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And it stung for some reason.
And made me angry.
She was stepping all over my toes by inserting herself into my highest-profile job—one that I had been negotiating for nearly a year. And here was Olivia, a failed screenwriter from Los Angeles, just walking right in and charming her way into Harlee Mendez’s vision.
Fucking hell.
“Here you go,” Chris said, ignoring my words. “Just sign that, and we’d love for you to sit in on all the meetings. Harlee is obviously under our management, but she makes her own decisions—we support her in those. I think that Mr. Whiss will respect that, yes?” He turned back to me, giving me a placid smile.
“Of course,” I muttered, swallowing the stab to my pride. “I’ll ensure that Olivia is present for all future meetings.”
“Yay!” Harlee clapped her hands together. “Okay, what do you say we listen to the song now? I’m just dying to show it off. I think it’s honestly the best one yet.”
“Wow, I’m so excited!” Oliva exclaimed, bouncing in her seat. “Your music is so incredible. I know that it’s probably annoying, but I’m a huge fan of yours. You’re the epitome of girl power.”
“Thank you so much,” Harlee replied, putting her hand over her chest as if no one had never said that to her before. “I’d love to look up some of your stuff. What’s your last name?”
Olivia went quiet for a moment, and I could see the hesitancy. “Um, it’s Gray. You’ll probably see that I—”
“I’ll provide you with some of her samples, Harlee,” I cut in suddenly, not even realizing I was speaking. “I’ll send what I have with you after the meeting.”
“Oh that would be perfect.” Harlee had a massive grin on her face as Chris pulled out a laptop and Bluetooth speaker from his messenger bag. The bag didn’t seem big enough to carry everything he had...
And I couldn’t help but compare him to Mary Poppins in the moment, nearly laughing. However, I was way too irritated at Olivia for inserting herself to have much of a sense of humor.
“Okay, here we go,” Chris said, hitting a button on his computer. “Feel free to take notes.”
Olivia nodded and Harlee’s eyes went starry as a soft symphonic intro filled the conference room. It wasn’t exactly my style, but according to everyone I knew, I had terrible taste in music anyway.
You were there when I was falling apart,
And I thought we were meant to be.
You were my soul tie, but I couldn’t see,
It was just me, it was just me.
I pursed my lips at the lack of depth to the lyrics, but stayed quiet, noticing that Olivia seemed completely enamored by the words and sounds filling the room. Clichés were so common in the industry, yet stars just kept singing about them. However, they sold out arenas, especially with the talent that Harlee had. People loved that shit.
And I just wasn’t one of those people.
7
OLIVIA
I still can’t believe Harlee asked me to be on her team!
I smiled down at the text I had just sent Owen as I headed toward the elevator. I was on cloud nine at the moment, feeling like this might be just what I needed. Harlee had even exchanged her personal number with me, telling me she’d like to bounce ideas back and forth between now and the next meeting. Everything was looking up, and I had forgotten about how awkward the weekend brunch had been with my brother and Eli.
Stepping into the elevator, I hit the ground floor button, my mind pondering what I could make myself for dinner.
Maybe I could just pick up some Chinese takeout.
My stomach growled at the thought, and I nodded to myself—that was exactly what I was going to do. Besides, I walked so far to work every day that it basically counted as exercise, right?
Close enough.
Just as the elevator doors were sliding shut, a hand caught the door. I recognized the scent of Eli’s cologne before I even registered that he was joining me. I swallowed at the way it affected me, my panties growing moist just at the memory of what had happened at the party.
