Page 80 of Love.V2
“When’s the presentation?” Danny asked.
“Tomorrow morning.”
His entire face fell, and I just knew, on top of every other shitty thing that had happened today, he was about to pile more on. “Damn. I really thought you were going to do it.” He shook his head, eyes pitying.
I groped for the half-wall of the cubicle behind me. I had a feeling I’d need some support for this. “Do what?”
Danny huffed, glancing around. We were alone. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you know now. Nothing we can do about it. Worther is going to close Jinx down.”
Every ounce of oxygen got sucked from my body. “What?” I was getting really freaking tired of asking that question today, but it seemed I’d woken up in Wonderland and everything was determined to go belly-up.
“That’s why Dylan was here. Henry wanted to see bigger margins from this branch, otherwise…” Danny trailed off, shaking his head. I got the picture.
“That’s why Dylan has been so focused on the accounts and new pitches? Margins?”
“Henry wants tripled profits within the year. Botto will make a dent, but you’ll need more. Henry wants—er…” Danny trailed off in a strangled cough. “Well, I’m not sure what will happen now.”
“We…Dylan and I fought about it. I thought he was just being a workaholic.”
If Danny looked any more pitying, I was going to die. “He was dead-set on saving this place, Tess. Took a pay cut, even. You know, Henry wanted to announce Dylan as his successor a few months ago.”
“As CEO?” Did I sound shrieky? Because I felt shrieky. I’d known Henry wanted Dylan as CEO eventually, but he’d been offered the jobnow? And Dylan had just…given it up?
“Yeah. Then Eric started talking about retiring, and Henry starts thinking about shutting this place down. Honestly, I think it was the push Dylan needed to finally put his foot down and tell Henry he was leaving no matter what. Talked Henry into letting him give it a shot here.” Danny’s voice got soft. “He told me you’d sacrificed a lot so he could have the career he wanted. You deserved a shot at your dream job, too.”
Blood rushed to my head. Why didn’t he tell me? I knew he’d come here for me, but he hadcome here for me.
And now he was gone.
The Botto presentation was gone.
Jinx was, maybe, going to be gone soon, too.
As I glanced around, I noted people’s faces. Chassie, and their love of all things pop culture. Meery, and her burgeoning social media career. Tobias, who had two kids at home and another on the way. Noel, and that house she wanted to buy.
A crushing weight pinned me to the ground.
It was a twisted sort of irony for me to get a glimpse of what Dylan dealt with daily. I wondered how often he felt like this? This panicked, out-of-control feeling where everything was on my shoulders and all I wanted to do was grab every ball in sight to make sure it didn’t drop.
If he’d felt like this, I wished he’d have told me. Maybe I’d ask him when I saw him again.
But I had things to do first.
“Jinx is not closing.”
“Huh?” Danny’s face screwed up in confusion, so I repeated myself, louder this time.
“Jinx. It’s not closing. Not now, at least.”
Something sparked in Danny’s eyes. Curiosity. Respect, maybe. “What are you going to do?”
“Salvage this Botto presentation, to start. Then bag a few more clients. And then…” I glanced at him. Or maybe glared, given the way he flinched backwards. “Then you’re going to tell me exactly where Dylan is and what is going on, so I can fix that, too.”
Chapter 24
Dylan
Tess’s airy voice trickled through the speaker of my office phone, followed by a beep. Voicemail again.
