Alpha Billionaire Series

ALICIA

You look...

“Like I'm here to work,” I countered as soon as I stepped out from the bathroom. I had changed from what I had traveled in my standard office wear— into something more trade-show appropriate and comfortable. I realized I look like I worked at any tech store in a pair of khakis and a corporate polo. It wasn't supposed to be high fashion; it was supposed to let me continue to be professional and not worry about keeping my good clothes clean.

“I was going to say, you look like you are dressed to work the booth. What you had on earlier was fine."

I blinked up at Christopher. He could get away with a pair of business trousers and a button-down with or without a tie for everything. I had to navigate the world of skirts and company polos. Where was the line? What side of it did I need to be on? “I didn’t know how much crawling around plugging laptops into the projectors I would have to do.”

“Have you ever been to Print-Tech?”

I shook my head. “No. I've been to a few smaller shows in Atlanta. But I never had to help with a presentation or anything. I never even had to work a booth.”

Christopher chuckled. “You look fine. But you won't have to do anything like that. These things have entire AV departments and crews. You emailed them my presentation, right?”

I nodded.

“They're the ones to make sure it all works. We just show up and do our thing”

Immediately I felt foolish. At least my feet wouldn't be pissed off at me by the end of the day.

“Should I change?”

“No. As you said, we have a tight schedule. There's a deli across the street. We can walk over and grab sandwiches. And we can go over the schedule”

My nerves were already making me into a complete idiot. I was overthinking everything. Perhaps I should have asked Christopher about the dress code. So, I didn't need to change. I hitched my work bag over my shoulder.

“I have everything I need, let's go."

Christopher led the way. The strip mall was across a large parking lot, and then across a wide multi-lane street. It might have been faster to jump in a cab than walk. At least I had changed and put on tennis shoes. If I had to make this hike in my pumps, I would have been very cranky. Cranky on top of nervousness would have been a very bad combination.

We ordered our sandwiches. I found a table while Christopher paid. I pulled out my tablet and opened the daily schedule. Large areas were blocked off for traveling and settling in at the conference. According to what I had put together, we were already behind when it came to checking in.

“After lunch, we have to check in and you also wanted to visit our booth. While you do that, I need to meet with Travis. He's the guy I sent your presentation files. We'll make sure your presentation will run smoothly. The presentations start at three- thirty. You have to be backstage no later than four-forty for your five o'clock. Do not play prima donna, that's just rude. Be o time”

I stared at him, willing my eyes to bore into his brain. He needed to understand that if he was late, he would ruin the schedule for everyone.

Christopher had a mouthful of sandwich. He nodded.

I waited for him to finish his bite. He took a sip of his drink.

“I will be on time."

“You have time to change and practice. You should do a full run-through. Do not forget your notes”

“My notes?”Belonging to NôvelDrama.Org.

I glared at him. “Don’t mess with me, Christopher. I prepared notes, both for your tablet and on index cards.”

He laughed. He was teasing me. How was he not nervous? He was going to get up in front of all of those people and talk about technical innovations in an industry that hadn't had any changes in how things were done for hundreds of years, and then suddenly everything turned upside down and accelerated.

“I have my notes. Besides you have an extra set of notes in that bag of yours.”

“How do you know that?”

“You are over-prepared. It's a good thing. You are second-guessing anything that could go wrong. That's how we make sure everything goes smoothly. It will be fine. You need to relax, or you'll make me nervous.’

I swallowed the drink in my mouth hard and started coughing.

“Sorry. Sorry, I didn't realize... How are you not nervous? There are going to be a lot of people watching your presentation. Yours is right before the keynote.”

He shook his head as if it weren't a big deal. “Most attendees won't even be here until tomorrow. So not that many people will be there. Also, they'll be coming in at the end of my presentation to catch the keynote. You'll see. I've been giving presentations like this for years. After a while, you don't really notice how big the audience is, especially on the big stage. I won't be able to see past the stage lights”

He sat back and crossed his arms.

“What?”

“Maybe I should have you start giving presentations?”

I shook my head emphatically. “No, not even. I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. Do not put me in front of an audience.” “It's no different than a presentation to a conference room full of board members.”

“Bullshit, it's completely different. We need to go, and you need to stop teasing me."

I gathered our wrappers and empty cups and tossed them into the garbage. After the walk back across the boulevard and th parking lot, we had to wait in line at the conference check-in. I hadn't accounted for how long that was going to take. I didn’ think we had been at lunch for very long.

“I have to go find Travis at some kiosk. Remember you have got to be backstage at four-forty.”

“0 will be there. Will you?” Christopher hooked his fingers into mine.

“Yes, I'll see you later” I was tempted to lean in and give him a quick kiss, for luck, but that would not be very professional. I squeezed his fingers.

I opened the map of the conference. Damn, this place was huge. Not only was there an oversized show floor full of booths and demonstrations, but there were many classrooms and set ups for presentations, and— oh look there was supposed to b a pizza vendor right there. I looked up, the space was shuttered. I really hoped they were open tomorrow. Not having food options on site was going to mess up so many schedules.

At least for Christopher and I, we had a tight schedule today but thankfully we had time to grab our lunch. Tomorrow, even with his participation on the panel, won't be nearly as stressful. There was no digital presentation that had to run on the screen behind him. No, that was today, and I was running late.

When I reached the kiosk indicated on the map, I was completely out of breath.

“Is Travis here? I'm late.”

“Are you here to go over presentation files?”

“Yeah, I'm here for Christopher Hayes. He's on at five. I'm Alicia."

He unclipped a walkie-talkie from his belt. “Travis? I've got Alicia here to go over the files. Yeah. Okay.” He put the walkie- talkie back on his belt and pointed into the auditorium. “When you go in, you'll see the scaffolding with all the sound equipment on it. Travis is there. You can’t miss him."

I thanked him and rushed into the auditorium. It was the size of a concert hall. And Christopher said talking to that many people wasn't going to be a big deal. My stomach sank. It wasn’t me giving the presentation. Christopher was right, I needed to relax.

I found Travis. He ran the presentation on the giant screen over the stage. It was impressive to see it so large, and a little intimidating. That was my work up there. In my head, I ran through Christopher's part of the presentation. It was all there. “Everything looks good?” Travis asked.

“Everything looks great. Is that all you needed me for?" I didn't know what he'd be able to do if something had gone wrong. I said a silent prayer in thanks that everything had worked.

“That's everything”

Ithanked him and left. I found a bench and sat. Pulling out the schedule I breathed a sigh of relief. The presentation check had been on time. The kick-off pretensions were scheduled to start in half an hour.

I sent Christopher a quick text letting him know how much time he had to get dressed, practice, and get backstage. It felt lik I blinked, and then it was time for me to run across the conference center again to meet Christopher backstage for his presentation.

He looked stunning when he arrived. His suit looked crisp, and not like it had been shoved into a suitcase of hours. His beard was artfully groomed, and there wasn't a single hair out of place. When he took the stage, my insides turned to goo. H had a presence that took my breath. He was commanding, intelligent, and so incredibly sexy.

He had been wrong, there were a lot of people out there to listen to him. They should have invited him to give the keynote. He was charismatic and he energized the audience. I could feel it like electricity in the air.

When he came off the stage, I threw myself at him like some kind of groupie. “That was amazing!”

“I should give presentations more often,” he laughed.

His lips on mine were everything. I kissed him back; I didn't care that there were business contacts around.

“What's on our schedule next? Dinner?” His arms stayed around me, resting on my hips.

I kept my arms around his neck. “I was thinking about room service?