Page 23 of Never To Be Mine

I pushed harder, my breathing getting rough. The beer was definitely making this harder than it should be but I wasn’t about to stop. She’d gotten under my skin.

And I had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

I had sweated out the alcohol by the time I climbed the steps back up to my deck. My head felt clearer. I stood on my deck again, hands on my knees, catching my breath.

I needed to figure out how to work with Juno Young without letting this attraction distract me from everything I’d worked for. All of it depended on keeping my head in the game.

Even if every instinct I had was telling me to make her mine.

I had started my company because I wanted to help people be healthier. That motivated me more than anything. But I also wanted to build the business to make my own mark on the world.

I wasn’t going to be remembered as a great talent in Hollywood like my parents. I didn’t need the money. Didn’t want the fame. But I wanted success. I wanted to do it under my own steam.

It would have been so easy for me to coast through life. I never had to work a day in my life, but that wasn’t what I wanted. It would be wrong to waste the opportunities my family’s success afforded me.

“So don’t fuck it up,” I murmured to the empty deck.

I had been planning my business for years, really.

B Well Balance. That was the name I’d been working with for my smoothies. But I wanted to work on the packaging and branding. I had a feeling Juno would have some opinions.

I grinned thinking about the arguments coming my way. I looked forward to sparring with her.

The next day, I stared at the screen for what had to be the hundredth time that morning, watching the promotional reel play through again. Something was still off. The transition between the customer testimonials and the product shots felt jarring.

“Toby, can you smooth out that cut at the forty-two-second mark?” I asked, pointing at the screen.

He nodded, pulling his laptop closer. “Yeah, man. I can add a dissolve there instead of the hard cut.”

“Perfect.”

I watched as he made the adjustment, his fingers flying over the keyboard. The kid was good at what he did. I’d hired him fresh out of college. Most twenty-two-year-olds couldn’t frame a shot to save their lives, but Toby had an eye for it.

Better than that, he really was a social media guru. He used the right song clips and trending memes and whatever else the kids were doing.

It worked. His media strategy had put my brand on the map. Now, I needed that strategy to take us to the next level.

And we worked well together because he didn’t complain when I asked him to redo something for the fifth time.

“How’s that?” He hit play on the revised section.

I leaned forward, studying the flow. Better. Definitely better. But not right.

“The music is competing with the voiceover there,” I said. “Can you drop the audio level on the track just a bit? Just a notch or two.”

“On it.”

I grabbed my protein coffee from the desk and took a sip. The reel would be presented to the PriceCo people. Thirty seconds to prove I knew what the hell I was doing.

“Check it now,” Toby said.

I set my coffee down and focused on the screen again. He’d adjusted the audio perfectly. The music supported the message without overwhelming it. The visuals flowed naturally from one segment to the next.

“That’s good,” I said. Then caught myself. “Actually, can we look at the color grading on that product shot? The green looks a little too vibrant. Makes it look artificial.”

Toby pulled up the color correction panel. “Want me to desaturate it?”

“Just a touch.”