Page 9 of A Hard Sell

He leaned past Luka to pick up his printing and grunted. “I didn’t hear a thing.”

Well, that’s definitely not true.Thomas’ dizzying scent washed over him. “Okay…but…”

“See you in there.” And off he went.

Luka slumped against the counter and closed his eyes.At this point I wouldn’t blame him if he told Ilona to fire me.

He took a moment, doing his best to rally, before slinking into the conference room. The single empty spot was next to Thomas. His insides jangled as he huffed and took the seat. He could feel Morgan’s gaze on him from the other end of the table, and he studiously kept his eyes down.

“Thanks for coming,” Thomas started. “I spoke with Aleandro Sartini and I wanted to update you all on the direction we’re hoping to take.”

Luka started to feel a little bit better as Thomas spoke. It turned out, after additional focus-group testing, Aleandro had decided to more strongly associate the new restaurants with their already well-established wine label, and wanted to shift the focus to include it in all their promotional material. Maybe he wasn’t a total idiot after all. And despite himself, his mind began to whir with new ideas.

“I’ll work with Luka on the new storyboards,” Thomas continued, and Luka deflated.

The Big Bad Wolf split the room into teams and assigned tasks, all while Luka sat there, stewing over the fact that Thomas thought he needed a babysitter.

Once the room cleared, he forced himself to meet Thomas’ honey-brown eyes. “Shall we work in my office?” he asked.

Thomas nodded once, face impassive. “Fine.”

And he’s clearly dreading it…

Luka led Thomas to his office, for some reason painfully aware of his gait.Am I walking too fast? Now is it too slow? Am I wiggling my ass too much? Not enough? What do I do with my arms?Thomas glided along beside him, part runway model, part ninja. Luka almost tripped over his own feet. He waved an arm at his desk. “Did you want to take this half?” It was a large L-shape and there was room for Thomas to pull up a chair on the other side.

“Mmm.” Thomas set his bag down and began unpacking his laptop and a stack of files.

Luka cleared his throat. Might as well plunge in. “Did Aleandro give you that focus-group research? I’d love to have a look.”

A glimmer of what might have been approval flashed across Thomas’ face. “I already forwarded it to you.”

Luka dropped into his chair to scroll through his email. “Terrific, thanks.” He clicked the document open and grabbed his sketchbook, tucking one foot up on his chair. Thomas was watching him. “Oh…is it okay if I read it now?”

Thomas’ lip quirked with the first hint of a smile. “Mmm. I’ll go do a lap and check in with the other teams. Coffee?”

“Sure, thank you. Two creams, two sugars, please.”

His fingers itching to sketch, he turned his attention back to the screen and lost himself in the report. He had already filled two pages with notes and drawings, but it felt like just a few minutes had passed when Thomas placed a mug next to him.

“Oh, you’re back already. Thanks!” Luka took a grateful gulp. He sighed happily. The first taste was always the best. He wasn’t proud of his caffeine dependence, but figured there were worse drugs.

“What was that song you were humming?” Thomas asked as he sat again.

“Was that out loud?” Luka flushed. “Sorry. Bad habit.”

“No, it sounded nice. Sort of…familiar.”

Luka paused, hearing it in his head again. This was a new one today, something a little sweet and sad. He had scribbled the chords down in a notebook this morning, but it wouldn’t leave him until it was fully formed. “Sometimes a melody or a riff just comes to me and I can’t stop humming it. It won’t go away until I turn it into a song. It’s weird.”

“It’s not weird. You write music?”

“Uh…” Luka panicked. “Not really. I just mess around.”

“Hmm.”

He did, in fact, write music. He just didn’t share it with anyone. The only people who had ever been privy to his original songs were his parents, and those had been clumsy childhood attempts. Even Tawney and Finn, who had seen him play covers and gushed about how good they were, had not heard his original material. And neither would Thomas.

Luka couldn’t think of anything to say, so he bobbed his head and took another drink.

---