I’m absentminded on the way to the restaurant. This entire week back at work has been tough. It’s odd not seeing my dad walk out of his office to chat with me or to offer us all a cup of tea. Even this client meeting is tough. This is the first time I’ll have to do one by myself, without Daniel or my dad present.
Much to my annoyance, Jake is already there even though I’m fifteen minutes early. He hasn’t messed up once this week, no matter what I threw at him. He follows me silently as the waitress leads us to the table. If he’s surprised that the meeting location changed, he hasn’t shown it.
I sit down and go through the points I want to make in my head. Liam is tricky, and if he so much as suspects that I’m bluffing, he’ll call me on it and I’ll be done for. A couple of minutes after we’ve sat down, Liam walks up to us. Jake jumps up and shakes his hand before I even stand up.
“Hey, Liam. How are you? It’s good to see you again,” he says, excitedly.
Liam smiles at him but clearly has no idea who he is. “Yeah, good to see you too,” he says, before turning to me.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he murmurs. “Alyssa Moriani in the flesh. Isn’t it sad that the only time I get to have dinner with you is when it’s for work?”
I chuckle as he kisses the back of my hand. I pull it from his grip, wiping it on my skirt.
“Ever so heartless,” he says, shaking his head.
“What?” Jake says. “Moriani? No, her name is Alyssa Carter,” he tells Liam carefully, clearly trying to be as polite as possible about it.
Jake looks at me reproachfully. “You’re still going around using your mother’s surname?”
I shrug and sit down. Liam looks at Jake sympathetically. “It’s fine,” he tells him. “She does this to all the newbies. Her father has always been a bit odd like that, insisting that she remains low-key amongst the staff even though all of us in the upper social circles know her. Somehow it actually works out for her. Don’t be too shocked.”
Jake looks at me and lowers his eyes in shame, but I don’t actually care about his past behaviour. What’s in the past can stay there. If Daniel hadn’t asked me to bring him, he wouldn’t have found out at all. I would’ve preferred it that way. The last thing I need is for him to suddenly think things can work out between us.
“God, you look amazing,” Liam says.
I blush and look away, unable to hide my smile. “You don’t look so bad yourself,” I tell him truthfully. Age has only made him more handsome. He’s grown out his sandy brown hair and his eyes are the colour of the sky on a gorgeous clear day. Liam has always been handsome, and he’s always known it.
“I would’ve been happy to come to your office for the meeting, you know.”
Liam smiles. “I know. But this is the only way I can get you to agree to have dinner with me. God knows how many times I’ve asked.”
I smile and look away, feeling a little embarrassed.
“You know this is just a business meeting, right?”
“For now,” he murmurs.
I shake my head and burst out laughing.
“You’re unbelievable,” I tell him.
I order us a jug of sangria and tapas to share. “I love your choice of restaurant,” I say.
Liam smiles from ear to ear. “I was hoping you’d like it. The last time we met you said you really wanted to try sangria, and this place has great sangria.”
I look at him in genuine surprise and think back to the last time I saw him. It must’ve been over a year ago. If I’m not mistaken, it was a couple of weeks before my twenty-first birthday and we’d gone to a tapas place similar to this one, but my dad wouldn’t let me try the sangria. It seems like such a long time ago.
“Wow. I can’t believe you remember that,” I say softly. Liam’s cheeks redden and he shrugs.
I take a careful sip of my sangria and grin. “Oh my god, this is delicious!”
Liam grins, a cute twinkle in his eyes.
“So, you know why I’m here, right?”
Liam nods, still smiling. “Yes. My company is bullshitting yours and you’re here to charm me into making them get their shit together.”
I raise my eyebrow in surprise and chuckle. “Well, that’s one way to put it.”
Liam’s smile widens. “I’ve missed you, you know. I was really sorry to hear about your dad. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the funeral.”
“I missed you, too,” I say, my voice soft. I pretty much kept to myself ever since I started university. My focus was entirely on succeeding my father… and on Dominic. “I miss your scandalous stories about all the terrible things you got up to at uni.”
Liam laughs and looks away. “That’s all behind me, Lyss. I’m a changed man now.” I nod. “Yeah, right.”
“No, really,” he says, his gaze turning serious. I take a sip of my sangria and I look at him, not sure what to make of him. I decide to go into my sales pitch instead, in case things become awkward between us.
“I looked into the figures and I’ll be honest with you, Liam. We’re already giving you a far better rate than you’ll find elsewhere. I know you’re well aware of that. I can’t give you a twenty-five percent discount,” I say simply. “What I can do for you is give you a smaller team comprised of more experienced people that are already familiar with Luxe. The campaign will take longer to complete, but it should cost you slightly less. I can cut off about eight percent of the costs that way.”
Liam looks at me, surprise flickering through his eyes. He nods slowly.
“I don’t want to lose Luxe as a client, Liam, but I can’t give away our services for free either. If I give you more than eight percent discount, I won’t make a profit on this contract at all. I’d rather put my resources to work for a client that gives me a high profit margin, rather than taking the opportunity cost I’m absorbing by sticking with Luxe.”
I smile at him, but my heart is pounding. I’m scared he’ll call me on my bullshit. Even with an eight percent discount, we’ll be making a large profit on this contract. If Liam decides to walk away now, we’ll likely lose Luxe as a client forever.
Liam nods slowly, a wicked grin on his face. “So what’s stopping me from moving to one of your competitors, Alyssa? I’ll be honest with you too. Your father was behind all the genius campaigns for our firm, whether it was marketing or restructuring. He was great at all of it. Now that I’m not sure who the mind will be behind our campaigns, I can’t have the same blind trust I used to have in DM.”
I nod. I understand what he means and it’s true. Daniel and I have both been missing my dad’s great ideas and solutions, but I have faith in us. The only thing I can do is hope others will too.
“I’ll be one of the minds behind your new campaign, Liam. And while I might not have my father’s years of experience and expertise, I can assure you that he’s trained me personally. The other main contributor to your campaign will be Daniel Devereaux himself.”
Liam raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Daniel will be working on the campaign himself?”
I nod. “Of course, Liam. Luxe is one of our most important and oldest clients. We will continue to deliver the quality you’re used to. I can assure you of that. Needless to say, you’re always welcome to speak to Daniel or me at any time,” I say, pushing Daniel’s business card towards him. “His private business number is on here and you can reach him directly.” I purposely didn’t ask him to call Daniel’s secretary for an appointment. I need Liam to feel special and cherished as a client. I need to keep this as personal as possible. That’s the best way to approach our current predicament.
Liam leans back and nods. “All right, Alyssa. I’ll sign the implementation contract. Have your office send the contract over to mine and I’ll get it back to you within the week. We’ll pay full price, but I need you to update the timeline. I need this done quicker than outlined in your proposal. I’ll email you the updated timeline so you can draft a new contract.”
I exhale in relief and lean back, sipping my sangria to hide my victorious smile. I did it. I nod at Jake. “Perfect. Jake here will hand deliver the new contract to you once we’ve redrafted it.”
Jake stares at me with newfound respect. I don’t think he actually expected me to be good at my job, and for a couple of seconds I allow myself to be proud of what I’ve accomplished today. He hasn’t interrupted me once during the meeting and has been taking notes diligently. If he keeps this up, he might actually make it at DM.
“I’ll take you up on that offer to meet with Daniel. I’ve heard a lot of good things about him, but I’ll rest easier once I’ve met him myself,” Liam says.
I nod. “That won’t be a problem. Just tell me when and where and I’ll arrange it.”
Liam hesitates as we get up. “What would you say if I asked you out to dinner? Not a business meeting this time. Just you and I and a candlelit dinner somewhere, maybe a bottle of wine.”
I freeze. My heart hammers in my chest and my thoughts automatically turn to Daniel and the rules we agreed on.
“I can’t, Liam.” I’m not sure how to explain myself. Should I tell him I’m seeing someone? I won’t be able to tell him who it is thanks to the rule I came up with myself, and if Liam asks me again in a few months when I’m clearly not in an official public relationship, he’ll think I’ve been lying to him all along. I don’t want to do anything that’ll damage our working relationship or our friendship.
“I’d say that now isn’t the right time. Not now that you’ve got a contract hanging over my head.”
Liam lowers his eyes in shame and nods briefly. “But that isn’t a definite no, is it?” he says softly.
I shake my head, unable to answer any other way. “No, I suppose it isn’t.”
