December 20

DECEMBER 20

“That’s perfect—before five will be great.” I trapped my phone between my shoulder and cheek and added a final touch to the design I was working on. My sketchpad had never seen so much action as it had the past twenty-four hours. “My boss has a speech thing around then, so I’ll head out and meet up with you outside the main entrance.”

I wrapped up the call as the cab pulled up in front of the convention center, and Wyatt paid the fare.

“Take a breather, sweetheart. We have lunch now.”

“I’m almost done, sir.” I could walk and illustrate at the same time. Well, illustrate was a strong word. I was moving around rectangular boxes to frame a logotype that definitely needed an upgrade.

It’d been a busy morning for both of us, and while Wyatt had been in and out of meetings and seminars, I’d used every free minute to fulfill the backlog of orders. Because seventy-fucking-four clients had not only vowed to continue their ongoing contracts with the company, but they’d discovered that we did so much more than whatever they already used us for.

Wyatt and Clarke had put me in charge of these seventy-four clients since they were already paying customers, so to speak. As for the rest… I mean, at least two hundred potentials had been interested in knowing more, so I’d had to forward their requests to Mya and Kim as well as to the team in New York. This afternoon, those potentials would return for their second day at the expo, and we’d have something for them. Freaking ice scrapers and whatnot—with mock-ups and examples of logo designs.

The logo itself wasn’t important right now. It was to showcase how quickly we could go from, “Well, what’s the name of your company? What do you do?” to “Here’s some merch for ya—we printed it overnight.”

I almost bumped into Wyatt when he came to a stop, and he glanced back at me and gave me a pointed look.

I smiled sheepishly.

“You’ve worked too much already. I think it’s best I take this for now.” Ugh, he stole my tablet. “You’ll get it back after we’ve eaten.”

Oh, fine.

I followed him through the busy entrance until we reached the restaurant, and that joint was equally as chaotic as the rest of the place. If I remembered correctly, Clarke had just given his final speech at a big meeting, so many of those going to lunch here now had recently listened to him. Now, Clarke was on the next flight to Brussels.

I’d seen him briefly last night when we’d had dinner at the hotel restaurant, and he’d complimented my work! Then he’d nudged Wyatt and said, “Maybe we should recruit him to headquarters.”

Not too shabby!