Free The Pitch: City Love 2 by Belinda Williams Page B

the floor and shrugged. “So he’s inspiring. It’s nice to have someone to talk with about my business.”
    “It’s more than that,” she said quietly. “In the six years you were with Chris, I never saw you light up like that. I think that’s reason enough to give this a shot.”
    I studied my half-eaten sushi, absorbing what she had said. She was being silly. I genuinely liked Paul. I respected him and I enjoyed being in his company because there was a lot he could teach me. She was mistaking my enthusiasm for something romantic. I opened my mouth to tell her that, but she held up a hand.
    “I know you’ll try to rationalize it away like you usually do, but rationalize this then. I heard him on his phone at work earlier in the week – ”
    “You were spying on him!” Honestly, it was time I locked my girlfriends away as a public service or made some new friends.
    “No, of course not,” she replied quickly. “I was coming down the corridor from the toilets and he was waiting for the elevators. He didn’t know I was there.”
    “And?”
    “And I didn’t want to tell you because I thought it might freak you out.”
    “What Christa? Would you please just spit it out?”
    “He said: ‘I know it’s wrong of me, but I deliberately left some files in her office. I’m going to ring her during the date to make sure she’s alright.’ ”
    “Holy crap,” breathed Scarlett.
    Even Cate looked shocked but her expression quickly turned to joy. “That’s so sweet! He was looking out for you, Maddy. Do you know what it means? He cares for you.”
    “He could care for me like a mentor looks out for his mentee,” I refuted.
    “How many mentors do you know who get involved in their mentee’s love life?” Scarlett replied dryly.
    “He likes you, Maddy,” Christa said. “So are you going to do something about it?”
    “I would prefer it if something happened between us naturally. I don’t want to force it.”
    Scarlett raised an eyebrow at me. “So make a move on him, then.”
    I scowled and narrowed my eyes at her. “No. He’s going to reject any move I make because he thinks it’s inappropriate.”
    “So go out with John then. Raise the stakes.”
    I threw up my hands in frustration. “This is ridiculous!”
    “All’s fair in love and war,” Scarlett told us.
    I stood up and glared down at her. “I won’t do it.”
    She shrugged. I turned and stalked down the hallway to the bathroom. Before I closed the door I heard her call out cheerfully, “If you truly want him, you’ll do whatever it takes.”
    I slammed the door.

Chapter 11
    It had been a busy week. It was only when Paul walked in to the foyer of Grounded Marketing on Thursday afternoon I was reminded why I had been so happy to be distracted.
    He looked attractive – as expected – in his tailored business suit. A fact I did my best to ignore during our hour-and-a-half internal pitch meeting.
    The focus of our week had been altering our pitch to focus on the points we hoped Mia Moss would go for. This involved a complete review of our creative strategy. Fortunately my team had been good-natured about all the extra work and they seemed as hopeful as I was about winning the big account.
    “Thanks, team. You’ve created miracles this week,” I told them at the end of our meeting. “Next internal review is early next Tuesday. It’s about refining the details from here on in.”
    I watched as the six staff I’d chosen to work on the pitch all gave me reassuring smiles and left the room. I took my time closing my iPad before turning my attention to Paul.
    “You’re going to nail it,” he said quietly.
    I lit up at his comment, but tried not to show it. “I hope so. It really depends on the other pitches.”
    “It always does, but you can’t focus on that. Just focus on your pitch.”
    “I have.”
    I regarded him for a long moment. If he felt any lingering embarrassment about last week he wasn’t showing it. He sat