Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,87

I kind of needed the emotionally dark pieces, too. I didn’t want to examine that part too closely. Not yet.

While the day at Standish hadn’t been quite as grueling as orientation day, it had been packed with challenges. Bryan and I were assigned to the marketing team for the day, which meant meeting after meeting, a review of the company public relations, and the upcoming campaigns on two major projects I’d never heard of.

One was the rebranding of an airline that Standish now apparently owned. The diversity of the company portfolio was dizzying. Apparently, they enjoyed absorbing other companies and then folding them into the umbrella of the corporation itself. Those new companies became whole divisions with their business practices streamlined.

Translation, whole departments could be eliminated if Standish already had something that could cover those areas. Which meant while the company grew and added labor and specialized divisions, those unfortunate companies they took over as often as not, also had to lay off their workers.

It was a kind of gut punch.

Not that they covered what they did for all those people they let go in their efforts to streamline. Pretty words for an ugly practice. Bryan hadn’t seemed discomfited by the knowledge, which didn’t really endear him in my book. All I could think about were the people who had to feed themselves and their families. Maybe the folks here hadn’t ever gone to bed hungry or worried about how they were going to pay the bills.

I might be seventeen, but I had more than a passing familiarity with that. Good business practices didn’t always make for good human ones.

The second project was a lot more interesting to me, personally, and I found myself wanting to focus on it. It involved grants for students in specialized fields, whether it was arts or engineering. Standish actually sought out students in need on all levels and offered grants to get them into everything from better private and prep schools to colleges.

It sounded amazing. The kind of program Ian could use. Or Jake for that matter.

Still, when the marketing and public relations executive we were shadowing described it as marketing gold because it gave them good community standing and helped repair their reputations, it left a sour taste in my mouth. Was doing something for a selfish reason that ultimately helped other people, even as it helped you, a good or a bad thing?

This was the landscape where morals and ethics collided. Bryan teased me about overthinking it when I brought it up so I left it alone. I might ask Coop about it later. I bet he’d understand why it bugged me, even if I couldn’t fully verbalize it yet.

Twice, I went to text him about it, and twice, I made myself sit on it. Better to wait until when I could talk to him face to face. Who knew? Maybe I’d be less twitchy about it by the time we were all home. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it, even if it did make me a little crazy.

Unlike our first day, we were there kind of late. It was well after five when our guide cut us loose, and I was finishing up my notes to send to our program advisor. They liked to get a daily report, not required—their words, not mine—but they also felt it could help us organize our thoughts and let them know what aspects of the program were working for us.

I liked crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.

The guys were all tied up at the moment anyway, so it didn’t matter if I took an extra thirty minutes to get this done. Bryan offered to walk out to my car with me, but I told him I’d be fine. There was security in both the lot and the building. He left with a smile and a demand we check out one of the restaurants down the street on Friday. I shrugged, because we had to eat and I had gotten the best cupcake earlier that day.

Honestly, the best part of my day.

Once the report was finished, I packed up my stuff and sent a message to the group chat that I was getting ready to leave and head home. Then I asked about dinner. I could swing by and pick something up if anyone was at my place. I’d check their responses when I got to the car.

A stream of people was leaving, so it wasn’t like I was alone on my