Zero Forks - Cat Johnson Page 0,21

concerned about these homicidal thoughts.

“We were talking about the awards dinner,” Kim began.

“The awards dinner that’s still like two months away?” I asked.

She nodded. “That’s the one. We already bought the table for the company. We’re trying to get a headcount. An email went out. Didn’t you see it?”

“No.” I’d been a little preoccupied with all the changes in my life this weekend. I actually hadn’t checked my email yesterday.

Kim cocked her brow up, probably because I was usually right on top of email, even on weekends.

“Anyway,” she continued. “Jerry asked if you were bringing a date.”

I frowned. “Why in the world would he care?”

“I think he might be interested in you.”

“I think he might be delusional.” I snorted. “And I think his long-distance girlfriend might be interested in knowing if he is interested in me.”

God, I hoped that bastard wasn’t interested in me. That was the last thing I needed. Him creeping around me even more than usual. Looking for a repeat.

In spite of what had happened that one and only time, I’d made it quite clear how I felt about him since then. That feeling being loathing.

And if the cockroach was hoping to get lucky with me after I’d imbibed at the open bar at the awards dinner, he had better think again. I’d made a mistake that one time, but I was not going to repeat it.

“Oh my God.” Kim’s eyes widened. “I have a great idea. Why don’t you bring Boone as your date?”

“What? No. I couldn’t.” I shook my head.

“Why couldn’t you?” she asked.

“To start, he works for me.”

“No one has to know that. They’ll just think he’s a hot younger man you’re seeing.”

“Exactly. He’s too young. He’s got to be at least a dozen years younger than me.”

“He looks plenty mature to me. And you don’t look even near your age.”

“Thank you but—”

“Seriously, Sarah. None of that stuff matters. Bring Boone. Why not?”

Why not? That was a good question.

After Kim left, I did my own online search, just to prove to myself I was right and Kim was wrong about Boone's appropriateness as a date.

I found more pictures.

Boone and his family tagged in various pictures taken at the farm at some festival they hosted there last year. Boone winning the pool tournament at the local bar. Boone with his brothers after the annual squirrel hunt—Jesus, that was a thing?

I finally forced myself to close Instagram but I was still thinking of excuses why I couldn’t bring Boone as my date to the awards ceremony when one o’clock rolled around.

“So, what ideas have you got?” Jerry asked from across the table of the conference room he’d reserved for our meeting.

I eyed him suspiciously. I had to wonder what ideas, if any, he had of his own.

Was that why he was asking about mine? So he could steal them? I wouldn’t put it past him. The sleaze ball.

Smiling sweetly, I said, “You first.”

He didn’t love that.

His brows rose before he finally said, “Okay. Fine.”

He stood and wandered to the front of the room.

Seriously? There were just the two of us here, but he was going to make a big show of going up front to formally present whatever his idea was to me.

Whatever.

I angled my chair to face the front and leaned back, arms and legs crossed as I waited for him to begin.

“So, the product is geared toward Millennial women—”

“No,” I interrupted. “The main target market is Millennials of both genders, with a focus on those who are married with children.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Okay. Fine. Millennial parents. So for the marketing, we have to appeal to what they like.”

So far, this was not news to me. His rambling made me think he didn’t have any decent ideas for this campaign.

Not that I could judge him too harshly for that. Truth be told, I was a little light in the quality creative idea department myself.

I blamed that on the fact that I barely qualified as a Millennial myself, just slipping into the very outer perimeters of the age group by the skin of my teeth.

And, I was also not a parent.

Even older than me and childless—as far as I knew—Jerry was no better equipped for this than I was, now that I thought about it. But somehow, we’d both better pull something pretty great out of our asses or face the consequences.

The presentations we’d both made to the boss had been focused mainly on high level targeting for the marketing campaign. A simple