I want You Deeper

“Ready for your last day?” Heath had never been more ready for anything in his life.

Josea, who had shown up at the Hardcastle Enterprises offices bright and early to get Heath camera-ready, was now standing back, admiring his creation. The boom mic was back, even though Heath was wearing a mic pack as he had during the trade show. They had to capture everyone else’s audio.

“They’re waiting for you in the big conference room, Mr. Hardcastle.”

Nodding at his assistant, Heath took a deep breath, looked directly into Camera Two, and said, “Let’s do this.”

The drive home had been long and uneventful. He was pretty sure the production crew wasn’t too happy about that. But the last thing he’d wanted was to be cooped up in a car with Vanessa, cameras pointed at their faces to capture every word they’d say.

Vanessa had gotten her screen time. It had been all she’d wanted all along, and he realized that now. He’d been hurt when she’d pulled away from the kiss and suddenly stopped making eye contact with him. He’d had a rude awakening a few minutes later when she’d shown up to give away her identity to her roommate.

All for screen time. All of it. Pretending to be attracted to him, opening up to him about Brooke being her only friend-which he doubted was even true at this point-and wrapping it all up with a neat little bow after the banquet. Yes, he’d been played by a fame seeker.

He headed straight to the big conference room at the end of the hall, taking a deep breath and striding with confidence. The cameras trailed him all the way, but there were more cameras capturing his entire staff, all of whom had been asked to report to this room first thing that morning with no explanation as to why.

The surprised expressions told him they hadn’t expected their founder and CEO to show up this morning. He’d kept the reason for the meeting under wraps, but the video was ready to play on the big screen at the front of the room.

“Good morning, everyone,” he said as he stepped up to the podium. “For those who don’t know, I’m Heath Hardcastle. I founded this little company.”

He smiled as he said that and heard a few snickers from the audience. His goal was mostly to show he was a nice guy. He really needed to have more gatherings to demonstrate that, though.

“I have a little video clip I’d like to play. I think it speaks for itself.” He stepped off to the side to let the clip roll.

Unfortunately, there was no getting away from the cameras, even now. One of them stepped into place directly in front of him, capturing his reactions as he watched clips of him as Mac Sutterfield.

But quickly enough, he dropped his gaze from the screen to the crowd. As Mac struggled to make a sale, was touched by a potential client’s business disaster, and spent time with Vanessa, the expressions remained neutral. Nobody glanced over at him in a way that made it seem like they’d figured out the big secret until…

The end of the clip showed Heath removing the fake beard and hat. That part was staged to ensure that when the hat and beard came off, he looked polished and camera ready, but the rest of it was genuine. His on-screen persona spoke with heartfelt emotion about what he’d learned.

“I had so much passion when I started Hardcastle Enterprises,” the onscreen version of Heath said. “It’s all too easy to build it, hire capable people, and let them run things, and then something goes wrong. Something goes horribly wrong. But it shook me up, made me realize that I have to be involved. I need to be out there with all of you, working hard and meeting the people who use our products. I’ve come up with a plan.”

The screen went black, and attention immediately shifted to Heath, who was now walking toward the stage. But that attention didn’t follow.From NôvelDrama.Org.

Everyone was watching something to the left of him. He turned and saw Vanessa Gilbert standing just behind where he’d been a few seconds earlier.

And she wasn’t alone.

Justin Travers stood with her.

Heath stopped and stared, waiting for what was coming next. He had to admit, his heart did a little skip when he saw Vanessa. She had that effect on him-had since the first time he saw her. But he wasn’t giving in to it this time. This time, he knew she was just here for the cameras.

The best thing to do was pretend nothing out of the ordinary was happening. He walked to the front of the room and launched into what he’d prepared to say all along. A retreat. They all were going on a bonding trip- the entire company, all expenses paid. He’d reserved a luxury hotel on an island for a full workweek. He needed the vacation as much as they did.

“The goal, when we come back, is to be more engaged in the work we’re doing. It’s an investment in this company’s future. Any questions?”

The questions were scheduled. Too late, he realized he probably should have skipped them. The fact that Justin Travers was standing off to the right -Justin had been briefly mentioned in the clips and Heath was pretty sure at least some people knew him by sight-left him open to questions he didn’t want to answer.

“Have you and Justin Travers made up?”

Heath’s jaw twitched at the question, which came from an unfamiliar employee on the front row. He weighed his options. He could ignore the question or simply say he didn’t want to comment on that right now. But was no comment actually a comment in itself?

“That’s a great question,” Justin called out.

His voice seemed to fill the large room even though there were no microphones. But that was no surprise, considering Justin’s mere presence was too much for one room. If anyone asked, Heath would chalk that up to his gigantic ego, but he knew, deep down, Justin was just a charismatic person.

People liked him. They didn’t take to Heath quite as quickly. He’d gotten used to that over the years, telling himself that it was fine. He didn’t need everyone’s approval. But the fact that the entirety of Silicon Valley had pretty much immediately sided with Justin when the truth about the coding scandal had broken bothered Heath. It bothered him more than he’d ever admit.

“I heard you have something to say to me.” Justin walked toward him, a big smile on his face. It was off-putting. How was Heath supposed to be mad at him when he was just so darn likable?

“What’s that?” Heath asked. Because saying no, he absolutely didn’t have a thing to say to him, wasn’t an option with cameras pointed right at the two of them. Every second of this would show up on the final episode, especially if it started to get ugly.

Justin stopped just a few feet in front of him, spreading his arms wide. “Look, man, the whole thing was a misunderstanding. I get it. But it could have ruined my entire company.”

“Mine, too.” Heath wasn’t sure if that was the right response or not. It just popped out. It probably sounded defensive, but it was the truth.

Apologize. That had been Brooke’s request. Not just any apology, though-an apology on camera. Because if it didn’t happen with a large chunk of America watching, did it really happen at all?

And if it didn’t happen with Vanessa looking on, did she really get credit for it?

Heath was furious. But worse than that, he was hurt. He’d somehow foolishly fallen into the trap of believing that Vanessa was interested in him. As it turned out, the only thing she was interested in was her fifteen minutes of fame.

So, he’d get rid of her, the cameras, and this man standing in front of her. He’d do it in a way that salvaged his reputation and gave a neat and tidy ending to this show they’d been shooting. Once this was done, Vanessa and Justin could walk out that door and he’d never have to see any of them again.

“I made a mistake,” Heath said loudly, turning to look at the audience. “I trusted when I shouldn’t have. There are consequences to that. People got hurt.”

The audience would think he was referring to the overseas firm that had scammed him and the subsequent fallout. And that was true. But he was also referring to a person in this very room he’d trusted when he shouldn’t have. And, in that case, the “people” who had gotten hurt? Him.

But now he turned to look at Justin, finally seeing things from his side. Justin had been going about his life when the rug had suddenly been pulled out from under him. The town had turned on him. His investors had turned on him. And it was at a time when he’d already had to lay off the vast majority of his staff because his company was flailing.

Yes, Justin had risen from the ashes and now was stronger than ever, or was he? He was still operating with a very small team, especially when compared to Hardcastle Enterprises. He’d taken a fairly big hit even before the theft incident but overcoming the damage to his reputation the accusations had caused had set him back even further. Heath hadn’t directly caused that, but by failing to be more careful about the contractors he hired, he’d created a bad situation. He had to be accountable for that.

Which was what Vanessa had been trying to get him to understand all along. He got it now. Only, he couldn’t thank her for helping him get there.

“I’m truly sorry,” Heath said. “I was careless with outsourcing work, and it created a huge mess. If I can make it up to you, I will.”

Justin let out a deep breath. The relief he felt was visible. Brooke had been right-this had been all he’d wanted all along. Just an apology.

“Thank you for that. And I’m sorry, too. It wasn’t your fault. Half the town was duped by that overseas team.”

Okay, so “half the town” was probably an exaggeration, but the damage was fairly widespread. And now everyone was on alert, double-checking references and extensively interviewing possible contractors. The entire industry had been shaken a little by the whole thing, and maybe that was good. They should have been more careful all along.

“I have a confession now,” Justin announced, catching Heath off guard. The TravTech founder was looking out at Heath’s employees, well aware, no doubt, that there was a camera pointed directly at him.

“I sent a spy to work the Hardcastle Exhibits booth,” Justin announced.

“He gave the name-”

“Jeff!” Heath said before Justin could finish.

It explained why he’d never seen Jeff before and why he didn’t match the name of the two Jeffs in the company directory. Jeff had been planted by Justin Travers.

“He didn’t realize he was going to be on camera.” Justin laughed. “He called me and said he didn’t sign up for that. I decided it was best to let go of the whole thing.”

Heath frowned. “A spy? Really?”

He couldn’t imagine any benefit TravTech would get from spying on Hardcastle Exhibits. Did he think Heath was stealing ideas from TravTech for his booth business?

Justin shook his head. “It was a horrible idea. We have this weird competitive thing that makes no sense.”

“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking.” Heath smiled. “We need to work together, not against each other.”

Heath extended his hand, a smile on his face. All this time, he’d fought taking his share of the blame, but now that he had, it felt like a weight had been lifted off him. He could breathe again.

Justin reached out and returned the handshake. The audience burst into applause and cheers, and cameras moved around in front of them. It was the happy ending everyone had waited for, and the perfect TV moment. Unfortunately for Heath, there would be no happy ending. He nodded at the audience, turned, and walked out the side door of the conference room with the goal of putting as much space between him and Vanessa Gilbert as he could.