CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance by Iona Rose (books for 5 year olds to read themselves .TXT) 📕

Red Bull and Monster, this seemed like quite the challenge and just what I needed to completely occupy my mind.

I kept my gaze on the VP as he spoke, surprised when more times than not, and despite the ten other people in the room, his gaze would linger on mine for too long. It made me uncomfortable, and built the doubts about having anything whatsoever to do with this account. Being seemingly noticed already at the start like this, was always a bad sign.

“Since this was a personal brief received, we currently have no other competitors but it doesn’t mean that this account is secure,” he said. “Deskia and Citizen group are also possible contenders so we need to hit this out of the park when we meet the client next Wednesday. That gives us less than a week to come up with a direction solid enough to convince them to hand this over to us.”

He paused for a moment, his eyes roving across the room before surprise-surprise, finally settling on me.

It took a miracle not to roll my eyes.

“Miss Peters?” I presume.

I exhaled heavily. I managed a smile and nodded as respectfully as I could. “Yes sir, I'm Leah Peters.

“You made great contributions to the Cass Beer account in the first quarter of the year I’ve heard. Any ideas so far on the direction for this one?”

I glanced at my boss Henry.

His gaze was encouraging.

So I quickly browsed through my notes. “Red Bull’s campaign in March was simple but effective. They targeted mainly students in college but they were also able to through that, increase their sales towards other age groups because most people could relate to having been students previously. So my thought process right now is to choose a very specific audience to focus on, and not just target this to the general populace. Uh… for now the message to be picked up from exhaustion or fatigue or just general life’s discouragement is more heartwarming than the usual ones of bringing out the beast inside you or the fighter inside of you. This drink feels more like an embrace than the kick you need so… yeah. Sometimes, we don’t want to fight just yet... we want to be picked up first. Red Bull gives you wings, this gives you a hug and picks you back up.”

The room went silent.

I could almost feel the eye rolls as I usually expected in these damn meetings, whether I believed what I was saying made sense or not. My consolation over my four years in this career path so far, was that I paid attention and gave my honest thoughts. This was the best I could do.

“Great insight, Miss Peters,” he said. “I’m glad to have you on this team.” He took his seat then.

CMO Miller concluded the meeting, “Hope you all will be able to bond with our new VP here over drinks tonight, and get to work in time tomorrow to begin.”

Light laughter trickled through the room.

“Have a great day,” he said, and along with the other executives, filed out of the room.

Jeremy came to my side. “Great job and grandfather doesn't seem half-bad. Think I should make a move on him?”

I turned to him, confused again.

“Marketing VP,” he explained. “He’s our boss’s boss. Makes him the grandfather.”

I shook my head at him. “He’s not gay.”

“Obviously, but he might be bi. People are all sorts of confused these days, so I better take advantage of it, and take my shot.”

“I’ll be cheering you on,” I told him. “Just don’t get sued or fired.”

“Well, you just have to keep me from having too many margaritas tonight, and I think I'll be able to keep my head on my shoulders.”

The outing was just as I imagined it would be, especially with a new boss around- stiff and tolerable at best. We headed off to a quite pricey bar downtown named Ball and Biscuit and luckily for me, they had food so my sudden craving for some spicy chicken wings briefly took me away from the group. I headed off to a shadowed section of the bar and began to dig silently into my meal when I felt someone take a seat next to me.

For a second I thought it was him.

The aura of authority and the way he approached, was too familiar, while his scent of citrus and to cedar instantly pulled my heart into my throat.

It was however, my new boss.

I still almost choked on the food.

He intervened by ordering me a bottle of water.

“I’m sorry, sir,” I apologized.

He gave me a disappointed look.

“Daniel,” I corrected myself. When I had calmed down enough to meet his gaze, a guarded but kind face awaited me.

“You’re quite the loner, Leah,” he said. “You always seem to somehow extricate yourself from group gatherings.”

I didn’t know what to make of that observation, but deep down, I knew he was right. Ever since I’d returned from my trip, going on lunch break with the others was more of a hassle than just eating mine quietly in the break room. Over the past month especially, I’d now racked up a ready arsenal of excuses to get out of anything social.

I couldn’t help it.

I wasn’t the most outgoing person before the trip, but now since I’d returned from it with wounds that were taking much longer than I’d anticipated to heal, I needed the time apart.

Today however, I had a ready excuse that seemed to be true. Perhaps it was the gradual transition of the weather from summer into the gentle chill of autumn, but I was beginning to feel aches in my body. I sure hoped it had nothing to do with the flu Jeremy had mentioned earlier. “I’m not sure if that’s accurate,” I said lightly. “But today, I can’t deny that it is the case. I feel a bit nauseous and I think maybe it has something to do with the virus that’s going around the building.”

“The flu? I’ve heard about that.