Tanya Braun waited alone in the discreetly chic office belonging to Gabriel Valois. Fighting to keep her irritation in check, she swallowed hard and felt her neck muscles tighten before venturing a glance at her watch. She looked around the room, tapping her foot in a poor attempt to stifle her growing annoyance.
He kept it tidy, she thought, and sniffed, inhaling the scent of cedar wood and spice that hung in the air.
This was insane.
She’d arrived on time, and had already waited outside in the reception area for fifteen minutes. He came rushing into the office, apologized for running over on a prior meeting, and called her in.
But a moment later he excused himself to take a call on his cell and disappeared out of the room.
She’d been waiting ever since. Should she be thankful that she’d now been given access to his office and was at least a step closer to seeing him?
Footsteps outside alerted her to his return and she heard him close the door and sit back down opposite her.
He folded his hands and frowned, making her feel at fault for being here.
“You wanted to see me?” He narrowed his eyes as he spoke. This was a meeting Nadine had set up having met with Mr. Valois last week. Today, Tanya had come with the intention of putting into place a strategic plan for delivering an ad campaign that Nadine, the executive creative director of the Zimmerman Group, and Russell Trent, the CEO of Flight US, a sportswear company, had already discussed in the US.
It seemed to her that the man had a problem and if so, he ought to bring this up with Michael Zimmerman, her boss, and Russell Trent, his boss. They both wanted the two companies to work together and Russell had already been blown away by the success and brilliance of the advertising campaign Nadine had put together.
It was this very advertising campaign that had now been imposed on Mr. Valois, and the man didn’t seem remotely interested in anything she had to say.
“I’m following up a meeting you had with Nadine Stefano last week,” she started, and then hesitated as Mr. Valois picked up a pen and began to tap it noisily against the smooth wooden surface. “I have some designs based on what you and Nadine discussed last week. Perhaps we could discuss them? I’d be most interested in your feedback.”
She pulled out the designs Luc had created and spread them out carefully over the desk, all the while telling him of her ideas in order to ensure that this new ad campaign would fit in more closely with Flight Europe’ product line. But Mr. Valois’ continuous pen tapping and the look on his face when she glanced his way, told her he wasn’t paying much attention to her words.
“Would you please stop that?” This time she didn’t even bother to hide her displeasure. “It’s…somewhat annoying.”
He stopped, but gave her a cold stare.
“The conceptual designs,” she said, pushing her mock-ups towards him. Her gaze met his cold flint-like eyes.
“And what do you want me to do with these?” He asked, scarcely giving them his attention.
“You are the client, Mr Valois,” she attempted to match his hostility, in a subtle way. “I am only here at your request.”
He shook his head and leaned forward before he threw down the pen. “We have been happily working with a local Parisian ad agency with which we have a great relationship. We like their work. Just because our parent company in the US seems to be overexcited with the ad campaign your people have put together, I do not see why it should be imposed on us. We might be the same company, however we are continents apart, we are different countries and it makes no sense at all to change what is already working well.”
She reined in the desire to answer him back and met his stare with one just as cold.
This was a major account for the Zimmerman Group and the Flight Europe ad campaign was important. This had become Michael Zimmerman’s mantra and Tanya was already sick of hearing it.
Nadine had told her that the recent introduction of the Flight ad campaign in Europe had added a further layer of complication to her role. Tanya was well aware of this.
However, no complication was bigger than the rude man who now stared at her, barely able to contain his contempt.
She needed to make the Flight campaign here a stellar success—to at least match what Nadine had created in the US. This was supposed to be easier, since Nadine had already done the work. This man, the head of marketing for Flight Europe, only had to agree minor changes yet he seemed eager to prevent the campaign from getting off the ground.
This project was vital not just for the company but for her. Tanya needed to prove that a new life abroad wasn’t just an escape for her— that a new career, a new company, new people and new challenges were what she wanted in order to start over.
But success was measured by results and she was going to need a boatload of them.
Inwardly disheartened and feeling as though this was going to be an uphill struggle all the way, Tanya gazed at the obstacle to her goals and attempted another try.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, however the issues concern you and your boss, not me, Mr. Valois. I am only the messenger. I’m just trying to do my job.” She forced a smile but he didn’t reciprocate.
This was not going to be easy.
“How about we take a look at the brochures and decide on the changes you might have in mind?” She sat forward and decided to go through the mock-ups again. But his cell phone rang and he stared at it briefly before pouncing on it. He answered it on the first ring.
He stood up abruptly without apologizing for the interruption or excusing himself and took the call there and then.
With his back turned to her he gazed out of the window, talking in his mother tongue.
Tanya sat back, she hadn’t realized how much she’d tightened her muscles during her meeting, and now she loosened up a little and felt immediately drained. Unable to understand the conversation, she felt her impatience growing inside her like a hot ball of fire waiting to explode.
She stared at his back, saw his powerful physique and the V-shape of his torso, the broad shoulders…and looked away.
It had been a while since she’d had any kind of intimacy with a man and there were moments when her imagination would wander…as it did sometimes with Luc. Not giving in to him was a test of her resolve, which was weakening as the months rolled by. Sometimes, she hungered for the touch of a man’s lips on her mouth, for the feel of a man’s finger on her skin, for a man’s conversation.
Concentrate, she told herself.
So she forced herself instead to look at the desk, and then glanced at her wrist. For the length of time she’d been here, they’d discussed pretty much zero. The campaign wasn’t off to a sprinting start at all, and she had a feeling this was what Gabriel Valois wanted.
He changed to speaking in English just as she realized that she would be late for her next conference call. And her ears perked up, because she now understood the words and also because the tone of his voice had changed. Was he talking to his girlfriend?
No, he had a child, it sounded like. A son. She hadn’t seen a ring on the man’s finger, not that she’d been looking for one. But all the same she noticed he didn’t have one.
She seemed to notice these things more ever since she’d taken her own wedding band off. Vincent now had his own life with a new partner and a young child: something she’d been unable to give him.
Something else she had failed at.
Tanya stared at the shiny mass of Gabriel Valois’ dark hair and imagined his girlfriend running her hands through it. She wondered what the woman looked like, and guessed that he was the type of man who commanded attention just by the way he stood.
He was all tall and sharp bones, with a mass of dark hair. She listened to his conversation carefully; understood that his son had been to the dentist for braces and was now being dropped off at school by his mother. She found herself wondering what his son looked like, where the family holidayed, what sort of house they lived in, what they did at weekends. He appeared more relaxed, laughing easily with his son. And Tanya wondered how old the boy was.
Vincent’s child was sixteen months old.
Stop it.
She couldn’t stay here, waiting a moment longer. Mr. Valois had refused to turn around and acknowledge her and had continued to stare out of the window the entire time. Her decision was made.
She got up and moved to the door, opening it quietly she tiptoed out of his office. Striving to keep her voice calm, to dampen the anger and resentment she felt towards that man, she spoke to his receptionist.
“Mr Valois seems busy on a phone call and I cannot wait any longer. I have a meeting I need to attend, so if you could please let him know that I had to leave. Perhaps he could call me when he is ready to meet again?”
The girl nodded and hastily scribbled down something illegible.
Tanya escaped with a huge sigh of relief.

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