Boomerang Read Online Free PDF Page B

People who want fun, without any emotional entanglement. But the office policy is no relationships, tangled or entangled, or in any form at all. Ever.” Once again, he looks from me to Mia, his blue eyes glinting. “Have I made myself clear?”
    This time Mia nods, and I’m the one who answers.
    “That won’t be a problem,” I say.
    I need this job. And I always play to win.

 Chapter 7 
     
    Mia
     
    Q: Do you forgive and forget, or hold a grudge?
     
    T hat won’t be a problem.
    Ethan’s words ricochet around in my already battered brain as we accompany Adam Blackwood down a long corridor.
    I drop back, letting the two of them stride along in front of me. Beth’s boots pinch my toes, and I have to take about six steps for every two of theirs. I feel deflated, bruised, and not really sure what bothers me more—that this great opportunity turned into a cage match or that I just took a sucker punch to the ego from someone I don’t even know if I want.
    That won’t be a problem.
    Probably, if I’d woken in my own bed and wasn’t nursing the hangover of a million rock stars, I could shrug off those five words. But they keep twinging inside me, like muscles you forget are sore until you stretch the wrong way.
    I’m here for the job, I remind myself. Not the guy. I couldn’t even remember his name an hour ago, and now I’m pouting because he wants to focus on his work? This is better. This makes it all that much easier to crush him.
    Um, I mean earn this fantastic opportunity on the basis of my merits .
    Bits of their conversation waft back to me as we move in and out of halos of LED lights: market penetration, abandonment rate . Ethan’s already grabbed the baton, and here I am moping along in the background. Is that the Mia Galliano who’s going to take on this mother-flippin’ world? No, it is not.
    So I need a plan. One that includes leaving Ethan in the dust.
    I steel myself and take a few healthy strides to catch up to them. Wedging myself next to Adam, I force Ethan to shoulder-bump the wall.
    “I’ve already got a hundred great ideas,” I tell Adam Blackwood. “How about a more cinematic approach to your promotions? Like a visual narrative we can carry out along all kinds of transmedia platforms. What do you think?”
    “I like the sound of that,” he says and gives me a wink that would relax Medusa’s hair.
    I keep him chatting until we reach an alcove with a massive partner desk in Plexiglas and chrome. Tablet computers rest on each side, with additional wireless keyboards and fancy tri-fold monitors spread across the desktop. The geek girl in me salivates—classily, of course.
    On a long concrete countertop nearby, a towering espresso machine alternately hisses and gurgles, its four nozzles caked with foam. Beneath it, cabinet doors gape open, and a profusion of cleaning supplies and paper cups spills out onto the floor.
    Adam glances at the kitchen area, his expression darkening, and then gestures us to the sleek white leather captain’s chairs flanking the desk. We both go for the same one, smacking inelegantly into one another. Ethan puts a hand on my shoulder to keep me from tottering, and that delicious beach-smoke scent of his hollows my insides.
    Focus, Mia.
    I ease away and flop into the oversized seat, the wheels of which promptly roll me about six feet across the space.
    “What’s first on the agenda?” asks Ethan. He settles into his chair like he was born to it, though his legs are so long that his burnished Oxfords end up under my side. I roll back up to the desk, feeling overly conscious of every bit of him—his feet right near my own. His toned legs and broad shoulders perfectly encased in his suit. His ink-blue eyes, inquisitive and friendly, focused on Adam. Not aggressive. Not overeager. Just deep and thoughtful, alive with his desire to dive into a challenge.
    “Today, I want you to get signed up on Boomerang. You need to have the client experience to know how to