When Emmett went quiet again, she added, “Of course, we wouldn’t take up your time without fair compensation. We’ve put together a package we think may interest you.” She produced a written proposal and slid it across the table. “Including both a generous fee and an earned incentive based on the number of impressions generated.”
“You mean, the more followers I have, the more money I get.”
“In a nutshell.”
Emmett scanned through the document. His eyes stopped and his lips parted in surprise at a number more than five times his annual salary.
“In addition to the financial compensation, we’d like to offer you a complimentary lifetime supply of Obexity, to allow you to maintain your healthy body after the end of the trial—assuming the FDA approves the product, of course.”
Obexity for life? If he remembered right, that was potentially worth millions. More than that: money couldn’t buy the way he felt about himself on the treatment.
“Of course, we don’t expect you to make a decision right now. Think about it. But this needs to stay under wraps until we go public with the partnership. That’s very important. You understand.”
“What would that look like?” Emmett asked. “Going public.”
Rachael jumped in. “We’d work with you on that. You know your audience best, so we’d want you to help drive the strategy. But we’re thinking an announcement over social and on the Monstera website, maybe a press release. Then a national campaign—digital, print, billboard. We’ve been looking at key markets, mostly Deep South, Texas, parts of the Midwest, LA and New York of course—”
“You’ll think about it,” Saito cut across her.
Emmett opened his mouth to object.
“You’ll think about it,” she repeated. She wasn’t asking.
A few minutes later, Saito walked Emmett to the elevator. “You have my number if you have any questions.” She pressed the button. “Anything at all.”
“Thanks. I’ll—”
“Let me know early next week.” The elevator arrived with a ding. A placid smile, or something like it, glinted on her lips. “Have a healthy and happy rest of your day.”
She stood, smiling and waving, until the doors slid closed.
Emmett felt anxious and conflicted as he rode the elevator down. It was an incredible opportunity. Potentially life-changing. But Saito and the others, they didn’t understand what the drug had done to him, what it had turned him into. Surely even the most unscrupulous, profit-obsessedcompany in the world wouldn’t choose a known cannibal as their spokesperson.
He ought to come clean. Force them to halt the clinical trial and cancel the product altogether.
But that would mean a legal inquiry. And more frightening still, no more Obexity. Back to his old life. His old self.
The thought of it turned his blood to slush.
On the other hand, here was an opportunity not only to lock in his new body for life and earn ridiculous amounts of money doing it, but to show the world who he really was.
With his face splashed across magazines and billboards, they would see him, and love him, not for who he’d been, but for what Obexity had made him.
And if they accepted him this way, maybe he could too.
CHAPTER 43
Emmett called Dr. Saito on Monday and let her know that he was in. She seemed satisfied to be able to cross it off her list, as if having never doubted he would break.
According to her, there was no time to waste; the announcement had been scheduled for January 2, about six weeks out, to capitalize on the postholiday weight loss fervor.
Once a week, Emmett snuck away at lunch for an hourlong Zoom with the Monstera team, who, despite previously saying they wanted his input, seemed happy for him to nod in agreement at whatever they put in front of him. Mostly he was fine with the direction but pushed back where he felt the message clashed with his personal brand—insisting, for example, that this wasn’t a story about “losing weight,” but of total transformation, inside and out.
“Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis,” Rachael said.
“Right, exactly. Becoming the version of yourself that you were born to be.”
“Becoming, I think that’s such a powerful word for this. Maybe that anchors our campaign slogan. ‘Becoming you.’?”
