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Jade holds out her hand to shake. “Fair fight, Grayson. If you think you can do better than me, prove it.”
I ignore her hand. “Fine. Monday afternoon, prepare to tuck your tail between your legs. Spending the weekend partying is only going to screw you over.”
She looks like she would wring my neck if she could. “You don’t know the first thing about my life, Grayson, so don’t pretend that you know me.”
I lean closer to her, my body nearly pressing against hers. “I know that you’re no good, and it would be stupid to trust you again.”
Jade steps closer, her body pressing against mine. “Prepare to be humiliated again.”
Nails bite into my palms as I step around her and storm away.
Monday afternoon, she’s going down.
CHAPTER 4
JADE
Lara pops her head into my office right after lunch Monday morning. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
I look down at the posterboards spread across my shiny new white desk. “No. I think I have nearly everything ready now.”
She steps inside, looking down at the black and white photographs I pulled from old editions of the newspaper. The earliest ones date back to when the newspaper first started, showing Leo Harris proudly standing in front of the tiny building he bought at the time.
“This is incredible.” Lara runs her fingers over one of the pictures of the latest building from the day they started renovations. She’s at the front of the group, wearing a hard hat, with a couple other company interns.
“Thank you.”
“I’m serious. Getting back to the roots of the company while starting to integrate into the new age is brilliant. Leo’s going to love it.”
“Leo isn’t the one I’m worried about.”
I grin and glue on the last picture, showing Leo and Grayson standing on the printing room floor, surrounded by reams of newspapers.
Lara perches herself on one of the beige suede chairs on the other side of my desk. “Grayson has a hard head, but he’s been doing all that he can to get Leo’s approval for years.”
“I saw that.” I smooth down the picture in place. “He didn’t come to the interview this morning.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Okay, so maybe hard head isn’t the right word. He’s difficult at the best of times, but I think in this situation, he does mean the best. This is his livelihood, and you’re coming in with the intention to change the company.”
I can’t help but sigh. “If he would take five minutes to talk to me, he would see that the change I’m proposing gets back to the roots of the journalism empire Leo built.”
I glance at the clock on the wall, but as I do, I glimpse Grayson walking into his office. He glares at me through the glass wall before walking over to pull the curtains shut.
Lara shakes her head. “Sooner or later he’s going to get over this and get back to acting like a normal human.”
“I wouldn’t hold your breath about that.” I smile and stack the boards ready for the presentation. “I’ve known him since college, and he’s always been like this. Honestly, it’s nice to see that some things are still consistent.”
“Well, I guess there is that. If nothing else, Grayson is consistent.” Lara glances around the office, taking in the plantsI put along the credenza this morning. It was nice to have all the old furniture hauled out of here and a fresh start brought in.
It’s the same energy that I’m trying to bring to the rest of the company.
It would be a lot easier to do that if Grayson stopped trying to make it harder at every turn.
I sit down and pull up my presentation notes before turning my laptop toward Lana. “Would you mind going through these notes and making sure that everything sounds all right?”
She leans forward, scrolling through my notes twice before turning the laptop toward me. “You’re going to kill it in there. The board is going to love this.”
I beam and draw the laptop back. “This isn’t the first company I’ve come in and done a refresh for, but it is the biggest. I don’t want to risk ruining everything.”
