Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(38)

“Um, thank you.” She swallowed and sat in the chair closest to the entrance. It took her half a second to realize she should’ve sat closer to everyone else. She wasn’t doing a great job of closing the gap the stigma of her department had opened.

“Krista,” Sean began, looking up and leaning back in his chair, “let me introduce you around. You know Ray, of course.” Ray gave her a nod as he handed her a glass of water—in her lucky mug! She beamed at him. He smiled back sheepishly. He obviously didn’t know what her lucky mug meant to her. It was killing her that Sean had it imprisoned.

Ray sat down a few seats away from Sean.

Sean didn’t pause for the exchange, though the humor in his eyes said he recognized it. “This is Judy, the manager from the Art Department.” He nodded to an older woman with impeccable style and dress. She looked like she made gobs of money while still seeming homely. She seemed stable and motherly while also being cutting edge. Krista wouldn’t have thought the crisscross in image possible, but there she was.

“She has been working with the company for five years and has assisted on various accounts. Before us she worked with many large companies through her impressive employment history. She brings extensive knowledge of their wants and needs artistically. In addition, she still teaches in the field, and has her finger on the pulse of art technology.

“Next to her is Marcus.” Marcus was a strikingly handsome black guy. He looked at Krista and nodded. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt and promoted utter relaxation in his regard and demeanor. Krista felt relaxed just looking at him, which was hard to do because everyone was still assessing her.

“Marcus is a whiz kid at reaching various audiences and demographics. He has worked with companies such as Apple, Coke, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. You give him a desired pool of people, Marcus will give you a way to reach that pool easily and effectively. He is an underused star in this company... until now.”

Sean smiled at Marcus and Marcus’s eyes glittered. Krista could see his head whirling with ideas even as she looked at him. Either that, or it was the swirls of crazy. He was from art, after all.

“And last, but certainly not least, is our secret weapon.” His eyes turned intense as they peered at a cute, bubbly blond girl. She looked about Krista’s age or a little older, had bobbed, stylish hair, giant brown eyes, and was tall and slim. In short, she was a knock out.

She looked back at him with flirtatious desire and utter confidence. She even batted her eyes! High maintenance, definitely. She would be a match for Sean, though. She was certainly the type of woman Krista imaged he’d choose.

“This is Monica Devine.” The way he said her last name, as if it were a comment rather than a name, made Krista wonder if they were doing it. He was all drippy with lust and desiring eyes and creepy sex-filled gooeyness. It was gross. If they weren’t bumping uglies yet, it wouldn’t take long.

Krista got a pang of jealousy before she clamped down on that ridiculous emotion. Utterly absurd! He was welcome to her. And she to him. They seemed like they’d play the same game—a game Krista had absolutely no interest in playing. And it wasn’t because she was terrible at it!

“Monica is our part-time team member—I wasn’t able to get her full time.” He actually pouted as he said it. It wasn’t cute. “She is our party planning specialist. We are going to need to sidle up to this client without our intentions known. Right now that is through an independent company that we hope will be bought out. That’ll get our foot in the door. If that fails we’ll go for plan B. But, Miss Devine will be throwing casual parties that will make communication not only possible, but easy.”

Sean smiled in a sleazy sort of way. Monica smiled back in a flirty care-free way as she turned her eyes on Krista, who was unimpressed with the whole scene. To be polite, she nodded hello as she turned her eyes back to Sean.

Sean followed Monica’s eyes…to Krista. “And this is Krista. She is fairly new with this company and comes from Marketing Research.”

There was a small groan from the group. Sean smiled. “Now, now, we need market research like a baby needs milk. Anyway, this is our team. I have high hopes for us.”

Sean turned to Ray to ask him to pass out their first assignments. Krista couldn’t help but feel like an outcast already. She got a crappy introduction, she was still getting stared at fairly constantly, she got groaned at, and she was quickly discarded as Sean moved on to other business. It didn’t look like this was a step-up. More like a step sideways.

Add that to the fact that she would have to deal with Sean more, and the attraction, and the constant desire to smile and then strip—she wasn’t sure she made the wisest decision. She could not afford to unravel. She was supposed to be growing up, getting stronger, and really coming into her own. With that clown around all the time, she would find life a constant struggle.

She, again, wished fervently for an easy life. Was that so hard?

~*~*~*~

On the other side of the table, Sean saw Krista sullenly listening to Ray go over the information she came up with in barely contained resentment. He shouldn’t be doing it--Ray had warned him against it--but Sean needed to test her a little. He wanted to see how she would handle Ray giving her presentation. He also wanted to keep her a mystery. So far the rest of the company, including Ray and John, thought he’d picked the new Researcher because of her looks. They thought Sean wanted an excuse to work her into his bed.