Reading Online Novel

Nerd Girl(26)



When I arrived at Lincoln Square, I took the elevator on up to the 15th floor to the conference center. I swiped my badge and walked through the secured doors into the conference lobby, stopping almost abruptly when I noticed the stunning views facing west. I could see Lake Washington, and beyond the lake, the faint outline of the Seattle skyline and the Olympic Mountains. As I headed into the main conference room, several hundred people were milling around trying to find a seat. I spotted Mia waving to me from the far right side of the large room and headed over to sit next to her.

From what I could tell so far, it was your typical All Hands meeting. The Corporate Vice President of Marketing kicked it off. He reported directly into the company CEO, so he was a big wig. He talked about the year in review and the importance of executing seamlessly for GA. He went over revenue and sales numbers, organizational health meters and attrition and hiring rates. The next fiscal year would be critical with the new Portals 8 platform, a fundamental shift from the traditional Portals operating system, etc., etc., etc …

The VP’s directs, which included Stephanie Wheeler, took turns reviewing their organization highlights. Pretty run of the mill stuff, but it was still interesting for me to see all the executives I would be working with.

When Stephanie finished her twenty minutes, she introduced the next speaker. “We have a guest speaker today for our All Hands meeting. Many of you already know him. He’s the Corporate Vice President for the US Subsidiary. Our teams are obviously co-dependent, but with such an important launch coming up, we thought it would be valuable for all of you to see how the US Sub is going to be taking the Portals 8 message to our customers …”

Stephanie continued with her schpeel, but by now, almost an hour and a half had gone by and my attention span had started to wane. I turned on my laptop to start sifting through some email before the weekend. In the background I heard some light clapping, then Mia elbowed me hard in the ribs and I couldn’t prevent an “Ow!” from escaping my lips. Fortunately, my exclamation got lost in the surrounding applause.

I glared over at Mia, giving her the evil eye. “What was that for?” I hissed, rubbing my side.

She nudged her head towards the man walking up to the podium and then whispered in my ear. “That, my dear, is Mr. Hottie #1, Ryan McGraw.”

I looked up in the direction of her stare.

Oh. My. God.

My eyes grew to the size of saucers and my mouth dropped open. I was in complete and utter shock. My Ryan was Ryan McGraw, Mr. Megasoft CVP, master of the MS universe, Mr. Executive Hottie that was the topic of lunch conversation yesterday, the man who hit me with his car, the man that I had the most memorable, amazing connection with one night, the man that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about for two weeks!

Mia chuckled. “You can close your mouth now.”

I snapped my jaw shut, realizing I was gaping at him. Him. Ryan McGraw.

“I’d like to get me some of that,” she said crassly under her breath.

I looked over at Mia in surprise. “Mia,” I hissed again. “You’re supposed to be in a relationship, remember?” A part of me was feeling possessive and I didn’t want her saying things like that about Ryan. Of course, she didn’t know I even knew him, but still.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look,” she hissed back and smiled. “He’s hot, though, don’t you think?”

“Um, hmm …” I didn’t know what else to say. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I wanted to go get some air, but I was frozen. If I got up, he would see me, so I sank down lower in my seat, hoping to God he wouldn’t notice me.

My mind was racing. It had to be him in Catherine’s photo. He worked closely with her team; it made sense now that they would be in launch event photos together. Oh, God. I started to panic at the thought of ever coming across him in a formal business setting. Would I ever be in a meeting with him? Would I ever need to, God forbid, present to him? I should thank my stars that he worked in the US Sub and not the corporate team. How could I have been so naïve? I was completely mortified for some reason, yet at the same time, I was cheering inside because at last I finally knew who he was.

I looked over at Mia, and fortunately, she was staring at Ryan, riveted, no longer caring about my reaction to him. I couldn’t tell if she was actually paying attention to his presentation or just appreciating the view; maybe both.

Trapped in my chair until the end of the meeting, all I could do from then on was watch him speak. I tried to bring my hand over my forehead to help me hide, but I couldn’t help looking at him through my fingers.