Spurned but not broken

chapter13

Johnathon escorted the two women towards a private elevator. He pressed the floor for his boss' office and once the doors closed he turned to the two women.

"Miss Tiger Lily, it truly is an honor to meet you. I am actually a fan of your works and am truly looking forward to this partnership."

Amelie gave a soft smile, "that is truly heartening to hear, thank you, and I am looking forward to a fruitful collaboration as well."

After a few minutes, the doors opened and Johnathon led the woman towards Jaxon's office. After knocking, he announced the arrival of their expected guests and walked forwards to stand beside his boss.

Jaxon stepped forward to greet his guests, "Hello to both of you, my name is Jaxon, and I am in charge of X Group and will also be the primary lead for this project."

Amelie walked towards Jaxon and held out her hand, "Good morning Jaxon, I am Tiger Lily. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to meet with us. This is my assistant, Summer." The two exchanged a warm handshake, neither fully realizing the identity of the other.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both. Please, take a seat, and we can begin our discussion on the upcoming project."

The group all took a seat in the small sitting area within Jaxon's office, the two women sitting side by side on a comfortable leather sofa, whilst the two men sat opposite.

At that moment, another knock at the door was heard and, after telling the person to enter, a tall brunette woman appeared, gently pushing a trolley that held different drinks and some small snacking options.

"Mr Stephenson, I have brought the refreshments you requested. I will take my leave now."

With that, the woman turned around and quietly left the office, allowing the conversation to continue.

Johnathon stood and walked towards the trolley.

"Would anyone care for a drink? We have tea, coffee, water and some soft drinks."

Summer approached the trolley, "I'll take a coffee, thank you, and Lily will have tea."

Nodding, Johnathon prepared the drinks for the two women, then made coffee for himself and Jaxon. After returning to their seats, Jaon cleared his throat, ready to get down to business.

Amelie, deciding that it would be discourteous to continue whilst still covering her face, gently removed her glasses and placed them into her bag. There was not much point in hiding her face if she intended to work with the man in front of her. She then picked up her cup and slowly raised it to her lips. Only whilst taking a sip did she then happen to catch the face of the man in front of her.

Time seemed to stop. Her breath caught in her throat. Those eyes! The eyes that had constantly appeared in her dreams. Those fuzzy memories front all those years ago flashing before her. It was him. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that the eyes she so vividly remembered could be anyone else's. As she started at the man, she caught a glimpse of something flashing in front of those deep pools of blue she was losing herself in. Recognition? Did he realize who she was? Amelie didn't know whether to feel excited or panicked. Instead, she took a deep breath and decided to act indifferent. She'd let him take the lead on this if he truly did remember that night.

From the moment the two women had entered his office, he had been subtly studying them. He instantly recognized Summer, Tiger Lily's assistant, from the CCTV video he had watched repeatedly over the years. What was she doing here? Hadn't she disappeared as well back then? How come she was back now?

He remained professional, keeping his inner turmoil hidden. Maybe he could ask about the other woman if this project progressed smoothly.

As the group received their refreshments, his gaze wandered over to the mysterious author before him. He couldn't help but feel she was familiar, but due to her face being partially obscured, she could place her. As he was thinking this, he noticed that she was reaching up to remove her glasses. His breathing hitched.

The moment their eyes met, he couldn't believe it. The woman he had spent 5 long years searching for had just happened to appear in front of him. He would recognize the face he had yearned for anywhere. There was no mistaking it. He noticed her reaction towards him as well. She recognized him. But whether it was from that night or just due to his reputation, he couldn't be 100% sure. He was leaning more towards the prior though, due to the slight red tint that appeared on the woman's cheeks.

The clearing of someone's throat seemed to snap them both back to reality. Jaxon smiled and reached out to hand over a copy of the contract to the woman in front of him.

"The contract holds the basic agreements we discussed previously. Please look and see if there is anything you would like to add or negate."

Amelie took the documents and, after reading through, she smiled and handed it over to Summer. After a few moments, Summer nodded towards her boss.

"The contract seems quite agreeable. I'm also relieved that you have accepted my request to be involved throughout the process. My work means alot to me and I wouldn't feel completely comfortable simply handing over full creative rights. I'm happy X Group seems to understand my feelings on the matter." Amelie gave an appreciative smile to Jaxon.

"Of course, X Group has worked with multiple creative talents over a variety of differing outlets, creative representation of anothers works are thoroughly respected within this company, and we would be quite honored to have the authors creative vision to help bring out the best within this project."

Amelie continued to smile and gave a nod to Jaxons response. She took a pen offered by Summer and promptly signed the agreement.

Jaxon took the document and had Johnthan handle the legalities. "Now that the official agreement has been made, shall we discuss the direction for this project and future scheduling?"

"Of course, I'm very interested to hear what ideas you have for my work, and I'd like to hear your opinions on potential actors."

The meeting continued for another 2hours, both parties stating their visions and preferences before finally planning out schedules for auditions.

Amelie was very pleased with the entire situation, feeling her work would be represented to an astounding degree with the cooperation of X Group. The list of potential actors also left her feeling internally excited. She'd also offered some alternative options that hadn't been considered, which seemed to garner some appreciation from the two men.

Overall, the meeting had gone better than either party had ever expected, and both sides were left quietly confident on the outlook for the future.

Once they had finished, everyone stood up. "Well, Mr Jaxon, this has been a very productive meeting, and I am confident that your company will adapt my work splendidly. I will make sure to relay this to my publisher as she also wants this project to succeed."

"I look forward to beginning our work together, Miss Lily. I hope that my company can do justice for your talent."

Amelie blushed slightly, not used to personally receiving such pure praise.

"We shall take our leave now. Mr Jaxon, Jonhathan, Miss Lily has other engagements today. Please contact me when you have arranged schedules for the upcoming arrangements."

"Of course, Johnathan will escort you back to the front desk, and we will be in touch with upcoming plans once preparations are in place. Thank you both for coming today.

After giving final goodbyes, the women were politely escorted back to the front of the building where they took their leave back to the hotel to prepare for the other meetings Amelie had to attend that evening.

"P