The Last Silver Wolf

Chapter 3: A Fateful Encounter

Jordan



Today was the big day of the presentation. I had been working non-stop, sometimes 12+ hours in a day preparing our slide deck and reports for the new CEO. Since we had no idea what the CEO of J.A. Tate Group was like, we had to be prepared to answer any questions he could surprise us with. I lived for pressure but the week of stress was starting to wear on me. I couldn’t wait for this to get over with and we could celebrate the win.

I heard a knock on my door and looked up from my laptop and the multi-sheet excel doc I had gotten lost in. My boss, Charles Klein, stood in the doorway to my office leaning against the propped glass door. “Hello Charles,” I said professionally. “I made some changes to slides 17 and 24 to match the KPIs we established at the beginning of the presentation. I only highlighted the relevant numbers but I’ll have all the data available in the binder if they would like to see the full analytics as well.”

Charles chuckled lightly. “Jordan, I have no doubt your slides are perfect, as always. But that’s why I wanted to speak with you.”

My stomach dropped at his words and I suddenly felt extremely nervous. What could he possibly have to say to me right before our meeting?

“All of us here did some talking and we came to the unanimous decision that we would like you to be the primary presenter in this meeting, not me.”

His words sank in slowly and my jaw dropped. “Really?” I asked incredulously.

Charles smiled warmly at my shock. “We couldn't think of anyone better for the job. Jordan, it is extremely important for us to make a good impression and we could use your… special gift.”

I laughed at his choice of words. He always joked that I had a special superpower that made me so good at my job. I’ve always been good at reading people and seemed to know what they were going to ask before they did. It's something I've always been able to do, even as a child, and it served me well in my life. “I already told you, I can’t literally read people’s minds.”

“You say that, but I don’t know if I believe you,” he joked.

Even though he was my boss and mentor, Charles at times felt like a father figure to me. The father I never had. Despite being a brilliant businessman and now a multi-millionaire, he had a calming presence and I don’t think there was an arrogant bone in his body. “I would be honored, sir," I answered honestly.

Charles clapped his hands together. “Excellent! And Jordan, there’s one more thing. As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s an open VP position now that Coggs went to work at Tesla. We talked about hiring someone new, but you know I always prefer to hire someone in-house. If…” he stopped himself. “When you nail this…the position is yours.”

I had to pinch myself under my desk to make sure the conversation wasn’t a dream. This was everything I was working so hard for. I had already taken on the responsibilities of the VP after Mitchell Coggs left last month and I was hoping Charles would notice the extra effort. “Thank you so much, Charles! I won’t let you down.”

“There is no one more deserving of the job. You've been with us for eight years and I owe a lot of our success to you. I don't know what we'd do without you.”

A few hours later I was standing in our conference room, trying to focus on my breathing. I smoothed my hands on the skirt of my Bergdoor Goodman navy blue A-line dress, making sure there were no wrinkles from when I was sitting at my desk. I had already checked the display TV display and HDMI connection in the conference room twice, but it did little to settle my nerves while I waited for our special guests to arrive.

Speaking of the devil, just as I was about to check the technology for the third time, I heard low male voices down the hallway headed in this direction. I took a slow calm breath and tried to settle my racing heart. You’d think that I’d be used to this type of pressure in my workplace, but no matter how many times I dealt with high-stress situations, the nerves never got any easier. Especially with my big promotion on the line and trying to impress my new boss, it felt like this was the apex of my career. This was my make or break moment and I couldn’t choke.

“You are strong. You are confident. You are powerful. There is nothing you can’t do.” I whispered my mantra to myself. I know it was cheesy, but working in a male-dominated field I had to calm the insecurities that would creep in daily. I had to fight for everything I had and prove myself more than most men had to. I genuinely think it was a blessing my mom named me Jordan, it had served me well in my life to have a name that is often a man’s name. On my resume, sometimes it gave me a foot in the door and that’s all I needed to prove everyone wrong.

I plastered a friendly yet professional smile on my face as I walked towards the men entering the room, with our CEO leading in front.

“And this is Jordan Ellis, our Director of Marketing and the person responsible for tripling our customer acquisition growth over the past three years. She will be handling the presentation today.” Charles introduced me to the guests.

“Pleasure to meet you.” I reached out my hand to the man standing on his left and audibly gasped when our eyes met. It felt like a bolt of electricity had been shot through my entire body, making every hair on my arms stand up and a warm tingling sensation went all the way to my toes. He was the most attractive man I had ever seen, even more attractive than any actor or supermodel. He had dark brown hair cut in a high and tight that complimented his square jawline and defined cheekbones. Even in his custom Armani suit, you could see his rippling muscles. He was massive. I wondered if he flexed his muscles, if his entire suit would rip like the hulk.

His caramel eyes looked at me with surprise at first, then something intense took over and for a moment it looked like his eyes had gone black. But his look didn’t scare me, quite the opposite. It made me want to drown in those dark pools and never come to the surface. I’m sure this was the definition of what a smolder looks like and I suddenly wanted to be on him… or under him… anywhere near him.

Charles cleared his throat, snapping me out of my trance. I realized we had been standing there staring at each other for a noticeable amount of time. The man seemed to break out of his daze as well and reached for my still outstretched hand. The moment his skin touched mine, I pulled it away in shock. Our skin contact sent another jolt of electricity through my body and my heart rate quickened. What was that?

“This is Mr. Alexander Tate,” another man introduced him from behind and I realized Alexander still had yet to speak. “I’m Andrew Earl, it’s a pleasure to meet you Jordan.” Andrew stepped around Alexander and shook my hand, giving his boss a concerned glance. I shook his hand and didn't feel any connection. It was an ordinary handshake. Why did I have such a reaction to Alexander? Maybe I had dragged my feet on the rug and generated a shock? Maybe he had a pacemaker… would it be able to shock me? I don’t know…

“Please have a seat gentlemen,” Charles said as he ushered everyone around the conference table.”Jordan, the floor is yours.”

The next hour felt like the longest hour of my entire life. I began the presentation, going through each slide and sharing the company’s current stats and upcoming campaigns. Alexander Tate, the new sexy CEO, sat at the head of the table staring at me with such intensity it made it hard to breathe. I avoided his eye contact as much as possible because when I did, I would lose my train of thought and I couldn't afford to let a man affect my job... no matter how devilishly handsome he was. His COO, Andrew, was the only one who asked questions and I was grateful his questions were straightforward and easy to answer. He would eye his boss curiously, who didn’t even seem to be listening. He could have fooled me for a statue the way he sat there, unmoving. I realized both of his fists were clenched in his lap and even his jaw was tight like he was angry or something.

“Are there any more questions?” I asked as I wrapped up the slides. Alexander still had yet to say a word and his expression was completely unreadable. My stomach turned in knots as he continued to sit there. I felt my promotion slowly slip through my fingers and did my best to keep my poker face. I wouldn’t let it show that he was getting to me.

I was about to sit down when suddenly the statue spoke, startling me with his low masculine voice. “Ms. Ellis. Thank you so much for the presentation. I am indeed impressed with how well ChatFix has been performing and am pleased our investment has a bright future. I have a few questions regarding your calculations for the MRR on slide 23. I do not wish to take up more of everyone’s time. Do you mind if we discuss it privately in your office?” He spoke with his jaw clenched and the way he said 'privately' sounded menacing.

Shocked again, I nodded, unable to think of any words. Crap. I'm fired. This is it.

Alexander quickly stood up, shared pleasantries with Charles and my other co-workers, and walked right out the door. Glancing around the room, many seemed confused by his strange behavior, but Charles gave me a smile and an inconspicuous thumbs up.

I left the room and realized Alexander was already waiting for me in my office. All the blinds had been closed. Wait, did he close them? Or were they closed when I left?

I thought of finding a way to escape the inevitable horrible chat, but knew I couldn’t avoid my fate. I took a deep calming breath and walked into my office.

“Close the door,” he commanded as I entered the room. I closed the door as he instructed and was not expecting what happened next.