Page 20 of His Long-Lost Baby

“So.” He straightens up and folds his arms. “What designs do you have drawn up for this?”

I feel my eyebrows rise. He expects me to already have some designs? We just started ten minutes ago!

Apparently, the implied expectation was that I would work on them last night.

I mentally curse myself for not realizing this earlier.

“I have a few ideas,” I lie, grabbing my notebook and flipping through the pages. “But I’ll need some more time to develop them.”

He nods once. “I’ll take a look anyway.”

Something glints in his eye. Is he calling me on my bluff? Waiting for me to admit that I don’t have any rough designs down?

And then I remember them: the doodles I drew months ago when I was designing graphics for an app for a client. They loved the ideas but eventually went with a different template.

Those old sketches will be perfect to show James now.

I swallow hard, trying to maintain my composure as I hand him my notebook. He flips through the pages, nodding occasionally. I can feel his gaze burning into me, and I shift uncomfortably in my seat.

“Interesting,” he finally says, setting the notebook down. “But I think we can do better.”

My heart sinks. I knew I should have worked on those designs last night. These are good, but they’re not a perfect match for what we need now.

“I can come up with something better,” I say, trying to hide my disappointment.

“I’m sure you can,” James says, standing up and walking over to me. He leans down, his face inches from mine. “But I need you to do it now. We have a deadline to meet, remember?”

I nod, feeling a flush spread across my cheeks. His proximity is overwhelming, and I can’t think straight.

“I’ll get right on it,” I say, standing up.

“You don’t need to go to your desk.” He starts clearing space at his. “I need you right here so we can bounce ideas off one another.”

My stomach flips, and I can’t tell if I’m more excited or terrified.

As I sit down, I can feel his body heat radiating off of him. The scent of his cologne is intoxicating, and I can’t help but take a deep breath in. He notices my reaction, and a small smirk appears on his lips.

I ignore him. The man is probably used to every woman he sees fawning over him.

Well, not me. Even if he is insanely attractive, I’m not going to fall for it.

I brush a piece of hair out of my face. “So, what specifically are you looking for in these designs?” I ask, trying to focus on the task at hand.

He leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I want something sleek and modern, but not too cluttered. It needs to be user-friendly.”

I nod, jotting down notes in my notebook. “Got it. What about the color scheme? Any preferences?”

“That’s where I see you coming in. You had quite the opinion on colors in our meeting yesterday. What do you think?”

He asks the question like it’s a challenge, like he wants me to prove myself to him.

Fine. Challenge accepted.

I take a moment to gather my thoughts before diving in. “I think we should go with a monochromatic color scheme,” I say, keeping my tone confident. “Maybe with some pops of a brighter color for accents. It’ll give it a clean, modern look while still being visually interesting. Yes, it needs color but it will be too distracting from the content if we go big with the green tones. That’s also something people would expect from this app, and we want to stand out while supporting and driving where we want the user’s focus to go.”

James considers this for a moment before nodding in agreement. “I like it. Let’s start with a base of black and white and work from there.”

I nod, feeling a sense of satisfaction that he’s taking my ideas seriously.