The Importance of Being Married by Gemma Townley Page B

immediately reassured by his confident smile. “Something like All you need to carry with you or Keeping you walking tall all the way.
    “All you need to carry with you. This just gets better and better,” Chester said, standing up. “So listen, I’m hooked. I can’t stay now—I’ve got another meeting. But I’m going to keep in touch. I have a good feeling about this.” He looked at me. “Jessica Wild, huh?” he asked. I nodded. “Good to meet you,” he continued. “Good to have you on the team.”
    And with that, he and his flunkies left Anthony’s office.
    “Marcia, see him to the door, will you?” Anthony asked. Marcia opened her mouth as if to complain, then shrugged and half jogged out of the room.
    Immediately Anthony rounded on me, enveloping me in a huge bear hug. “Jarvis Private Finance. We’ve got fucking Jarvis Private Banking! Jessica Wild, you’re an asset to this company.”
    “I am?” I asked breathlessly.
    “Yes, you are,” Anthony said. He clapped Max on the back. “Jarvis Private Banking,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s not just blue chip. It’s royal blue chip. Think of the money! No more problems, Max. It’s going to be plain sailing from now on.”
    “Let’s hope so,” Max said, picking up his papers. “A good job all around, I think.”
    Anthony rolled his eyes. “A brilliant job,” he said, turning back to me. “So, Jess. Handbags, eh? Inspired. Ingenious. And that whole charade at the beginning—amazing. Risky strategy, but totally worked. Kept us all guessing, didn’t she, Max?”
    His eyes were twinkling at me, like we were sharing a private joke.
    Max nodded. “She certainly did,” he said, but he wasn’t grinning anymore. I looked at him uncertainly, expecting a big smile, a nod of congratulations, but instead he didn’t meet my eyes. He simply walked toward the door.
    Anthony, on the other hand, couldn’t stop slapping me on the back.
    “Our new best executive,” he said as Marcia reappeared through the door. She looked at him, happily, then her expression blackened slightly as it dawned on her that he wasn’t talking about her. “And well done, Marcia, for suggesting that Jess do the presentation,” he continued. “That shows real insight.”
    Marcia smiled weakly. “Well, yes, it does,” she said, after a slight pause. “I thought it would be a good idea. And I’m sure she’ll be of great help to me on this account.”
    “You’re…I mean…you’re still leading the account?” I said, before I could stop myself.
    “Well of course I am,” Marcia said. “After all, it was my pitch.”
    “I thought you said Jess wrote it,” Max said, hovering in the doorway, a little smile playing on his lips.
    Marcia frowned. “Well, she did, I mean she put it together, technically, but it’s still my account. Isn’t it, Anthony?”
    Anthony looked at her for a moment, then turned to me. “Well,” he said thoughtfully, “if Jess wrote the pitch, it makes sense for her to take on the account, doesn’t it?”
    “Really?” I stared at him in delight. God, I loved Anthony. You know, in a not-wanting-to-marry-him kind of way. Oh, what the hell, even marrying him was beginning to seem like a good idea. “Me, leading the Jarvis Private Banking account? Are you serious?”
    “Of course I am,” he said immediately. “The Project Handbag account. What do you reckon, Marcia? Means you don’t have to lead a…what did you call it? A boring finance techie account?”
    That was it. I was in love. Marcia stood stock-still. “Project Handbag?” She swallowed awkwardly, then forced a smile onto her face. “That’s not really finance, is it? I mean, not anymore.”
    “Not once our star turn Jessica Wild got her hands on it, no!” Anthony said, grinning at Marcia. “So that’s settled then. And I know you’ll help Jess out if she needs it, right, Marcia?”
    “Right! I mean, if you think it’s the right thing to do, then yes. Of