Page 114 of Never To Be Mine

His eyes nearly popped out of his skull. “And you’re considering it?”

“No.” I slammed the trunk closed. “But I have an alternate proposal for them. And if it goes well, I’m going to need you to film it.”

Toby grinned and hoisted his camera bag onto his shoulder. “Then let’s go make some content.”

37

JUNO

Isat in the conference room with my father, Kari, and three members of our communications team, all of us staring at a whiteboard covered in terrible ideas for damage control. My coffee had gone cold an hour ago, but I kept sipping it anyway.

“We could say he has a food addiction,” Robert from PR suggested. “Emphasize that it’s an illness, like alcoholism. We could send him to rehab.”

“We’re not sending Hollis to rehab,” my father said, rubbing his temples. “I need better ideas than this.”

I wanted to defend Hollis. He’d been doing legitimate product research. His intentions had been good even if his execution was terrible. But I’d spent the last twenty-four hours trying to separate my personal feelings from professional judgment.

As much as I cared about him, my focus needed to be on the company right now.

“What if we just wait it out?” Kari suggested. “The internet has a short attention span. Something else will trend in a few days.”

“We can’t afford to wait,” I said. “Every day we stay silent, retailers are questioning whether they want to stock our products. We need to act. Sales are already noticeably down on other products.”

My father nodded. “Juno’s right. We need a statement today.”

The conference room door burst open. Hollis walked in, slightly out of breath. The expression on his face surprised me. Excitement? Desperation? Both?

“I need to talk to you,” he said, looking directly at me.

My heart jumped at the sight of him, even though I’d spent the last day trying to convince myself I’d done the right thing by pushing him away.

God, he was gorgeous. My eyes missed looking at him. He was wearing jeans and one of his B Well polo shirts.

“Hollis, not now,” I said, keeping my voice professional. I was dying to go to him. I wanted to hold him. Apologize. But I couldn’t. “We’re in the middle of something.”

“I know. That’s why I’m here.” He stepped fully into the room, and I noticed Toby behind him with a camera. “Trust me. Please.”

I looked at my father, who frowned but hadn’t told Hollis to leave. That had to count for something.

“You have five minutes, son,” Dad said.

Hollis pulled out a chair and sat down. “I met with the people from Curly’s earlier.”

The room went silent.

“You did what?” I finally managed.

“They reached out this morning. Wanted me to do a commercial for them, capitalize on all the publicity.” He leaned forward, his hands flat on the table. “I had a different idea.”

My father crossed his arms. “Let’s hear it.”

“I brought them samples of our burger. Had them do a blind taste test against their own product.” Hollis’s grin widened. “They loved it. Like, genuinely loved it. Said it was better than what they’re currently serving.”

“Hollis, where is this going?” I asked, afraid to hope.

“They want to sell it as a healthy alternative to their standard Curly burger. Think of it. Our plant-based burger in every Curly’s location nationwide.” He pulled out his phone and slid it across the table. “I have an email from their VP of Operations. It’s all right there. They’re ready to negotiate terms as soon as you and Dan agree to the deal.”

I stared at the phone, then at Hollis, then back at the phone. “You got Curly’s to agree to sell our burgers?”