Will:Please talk to me
Josie:I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you. I just can’t figure out what to say.
Will:Can I see you tonight?
Josie:I can’t. Derrick is coming into town this afternoon and he wants to look over the materials for the B Lab review call tomorrow. I’ll see you then? It’s your very last job as a consultant! We’ll celebrate after.
Will:I’ll be there.
Derrick swans into town with a zero-bullshit tolerance. We work hours into the night, going over every scrap of material that might be called out during our review call tomorrow. Announcing B Corp approval isn’t going to recoup all the lost sales, but it will help, and we can’t take any chances.
I get a handful of hours of sleep that night. My shower the next morning is just water hitting skin, and my ICOML is just chemicals reacting in my brain to raise alertness. When I show up at the office, I feel as though I’ve time slipped.
All our executives trickle into the conference room with one addition: Will. My stomach doubles over when I see him. His face is pale, his eyes dull. He looks impossibly sad.
He sits down next to me, hunching in my direction. “Hi.” His voice rasps out like a salty wave against rocks.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“Nothing to be sorry for.”
“I’ve been a bad communicator.”
“You’ve been in crisis,” he counters, voice low.
“So have you.”
He frowns, eyes jumping over my face. “I don’t mind being associated with you on the internet, Josie, unless it’s somethingyoumind.”
“Only in the sense that it’s perhaps unethical to date your consultant.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not your consultant much longer, isn’t it?” He finds my hand underneath the table and brushes his against it. His touch calms me, centers me.
Reminds me none of this is as important as I am making it out to be.
At ten o’clock sharp, the review meeting begins. A projected screen on the wall flashes from solid black to a view of our analyst, who smiles tightly at us.
“Good morning, all,” he says. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
There was no way you could have known,he says.
Your Spanish supplier was a B Corp,he says,until they failed their recertification. We change our standards all the time, and this year, they didn’t make the cut.
Unfortunately, it means the score for Revenant has also dropped below the passing threshold,he says.
You can reapply in the future,he says, and eventually, he ends the call.
My mom always used to say trouble comes in threes.
The internet hates you.
Your company failed the test of goodness (and the internet still hates you, just, you know, as a cute little reminder).
I’m beginning to fear I already know what number three is.
When I head for the garage, I have every intention of wallowing on the UT Austin campus for the rest of the afternoon. But it’s sweltering hot, and come to think of it, I’ve barely eaten in forty-eight hours, haven’t drunk much water, or slept well, or taken enough deep breaths that aren’t riddled with stress. My brain starts to fog. My vision spots.
I make it to the edge of my car and slump against it, pushing my forehead against the cool metal exterior in an effort to regain control over my body. I don’t know how long I linger there—maybe seconds, maybe minutes—before I feel a hand rest lightly on my back. He rubs back and forth, coaxing life back into me.
