He gives Wyatt a handshake and ignores me as he jumps onto the elevator. As I head to his office to figure out what the plan for the day is, I pull out my phone to text Stella an update.
“Hey, wait up.” I hear Wyatt quicken his steps behind me. “What was that about?”
I don’t have time to answer before we arrive at Katie’s desk and she immediately notices the man to my left.
“Hi, Blair! If you’re here to see Lance, you just missed him. I don’t think he had time blocked for you today.”
She’s looking at her computer to see if she’s missed something. Then she gazes up at Wyatt while tucking her hair behind her ear and dragging her hand down to her chest. She’s totally flirting with him. “Um, who is your guest?”
Before I can explain anything, he reaches out to shake Katie’s hand.
“Hi, I’m Wyatt from Bradford and Associates. I’m here for Project Skyscraper.”
I watch as this entire exchange happens.
Katie blushes when his big, powerful hands engulf hers. They wrap around her wrist, and I wonder if they would still swallow mine in the same way. Her chin drops, and she blushes—her cheeks actually turn a shade of crimson—and he’s only just said hello to her. He leans on the counter that separates us from her workstation.
“Project Skyscraper?” I ask. Are we actually using code names?
He looks over, and before he can respond, Katie jumps in, all knowing and gathering folders and documents to pass over to him. “Blair, I don’t see you on the invite. Did you need something else?”
“Lance just asked me to join the meeting. We saw him at the elevator.”
Katie gets a knowing look in her eye. I’ll give it to her. She knows her boss and understands the dynamics of how to manage him.
“Of course. Right this way. I’ll bring you both down to the room reserved for the project.”
Once we’re in the conference room, Katie tells Wyatt to let her know if we need anything and places her hand on his biceps. A spark of something that feels like irritation grips me, but I can’t blame her. I’m not so sure I wouldn’t try the same thing under different circumstances.
As Katie leaves, others trickle into the conference room: a few folks from HR, our head of communications, and what looks to be most of our finance and legal teams. I’m relieved when I see a few more agents step in, including my good friend Naomi. She leads the TV division, and we started around the same time and bonded through the war that is signing talent in Hollywood.
As we take our seats, the head of strategy opens the meeting with an overview of why we are here. He highlights the steps of the regulatory process and what we need to accomplish by when. Besides the basics, they want to outline how we work: our priorities, strategy, goals, and processes, even the culture behind all of it.
Each agent shares a little about their area of expertise so Wyatt and the others can understand the agency’s collaborative approach to representation. I go last, so there’s not much more to add before I look back at Wyatt for next steps.
“I thought you focused on stories that are authentic and avoid positioning women’s stereotypical feminine roles,” Wyatt says, and all I can do is force a tight-lipped smile because I’m in shock. How does he know?
He shares a story about a script that was misogynistic and in service to the male leads and how I pushed the producers and writers to change it. The female lead isn’t there to subscribe toold-fashioned gender roles. It doesn’t reflect how women lead their lives in the real world today.
He thinks it’s important to capture nuances in our services like that.
As he’s talking, all I can see is the guy I fell for so many years ago. It makes me think about how we used to connect over our passion and dreams for the future. He knew all about my goal to become a lawyer and would list off all my accomplishments whenever I used to doubt myself.
“Did I get that right, Blair?”
I snap out of my daydream about what used to be and smile and nod. I’m not sure exactly what he was saying, but I think it was more cheerleading on my behalf.
“Of course. Thank you for the kind words, Wyatt.”
I look around the room to see if anyone notices how awkward and uncomfortable I am. The only person who seems to notice anything is Naomi. She has one eyebrow raised as if to say,Who is the president of your fan club, girl?
Naomi walks up after the meeting ends and introduces herself to Wyatt. “So, how do you two know each other?” she asks.
“Blair and I grew up together,” Wyatt answers before I can respond.
“We went to the same high school,” I interject.
Naomi looks like she’s just solved theNew York Timescrossword puzzle. “So, you two have history.”
