But right now, our team is bare bones, and the people who are left—other than Adam, bless him—are young and green, albeit driven. We have plenty of programmers, but if we could just find someone with some marketing experience undertheir belt to get our ideas communicated clearly and with a punch, we can sign accounts that will get us back in the black for the foreseeable future.
Determined to figure this out, I turn back inside and sit at my desk, typing out an email and sending it before I have a chance to overthink it.
Why not? I have nothing to lose.
Email correspondence between Jude Tilde and Veronica Cochran
Subject: Re: Consulting for Codeify
Date: January 19, 2026
Hi Veronica,
I appreciate your candor (again), and while I certainly am not owed an explanation for how you managed to find your way into our team meeting, nor am I owed a tax on your time in the form of a reply, the fact remains that our paths have crossed, and my company could use your help.
If you don’t mind my asking: What is underlying your reluctance? Perhaps there is something I can say to reassure you that your efforts will be greatly valued.
Best,
Jude
Jude,
I have no doubt that my efforts would be valued. I’m good at my job, and I could tell that your marketing plan needs work. My concern isn’t that I could be useful to you; my concern is that everyone in that Zoom meeting looked and sounded exactly like everyone at my past position, and I’m not keen to step back into that space again.
-Veronica
P.S. (I thought I was entering a job interview and somehow entered your meeting instead. It was a complete accident.)
Hi Veronica,
I’m sorry the experience at your past employer wasn’t positive.
I’d love to bring you in to meet my team; I assure you, they’re all incredible people. But we are currently operating with a skeleton crew, all of whom are trained in tech and programming; no one here is versed in marketing (perhaps obviously).
You mentioned a job interview in your postscript ... let me be clear that while it is not in my budget to hire a full-time marketing executive, I would be paying you whatever your current freelance consulting rate is. Please consider?
Best,
Jude
Chapter Three
Veronica
Clara bends, inhaling her gin and tonic like it’s the first liquid she’s seen after forty days and forty nights of stumbling through the desert. She’ll allow herself one drink out tonight, and make it last the entire time we’re here.
Our best friend, Jordan, on the other hand, has already knocked back their first martini and is waving down the cute bartender for another as they say, “A thousand an hour.”
I cough out a wet “What?” and work to swallow my sip of beer. “Jordy, I can’t go back to this guy and be like, ‘1K an hour, sir.’”
“No, that’s true,” Clara says, and I think she’s agreeing with me, but then she adds, “You can’t call himsir.”
“A thousand dollars an hour is, like ...” I shrug, thinking. “What a lawyer charges when their client asks the court if the jury takes Venmo. I did the math, and my rate at PitchSlapped was sixty-five an hour. What if I ask for a hundred?”
“No,” Jordan says emphatically. “Ronnie, this is your chance to take a step up in the income bracket. Imagine you made a million dollars a year.”
I laugh. “Sure. Easy.”
