Page 8 of Indescribable Love
Too messy.
“Hey! I’m glad you came down. I made a couple of turkey clubs.” He held up a plate to show her. “I know you and Nikki spoke about food so we could make sure you had things you liked stocked here, so I consulted the list before making your sandwich. I hope that’s okay.”
Seriously, was this guy for real?
“It’s fine, Simon. Thank you. You really didn’t have to make anything for me. I don’t expect you to wait on me.”
“It’s really not like that,” he said, grabbing a bag of chips from the pantry. “I was already making myself something. So tomorrow, if you’re making lunch for yourself, feel free to make an extra sandwich or salad or bowl of soup for me. I’m not fussy.” He put the bag down on the table and then grabbed their plates from the kitchen island.
Hopefully tomorrow Nikki would be with them, so this didn’t feel so…awkward.
No, not awkward. That wasn’t the word.
“I also grabbed you a bottle of black cherry soda. It was on the list, and I have to admit, I thought I was the only one who still drank that.” Smiling, he held out a chair for her. “You have excellent taste. We’re going to get along great!”
Intimate. This felt intimate.
Yeah, Nikki was going to most definitely need to be here until Juliette got more comfortable with Simon’s level of…
“Juliette?”
Oh, right. He was waiting for her.
“Thanks,” she murmured before taking her seat. Simon sat across from her and, naturally, was smiling.
“So,” he said, picking up his sandwich. “Tell me about yourself. What made you want to become a publicist?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say something snarky about how it was too late for a job interview, but kept that to herself. Instead, she gave him the short version of her resume.
“I’ve always been someone who saw the potential in others. What I learned early on was that it wasn’t something people saw in themselves. My best friend’s family had a PR firm that I interned with while I was in high school, and it just fit. At first, I was assisting the senior publicists, but I gained a lot of knowledge from shadowing them. I saw what they were doing right and what they were doing wrong.” She picked up her sandwich. “Honestly, I never felt the need to try another career; I just felt at home with that kind of work. It’s like second nature for me.”
He nodded and Juliette was certain that was the end of that and took a bite of her sandwich.
Of course, it was delicious. The perfect turkey to bacon ratio, and the bread was toasted exactly the way she liked it.
“I’m guessing the PR firm is Prestige and the best friend is Vanessa,” he said casually. “Is that why she didn’t fire you after the video and nude photos of Roxie got out?”
Well…crap.
Normally, Simon wasn’t a confrontational guy. There wasn’t a point to it. But…he always had Nikki do a little research when someone new joined his team, because if he was going to be working closely with anyone—like Juliette Bellucci—he wanted to know the kind of person he was dealing with.
As soon as he’d left Juliette upstairs, he’d pulled out his phone and read the report Nikki had sent him a week ago. Because he had no idea how soon she’d be joining him, he essentially speed-read the entire thing and got the gist of it.
And from everything he found out, he was skeptical that she was a good fit.
But…he also believed in giving people a chance. And knowing what he did about the whole Roxie situation, he doubted any publicist could reign that train wreck in. However, he was also curious to see how much accountability Juliette was going to take for it.
Or how much she was going to place blame on everyone else.
She finished chewing before taking a sip of her soda and then gently clearing her throat. When she met his gaze, it was neutral, and her entire demeanor became stiff.
“Roxie had been a client of mine for two years. I’d come to accept that there were going to be times when she was going to push every boundary, but I was always ready for it and managed to clean up the mess before most people were even aware of it. This last…incident…got posted overnight, but I had it down within minutes of waking up.” She shifted slightly in her chair. “As I explained to Vanessa, I am only human, and I do require sleep. It may not be a great defense, but that’s all I’ve got. If there were a way to predict when someone’s going to do something…inappropriate, I would have figured it out by now. All I can say is that I know I screwed up, and I’m thankful that Vanessa had enough faith in me to keep me on.” Another pause. “If you’re not comfortable with me being part of your team, I will respect that.”
He nodded and was about to speak when…
“But I think it would be incredibly closed-minded of you to not even give me a chance,” she went on. “I’m good at what I do, Simon. From what I understand, you’re doing this documentary under duress and there are some boundaries you wish to have in place that the producers are maybe…shall we say…pushing? Well, that’s what I’m here to help with. I don’t need to know why you have those boundaries; all I need to know is that you have them. So maybe before you show me the door, you give me a chance to prove to you I am the right person for the job.”
Then she surprised him by picking up her sandwich and taking another bite, effectively putting an end to her speech.