameters you need and I can come up with a few sketches. The only thing we won’t be able to show you today is the digital version of those ideas, but I can e-mail them tomorrow morning.”

Jacob sighs, but goes into the rough plan they want. I listen intently, drawing as he speaks. I’m kicking myself for not bringing my laptop. I seriously thought this was just a meet and greet.

Meanwhile, poor Aria is taking in the train wreck this meeting has turned into. She leans toward me and peers over my shoulder at my sketches.

“
What if you kept the change simple? I mean,” she looks at me apologetically, “I really like what you’ve come up with, Rachel. But another approach would keep the brand a little more solid. You’ve got strong clientele in Durham and Raleigh, and they’ll recognize your name if you can keep it mostly the same…”

I’m trying really hard not to glare at Aria, but Kate and Jacob are listening and nodding.

Aria grabs a pencil from the stack by my paperwork and works for a few minutes, drawing out basically the same logo as they had. She swaps the capital ‘R’ out for a lowercase one, leaving more room for a group of faceless people she’s drawing.

I see what she’s doing. Honestly, it’s obvious. It’s smart.

Where the hell did this come from?

“
So, Asheville people…
mountain
people,” she corrects, giggling, “we really like community. If we just do a slightly brighter color scheme, and add some cut-outs of people, it’ll imply that you guys are community oriented. Do you have support for your workers in any way? Or do you have any programs that are community-based?”

“
We’re employee-owned. See, sometimes we’ve put that in the ads,” Jacob says, pulling from the bottom of a stack and showing Aria a copy of a billboard.

“
Yeah, that’s great. We’ll highlight that even more with this campaign. We could make it almost like a slogan or something.”

It’s perfect.

Kate and Jacob are smiling now, and Jacob orders yet another round. Aria continues sketching until she’s done a mock-up for their simple logo, the logo with the slogan, and even an advertisement template with the logo plus a photo of company employees. On the logo and slogan, she sketches a light outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.

While she’s busy, both chatting and working simultaneously, I snap a photo of the new logo with my phone, and do some work on the colors. By the time we’re into our third round of drinks, we’ve got basically what I would have prepared for them finished.

Unbelievable.

Kate and Jacob are thrilled, and when we get up to leave, they thank us as though Aria and I are both designers.

I’m more than a little tipsy when we head out to my car. Sheepishly, I hand Aria my keys. She doesn’t so much as blink as she takes them from my hands and heads to the driver’s seat. Also, to her credit, she’s not saying a word about what I would’ve done if she hadn’t come along.

“
You were really good in there,” I say, sliding into the passenger seat.

“
Thanks.”

“
I never knew you could draw like that.”

She shrugs. “You never asked.”

I frown, annoyed. It isn’t my job to assume a secretary can draw. “Well. You could’ve told me. Shown me.”

“
It’s on my resume. I just never thought I could get into school, so I figured…I thought maybe if I kept it up at Lakeside for long enough, eventually I’d climb the ladder and be able to work for you…or for someone…as a designer.”

“
Does David know you want that?”

“
No. No one knows.”

“
Why not?”

Tapping the steering wheel with her index finger, she thinks for a moment. “No one in my family has ever done anything besides work retail or other blue collar stuff. So I don’t know…I guess having a job like that is more of a dream than a reality. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I still…I still don’t want to get my hopes up.” She turns to me with a weak smile. “I really like being a secretary, too. I just really hate…”

“
Being bored?” I see it on her face.

She sighs, but neither agrees nor disagrees. I feel a pang for her all of a sudden, like I’m seeing her for the first time or something.

“
Well, now that I know you have a sense for design, I can try to keep that in mind and make a recommendation if a job opens up.”

“
Seriously?” She turns to me, braking a little forcefully at the stoplight.

I smile. I don’t think this is the alcohol talking. “Yeah. Seriously.”

“
Thank you. Thank you so much!” she shrieks, grinning and throwing her arms around me.

A bit taken aback by her sudden show of affection, I hug her back, then point to the road.

“
It’s green.”

We drive in silence for awhile. Her energy is happy, and so is mine. I’m incredibly relieved my ignorance going into that meeting didn’t make us lose Kate and Jacob.

“
How are you gonna get home?” she asks, pulling into the lot. It’s after five—definitely quitting time. “Can you call David?”

Shit.
The twenty minute drive back to the office has not magically sobered me up.

And the rules! I’m not supposed to get inebriated if David isn’t around. Though surely there’s an exception for work.

“
Fuck,” I say under my breath.

Aria shoots me a sideways glance. Then she smiles a tiny, knowing smile.

“
You’re in for it, aren’t you?” she asks.

In spite of myself, I smile too. Then, we’re both smiling and laughing at my silly predicament.

“
Yeah,” I say when we calm down. “I guess I am…”

“
I’ll wait with you,” she says.

I call David, and he’s in town anyway and doesn’t sound
too
upset that I need a ride.

When I hang up, I turn to Aria.

“
It’s actually kind of nice knowing…having you know…”

She nods. “Do you have any friends who get spanked?”

“
Nope. Well, you, I guess.”

“
We aren’t exactly friends, Rachel. Remember the firing? The crappy job I always did for you?”

Ouch.
But her tone wasn’t really all that cutting. I catch her smiling.

“
I know,” I reply. “Maybe…maybe with time.”

“
Yeah.” She’s silent for a long moment, staring straight ahead. Finally, she speaks softly. “You know, a friend of mine showed me David’s ad on Craigslist. That’s how I found him.”

“
Really?”

She nods. “She gets spanked by her husband. Says it ‘keeps her centered’. I don’t know…I had a fight with my sister a few years ago. Even though I’d apologized, and been forgiven, I still felt horrible about myself. And so, I went to David.” Aria smiles, presumably remembering her first spanking. She turns to face me. “How’d you end up with David?”

I tell her my story. How I was frustrated with my life, with my relationships. How I was a downright bitch to my friends. Stumbling across his advertisement online…emailing him…meeting him…falling in love with him…

“
That is
so
sweet,” Aria exclaims, clapping her hands together in delight. “David is such a great guy. I always wondered why he was single.”

“
Yeah. He really is great.”

As if on cue, David pulls up his truck beside my car.

“
And, that’s him. Time to face whatever’s coming my way,” I say, looking up at his face with a sigh.

“
Good luck,” Aria says, sympathetic. “Hey. Thanks for taking me along today.”

“
Of course. Thanks for your help. You really saved my ass. At least…metaphorically.”

We burst out laughing again and when I glance up at David, he’s glaring down at me.

“
Okay, time to go. See you tomorrow, Aria.”

“
See you.” She leans over to hug me and hands me my car keys. “If you ever want to talk, you know…about anything…I’m here for you.”

“
Thanks,” I say sincerely, letting myself out. She smiles, and wanders off to her car.

I walk around David’s truck, climb inside, and give him a quick kiss.

“
Hey,” he says.

“
Hey.”

“
Was that Aria?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Interesting.” He pulls forward, out of the parking lot. “So. Tell me why you’re not driving this afternoon.”

Feeling happy, and not really caring so much at the moment about my impending spanking, I launch into the entire story. How Aria had been really tentative about opening up about Jeremy and how, on a whim, I’d invited her with me. How my clients wanted a redesign and I’d had no idea. Aria drawing up new ads on the fly, me with my phone coloring them in, and Jacob ordering round after round.