was still working to get to know some of these new businesses. Joe counted on her to keep everyone happy. And that meant keeping the boys out of trouble.
She’d bemoaned the lack of women creatives at Huxworth Packard before. Would things be different if they had more females on the team? She’d never wanted to accuse the company of sexism in hiring; she knew Mason for sure wasn’t sexist. She herself was a testament to the fact that they did hire and retain women, but she was the only female on the beer account. There’d been a few female copywriters over the years but for various reasons they always moved on. Mason was right. You did have to be tough to survive in this world. If women ran the world… She laughed at herself as she walked into her office. If she ran the company… Oh stop. She had things to worry about here and now, not crazy ideas like that.
She stopped at the ladies’ room before going to her office and was in a stall when the outer door opened and female voices reached her ears.
“He is soooo hot,” she heard Carly say.
Oh sweet loving Lord.
“I know!” Phoebe chirped as she entered a stall and shut the door. “Gorgeous but really nice too. Hillary Bayard is so jealous he’s working in our department.”
“He’s okay,” Bailey said.
Sloane blinked.
“Oh come on,” Phoebe said. “He’s way more than just okay. And he’s single, so hey, all’s fair.”
Single? He told them he was single? What the hell! What kind of douche bag was he?
“He seems like a player,” Bailey said. “I mean, he’s nice, but from what he was saying, he seems like the kind of guy who just likes to sleep around a lot.”
Sloane frowned.
“Every guy is like that until he meets the right woman,” Carly said.
Sloane rolled her eyes.
“I agree,” Carly continued. “All’s fair. And I like him.”
Oh for Chrissakes. Sloane repressed a groan and exited the stall to quickly wash her hands and escape before the girls included her in their little Levi love fest.
A week later, Levi was about to admit defeat.
It was eight o’clock on Wednesday evening. What a long fucking day.
Had taking this job been a mistake?
He ordered a beer—yes, a Cerone lager—sitting at the bar at Hugo’s, located across the street from the Lachman Building. It wasn’t full, but there were still a number of guys in suits and professional-looking women occupying tables and stools at the long polished oak bar.
He leaned his elbows on the bar and gulped a fizzy mouthful of beer. His head throbbed and his body felt like he’d been worked over by Floyd Mayweather. Repeatedly.
In the last week he’d been the victim of countless practical jokes. When the guys had tampered with his mouse, they’d also set autocorrect in Word so that it replaced the word “client” with “nutsucker”. The first time he’d typed up a fast document and sent it off to Mason and Noah, all proud of his research for the Cedar Springs brand, Noah had forwarded it to Sloane before reading it, and then shit had hit the fan.
Mason had apparently had a chat with the boys about their bad behavior, and then they’d been even pissier. The next day Levi had walked into his office and sat on his chair, and it had immediately dropped to the lowest level, damn near giving him a heart attack. The fuckers had somehow rigged the lever with a pencil and as soon as he put weight on it, it popped out and the seat dropped. Of course this didn’t happen when he was alone. It happened when Mason was in his office. At least that time it wasn’t Sloane.
Why was he such a target? He was a great guy. He got along with everyone. Well, barring Sloane. Scott seemed to be softening up. And okay, he was kinda not feeling Owen so much. The pranks from the other guys felt like just innocent fun, but Levi sensed Owen had a nasty streak in him. Maybe jealousy. Sure there was competition between all of them. But come on, they were adults.
Well. Sort of adults. He couldn’t resist a tiny little payback. He’d waited for the perfect moment when Scott’s computer had been left unattended. It didn’t take long before people were howling. Every time they emailed Scott, his auto-reply gave the message I will be out of the office for the next two weeks for medical reasons. When I return, I