“Savanna, I have a meeting with Crey Corp this morning and Devin is out sick, I need you to meet with the contractor this morning at eleven.” Katherine leaned against the door frame to Sav’s office, her eyes glued to the tablet in her hand as she waited for Sav to confirm that she understood.

“Uh…but you know I’m not very good with people. I don’t come off very professional Kath,” Sav twirled the multiple rings adorning her right hand around and around on her fingers as her stomach plummeted.

The three friends had started the company five years ago together. They each had their strengths and weaknesses and for Sav? Her weakness was people. She was clumsy and awkward. She came across as an assistant instead of a computer nerd who owned 1/3 of their company.

“I know, Sav. But this is the most popular contractor in the city and this was his only opening to meet with us. If you don’t do it, we loose him for the expansion.” Kath glanced up from her tablet to look at her friend and colleague. With a heavy sigh, she walked the few steps over to Sav’s desk and leaned against it. “He seems like a very chill guy, okay? He already knows most of the project, we’ve spoken over the phone and email for a few weeks. I just need you to look at the plans with him one last time before the crew comes tomorrow and walk the site, make sure it’s marked out correctly.”

“But what if-”

“Nope.”

“Okay but-”

“No.”

“Kath, I can’t-”

“Yes, you can Sav. You are part owner of this company, step up. You can do it.” Equal parts get it the fuck done boss and cheerleader friend was what Katherine was most known for and she delivered it flawlessly.

Sav groaned, dropping her head into her hands, numerous bracelets jingling on her arms. “Fine. Go, leave me to die of embarrassment. If he pulls out because he thinks I’m insane, it’s on you.”

Katherine laughed and stood from the desk. “Good luck.” Her singsong voice carried her out the door and Sav was left alone with butterflies in her tummy and sweat running down her neck.

She wasn’t a complete mess with people, honest. She was great at making friends because they thought she was quirky but in a professional setting she just lost her cool. Adulting was too hard. Give her complicated math problems with no calculator any day over having to deal with people as a business owner.

With a deep breath, Sav sat up from her slump, rolling the tension from her shoulders as she dug through her desk draw for a hair tie. She pulled her long locs into a ponytail to keep it from her face before pulling up the plans for the expansion on her computer. She already had it all memorized, in fact she had helped plan out what they needed but she could use all the confidence she could get and going over everything 5 more times before 11am was her plan.

A cup of coffee, a banana, a blueberry muffin and a promise to herself for some personal time when she got home and it was time for Sav to head to meet the contractor. She gathered up her folder of information, tucked her phone into her skirt pocket and stood to stretch out the kinks from sitting for so long. She peaked her head out the door to see Riley whose desk was closest to the front door and got to be the unofficial official receptionist since they didn’t have one (yet), was escorting a man into their meeting room at the front of the office.

Riley shut the door to the meeting room then walked toward Sav’s office. Their eyes were wide and they fanned their face when they saw Sav watching. “There is one very fit lumber-sexual waiting for you, Sav.”

“A what?” Sav furrowed her brow in confusion. Riley was a recent college grad and despite only being 8 years her senior and being part of the tech world, Sav often felt like their younger workers were speaking alien languages around the office.

“A sexy guy who has a big beard and dresses like a lumberjack, duh.” Riley rested their hands on their hips, looking at Sav like she should have known exactly what was being said. “It’s a hipster thing, Sav.”

“Well, I’m not sure a thirty plus year old man who owns a construction company is a hipster so…”

“Ugh. Way to ruin the dream.” Riley huffed and returned to their desk while Sav stood in her door way for a moment, trying to make sense of the conversation. She shrugged it off, smoothing down her skirt and heading toward the meeting room.

One last deep breath and Sav opened the door. “Good morning Mr. Hess.” Her voice died off and she lost all train of thought when the man turned to her from looking out the window. He was tall, taller than her even in her petite heels that most men complained she wore as they put her normally 5’8′ stature above 6 feet. Sav still didn’t understand what a lumber-sexual was but if there was such a thing, this guy was it. Broad shoulders, full beard that reached below his collar bone, messy brown hair. A threadbare gray tee shit was worn under a dark blue button up that wasn’t buttoned and had it’s sleeves rolled up. He was tanned and buff from hard work and Sav felt her brain malfunction as she took him in.

After many long, amazing minutes admiring the man before her, she realized he had spoken and was now looking at her with furrowed brow, the sides of his beard pulled down in a frown.

“Sorry, I- uh just thought I had left the stove on at home and was trying to remember.” Sav quickly came up with a lie, entering the meeting room and thanking the stars that her dark skin took after her mothers roots and couldn’t show a blush.

“I hope you remembered it had been turned off, that’s very dangerous.” His voice slid over her skin like honey – or that’s how she imagined it would if her life was a romance novel. In real life, it was low and a little gritty but it made her spine tingle all the same. They took seats at the table, Sav at the head and the contractor on her right.

“Oh, yes. I haven’t even used the thing in weeks.” Sav commented with a chuckle and started opening her files, lying out the blueprints and information about the build.
“Well, that would solve the problem pretty quick.” He replied and she glanced up in time to witness his beard parting as his lips turned up in a smile. It lit up his whole face and she wanted nothing more than to make him smile over and over again.

“Right.” She cleared her throat. “I’m Savanna. I apologize, Mr Hess, that you aren’t meeting with Katherine who has been your point of contact until now but she was pulled away on an important matter.” She explained, fidgeting in her lap with her rings.

“That’s alright. What’s your role in the business, Savanna? And please, call me Noah.”

“Noah.” His voice slid from her tongue easily. Her thighs were warm, she desperately wanted to be shouting his name as he licked the wetness from between them but for now, she put those thoughts from her head, trying hard to focus on the meeting. “I’m actually part owner along with Katherine and Devin. I usually do more of the computer work and leave business things to my partners but they were both busy today so you’re stuck with me.” She joked, hoping she didn’t make a terrible fool of herself.

“I don’t mind being stuck with such a beautiful woman,” Noah replied with a smirk and Sav felt her heart stutter in her chest at his smooth line and beautiful face. She fumbled with her papers for a minute, trying to ignore the butterflies in her belly. Clearing her throat, they went over a quick visual of the new building. It was a two part plan, building the 10,000 square foot addition first and then moving their offices to the new building while their current building is torn apart inside and turned into a game cafe of sorts.

“I have to say, as owner of the company I don’t get a lot of chance to do work on site but the times I do, I’m very selective. I am very excited to see what this space becomes and am making space in my schedule to work on site for this build.” Noah confessed as Sav started picking up her papers.

“Oh.” She was slightly shocked at the confession, although he certainly looked like he worked on the construction site day in and day out. Well, from what she could see with his clothes fully on. If he was naked she was sure-

Stop right there, Missy! Sav scolded herself. No fantasizing about the contractor. At least until you’re alone at home.

“I’m excited about it too, Noah. I hope you’ll enjoy your time on the site.” She smiled at him and stood from the table, gesturing him to follow her as she walked toward the door. “Let’s go walk the site real quick to make sure it’s marked off right.” As she walked through the doorway, Sav looked over her shoulder at Noah. The view of his eyes as they went from pleased to wide with shock gave her all the warning she needed. All Sav could think as she felt her foot get caught on the door jam and her body slowly falling forward was: here we go again.

Papers and folders flew from her arms, fluttering to the old grimy carpet in front of the meeting room, scattering everywhere. Sav braced herself to fall face first onto that same carpet, as she had done many times before in her years since opening the company. With a yelp, Sav’s body came to a halt. Peeking her eyes open she found herself cradled in Noah’s strong arms, her body twisted toward his and leaning down at an angle.

“Are you okay?” Noah asked, looking into her eyes with concern as he pulled them both to an upright position. He moved his arms from around her body, resting his strong, warm hands on her upper arms as he waited for her to respond.

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Hess. It’s a daily occurrence with our beloved Sav.” Riley’s voice came from behind her and Sav blinked and pulled away from the contractor.

“They’re right. I’m so klutzy.” Sav chuckled, wishing she could go die in a hole as she bent down to help the junior designer gather her scattered papers.

“As long as you weren’t hurt.” Noah crouched to help them as well and in no time the papers were stacked together again, not in order but at least together.

“I’ll see if I can organize these for you while you do your site walk.” Riley told Sav as they walked away with the stack toward their desk again.

“Thanks, R.” She said, standing and rubbing her palms against her soft skirt before holding her head high with confidence she didn’t feel and walking out the front door.

“For what it’s worth, I think klutziness is adorable.” Noah said from a step behind her and Sav felt her feet falter briefly. His hand darted out and steadied her by the elbow as the pair turned from the parking lot and toward the empty lot that had been cleared and readied for construction the next day.

“I’m not sure adorable is the right word.” Sav finally mustered her words, gently extracting herself from the distracting man again.

Blog About Ch1: Too Short?

In chapter 1 we are meeting Savana, getting to learn a bit of what she does for work. We also meet Noah through her eyes briefly.

This chapter is fairly short right now. I have another section that could be added to it about but I paused it where it is as I’m not sure how in-depth, detailed, or accurate I want (or need?) to be about the building process.

The chapter ends with Sav and Noah about to go on a site walk of the cleared out construction area. Should I include their site walk? If not, what else does chapter 1 need?