“So, Mr. Ose,” I interjected, ready to be useful. “We really wanted to talk to you about The Fantasy today.”
The old man’s face fell slightly. A twinge of disappointment hit me as I realized I’d made a mistake. Once again, reading the room wrong. That was the thing about me—you could always count on Scout Porter to bungle a social interaction. “Ah. Well. I should start by saying that I’ve read the brief you sent over last night, and after this talk with you and Hudson, I’m excited by the new direction the company’s going in.”
I furrowed my brow. “New direction?”
“Well, for starters, you’ve hired a man. It’s about time.”
“I actually have two men on my engineering team,” I pointed out, as gently as I could.
“Yeah,” Hudson added, “when I was first brought on, I was told that the company was almost forty percent women.”
“But it’s not really yourbrand, is it? Scout, you and Clara are the faces of BuzzCorp. Your entire identity is women. Women-owned. Women-designed. Women-first. Women, women, women. Hudson, with all respect, you may be completely inept when it comes to the world of sex toys, but at least you’re bringing a new facet to the company. I hope you will be, anyway.”
I always felt that I was two people. The calm, professional, remote, and reserved person I allowed everyone else to see, andthen the slightly neurotic, highly emotional, tightly wound person I was on the inside.
I kept them separated for so many reasons. Public Scout was like argon—a totally nonreactive element. Very difficult to do harm to anyone with her. But private Scout? She was like fluorine—unpredictable and highly reactive.
In science, you have to quarantine elements like fluorine. If you don’t, they’re liable to run havoc through your lab. And through your life.
That was why I had such a hard time connecting with people outside of work. If I tried to get close to people, they might see the real me, and well…I couldn’t let inner Scout ruin everything for outer Scout.
But oh…did I want to unleash a can of Fluorine Scout all over Ichiro’s picturesque breakfast plate.
“And what, exactly, are you hoping he brings to the company?” I asked, voice strained.
“Men. Ihopehe brings men to your sales demo, anyway. I can’t keep the lights on just selling your products to girls.”
“You won’t be worried when you finally see The Fantasy in person,” Hudson said. “That toy is going to fly off the digital shelves, and people are going to become totally brand-loyal to BuzzCorp.”
I didn’t believe in knights in shining armor. But if I’d been brave enough to give him a look just then, I might have had to shield my eyes from Hudson’s glistening chain mail and sword.
Because if he hadn’t interjected, I might have lost my composure. Working at BuzzCorp hadn’t been my first choice of profession, but bringing people pleasure, giving them control over their own sexual autonomy—those things mattered to me. I hated to see them written off as “girls’ stuff” that needed a “man’s perspective,” especially by someone who clearly believed that he was helping me in some way, delivering folksy, paternalistic, tough-love truths.
With his brief interjection, Hudson saved me from myself. Which annoyed meandturned me on.
Ridiculous, confusing man. I couldn’twaituntil I got the hell back to my office in Dallas, where I barely had the time or energy to see him, think about him, or masturbate to the thought of him.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Exactly what he said.”
“I hope he’s right, then, Miss Porter.” Ichiro gave a little shrug. “Or else that will be you out of yetanotherhigh-profile job, won’t it? At least this time, nothing blew up.”
The air evacuated my lungs. Even as a joke, throwing my biggest professional disappointment back in my face turned my stomach.
Though clearly confused, Hudson once again stepped in to pick up the conversational slack.
“I guess that means you’re not committing to buy any Fantasy units today, then?”
“No. I won’t. I understand that keeping the toy top-secret is your prerogative as an up-and-coming industry player, but I can’t just take your word that thisthingof yours will work.” Ichiro turned his attention to me. “And considering the inexperience of this guy you’ve put in charge as your software engineer, as much as I may believe in your and Clara’s vision, I don’t have much faith that he has the skills to make this project a success…It would be unwise to commit to ordering any volume of this product at this time. You understand, don’t you?”
Ichiro stood up. Hudson mirrored him. I briefly wondered if I could fake amnesia when having to report back on this meeting to Clara.
“Of course,” Hudson said, shaking his hand. “We look forward to sharing more about The Fantasy when we can.”
“If there’s nothing else, I’ve got to get going.”
“Have a safe flight, then.”
Ichiro clucked his tongue. “Will do. This trip has given me much to consider. Your offerings, not to mention this new player entering the space who I met with yesterday…”
