“You do what you have to do. So will I,” I say, my voice steady.
“You've always been too emotional, Wyatt. That's your weakness,” he sighs, disappointment reflected in his eyes.
“And you've always been self-centered and manipulative,” I respond. “That's yours.”
His eyes narrow, and for the first time, I see something like uncertainty cross his face. But I don’t wait for his response. I turn and walk out of his office, leaving behind everything I’ve ever known—and finally, life feels like it’s starting to make sense.
forty
. . .
BLAIR
I’m havinga hard time finding the motivation to walk through the doors of TWA now that I know I won’t be here much longer. Plus, I ended up spending the entire weekend at Wyatt’s house, and when we weren’t naked, he spent hours listening to me get more excited about the possibility of opening my talent management agency.
Lance moved our one-on-one catch-up meeting to today, so I couldn’t avoid coming in this morning. Stella meets me at the elevator with a coffee, and while I’m grateful, it’s not normal for her to do so.
“I’m suspicious. What’s going on?” I ask her.
“Something is up today. I went to see if I could move your meeting with Lance so you could join another meeting, and his assistant refused to flex. Said his schedule was carefully planned out today and he had back-to-back meetings.”
My eyes scan the floor as I take a sip of my coffee and look for anything unusual. Most people are here, but it is Monday and after ten o’clock, so that is pretty typical.
“Maybe he’s taking off later in the week and is trying to get all of his meetings done before he leaves,” I suggest.
“Maybe.” She doesn’t look convinced.
“I’ll see what’s up when I meet with him. Did you figure out my schedule with the other thing?”
Stella assures me we’re all squared away. Just as I settle in and flip my computer on, Naomi walks in.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her. “I thought you said you were going on vacation?”
Naomi gives me a quick hug and hello. “Meeting with Lance. But the good news is I’m now on permanent vacation.” She leans back and kicks her feet up on the chair next to her, and I take that as a cue to get up and shut my office door.
“Stella, I’m going to need a minute with Naomi.”
The door closes behind me, and I knock down Naomi’s feet and take a seat next to her.
“He just fired you?”
“Oh, hell no. I would totally sue his ass if he did that. No, he informed me that my role has been eliminated to help streamline redundancies and reduce costs. It wasn’t a reflection of my work here at TWA and was strictly a business decision, blah, blah, blah. I’m certain he was reading from a script.”
“When is your last day?”
“Today? I don’t really know, but they are delusional if they think I’m going to continue working here like nothing has happened.”
Naomi leans forward and puts her hands on my knees. “He literally said,I know this is a lot to digest, so feel free to take the rest of the day off.” She pulls away, laughing like she’s heard the best punchline to a joke.
“What is the severance? What about non-compete?” I ask her.
“I’m not sure yet. He read through some high-level info, but HR is supposed to reach out in the next twenty-four hours with specific info. From what I could understand, we’ll be allowedto move to any agency, which is nice, but our clients won’t necessarily follow us. And I need to confirm the severance. He said I’d be paid out for the remainder of my contract, but mine was expiring at the end of the year. I’m going to need more than a few months’ pay for all the years I gave him.”
Same here.
“You’re well respected in this industry, Naomi. If someone wants to follow you, they will. I’m sure there are others out there who wanted you to be their agent, but maybe TWA turned them off.”
“I appreciate that, Blair, but I know how this business works.”
