Interview with Love Page 5

  Sienna turned up the radio and danced around to some “old school” tunes. She felt a bit silly when she broke into the Running Man. “So far so good. Let’s see how you handle exercise.” Sienna turned and took off up the steps. She took them as fast as she could. Her breath came rapidly out of her mouth as she climbed the stairs and then ran down them.

  Sienna ran up and down the steps several times. She was on the way down when the phone rang.

  “Hello?” she said, a little breathless.

  “Do I even want to know what you’re doing?”

  “Hey, Vivi. I’m conducting an experiment.”

  “With whom?” she snickered.

  “Not whom, what. Men’s underwear.”

  “I told you you’ve been working too hard.”

  “Would you be serious? Sherry gave me samples of the Best Kept Secrets line. I have to tell you Viv, the underwear is amazing. I’ve been doing everything in them and I can’t even tell I have them on, aside from the air occasionally sneaking thru the manly opening.”

  “Uh-huh. So why are you doing this again?”

  “To prove a point. He thinks I don’t know what I’m talking about just because I have never worn men’s underwear. Well now I have, and his pitch is still corny.”

  “Who?”

  “Vaughn Deveraux.”

  “He’s the creative director at Chase & Burroughs, right?”

  “Yes, he’s the CD all right. Not so sure about the creative part though. More like Certified D—”

  “Sienna!”

  “I was going to say dufus.”

  “Wasn’t he the one you hit it off with at the party?”

  “It was just a friendly conversation, but yes, until he acted like a complete jerk.”

  Vivian laughed. “So what are you going to do now?”

  “I’m going to finish my experiment and give Mr. Deveraux a report of my findings. You know, these things are so comfortable it’s no surprise that a woman would want to wear them,” Sienna paused for a moment. “Vivian, that’s it.”

  “What’s it? You’ve lost me again, Sienna. I can only follow you around so many bends,” she said, with exasperation.”

  “Never mind, I’ll tell you later.”

  “Oh no you don’t. You can’t leave me hanging like this. Tell me what you’re up to and I mean right now,” Vivian threatened.

  “Can’t. I have to hurry if I’m going to go through with this. I have to see Mr. Creative Director to give him a piece of my mind, and something tells me I know just where to find him.”

  Chapter Five

  The Pitch

  “Finally,” Vaughn grumbled, eyeing his co-worker. “We were about to send up a flare signal.”

  “Sorry, I had to go back for the wasabi,” he retorted unloading the heavy bags on the table. “Good thing I checked before I’d driven all the way here.”

  “We are eternally grateful.” He helped unpack the brown bags of plastic containers. His team swarmed around the conference room table, opening, closing and passing the food around. “Hey, who got Dragon rolls?”

  “Me,” a woman replied stepping around the table to intercept him.

  “You’re parting with at least one,” he informed her.

  After a few minutes of chaos, everyone was seated at the table eating their sushi. Sitting at the head of the table, Vaughn dipped his spicy tuna roll in a mixture of wasabi and soy sauce. He popped it into his mouth and chewed a few seconds before speaking. “So, we’re ditching the Seat it to believe it print and TV ads in favor of the one with multiple guys going throughout their day wearing Best Kept Secrets.” Vaughn stood and pointed to the story boards in order.

  “The guy with the big imagination seated at his desk all day, the one washing windows fifty feet in the air, the race car driver, the Alaskan fisherman, the EMT guy in the ambulance working to save someone’s life, the missionary in the Costa Rican rainforest. The common theme between them is their need to be comfortable. They have to be prepared for anything. They don’t have time to worry about whether or not their underwear are riding up into their—”

  “Excuse me Mr. Deveraux there is someone here to see you,” A woman called from the conference room door.

  Vaughn glanced at the clock hanging on a nearby wall. It was after eight. “Okay,” he said, lowering the last picture. “Guys, keep working on the copy, I’ll be back.”

  He followed his associate into the reception area. When he saw who it was he stopped short. “You’re almost the last person I expected to see.”

  Sienna had stood up when she saw him enter the reception area. “Sorry to bother you when you’re working,” she said, stiffly. “But I need to speak with you. It’s rather important.”

  Vaughn walked up to her. “Sure, follow me,” he said, guiding her down the hall. “How did you even know where my office was, or that I was still here?”

  “I Googled,” she informed him. “When someone picked up I asked if you were still here. She told me you were in a meeting so I figured I’d take a chance.” As she walked silently beside him, Sienna couldn’t help but ask, “So who’s the last person you expected to see?”

  “My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Whittier.”

  Her gaze turned to his profile. “Why?”

  “Well, considering she died over twenty years ago she’d be the absolute last person I’d expect to see.”

  Sienna didn’t laugh at the joke.

  He opened the door to his office, flipped the light on, and then stood aside to allow her to enter. Vaughn noted her serious expression and her body language. A twinge of guilt gripped him. He cleared his throat. “You said it was important. I’m all ears, Doc.”

  She frowned. “Why do you call me that?”

  “Less formal than, Dr. Lambert.”

  “You could just call me, Sienna.”

  “I could,” Vaughn agreed, “but after our last meeting I figured all possibility of a friendship between us was out the window.”

  “That wasn’t my fault.”

  He nodded. “You’re right, it was mine.”

  When he didn’t continue they lapsed into silence.

  “I can’t believe how comfortable they are,” she exclaimed suddenly. “And they stay in place no matter what you’re doing. Trust me, I’ve tried lots of things to test them out and they haven’t budged.”

  Vaughn was baffled. “What?”

  “Best Kept Secrets. They’re incredible. It’s amazing; I couldn’t find one thing wrong with them. Consumers are going to love these things. If all goes well with the men’s line I think Dexter Clothiers should seriously consider developing a women’s line. Granted, your pitch is still off, but—”

  He held up his hands. “Wait a minute. You came to my office at almost eight thirty at night, pulled me out of a meeting with my team to tell me you tried on men’s underwear?”

  “Not just tried them—loved them,” she clarified. “I’m serious.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” he quipped.

  “I even came up with a pitch for them. Wanna hear it?”

  Vaughn leaned against his desk. He still looked incredulous. “By all means, Doc. Enchant me.”

  “Okay.” Sienna paced a few feet from his desk. She held up her hands in excitement. “Best Kept Secrets: So seductively comfortable, even a woman would wear them!”

  Vaughn opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. “Well, that’s all I came to tell you. I wore them, I liked them and I think by your standard that makes me qualified to give my opinion now. And my opinion is that you create ads that consumers will be able to connect and identify with. We’ve really got an amazing product here, Mr. Deveraux. Granted, the line can speak for itself, but I don’t think it should have to.”

  Before he could comment she’d walked out. He was still leaning against his desk feeling like he’d just witnessed a tornado blow through his office, ebbing as quickly as it arrived.

  Annoyance crept into him, but it wasn’t direct
ed at her. He’d missed the opportunity to apologize for his behavior when they’d first met. Not that she’d given him much time to utter a syllable much less a full-blown sentiment. That being said, he was impressed.

  “You, Sienna Lambert are unusual.” Vaughn shook his head in awe. Walking around his desk, he sat in his chair and put his feet up. Retrieving his cell phone from his back pocket, he held down the second button on his phone activating the speed dial. When Carlton picked up the phone Vaughn quickly replied, “How can I not like her? She’s completely unpredictable and looks better in men’s underwear than I do.”

  There were a few seconds of silence before his buddy spoke. “Whoa, how’d you get her out of hers and into yours? I didn’t even think you two were talking. When did you and the psychologist—”

  “Not my underwear, Carl, the client’s underwear.”

  “So she and Dexter are—”

  Vaughn let out an exasperated sigh which in all honesty he wasn’t sure was directed at his best friend, or himself. “Sienna tried them on to shut me up. She even came up with a tag line for the ad to boot,” he couldn’t keep the admiration out of his voice. “And she was right—it is better than mine.”

  “So what now, buddy? Chalk it up to lesson learned and move on?”

  “You know better than that. Dr. Lambert and I were starting to become friends before I messed it up. We’re going to finish what we started.”

  Sienna slammed her car door and then winced at the harsh sound. Her breathing came out in rapid shudders. The jerk! She felt supreme satisfaction when she had sailed passed him with his mouth practically hanging open. “Serves him right,” she said, into the silence before starting her car.

  As she pulled out of the parking space behind Vaughn’s building, Sienna couldn’t help but wonder at her bravado. Was it all just to prove him wrong, or was it because she wanted to see him again? “Probably both,” she admitted aloud. She’d been good and mad when she went to his office determined to give him a piece of her mind. That anger fizzled a bit when he walked into the reception area. All six-feet-whatever of him.

  Truthfully, Sienna had been hard pressed to stay mad when she glimpsed a smile tugging at his lips at seeing her. Then she recalled how their wonderful day at the picnic had been shot to smithereens because of him. That gave her the push she needed to say her peace and leave.

  The jerk! She repeated in her head. She was too geared up to feel sleepy. She wasn’t far from her parents’ house in Wakefield Pines so she dropped in.

  When Sienna pulled into their driveway she spotted her father’s silhouette in the mirrored door. By the time she’d cut the engine and got out he was on the porch waiting for her.

  “Hi, Dad,” she greeted as she walked up the stairs.

  “How’s my beauty queen?”

  “She shook her head at the reference. She disliked being reminded of a time in her life she preferred to forget. “Just fine. Is Mom awake?”

  Gordon kissed his daughter and then followed her into the house. “Of course. She just got finished doing some class on FitTV. She’s in the exercise room.”

  “Don’t you guys sleep?” Sienna asked heading toward the basement stairs.

  “This coming from someone that knocked on our door at nine thirty?” her father chuckled.

  “How’d you know I was out here?”

  He winked. “Father’s intuition.”

  “Good to know,” she laughed heading for the basement stairs.

  “Oh, by the way. Have you spoken to Sasha lately?”

  Sienna didn’t bother to mask the sarcasm. “Why, should I have?”

  “Sienna.”

  “Spare me the soldierly lecture, Dad.”

  “I wasn’t going to lecture you, sweetheart. I just want you two to get along better, that’s all.”

  “Duly noted. Now, can we drop the subject?”

  Sadness etched her father’s features. He nodded. “Consider it dropped.”

  Once in the basement, Sienna followed the hallway toward the exercise room. She poked her head in the door. Her stepmother was on an exercise mat on the floor. “Hey, Mom.”

  “Hi honey,” Cassandra Lambert smiled, cheerfully. If she was surprised to see her stepdaughter at such a late hour she refrained from comment. “What brings you by?”

  Sienna sat down on the recumbent bike and fingered the handlebar. “Actually, I was in the neighborhood and figured I’d stop in.”

  “Really?” Cassandra stood up and walked over to a nearby shelf to grab a towel. As she wiped her face, neck and shoulders she scrutinized her stepdaughter. “Well that’s lucky for your father and me.” Kneeling, she retrieved her mat from the floor. She rolled it up and walked over to lean it against the wall in the corner of the room. “Are you hungry?”

  “Mom, it’s almost ten.”

  “What difference does that make? How about some dessert? We’ve got your favorite—rainbow sherbert.”

  “No thanks, I’m fine,” Sienna replied flicking the pedal on the stationary bike.

  “Darling, is everything okay? You seem like something is on your mind.”

  “Just a long day that’s all. There’s not much to tell.”

  “That’s not what my gut tells me,” Gordon replied from the doorway.

  “Daddy,” Sienna admonished. “You shouldn’t be eavesdropping.”

  “I was doing nothing of the sort. I knew the moment you walked onto the porch something was wrong. My instincts are never wrong.”

  “Yes, dad we know. You have the most accurate instincts known to man.”

  “Don’t laugh young lady. They served me well during my military career.”

  Sienna walked over and hugged her father. “I thank God for it, too.”

  “We both do,” Cassandra chimed in.

  “Okay, now that we’ve had our family moment, what’s got you so out of sorts, kiddo?”

  Sienna looked at her watch. “Dad, it’s kind of late and I’ve got to get going.”

  “I hope you aren’t planning to drive back home at this hour,” Cassandra cautioned.

  She burst out laughing. “I live ten minutes away.”

  “Giselle came a few days ago so clean sheets are already on your bed.”

  Sienna hadn’t realized how tired she was until she contemplated having to drive home—all ten minutes of it. She almost yawned aloud. She turned to Cassandra. “Thanks, Mom. I think I’ll take you up on your offer to stay over.”

  Cassandra hugged her. “Sweety you never need an invitation to stay here. It’s your home, too. Now let’s go find that sherbert.”

  Gordon perked up. “Sounds good to me,” he replied heading down the hallway. “While we’re at it Sienna can fill us in on what she’s trying not to fill us in on.”

  “It’s not that serious,” Sienna grumbled.

  “You let us be the judge of that, darling,” Cassandra replied.

  Chapter Six

  A Clean Slate

  Sienna took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. She’d had a presentation across town that morning, two conference calls and it wasn’t even lunch time, yet. She hadn’t slept well when she’d spent the night at her parent’s house. The bed was comfortable enough, but the twenty questions over rainbow sherbert had been a bit much. She told her parents about her run-in with Vaughn at the party and their unusual conversation afterwards. Oddly enough neither one tried to tell her what to do, and both had been supportive—until she mentioned the underwear experiment. That tidbit of information elicited her father’s signature raised eyebrow. It was reminiscent of Vaughn’s expression when she’d told him about her experiment.

  Vaughn. There had been no contact with him since she went to his office. She didn’t think she’d hear from him, but part of her had hoped she would. What did you expect? You read him the riot act, told him his work was sub-standard and didn’t let him get a word in edgewise. Sienna fingered the tight knot at the back of her neck. Still, it would’ve been great if they c
ould have become friends, she scolded herself. Rule number six: Never waste time wondering “what if?”

  “I wasn’t going to anyway.”

  “Do you always talk to yourself?”

  Sienna gasped and sprang to her feet. The chair she was sitting in snapped back against the wall.

  “Sorry, did I startle you?”

  She glanced across the room to see Vaughn lounging against the door jam. She ignored the happiness at seeing him that shot through her. “No problem.” She stared at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “When last we met you didn’t let me get a word in edgewise so I thought I’d stop by your office so that I could get a chance to finish my sentence.”

  “Oh.” Sienna’s cheeks reddened. “Come in.”

  “Thanks,” Vaughn replied, closing the door behind him. He sauntered toward her.

  “Um, how did you find my office?”

  Vaughn sat in the chair across from her desk. “I Googled,” he grinned.

  Sienna lowered herself back into her seat. “Resourceful aren’t you?”

  “When I need to be.”

  “Hey, Sienna would you—”

  Vivian stopped mid sentence when she noticed Sienna wasn’t alone. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you had a meeting,” she apologized.

  Sienna stood up. “I don’t…I mean I didn’t—until now.”

  Vivian walked toward the desk. She glanced between Sienna and the man now standing, too. He extended his hand. “Good afternoon, I’m Vaughn Deveraux.”

  “Yes. Yes you are,” Vivian remarked, with a wide smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Deveraux, I’m Vivian Adair. I’m the office manager, webmaster and photographer extraordinaire.”