Page 7 of Mr. Perfect

“Go?” he asks. “No, Miss Hatcher. We’re having an executive meeting. Which is why I called you up to the executive conference room.”

“Executive meeting? Then why do I have to be there? You guys never invite me to the meetings up here on seven.”

“Go sit down, Miss Hatcher.”

Sowards walks off and disappears into the conference room. My eyes follow him and then rest on Mr. Fancy Jet as he appears from my left. He stops and smiles at me. “Did you at least get me in focus?” he asks.

Oh, my God, he did see me take that picture.

“Shall we?” he asks, waving a hand towards the open conference room door. I nod and walk briskly into the room. It’s glass on all four sides and the doors aren’t regular doors because that is way too mundane for a fun company like Stonewall. They are sliders that fold open, the kind you see at beach houses where a wall of windows suddenly slides back and the wall disappears, opening to the outside.

Once the folding doors are closed I am a nervous mess. Why am I here? I’m not really an executive. I can count on one hand the number of executive meetings I’ve been to, and those were all major restructuring changes. I’m my own department here. I run the whole thing. I have Ming as my assistant, but when they gave her those duties, they just added to her current IT salary. So really, I have no oversight over anyone but myself and the guests I escort from studio to studio.

The conference table seats ten. McAllister Stonewall is at the head, just in front of the digital whiteboard, and all eight chairs along the long length of the table are also taken up by other department heads.

The only chair left is the end. I slink into the soft leather and lean back—too far—and then have to scramble to regain my balance as I try to look like I meant to do that. “Wow,” I say, smiling at all the gawking looks. “Are these new? They’re very comfortable.”

“OK,” McAllister says. “Ready?”

Everyone nods and affirms with a chorus of yeses just as the shades come down and the room goes dark. A video starts playing on the digital whiteboard and everyone settles in, tablets in hand to take notes.

Should I take notes?

I get my tablet out and set my phone on the table beside it.

The video is about… hell if I know. Ethics? Mission statement? A reorganization? I don’t know. I have nothing to do with any of this. I’m the celebrity concierge.

I do my best to pay attention, but the chair is so comfy, and the room is dark. I start to drift off.

Jesus, Ellie. Get it together. You are in an executive meeting, for Pete’s sake. The CEO is sitting right in front of you.

Hey, the relaxed voice in my head says. His back is to me. He will never know if I just close my eyes—

Sowards clears his throat next to me, and everyone glances over at us.

I force myself to stay awake.

Three minutes later I’m dozing again so I look to my right. Clarisse is taking notes on her tablet. So I flip open the cover on mine and do the same.

New page. Heading. Executive Meeting. Wednesday—I glance at the clock—seven forty-five.

Video about… employees. New health benefits. Reorganization chart.

See, I knew it. That’s the only reason they call me up here. I never get reorganized.

Then I notice my name has moved on the flow chart on the screen. “Hey,” I say out loud. “Did I just get reorganized?”

Fancy Jet looks over his shoulder and smiles at me.

“Later, Miss Hatcher,” Sowards growls to my left.

“Sorry,” I whisper. By now the chart is off screen, so I can’t even take a note. I glance over at Clarisse’s tablet, but she shields it from me with her arm like we’re taking a test in fifth grade.

Bitch.

I open up Pinterest and ease my tablet up slightly so I can take some pictures. Snap. I catch Bob Moran picking his nose and almost laugh out loud. Clarisse is still guarding her tablet like a child. Snap. Jennifer Sluts-around is staring at McAllister like she wants to eat him.

And… McAllister is off to the side now so he can get a better view of the video, so I see him in profile. God, that’s perfect. I snap about a dozen of him and then make a new board called My Hot Brother-in-Law.