Ask Me (Mess with Me 2)

“What?”

“Just that after all that’s happened, I still don’t have your number.”

She looks startled and then her cheeks redden. “Yeah, I guess we were a little busy that night. Here, put your number in before I call Mya.”

As I type the digits in to a new contact on her phone, it feels like a small victory.

We spend the next hour walking through the design floor. Casey is interested in everything and stops frequently to compliment the designers on their work. Every time she does, I can see their chests puff up with pride. In just a quick tour, Casey has probably done more to fix company morale than anything my HR team has

come up with.

Maybe Lavin Couture should try to hire her.

She tugs at my sleeve. “I hope I’m not keeping you from anything. I’m sure you didn’t mean to spend this much time showing me around.”

“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t have time. There’s a board meeting soon so I was going to have to stop what I was doing anyway.”

She frowns. “The stinky board that doesn’t like recycling, you mean.”

I smile at her description. Most of the members are old friends of my mother’s and CEOs of other mega brands. Most are older and extremely conservative. It’s not always easy to get approval for ideas that are new or different. But I’m used to dealing with the hassle. It’s just part of my job.

When we turn the corner, I see Jason standing near the door with one of the members of the board.

“And this is our cue to get out of here.” At her curious look, I motion discreetly with my head toward the door. “Jason is talking to one of the board members right now.”

Casey’s head swivels that way and then she gets a determined look in her eyes. Before I can process that, she’s started walking.

“Jason, what a nice surprise! I didn’t expect to see you today.” Casey approaches Jason with an outstretched hand and a huge smile.

He looks startled, as am I, since I know they’ve only been introduced once. Her greeting makes it seem like they’re good friends who chat all the time. He shakes her hand and then glances over at me with a What the fuck? expression but I just shrug. I have no idea what Casey is up to but I definitely want to find out.

“Nice to see you too, Miss Michaels.”

Casey stares expectantly at the man next to him, and in the intervening silence it becomes clear she’s waiting to be introduced.

“And this is Paul Nussbaum,” Jason stammers finally. “There’s a board of directors meeting today. Which means that we should probably head on–”

“Oh, you’re on the board? How wonderful! Have you seen these samples yet?” Casey interrupts, linking her arm with Paul’s and walking back toward the design floor.

He looks alarmed but there’s not much he can do unless he wants to plant his feet and make her drag him. Casey starts pointing out various things to him and before long Paul is nodding and chuckling along with her.

“Well, I’ll be damned. She’s charmed that old goat, too.” Jason moves next to me, shaking his head as we follow behind.

“Don’t start, Jason. She’s a nice person.”

“I didn’t say she wasn’t. I’ll admit I was initially inclined not to like her after watching you self-destruct for months. But I can’t hold that against her. It’s not her fault you’re a sap.”

I ignore that last comment as we come to where Casey and Paul are watching one of the designers at work. We approach in time to hear the tail end of what she’s saying.

“Look at this beautiful fabric. It hurts to see so much of it just land on the floor. But that’s okay. I’m sure it’s being recycled in some way. Actually thank you for reminding me, Paul. I meant to ask about Lavin Couture’s green initiatives. We need to highlight that in our campaign.”

Paul looks back at us in confusion. “Green initiatives?”

“Oh yes, it’s so important to be environmentally friendly these days. People are tired of large companies that take from Mother Earth but don’t protect her. All it takes is one person mentioning it on Twitter and the next thing you know your company’s name is trending for all the wrong reasons. But I always pick up quite a few stocks on sale when that happens so that’s a plus.”

Paul pales slightly. “Stocks on sale?”

Casey shrugs. “When that happens, the stock price of the company in question usually nosedives. So I think of it like a sale.”