Unwilling (2 page)

I tried to look away, but she pulled my chin back to look at her. "Look into my eyes and tell me whether I'm helping you or not."

I started at her for what must have been two minutes. She didn't say a word but simply watched me. Every time I tried to look away, she pulled my chin back to face her.

"All right," I said finally. "All of it."

"Are you going to go back on your word once I give you what you want?"

"No."

She looked into my eyes for a few more seconds then said, "It's going to be a long night. Grab everything you have and let's have a working dinner, my treat."

I nodded numbly.

I really didn't think Melissa was going to agree. I didn't think I could have gotten a night with her, much less an entire month. But I'd made the offer, and now I was obligated to accept.

I went back to my desk and collected my laptop and a sketch pad, then collected her at her own desk.

She looked numb.

I watched as she pulled her coat on. She had short, blonde hair and was dressed in a blue business suit. She was about three inches shorter than my five-foot-six and was wearing sensible shoes. I was in my boots, which meant I towered over her by a good five inches.

She had a hot body, but man! had she been a bitch to me. I doubted she would hold up to her end of our agreement, but if she stopped being a bitch to me, maybe that would be worth the lost weekend. Plus I wasn't sure she would have been fired. She could claim hardware failure. She might not have lost her job. I might have been stuck with her until I'd found other work.

I led the way to my car, and we drove to a nearby restaurant. Melissa began telling me about the Travis account and explained where things were at. We got to the restaurant and actually were seated right away. We each ordered salads and water, then she pulled out her laptop.

"These are the proofs that Wayne and I did for Vivien," she said. She turned them around so I could see, then explained the changes Vivien had asked for.

"Do you have the Photoshop files?"

"No," she said. "Just the JPEGs."

I sighed. I'd have to reproduce everything.

I looked at Wayne's work. It was good, although he'd gone in a different direction than I would have.
I looked at Melissa. "Whose concept were the graphics?"

"Wayne's," she replied.

"Was Vivien ecstatic about them?"

"Not really."

"So if we presented her with something different, would she consider them?"

Melissa blinked at me. "We don't have that kind of time."

"I'm not Wayne," I told her. "I can do that," I said, pointing at it, "But it will take me just as long to do that as to do something more in my ow
n style, starting from scratch
. Look."

I pulled out my
sketch
pad and started drawing. It took me a few minutes. "I know this is rough, but... The target audience is women, right? And that-" I pointed at Wayne's work. "That is awfully masculine. But what if we did this instead?" I slid my
sketch
pad to her.

She looked at it, then up
at me, then down at the sketch
I had done.

"I know it's rough. Is it too rough to see what I mean?"

"Alex," she said. "This is a lot better. But I don't have the authority to make that decision."

"Fine. Call Vivien."

She looked down at my sketches then back at me. "What do I tell her?"

"Tell her you showed me Wayne's work and I said I could do better. If this is what she wants," I said, gesturing to the laptop, "I will do my best to duplicate it. But I think my concept is better."

She nodded, fished into her purse, and called her boss. "Vivien, I'm sorry to bother you on a Friday evening. I'm with Alex Newman. I showed her the Travis presentation, and she has something else in mind. I think it's a
lot better." There was a pause, then she looked at me. "How soon could we mail her something?"

I looked at my watch. "I can have something rough by nine tonight. If she can give me the go ahead, we can give her something more complete by noon tomorrow."

Melissa relayed all that then listened to the reply. She hung up.

"She said go for it. She'll expect a call by nine tonight and will look at them right away."

During the meal, I played with the sketchpad some more, talking through the ideas with Melissa. We stayed on task and actually had a pleasant meal. She offered a few ideas that were pretty good, and by the time we were done and I'd paid the check, I knew what I wanted to do. We headed back to the office. On arrival, we sat down together at my desk.

"Do you mind if I watch?" she asked.

"No," I said. "This is going to take about an hour though." I sighed. "We should have grabbed water form the vending machine on the way up."

"I'll get some for us then watch."

"You don't have to."

"I know," she said. "Alex, thank you."

I nodded and got to work.

I had a rough idea by eight. Melissa and I talked it over and started making changes. A few minutes before nine I mailed everything to Vivien. We gave it a few minutes to arrive, then Melissa called her.

"It's Melissa," she said. "We mailed you the concepts. They're rough." Pause pause. "Okay." Then she put the call on speakerphone."

"Alex, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Vivien," I said. "I know they're rough. I've only had a couple of hours."

"Can you really do a good job by Monday?"

"Yes. I can have something solid by about noon tomorrow if you'll be able to look at them." I paused. "I was thinking understated, but if you want me to make it really vivid, I can do that."

"Could I see both?"

"Sure."

We talked for a few more minutes and I got a better feel for what Vivien wanted. Melissa hung up and I turned to her. "There's nothing you can do until morning. You can stick around or you can leave. I'll be here until after midnight then back by nine in the morning."

"I'll stay," she said. "If I won't bother you."

Shortly after midnight, my eyes starting to get blurry, I turned to her. "I don't think I have anything more in me tonight."

* * *

"I'm on my way," came the text from Melissa on Saturday
morning. "I can stop by Caribou."

Melissa spent the morning consulting on the designs I was doing and making sure I didn't need to leave my desk. She provided food, coffee, water, and I think would have gone to the bathroom for me if she could have. Shortly before noon I pushed away from my desk and told her, "It's not quite done, but we promised Vivien."

We mailed it off to Vivien and called her a few minutes later. Melissa talked to her for a couple of minutes before hanging up. "She's coming in," she said. "She'll be here in another ten or fifteen minutes."

I didn't say anything but rotated back to my computer and kept working. I became completely absorbed in what I was doing and didn't notice when Vivien arrived. The two of them had been talking behind my back for several minutes before I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Vivien.

"It was good of you to give up your weekend," she said.

I shrugged. Vivien pulled up a chair and examined the work we'd finished so far. "This is much better than Wayne's. His work was good, but this is a better direction." I showed her everything I'd done, told her why, and explained what I wasn't happy with yet. In the end she said, "I don't have a single suggestion. Can you finish by tomorrow? We have Wayne's as a backup if you can't make it."

Melissa said, "Actually, we don't." She explained.

Vivien turned to me. "You're saving the account."

I shrugged again. "What would you have done if I'd wanted Wayne's version?"
she asked.

"I would have done my best to give it to you," I told her. "That's all I could do."

She nodded. "I have dinner plans tonight. I want an update at five. That will give me a chance to comment."

We sent everything off at five. Vivien had a few su
ggestions, which I incorporated. We worked until late, passing the files back and forth more once we got to the point where Melissa could start inserting the text. We resumed again Sunday morning, finishing shortly before noon. We called Vivien again.

"We're done," Melissa said. "Alex just mailed everything to you." We sat on the phone for several minutes while Vivien looked at everything. She was satisfied and gave us last minute instructions for everything. We were all done right at two.

Melissa and I stared at the screen then turned to each other.

"Have I delivered?" I asked her. "Have I given you everything I promised?"

"Yes, Alex," she said.

"You've lived up to one of your three items," I told her. "Vivien knows how much help I was."

She nodded.

"Are you going to live up to your agreement? Or am I going to get screwed?"

"I'll fulfill my end," she said quietly. "Are you going to hurt me?"

I looked at her, thinking about it. I pulled out paper and wrote my address down for her. "This is my address and phone number. Six PM tomorrow." I paused. "If you want to stay on my good side, you will make an effort to look nice and you will be pleasant, almost as if you are happy to be there. Bring anything you need for the week."

I left work early on Monday. The presentation had gone very well, and the client was ecstatic. I drove home, dreading the evening. But Alex had come through, and I wouldn't give her the pleasure of reneging on my agreement.

At home I changed into what could best be described as sexy date clothes, then packed for the week. It took a garment bag and a large rolling suitcase, bu
t I hauled it all down to my car and drove to the address Alex had given me.

Alex lived in a small house in south Minneapolis. It was a cute house, I guess, and looking at it, I realized that she had done the exterior design work. I arrived at five forty-five and sat in my car, staring at her house, until just a couple minutes before six. I gathered my bags and walked slowly up the sidewalk to what I was sure would be my doom.

Melissa sat in her car until the last possible minute. It kind of pissed me off. I'd gone above and beyond for her over the weekend, and she was making sure not to give me even an extra few minutes of pleasure. I watched her walk up the sidewalk, dressed in a long coat, carrying a garment bag and dragging her suitcase.

At least she had shown up. I didn't think she was going to.

She rang the bell. I waited until she wasn't looking at the window before moving away from it. I didn't want her to
see movement and
know I'd been watching fo
r her. I opened the door
. We stood staring at each other across the threshold.

"I bet you thought I wouldn't show up," she said after we had stared at each other for a while.

"No, I didn't. I'm glad to find I was wrong." I held the door wider and she stepped in. She laid her garment bag down across her large suitcase then slid out of her coat.

I forgave her for waiting until the last minute. She had gone home and changed clothes, and she looked nice.

"You dressed for me."

She nodded.

"You can hang your coat up in the closet," I said, pointing. "Then come with me."

I gave her a tour. My house was a small three bedroom rambler with a living room, single bathroom, and kitchen. I used the basement for storage. One of the bedrooms was mine, one was a home office, and the last was a guest room. I showed her to the guest room. "You may use the closet in here," I told her.

She eyed the bed. I ignored the hopeful expression. She'd be warming my bed.

"Leave your things in here," I told her. "Come with me."

She set the garment bag on the bed and left the suitcase in the bedroom, then followed me back to the living room.

"Are you really going to do this?" I asked her.

She thrust her chin out. "I keep my agreements," she said.

I smiled. "It's six
oh-five.
Kneel."

She stared at me.

"Kneel!" I told her firmly. "Now!"

After that we had a staring contest before she slowly lowered herself to her knees in front of me.

"Good," I said. "Stay there." Without a backwards glance I walked to my bedroom. I had an entire dresser devoted to toys. I opened the top drawer and removed a switch. It was black leather, stiff, and two feet long. I walked back to her in the living room and walked around her twice.

I poked her with the switch. "Back straight," I ordered. "Head down. Eyes on the floor in front of you." She adjusted without a word. "Legs together." I tapped her legs for emphasis. "Unless I tell you differently, of course."
She adjusted again, taking on exactly the posture I wanted.