As Lexi sat at her desk, her eyes kept being drawn back to the beautiful bouquet perched on the corner of her desk, brightening her day. It was gorgeous, there was no other way to describe it, and she was intrigued by the message. Knowing Vincent had his meeting with Julian Stone that day, Lexi thought there was a slight chance they were from Julian, but he was not a man of few words, just the opposite.
“So, I was doing a little research.” Leigh came strolling around the corner, grinning.
“Do I want to hear this?”
“I think you do.” She flopped into one of the chairs at Lexi’s desk and sniffed the flowers next to her. “I went online.”
“M-hmm …” Lexi quickly texted Christina to confirm Vincent and Julian’s basketball game/meeting for that afternoon.
“And the flowers in the bouquet have different meanings.” Leigh squirmed in her seat with excitement. “The daisies mean innocence, and the hyacinth means loveliness!”
Lexi raised her eyebrows skeptically.
“Really, go to a florist’s website and it’s all there in black and white. Of course, if you go to a different one, the same flowers mean something all together different. It’s been a little frustrating trying to decipher the note, to tell you the truth.” Leigh glared at the bouquet like it was purposely taking some sort of sick pleasure in mystifying her.
Lexi opened her mouth to beg her to end the hunt for the hidden meaning behind the flowers, but all rational thought stopped the second Vincent’s office door swung open and he strolled out wearing long, black basketball shorts, a tight fitting 49er’s T-shirt, and a pair of white high top sneakers.
As if the casual attire wasn’t enough to make Lexi’s heart skip a beat, Vincent also had a baseball hat on his head, flipped backwards, and a pair of dark sunglasses covering his eyes, just like he’d worn all throughout high school. Suddenly, she was seventeen again, swooning in the hallway over the hunky Vincent Drake.
“Damn,” Leigh murmured as Vincent flipped through the file in his hand, completely oblivious to being shamelessly ogled by the two women.
“Lexi,” Vincent started as he reached for a pen off the top of her desk. “I need you to call Mr. Garcia about this contract.” When he looked away from his stack of papers, he found Lexi and Leigh with their mouths hanging open in stunned silence. “What’s wrong with the two of you?”
Leigh snapped out of her reverie first. “Sorry, I was just telling Lexi about the birthmark Sean has on his arm.”
Vincent shook his head. “Him and that stupid birthmark. I still don’t get how he can see a naked woman. It looks like snowman to me, and why on Earth would he tell everyone about it?”
Lexi took the papers he held out, her eyes fixed on his muscular biceps. Reflexively, she licked her lips and took a deep breath when he pulled off the sunglasses to look her in the eye.
“You do know the meeting isn’t for two hours right, Vincent?”
“I know,” he grinned, “but I’m going to get there early so I can get some practice time in before Julian shows up. I haven’t played basketball in years, not since high school.”
The smirk on his face made Lexi’s heart skip a beat. She quickly tried to cover her stunned expression. “You’re really going to try and beat him?”
“Of course. I want him to respect me, not think of me as a spineless coward.” He laughed as Lexi shook her head in disbelief. Leaning forward, he covered her hand with his and gave it a small squeeze. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing on this one.”
“Good luck, Mr. Drake. The Stone account would be such a catch for Hunter.” Leigh smiled while she watched their interaction with great interest.
Vincent pulled his eyes away from Lexi and laughed confidently. “Consider it done.” He stood up and glanced back at Lexi, who had let her hair fall in front of her face to cover her blush. “Please don’t forget to call Mr. Garcia, Lexi.”
Lexi nodded and wrote a quick reminder on a Post-it, then gasped. “I almost forgot!” She jumped out of her seat and squatted down behind her desk, rummaging through the large bag she had brought with her. She gingerly slid something out and handed it to Vincent.
“What is this?”
“What is this?” Lexi asked, shocked. “This is the Rolling Stones Japanese produced box set.”
“Um, thank you?”
“It’s not for you, goofball,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s for Julian. He’s been dying to find a copy of it, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to go to the meeting bearing gifts.”
“Where’d you find it?” He gingerly turned it over in his hands, taking care not to damage it in any way.
“Another collector I know had one, but he wasn’t willing to part with it, until now. I had to do a little sweet-talking, but he finally agreed.”
“You’re brilliant.”
“Finally we agree on something!”
Without another word, he tucked the album under his arm and headed down the hallway.
“Good luck!” Leigh called after him.
“Let him win!” Lexi added, grinning to Leigh. They both started laughing when they heard his distant reply.
“Never!”
Later that afternoon, Lexi was straightening up her desk, getting ready to leave for the day. She had spent most of the afternoon looking at the phone, hoping to hear something from Vincent about the meeting with Julian, but every time it rang it was someone else.
Her gaze drifted back to the gorgeous bouquet of flowers. She reached out her hand and ran her fingers gently over the soft pedals, then dipped her nose to smell their sweet fragrance. Each flower was in such perfect bloom that they almost looked fake. Lexi smiled and went back to work, desperately wanting to clear her desk before she left for the day. She headed into Vincent’s office with a small stack of files, and as she crouched down, tucking things into the drawer, Vincent’s office door swung open, and a beaming Vincent filled the doorway.
“Hey!” Lexi rose to her feet, anxious for information. “So, how did it go?” The smile on Vincent’s face told the entire story, but Lexi wanted to hear him say it. He walked right up to her and unexpectedly hoisted her up into his arms, her feet swinging freely in the air.
“We did it!” he laughed into her ear, his arms wrapped firmly around her waist as he twirled her around. “Can you believe it? I’m presenting to him the day after Reid!”