EPISODE 3

EPISODE 3

The most dangerous decision Amara made that month was not staying late. It was letting herself enjoy the fact that he had noticed.

She had drawn a clear line for herself by Friday morning. Her pulse was her pulse’s business. She was twenty-seven with a mother in Ibadan who needed knee surgery and a career that was only just beginning. Whatever Dami Coker’s eyes were doing when they found her across a room was something she could simply not afford to follow.

She held that position until Monday, when her supervisor told her she had been added to the Abuja pitch team.

“Mr. Coker specifically asked for you,” her supervisor said. She delivered it neutrally but her eyes were doing math.

Amara spent the weekend overpreparing. Three versions of her slides. Every competitor brief read twice. She practiced her section in her bathroom until she could do it without looking at the screen. Tola sat on her bed Saturday afternoon eating her biscuits and telling her to calm down.

“You are psyching yourself out.”

“I am preparing.”

“You are doing both and pretending it is only one of them.”

Amara threw a throw pillow at her.

The conference room Monday was full of senior people who had been at this company longer than Amara had known it existed. Dami sat at the head of the table. He did not look at her when she walked in. She found her seat and told herself that was fine. Professional. Correct.

She presented her section clean. No fumbling, no rushing, the data landing the way she had rehearsed it. When she finished the room sat quiet for a half second and then Dami said, “The youth consumer angle. That is the one we lead with. Expand it.”

Her supervisor blinked. The senior brand manager shifted in his chair.

Amara said, “Yes sir,” and kept her face completely steady.

After the room cleared she was packing her things when she realized he had not left. He was by the window, phone in hand, and then he looked up like he had been waiting for the others to go.

“Where did you study?”

“UNILAG. Mass communication.”

“You think differently from the others on that team.” A simple observation, no flattery in it. “Do not let them correct that out of you.”

He walked out. Amara stood alone in the room and felt something shift under her ribs, slow and warm and deeply inconvenient.

This was already more complicated than she had planned for.

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THE CEO’S INTERN. A Lagos Adult Romance Series 2