Trust in Advertising (26 page)

When Vincent’s little tirade was over, Lexi waited with her teeth clenched in an effort to keep herself from jumping over the desk and wringing his neck.

Vincent stared back at Lexi. “Tel me you don’t need me to repeat al of that.”

“No, I got the message loud and clear.” She stood up from the chair, her hands shaking with rage. “You know, Vincent, I get paid to be your assistant, to help you with whatever you need done no matter how rotten the request. It’s my job, and I enjoy it most days. But show some manners. I happen to know your mother raised you better than that. So when you hint that I should to go screw Julian Stone so he’ll hire Hunter Advertising, the least you can do is say please.”

With tears brimming in her eyes, Lexi made a run for the door, but Vincent was faster. He pressed his hand against the smooth wood and held it firmly in place.

“Let me out of here, Vincent. I have nothing else to say to you.”

He stood there for a minute, then let out a loud sigh. “Well
I
have something to say to
you
. I’m sorry. I was upset about the Keller thing, and I took it out on you. I apologize. You didn’t deserve any of that.” He put his hand on her shoulder and slowly ran it down her arm, finally taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

The tears that had welled up in Lexi’s eyes tumbled slowly down her cheeks.

He brought his hand to her face and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb.

“God, I’m such a jerk.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Lexi willed herself to stop crying. But all she could hear in her head were the awful things Vincent had just said to her.

Vincent’s fury gone, he gently cradled her face in both his hands, trying to keep up with the tears that continued to fall. “Please don’t cry. You’re breaking my heart here.” His eyes searched hers, trying to figure out how to fix this. “I’m sorry, Lexi.” He leaned against the door and ran both hands through his hair in frustration. “Take the afternoon off or stab me with that letter opener if it’ll make you feel better.”

Lexi’s lip twitched slightly at the thought, but then she had a better idea.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out her phone, ready to dial when a loud banging on the door scared her half to death.

“Who the hell is it?” Vincent snapped.

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“Don’t you dare take that tone with me, young man. Open the door.”

Vincent cringed at the sound of his mother’s voice.

“Sounds like you have a visitor.” A smile tugged at Lexi’s lips as she glanced down at her notepad and shook her head. “I wish I could stay, but I have a
long
list of things I have to get done right away.”

Vincent snatched the notebook from her hand and crossed every single thing off the list. “Nope, your schedule just cleared. Please stay.”

There was more banging on the door. “I can hear you in there!”

“I wish I could, but I need to go shopping for some sexy underwear if I’m going to convince Julian Stone to hire Hunter.” She innocently batted her eyelashes at Vincent. “I’m taking you up on your offer, and I’ll be out the rest of the afternoon. Oh, and you can have the honor of telling her about the Keller account. Have a nice chat with your mother.”

Lexi threw open the door, nearly knocking Vincent over and stifled a laugh when she saw an irate Elizabeth leaning against the doorframe. “Good afternoon, Elizabeth,” Lexi sang as she brushed past her and collected her purse from her desk.

As Lexi headed down the hall, she heard Elizabeth growl, “Why was Lexi crying? Vincent Giovanni Drake what did you do now? I’ll fire
you
before I’ll allow that girl to quit, so you better start talking and figure out how to fix this.”

By the time Lexi returned to work on Thursday, her head was clear. She was calmer and felt more in control of her life. The hour long pep talk Hope had given her the night before was just what she’d needed. Vincent had been a jerk, plain and simple. There was no excuse for the way he had spoken to her.

Whatever his problem was, it was
his
problem, and she would not be his doormat.

Lexi hoped his chat with Elizabeth had been very long and uncomfortable, and that he would mind his manners from now on.

At eight a.m. Vincent strolled past Lexi’s desk, an hour late, and without a word, grabbed his schedule off the corner of her desk and disappeared into his office.

“Good morning, Vincent,” Lexi muttered sarcastically to herself as she stared at his shut door and began talking to herself. “Good morning, Lexi. I 152

Trust in Advertising

hope you had a good evening. I’m sorry I was an idiot yesterday, please forgive me. It won’t ever happen again.”

“Speaking to the spirits again, Lexi?” Sean chuckled as he helped himself to a cup of coffee in the corner.

“Good morning,” Lexi said more loudly than normal, glaring at Vincent who chose that moment to emerged from his office for a fresher cup of coffee than the one Lexi had placed on his desk an hour earlier. “What can I do for you, Sean?”

“I wanted to make sure you two were playing nice and that Vincent wasn’t trying to pimp you out to potential clients again.”

Vincent choked on his coffee and cast an accusatory glance in Lexi’s direction.

“I didn’t say a word, thank you.” Lexi folded her arms across her chest and glared right back at him.

Sean clapped his hand on Vincent’s shoulder. “You really fu—, I mean, really screwed up this time, didn’t ya, Vince?”

“Did you want something, Sean?” Vincent asked through his clenched teeth.

“Nope, just saying good morning to the beautiful ladies of Hunter. You should try it sometime.” He grinned widely and waggled his eyebrows in Lexi’s direction. “Good morning, Lexi.”

Lexi rolled her eyes and went back to work. “Goodbye, Sean.”

“Oh, Vincent, I almost forgot. I talked to Lacey down in production, and they had a question on the Fredrik Khan ad.”

The two men launched into a lengthy discussion about budgets and opera-tional overhead that Lexi tuned out while she continued returning phone calls and rearranging Vincent’s schedule to accommodate his new appointments.

She was just about to leave and drop some papers off to Elizabeth when Leigh emerged from around the corner. When Lexi noticed what she was carrying, she almost grabbed her purse and headed straight for the elevator.

“Lexi, look at what you—” Leigh froze mid-sentence when she saw Vincent and Sean huddled in the corner, staring directly at her with great interest. “Um, here.” She ruefully held up an exquisite bouquet of flowers.

Purple hyacinths spilled from the vase, the deep colored blooms filling the area with their rich scent. Between the violet flowers, white daisies peeked out, brightening up the richness of the hyacinths. The greenery scattered through the vase added to the exotic beauty of huge the arrangement.

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Leigh stood before Lexi, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, the vase clenched tightly in her hands. The women held their breath and waited for the yelling to begin, but no one spoke.

“What’s the big deal that Lexi got flowers?” Sean grabbed the vase from Leigh and plopped them onto the desk. “So, who are they from? Your boyfriend?”

These are beautiful,
she thought to herself as she reached for the delicate blooms. Then she paused.
If they’re from Reid, I’ll kill him.

Lexi gave Sean a droll stare. “I don’t have a boyfriend. I have no idea who they’re from.” She stole a quick look in Vincent’s direction as she held the tiny white envelop in her hand, her heart thundering in her chest as she prepared to open it.

“Purple hyacinth, interesting floral choice.” Vincent’s deep voice came from across the room and made her stomach do a little flip.

She slipped the card out of the envelope and read it.

Alexandra,

A man of few words, I will let the flowers speak for themselves.

Her brow knit together as she read the words repeatedly, her lips moving as she tried to figure out what the note meant.

“Well?” Sean asked.

“I have no idea who they’re from.”

“What does the card say?” Leigh peeked over Lexi’s shoulder and read it quickly. Soon the same confused look fell across her face. “What the hell does
that
mean?”

Lexi shrugged. “No clue. Sean, is this your idea of a joke?” Sean slowly shook his head from side to side. She was intrigued by the flowers, the note, and the sender. But more than anything, she was relieved that they weren’t from David Reid. She glanced across the room to find Vincent leaning against the wall, his arms folded across his chest with an unreadable expression on his face. “What?”

It was his turn to shrug. “Nothing.” He pushed off the wall and strode across the room until he was right in front of the flowers. Everyone tensed as he reached out his large hand and softly stroked the fragile petals. As he headed back to his office he commented, “They look much more tasteful than those awful roses from Reid yesterday; that’s all.” Vincent glanced around at everyone still standing there, staring at the vase. “Am I the only one with work to do today?”

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Leigh headed back to her desk, but Sean simply rol ed his eyes when Vincent’s door closed. “I better go get something done before he gets his panties in a bunch.

Oh, any chance you would be willing to help a guy get a date?”

“Sure, you want me to make you a profile on an on-line dating site?” Lexi held her fingers poised over the keyboard and smiled.

“Do it and die.” Sean grinned. “No, I want to go on a date with Hope.”

“So, what do you want me to do about that? Tie her to a chair?”

“Now that sounds like fun.” A devilish smirk washed over his chiseled features as Lexi glared at him. “Well, can you put in a good word for me? Maybe tell me what I need to do to get back into her good graces or simply how to get her to answer the phone when I call?”

Lexi laughed. “She’s a stubborn woman. If she doesn’t want to answer the phone, she won’t, and I can’t make her.” Sean’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. “However, if I were you,” his head snapped up as he listened, “I’d suddenly have the urge to get something painted on the side of your new Ferrari. Doesn’t have to be big, but there’s no way she’d let anyone other than herself work on a Ferrari. The shop is known for its customer service, so she’d have to speak to you about your plans.”

Sean mulled it over in his head for a few seconds, and then grinned. “I know exactly what I’m going to have done to it.”

“Don’t blow this. Two strikes with Hope and you’re out. Forever.”

Sean gave her a little salute, then flashed his dimples and pul ed his cel phone out as he walked down the hal . Lexi caught the very beginning of his conversation.

“Hello, yes. I’d like to bring in my Ferrari and discuss a custom paint job. I hear that you’re the best. Yes, I would love to meet the owner. This afternoon? Sure.”

Lexi chuckled to herself as she made some minor changes to Vincent’s schedule for the rest of the week. “Good luck, Hope.” She pecked away at her keyboard and smiled. “You’re gonna need it, girlfriend.”

As Lexi sat at her desk, her eyes kept being drawn back to the beautiful bouquet perched on the corner of her desk, brightening her day. It was gorgeous, there was no other way to describe it, and she was intrigued by the message.

Knowing Vincent had his meeting with Julian Stone that day, Lexi thought there was a slight chance they were from Julian, but he was not a man of few words, just the opposite.

“So, I was doing a little research.” Leigh came strolling around the corner, grinning.

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“Do I want to hear this?”

“I think you do.” She flopped into one of the chairs at Lexi’s desk and sniffed the flowers next to her. “I went online.”

“M-hmm …” Lexi quickly texted Christina to confirm Vincent and Julian’s basketball game/meeting for that afternoon.

“And the flowers in the bouquet have different meanings.” Leigh squirmed in her seat with excitement. “The daisies mean innocence, and the hyacinth means loveliness!”

Lexi raised her eyebrows skeptically.

“Really, go to a florist’s website and it’s all there in black and white. Of course, if you go to a different one, the same flowers mean something all together different. It’s been a little frustrating trying to decipher the note, to tell you the truth.” Leigh glared at the bouquet like it was purposely taking some sort of sick pleasure in mystifying her.

Lexi opened her mouth to beg her to end the hunt for the hidden meaning behind the flowers, but all rational thought stopped the second Vincent’s office door swung open and he strolled out wearing long, black basketball shorts, a tight fitting 49er’s T-shirt, and a pair of white high top sneakers. As if the casual attire wasn’t enough to make Lexi’s heart skip a beat, Vincent also had a baseball hat on his head, flipped backwards, and a pair of dark sunglasses covering his eyes, just like he’d worn all throughout high school. Suddenly, she was seventeen again, swooning in the hallway over the hunky Vincent Drake.