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CHAPTER 41
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WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 42
“I need to talk to Howard about a few details. Has he arrived yet?” Annalise asked Tara the moment she entered the conference room. “No. I tried calling him as you suggested but my call went straight to the voice mail,” Tara replied, stopping her friend from pacing nervously the room. “Listen, from what I saw, the presentation is perfect. But if you need me for anything, I’m right outside the door. Okay, sweetie?” Annalise nodded and took a deep breath. Her nerves were wound tight, but she meticulously went again over every little detail of her presentation. Her little team worked day and night to create something unique to present to Lance. She was extremely proud of every single one of them, but she was a little worried about Howard. The past few days, she found him a bit distant and quite distracted. Trying not to focus on the negative things, Annalise took a look around and smiled slightly. The two displays in the room were running over and over little clip
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 43
Tara made a sound of sympathy and smiled. Annalise looked at her friend entirely perplexed. “Anna, calm down. You are not alone, girl. After what you did for the agency, for all of us, you will forever have my undying gratitude and my eternal friendship. You can always count on me to land a hand whenever you need it. Yes, inside the agency, I’m the one with the big mouth, but I can keep it quite shut when required by the situation.” Annalise lowered her gaze. “Thank you, Tara,” she murmured. “I appreciate every single word you said, everything you did and still do for me, as a friend, as a colleague. But not many will understand this situation… I can already see them talking…” “Listen, sweetie, people are stupid and they will always gossip about this and that. Someone I truly admire has a saying: ‘unless they paying your bills, pay them bitches no mind’,” Tara said earnestly. “Stop trying to please the whole world. Do only what pleases you. Live your life the way you like
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 44
Friday evening, Jeremy called Annalise and let her know he would stay at their mother’s house for the entire weekend. This was a really unique occasion, so Annalise decided to do the same, happy to spend some quality time with her brother. Well, the weekend has been difficult since Saturday. If the lunch had been quite okay, giving her hope for two wonderful days, the dinner crashed every single shred of hope left in her. Her mother started an apparently harmless conversation, praising her two sons, as she usually did, and pointing out once again, if ever was necessary, Annalise’s personal… lacks: too much work, no free time, no man in her life, no marriage plans. And since all this wasn’t enough, Martha even brought up the fact that Annalise ruined on purpose her romantic relationship with John by choosing her career over love and security. And she did it out of spite. Thank God John wasn’t there… After the verbal punches
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 45
David and Elaine stood there, in silence, waiting for Annalise to gather herself together again. She took a deep breath and then looked up. “I promise you both that it’s not how it looks,” Annalise said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I swear to you I never used cheap tricks to get my hands on this account. I’ve worked relentlessly to bring this here. Everything I did was done by the book.” Elaine said nothing. David glanced at the magazine on her desk. “Well, Anna, in this photo, it looks like you were wearing his ring, but I don’t see one on your finger right now…” David continued handing her a paper tissue. “And I remember that you had lunch with him some time ago… It was the day I’ve wanted to talk to you about this account.” After she cleared her throat, Elaine intervened. “David, I know Anna. I’ve watched her for the last few months, working harder than anyone else around here, giving her best to save this agency. She spent so many sleepless nigh
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 46
Annalise laid her head on her desk and tried to ignore the painful ache that had developed around her temples. Elaine told her to go home, but she couldn’t… not yet… She knew what she had to do, and it will hurt far more than those damn pictures. Still, she hadn’t worked this hard to rebuild her reputation and her career to have it go down the drain over her affair with Lance. Yes, she was in love with him, that was so very clear in her head, but he wasn’t responding the same way. For him, what was going on between them was just enjoyable sex and nothing more. They were great between the sheets, but out of his hotel bed, in front of the cruel reality, their relationship was doomed. Annalise sighed and covered her face with her hands. “You can’t escape your past, Anna,” she whispered. “It will hunt you forever.” She turned off her cell phone and spent the rest of the day locked in her office. She only spoke to Tara to tell her she was not acc
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 47
Unwilling to face the judgment of the entire “S&W Advertising” squad after the security leak and tired of crying all night long, Tuesday morning, Annalise decided to call and inform her boss that she was going to take the rest of the week off. Hearing how horrible she sounded, Elaine allowed her to take this vacation, reaffirming the fact that the agency was standing behind her one hundred percent. Still, she emphasized once more, if a reminder was needed, that hiding would not solve her problems. That taking the coward’s way out was not the right way to address her issue. “‘I agree you should rest and think,’” Elaine had told her on the phone. “‘So, take a day, a week, a month… Take all the time you need, kiddo. But don’t do it because you need to hide from the world. Come out and face the music. I believe in you and I know for a fact you are much stronger than you think. I wish I could be half the woman you are.’” Those touching words and Elaine’s trust moved
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 48
After a while, they started talking like they never did before. Martha pampered her endlessly, preparing her favorite food: French fries and chocolate ice cream. Her mother’s expression showed complete disapproval, but Annalise told her it was her comfort food. By the time evening rolled around, her brothers arrived and made it a point to shower her with lots of hugs and endless cuddling, as her father recommended. Martha retired to her room, leaving her children sitting on the couch together, watching ‘Roman Holiday’ and eating popcorn. Everything was so wonderful… For the first time, since the disaster that had hit her, Annalise was feeling a little bit better… and a little bit optimistic. Once the movie ended, Annalise wiped her eyes and tried to stop the sniffling. She knew her brothers hated it when she cried. Jeremy especially. He kept Annalise’s head on his shoulder. “Anna, if you feel like talking, we’re here for you. But if not, w
WAKING UP WITH THE CEO CHAPTER 49
John looked at Lance and instead of shaking his hand, he crossed his arms on his chest and let his lawyer do the talking. “Mr. Hamilton, my client instructed me to speak on his behalf during this meeting. Since this is going to be a very brief encounter between the two of you, Mr. Beckett asked me to inform you that he… changed his mind about signing the contract with ‘HL Sportswear’. This decision was taken after very careful consideration. Mr. Beckett wants you to know that…” The lawyer stopped and looked at John who, with a brief movement of his head, urged him to say the exact words. The man coughed just to clear his throat and continued. “Mr. Hamilton, these are not my words, so, please, excuse my language… My client wants you to know he will never sign with a… dickhead such as yourself, a dumbass who doesn’t see a good thing when it crosses his path. You should not have let Annalise Walsh out of your sight, even if she asked you to. Annalise was the real deal and you
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