Billionaire With a Twist by Lila Monroe

And I was
running into it again and again.
    I knew the social responsibility angle
was the way to go, but I just couldn’t make the copy sing. I
had to make the customers fall in love with the company, not bog them
down in a history lesson.
    Knox has a long proud history of—
    No, no, it was crap, it was all crap,
everything I had ever written was crap.
    I couldn’t let Hunter down like
this.
    Hey, bro, you hear about Knox?
They’re pretty dope, ‘cause—
    Even worse. Fucking terrible. I sounded
like a ‘Don’t Do Drugs’ video written by a
fifty-year-old man.
    Maybe statistics would save me.
    Compared to liquor companies of a
comparable size, Knox has donated a quantitatively larger percentage
to charities and nonprofits—
    “Dammit!” I threw my pencil
against the library wall and glared at the book. If it wasn’t
so old that it was worth more than my entire apartment, it would’ve
been getting the same treatment.
    I needed a preliminary campaign by the
end of the week, and I was going around in circles. Knowing how high
the stakes were for Hunter wasn’t helping. There was so much
riding on this for both of us.
    But apparently the universe thought I
needed a reminder of that, because just then my phone rang. It was my
boss.
    “Just calling to check in,”
he said breezily. I could hear seagulls in the background. Was he
calling me from his yacht? He was definitely calling me from his
yacht. “How’s it going?”
    “Great! Everything’s
falling into place; I’m on the right track.” It wasn’t
really a lie, was it? It was just a little…chronologically
misplaced. I’d totally be on the right track by the end of the
day, and what my boss didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
    “Wonderful,” he said. There
was a little slurping sound. Probably downing champagne. “Do
you need any help? This is your first big rodeo after all.”
    “Nope, I’m good!”
    “Are you sure? Harry Blackstone
and his boys just wrapped up a beaut of a project for Mammoth Tire
Company, under time, under budget, and the numbers we got coming
in—wow! Those guys are definitely looking at some big Christmas
bonuses. I could fly them down, have them oversee your thing, give
you a few pointers.”
    “No, I’m fine!” I
tried not to sound desperate, but the pitch of my voice sounded like
it had risen at least an octave.
    “Uh-huh.” I couldn’t
tell if he was buying it, but his voice took on a warning tone. “I
went out on a limb for you on this one, Allison. Lotta guys on the
board didn’t think you were ready. Don’t be ashamed to
ask for help if you need it.”
    “I will!”
    “Well, all right. Long as you
don’t let us down.”
    “I won’t, I promise!”
    After a few meaningless pleasantries
that left my memory as soon as we made them, I ended the call and
tried to return to work. But suddenly, all my notes might as well
have been written in Sanskrit.
    So much was riding on all this…what
if I failed?
    I looked out the window, at the
beautiful expanse of green and gold and blue.
    Maybe a walk would clear my head.
     
    #
     
    “Ally!”
    Hadn’t even made it to the front
door of the manor house when I heard Martha calling my name. I caught
up to where she was leaning across a car in the driveway and frowned,
uncertain for a second why she looked strange to me before the answer
came to my wearied mind.
    When I’d first seen her, she’d
been dressed professionally, with black slacks, a white button down
blouse, and her curls pulled back into a ponytail. Now she was in
lace-up boots, a short skirt, and a red tank top that showed off her
figure to great advantage without quite crossing the line into
trashy. Her hair was done all nice too, in soft waves that spilled
across her shoulders, and her nails were painted. She was even
wearing a few pieces of simple sterling silver jewelry.
    “Hot date?” I asked.
    “More like an investment in a
future hot date,” Martha said with a toss of her hair. “My
cousin