This isn’t desire.
It’s an acquisition.
And I’ve always been very good at managing those.
Chapter 10 - Lucy
If there is one thing I’ve learned about wealthy corporate clients, it’s thaturgentrarely means urgent.
It means someone important got nervous.
Or someone important got curious.
Or someone important decided they didn’t like the idea of trusting a stranger with something they care about, even if that something is, technically, a holiday party.
When Karen calls me mid-morning and says, “They want you to present in person,” my first instinct is to laugh.
My second instinct is to check my calendar, because nothing in my life happens without pushing something else aside.
“Did you send them the timeline?” Karen asks.
“Yes,” I say, balancing my phone between my shoulder and ear while I clear space on the kitchen table. My mom is sleeping in the living room. The curtains are drawn. The apartment is quiet in that careful way it gets when we’re all trying not to wake her.
“And you sent them the staffing plan?”
“Yes.”
“And the budget breakdown?”
“Yes,” I repeat, as if saying it enough times will make the question stop feeling personal.
Karen exhales. “Okay. Then don’t take it as a criticism. Take it as… Northwell being Northwell.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means they like to look you in the eye,” she says. “They want to assess you. They want to know you can handle them.”
I bite back a comment abouthandling themlike they’re wild animals.
Instead, I say, “Sure. I can do that.”
“Good,” Karen says, and then her tone gentles. “And Lucy?”
“Yeah?”
“They’re paying the rush fee.”
My pulse quickens, and it has nothing to do with corporate logistics and everything to do with pill organizers and specialist waitlists and the wordtrialsitting in my brain like a countdown clock.
“Okay,” I manage.
I hang up and stare at my laptop for a second, then at my work bag by the door.
I should be used to this by now. The weird last-minute requests. The power plays are disguised as meetings. The way money makes people think their anxiety is an emergency, you can invoice.
But something about Northwell feels different.
Not worse.
