lobby and tapped across the marble tiled floor to the bank of elevators. She’d just go back to her office and work. She probably had a granola bar in her desk.
She should not be going to that wedding this weekend with Levi. That would be a mistake. She’d find him later—when he was back from lunch—and tell him that.
Her afternoon was crazy with meetings with various account managers reviewing projects and dealing with several minor crises, including a call from Cody at the Steel brand about an ad that was supposed to be on a website. It hadn’t been seen all day and they wanted to know why. She made a phone call and fixed that. Then Joe called her into his office. Somehow she had a feeling it wasn’t to congratulate her on solving all those problems or to tell her the new suit she was wearing was very nice.
She sank onto the chair in his office and crossed her legs, smoothing her skirt.
“All day long, all the stalls in the men’s room were occupied.”
She looked sideways, then down, then up. “Uh.” Was Joe losing his mind? He wasn’t that old. Surely he could not be experiencing early onset dementia? She’d heard stories from back in his early days when he’d been able to drink anyone under the table…was he drunk? “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said lamely.
He frowned. “They weren’t really occupied. Someone went into every stall and put a pair of stuffed pants and shoes in there as if they were sitting on the toilet. They must have locked the doors from the inside and crawled under.”
She bit her lip. “Oh.”
“As much as I admire the effort and ingenuity that went into that, it was a little awkward when Tom and Jack were here.” The CEO and chief marketing officer from Verhoeven.
She swallowed and closed her eyes briefly. “It might not have been the Brew Crew guys.”
“Of course it was them! They’re the bad boys of advertising.” Joe’s face flushed. He waved a wild hand. “We’ve talked about this before, Sloane. This has to stop.”
She tried not to visibly wince. Shit! “I’m sorry, Joe. I’ll have another talk with them. They’re bright guys, I’m sure they’ll understand the consequences of something like that when a client is here.”
“I know I can count on you.”
But the way he said the words made her worry that maybe he wasn’t so sure about that.
She walked into her own office, kicked the wastebasket with a pointy-toed shoe and sank into her chair. Had her Brew Crew done that? Had Levi been a part of it? She dropped her head into her hands for a few minutes, imagining guys going into the men’s room, finding the stalls all occupied, waiting, giving up… A choked snort of laughter erupted from between her lips, but she clamped down on the humor. Even Joe had known it was funny. But he didn’t want that stuff going on any more.
What could you do with a bunch of creative, talented people who were smart and confident? But this was a business. That was a cold, hard fact. And she needed to be cold and hard.
It was too late today to do anything about it. That would be something to look forward to tomorrow. But she still needed to talk to Levi.
She walked down to his cubicle.
“What do a blonde and a beer bottle have in common?” she heard Scott ask Levi as she approached.
Levi snorted. “What?”
“They’re both empty from the neck up.”
Sloane’s eyebrows lifted.
The two guys noticed her standing there. Levi gave her a weak grin and held his hands up. “I didn’t say that. He said it.”
She gave Scott a long, cool look.
“It’s a joke,” he said. “Not about anyone in particular. Certainly not about you. Definitely not.”
“Did you need something, Sloane?” Levi asked.
Dammit. She didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Scott. “Um, no. Did you have a nice lunch?”
“Hey, I only took a little over an hour.” He raised his hands.
She blinked. “Ooookay. I have no idea how long you were gone.”
“Oh.” He grinned, that sexy, boyish, nipple-tingling grin. “In that case, it was more like forty-five minutes.”
Scott snorted and Sloane felt her lips twitch. She needed to get this over with. “Can I talk to you in my office?”
“Sure.” Levi rose from his chair and followed her down the hall.
With the door closed, she turned to him. “I can’t go to that wedding with you this weekend.”