Beauty & the Geek: Hidden Depths

In the brief seconds after Roxanne hit the floor, she was catapulted back to her high-school days when her only claim to fame was her ability to trip and fall at the most inopportune moments. Her most memorable moment was the day she fell at the feet of the varsity football team captain in the middle of the senior-class hallway. Yeah, that embarrassing event seemed to be burned into her brain, never to be forgotten.

Quickly gaining her composure, she stood up. She reached down to straighten her skirt and blazer, tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and got her gumption back.

Looking to the side of the room, she caught the eye of her best friend and partner-in-crime, Lana Miller, who gave her two thumbs-up and a motion with her hands for Roxanne to get moving.
Her gaze took in the audience, and she saw that for better or worse, all eyes were now trained on her. Some held mirth at her predicament, and some revealed embarrassment at her fall. However, all of them—well, at least the men—held that look of desire that she had come to recognize over the years.

Hiding her beauty and sexuality was never in the cards for her. Plus, she had no desire to be anything less than she was. People accepted her for who she was, and while she would never try to flaunt her looks, she wasn’t naïve enough to think men did not notice her.
The only downfall, and she knew some would not consider it so, was that no matter how clumsy she was or how well she held her own in an executive meeting, she was usually judged first and foremost on her outward beauty.

Just once, she wanted to walk into a room and know that the first thing people noticed was her brain and education. Not the sway of her hips or the curve of her neck. Knowing that was something she couldn’t solve today, she forced herself to put those thoughts aside for a later time. That Pandora’s Box was staying closed for the time being.

Roxanne turned to the matter at hand and began her opening remarks to the assembled group. For the next fifteen minutes she explained to the diverse group of industry experts the reasons for the symposium and why Hunter & Bruce, LLC felt it was important to gather this group of people in the same room for two days.
In the big scheme of things, her love life could wait for another day.

****
Adam Marshall stood in the back of the room. He looked at the woman standing at the podium in front of two hundred people with her chin held high. You would never know she had just crashed onto the stage, literally making an entrance that would be forever burned into the memory of the group assembled today.

As he watched her graceful walk to the podium, the tightness in his stomach and chest couldn’t be ignored. Her familiar face teased and titillated him like no other woman could. His brain dared his heart to deny that standing no more than fifty feet in front of him was the woman he had dreamed about since high school.