The Takeover (The Miles High Club 2)

I exhale heavily and stare at the spreadsheet on the computer screen in front of me.

I can’t believe I rejected Gabriel’s offer of help. What was I thinking?

Obviously . . . I clearly wasn’t.

God. I pinch the bridge of my nose. This is a nightmare. We just lost the biggest advertising campaign we had, and it’s not getting any better. I’m going to have to let more people go this month.

Fuck’s sake . . . we’re running on skeleton staff as it is.

I don’t know how we can possibly do what we have to do—and do it well—with the number of staff that we now have.

I put my head into my hands and let out a dejected sigh. This is hard. Harder than hard.

I don’t know what I’m doing. How the hell do I keep us above water for much longer? If only Wade were here. He would know what to do. He was the brains of our business. Give him a problem, and he could work out a way around it. He saw problems as challenges or learning curves. Nothing was too big an obstacle for him.

But he’s gone . . . and now it’s just me.

God, I feel so out of my depth. I sit and stare at the computer screen for a long time.

Maybe if I stare at it long enough, the answer will come to me like magic.

What do I do?

What direction should I move in? I know something has to change . . . but what?

Stop.

Stop being so negative. I can pull us out of this. I know I can.

Reconfigure a few processes, move a few accounts. Streamline the advertising again.

It will be okay . . . it has to be.

Giving up this company is not an option.

I won’t go down without a fight, and damn it, it will be okay.

I’ll make damn sure of it.

My office door opens in a rush. “Just this way,” Marley says to someone.

A man comes through the door with the biggest bunch of red roses I have ever seen.

“Delivery for Claire Anderson.”

“That’s me,” I reply.

The roses have huge heads with a deep perfume and are in the most beautiful crystal vase. He places them down on my desk. “Sign here, please.”

I sign in the allocated box. “Thank you.” I smile broadly.

“You’re welcome. Although I have an admission. I didn’t buy them.”

Marley and I laugh. The joke isn’t funny, but we are so excited that we would laugh at anything, it seems.

With a kind nod, he leaves us alone, and I open the card.

I’M A VERY HAPPY MAN TODAY.