Nerd Girl (14 page)

“Hi, Julia,” he greeted eagerly. “It’s good to see you again.” He stood up from his chair too fast and it fell backwards. He let out a nervous chuckle and mumbled something under his breath. Eventually, he resettled the chair, shifting it over to make room for me. He didn’t shake my hand or hug me. Rather, he awkwardly stuffed his hands into his front pockets. It warmed my heart a little that a man so normally confident and commanding appeared just as nervous as I was.

“Hi, Ryan,” I replied and smiled. I hope he couldn’t hear the loud beating of my heart, which felt like it was going to literally jump out of my chest at any moment. I was momentarily speechless, captivated by his piercing blue eyes gazing down at me.

We just stared at one another for a long moment and then both burst into laughter at the awkwardness and craziness of the whole situation. Our little fit of laughter helped me relax. I brushed by him to sit. He smelled like fresh soap and some really sexy aftershave. My pulse raced faster just being in close proximity to him.

“I’m sorry for being a little late,” I said apologetically. “I, um … had to take the bus over here.”

“Do you take the bus often or is something wrong with your car?” he asked.

I situated myself in the padded booth seat next to him. We were facing the same direction so that we could view a shared laptop and look at the whiteboard if needed. The room wasn’t so much a conference room; it was more of an office being repurposed as a meeting space. The small size of it forced us to sit close together, making it feel very intimate.

I shook my head. “No. I was out with some friends last night and had too much wine. I thought it best not to drive home.”

“Ah, gotcha.” He nodded in understanding. “I could’ve picked you up.”

“Really, it was no trouble,” I lied.
Not to mention I don’t have your phone number and only recently learned your last name.

He nodded again. “Where did you and your friends go?”

“Ray’s Boathouse.”

“Nice. I haven’t been back there in a while. I take it you didn’t want to stay for the post All Hands party at Lucky Strike then?” he asked with a smirk.

I giggled at his sarcasm. “Actually, I did go. But then a few of us decided it might be more fun elsewhere.” I started to pull my laptop out of my backpack. “I take it you aren’t much of a bowler?” I teased.

“Not really,” he said, smirking and shaking his head. “Though, it might’ve been worth it to watch you.”

My head snapped up and I flushed a deep crimson.
Wow. He’s flirting with me and I’m falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
Before I could recover and respond with a witty comment, I saw his face falter into a frown. I followed his gaze to my laptop. He took in the sad-looking duct tape holding the battery pack together. It was starting to peel around the edges, having picked up dust and lint from my backpack.

“That doesn’t look too good,” he said, furrowing his brow. “Is it like that because of the accident?”

My mouth tightened and I nodded.

“Oh man,” he said with dismay and ran his fingers through his hair, mussing it up in an adorable way. “I owe you a new laptop.”

Hmm … even frustrated he was attractive. “Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m sure my new manager, Catherine, will get me one soon. She’s traveling right now, though, so it will probably be a few weeks.” I shrugged nonchalantly. It really wasn’t a big deal. “It looks worse than it is. It works perfectly fine.”

Ryan looked momentarily distracted and creased his eyebrows together. “Well, I can’t believe you’ve been carrying that around for the last three weeks. It looks sort of sad and pathetic. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Wouldn’t that be an abuse of executive power?” I said, smirking back at him and arching one of my eyebrows.

“No, it wouldn’t,” he answered with the utmost sincerity.

Hmm … maybe he was serious.

“I’ll tell your manager about the car accident and she can cross charge it to my IO.”

“Oh, okay … thanks,” I said appreciatively, somewhat surprised at how quickly and easily I just got a new laptop. It must be nice having your own corporate IO. An IO is basically an internal purchase order you can charge to like a credit card. Without knowing what else to say, I decided to change the subject. “What did you end up doing last night?” I asked.

“Nothing much—I stayed in and read.”

“What are you reading?”

“
Outliers
. It’s a book by Malcolm Gladwell.”

“That sounds like very executive material, Mr. McGraw.” My voice was teasing, but I tried to keep a straight and serious face.

He furrowed his brows at me again. “You’re not very comfortable with my role at Megasoft, I can tell.” He didn’t say it as a question.

Gosh, was I that easy to read?
“Why do you say that?” I asked uncomfortably.

“You’re always referring to it and I think you’re using sarcasm to hide your discomfort.” He gazed at me with a smug look on his face, asking me without explicitly saying so to prove him wrong.

I squirmed a little in my seat and looked down before I replied. “Well, okay, Dr. Freud. You’re, um … Y-you’re a VP, for God’s sake,” I said incredulously. “And it’s certainly a first for me.”

“What’s a first?” he asked directly, genuinely curious and confused about where my mind was going.

Oh great. I felt my eyebrows rise. I was going to have to explain this to him. “Well, you know,” I felt the blush creeping up my face, “I’m not used to socializing with MS executives, and having them scrutinize me in a … um …” I struggled for the right words. “In a non-work related setting.”

He threw his head back and laughed loudly.
He thought I was being funny!
My face had to be full-on pink right now. I was actually getting a little irritated that he was making me so uncomfortable and seemed to be enjoying it so much.

I looked at him pointedly. “So, why are you helping me, anyways?” I demanded.

He looked surprised and taken back by my question.
Right back at you, Mr. McGraw.

“Because you asked me to help,” he said, still smiling.

I looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “No. You offered,” I corrected. Then I kept silent. I learned once from an MS training class that sometimes if you remained silent in the middle of a negotiation, people got nervous and they’d end up giving up more on their end.

He paused for what seemed like a long time, no longer smiling. “Because I wanted to see you again,” he answered honestly. “Because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

Holy shit.
I think my heart just stopped. I won the negotiation, but he completely disarmed me in the process. “Me too,” I whispered.

The air was palpable. I was unable to look him in the eyes. There was a long silence as we both considered the impact of our words. I finally looked up at him shyly. His blue eyes, the color of a stormy ocean, were gazing at me with smoldering intensity.

He cleared his throat and I saw him swallow. He then slowly spoke. “So … now that that’s all cleared up … Do you want to get started?”

What?
Oh yes, he was talking about our so-called work “session.” I sighed more loudly than I intended. I felt self-conscious under his gaze, so I gave him a nervous smile. “Uh, yeah. Let’s get started.”

He chuckled and then leaned forward in his seat, looking at the screen on my laptop. How he was able to transition from smoldering hot, sexy mood to business professional beat me. I was still reeling from our admissions.

“All right.” He was all business now. “Why don’t you tell me what it is you need to do.”

I was always a person who learned and thought through things best when I could visualize them. So I stood back up and went to the whiteboard, glad I was wearing my ass-flattering jeans. I peered over my shoulder; he seemed to have noticed them, too. I turned back to the whiteboard, grinning. In my head, I did a double back flip somersault.

Considering that I was with a VP of a major Fortune 100 Corporation, I was surprisingly calm as I started drawing up my ideas and focusing on the whiteboard. I knew he was spot on about me being uncomfortable with his position at the company. It was the thought of him in this visible leadership role that made me nervous, not actually being with him. Being with him in person and talking to him was fine. I was more than fine. In fact, I was downright comfortable at the moment and relieved that I could be myself with him. I felt the same way that night at Betty’s. It was reassuring to know that my feelings hadn’t changed since the last time I saw him. The only thing that changed was my knowledge of his role at MS. He was right. If I had known who he was out of the gate, we never would’ve gotten this far.

I turned my focus back to work. He did offer to help, after all. I had done some initial thinking on what Catherine had asked me to do, but I needed to bounce off my ideas on someone and get some feedback. Ryan listened attentively and agreed with some of my suggestions, respectfully disagreeing with others. He told me he knew both Stephanie and Catherine well, especially what their hot buttons were. He obviously had the skill of diplomacy when it came to giving feedback. I took it all into consideration and ended up making modifications to my original plan.

“Whatever you end up putting on the scorecard, be sure you’re able to speak to it. Take this as an opportunity to learn the business and what your subsidiaries are doing. If you just compile the information for others, that’s all you become, the compiler. Then you become forgettable. People will remember you if you can speak intelligently to everything on this single slide.” He stopped talking and then looked at me apologetically. “Sorry, I’m being a little condescending and managerial right now, aren’t I?”

“No, you’re fine. I like all of your suggestions.”

He looked at me wearily, like he didn’t believe what I was saying.

“Really, go on,” I said with encouragement.

He continued on his monologue. I enjoyed hearing him talk. It brought me back to the evening at Betty’s, when I listened to him talk about his family and his time in San Francisco. I could see the wheels turning in his head and he was able to process so many different ideas, numbers, metrics, and concepts all at the same time. In my limited career, I observed that the most talented executives, purely from a business perspective, were those that could process the macro level information and simplify it down to actionable decisions or conclusions. I got lost a few times in his more experienced view of what a good scorecard should communicate about the business, but he read his audience well and adapted to my level of understanding.

I had always found smart men incredibly sexy. He could be skinny and geeky with bad hair, but his intelligence would win me over. My ex-boyfriend, Matt, was a skinny computer science guy and it was the same with him. I loved the idea of learning from someone else. As the cliché went, “knowledge is power,” and I found commanding knowledge and confidence extremely attractive; I valued that over a nice body, nice hair, or nice pecs. I was in awe that I was standing here in front of a man who possessed the whole package. Here was Ryan, with his nice, lean, toned and muscular body, his sexy smile and charm, his kind and warm blue eyes, and the brain of an executive genius to match. Could he be any more perfect?

We switched positions and Ryan now stood facing the whiteboard and I was seated at the table. I took the opportunity to check out his ass; I just couldn’t help it. Ryan looked hot in a pair of old Levi’s, faded and weathered in all the right places, and a navy blue t-shirt, which showed off his chiseled biceps and late summer tan. He was downright yummy.

When he turned back around, he stopped. I blushed.
Busted.
He chuckled but was gentleman enough not to comment. “Also, make sure you track ROI, return on investment, for each campaign. This is critical. That will be the first thing any executive will ask you.”

I watched his lips, biting my own as I imagined what his mouth would feel like on mine.

“There are a lot of corporate systems that can help you get this data,” he continued.

Focus, Julia. Focus.
Stop thinking about those lips!

He gave me the list of people and teams that could point me in the right direction. “And you already know how to get the email campaign metrics,” he said, still focusing on the scorecard layout drawn on the whiteboard.

This last comment distracted me from his hotness. “How did you know that? I don’t think I ever told you about my previous job,” I said with surprise.

He froze and momentarily cringed. “You caught me,” he confessed. “I … uh, read your LinkedIn profile last night.” He looked like a kid that just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I giggled. “Funny you mention that, because there’s a lot of stuff on you out there, too,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Like what?” he asked. He didn’t seem fazed by my admission that I was stalking him online last night, too. Apparently, we’d both been doing some research.

“You mean you’ve never checked?” I was astonished.

“No,” he said simply.

“Seriously?” I was shocked.

“Bing me; now I’m curious.”

“Okay, scoot over.” I went to the Bing search engine and typed in “Ryan McGraw+ Megasoft” into the search box.

The same list of search results that I had seen last night appeared in front of us. Ryan scooted closer to me to get a better look at the screen.

“Hmm …” was all he said. However, both of his eyebrows were raised in moderate surprise. “Oh man, that’s a really old article … and that one was, like, two years ago.”

I shook my head and laughed at his childlike curiosity at the results of his own name search. As he continued to scroll down the results page, he would click on the occasional link. Our knees bumped into each other and our thighs were flush against each other, but neither of us moved away. Being this close to him made me a little breathless. I started to feel warm and tingly all over.

“Okay, enough.” He chuckled to himself. “Who knew?”

I gave him a peculiar look. I was still shocked that he never did a search on himself. I can’t believe he was never curious enough to look before. What did this say about him? He was probably too busy to worry about his own search results, or maybe it meant he didn’t have a big ego, which was refreshing for someone in his position.