Page 2 of Must Be Love - Irresistible Bachelors

I smile again and glance around. I wonder why people often ask me for directions. Is it my outfit? I look down at my clothes. I’m dressed no differently than anyone else here. My pencil skirt hugs my wide hips and falls to my knees. My blue, sleeveless top is tucked tastefully into the elastic of my skirt. It helps cover my soft belly and makes me look taller than my five-foot frame. The heels I’m wearing help, too. They make me five-foot-two. It may not seem like much, but the extra inches make all the difference.

I must just have a friendly face that makes people think I’m the one they should ask for directions. Or they assume that a girl who looks like me, much curvier than the average cosmetics person, must be working for the convention center. I choose to believe the former.

Nicole hooks her elbow with mine, startling me.

“This place is great.”

I laugh.

“How much did you buy?”

“Only two things, I swear! I’m not going crazy this year, remember?”

I study the bag she’s holding in her other hand. It definitely holds more than two makeup products, but I won’t call her out on it.

“You know, we work for one of the biggest cosmetics companies in the world. You’re kind of a traitor by buying another brand’s stuff.”

Nicole shrugs and shoots me an unconcerned smile.

“Maybe I’m scoping out the competition.”

I mock-frown at her.

“We both know that’s not what you’re doing.”

Nicole winks at me.

“It could be, though. You never know.”

I can’t help but laugh. Nicole is loyal to the Merhalle brand most of the time, but she can’t resist trying out new products. I think that’s why she comes to these conventions with me. She wants to sample everything she possibly can, and she usually ends up buying a paycheck’s worth of products before the end of the day.

“Come on,” I say. “Let’s go see some more booths before you spend all of your money.”

“Those pallets were only twenty dollars each!” she says. “They had them on a special. I couldn’t not buy three.”

“You said you only bought two.”

“Didn’t you want to go see the other booths? Why are we standing here chit-chatting?” she asks innocently, pretending not to hear.

My friend plows ahead, pulling me along behind her. At five-foot-six in flats, she towers over me. Her long legs give her more speed and distance. It takes me two steps to catch up to her one.

As part of the marketing department at Merhalle, Nicole and I really are at this convention to scope out the competition. We glance at the different booths and make note of how their products are placed and what kind of advertising they’re doing. I would feel bad for spying on all these companies if I didn’t know they were doing the same thing. Sometimes, we marketing people even get together to talk strategies.

“Do you see that?” Nicole asks.

I look around for a fancy eyeshadow or a new blush that Nicole will just have to have, but we’ve entered perfume land.

“See what?”

Nicole doesn’t like scented products, so I don’t think there’s anything in this area she would be interested in.

“The glass case,” she says, pointing at the booth just ahead of us on the right. “It’s got a mirrored bottom with lights in it. Damn, that’s a good idea. Why don’t we do that with our scents?”

I take a few steps closer to the booth to get a better look. The small, glass bottle is filled with an amber liquid. It looks like it’s glowing from the mirror and the lights. Nicole is right; that’s a genius presentation.

“Make note of it. I think that would be a good idea to implement in our displays. Maybe even in stores.”

“I was thinking the same thing!”

We continue to do our work as we wander through the different booths. I end up buying a new perfume that smells like a field of wildflowers. It reminds me of my grandmother, whose backyard always had the same scent. Nicole is drawn in by a few more makeup booths and spends way too much money buying new products. I’m not mad about it, though. I know she’ll be testing them on me, too, so I’ll get to reap the rewards of her splurging.

Soon, we enter the cosmeceuticals section. I figure we’ll both be walking pretty fast here. While our company does cosmeceuticals, neither of us are on the marketing team that handles them. They have their own scouts here checking out the competition and attending panels on new products.

Normally, I like to see a couple panels, but I don’t think I’ll have time today. That’s what sucks about only having one day at a convention like this. I can’t possibly see everything in that amount of time. But when I begged my boss to give me two days, she laughed in my face. This convention is really expensive. I go to a lot of conventions around the country, and the cost for three days at another event ends up the same as the cost for one day here. That includes flights and hotel rooms. It’s a miracle our bosses let us come this year.

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