Fiona is wearing natural, blended makeup. Her cheeks are lightly pinked and her pastel hair is loose and flowy. Rachel, in blue spandex, sits primly next to Ashley, who matches her sister’s bodysuit with one of her own, except in white. Ashley fills it out more, appears more comfortable in it. Rachel is shifting, pulling up the low-cut top to no avail.
But it’s Piper I can’t stop watching. She’s incredibly unknown, and the only one I haven’t officially met yet. She’s dressed casually in soft-looking corduroy pants and an oversized white T-shirt that somehow looks like a ballgown on her. Her golden tresses are folded together in a messy bun that I could never pull off in a million years, even if my hair was long. Piper is wearing giant sunglasses and studiously ignoring me, even though she must feel the beam of my eyes. Given her looks, she’s probably used to this level of attention.
Viv, dark hair in twin French braids, is wearing a teal two-piece lounge set, her breasts heaving up from the crop top, flat stomachperfectly tanned. Her eyebrows are so sharp and shaped, they remind me of butcher knives. “All right, so it’s Monday, and the first order of business is to welcome our new addition, Charlie Engels.”
Viv claps her hands together briskly and stares at the other girls until they halfheartedly join in. Ashley is pointedly pretending I don’t exist. She claps twice and then leans away, stretching her legs out over Rachel’s lap.
Viv is unbothered by the lack of enthusiasm. She has the energy of an orchestral conductor or a head cheerleader getting ready to give the big pregame speech. She turns to me. “At the start of every week we have a family meeting to discuss the content we’re planning to roll out in the next seven days. Both personally and forEmpress. By the way, don’t let me forget to get you your paperwork today. We have to get you set up with our accountant, but that won’t take long. You do have a laptop, right?”
I nod, not wanting to tell her it’s a ten-year-old Mac that freezes every time I try to download a file. My crappy laptop is one of the reasons I put off writing my book for so long, focusing on outlining by hand in my notebook instead.
My palms start to sweat. Is Viv expecting me to have a content plan for my page? That I have to share, in front of everyone, right now?
I had a Spanish teacher in high school who would make us go around the room and translate a sentence from our textbooks onthe spot in front of the whole class. It had given me the worst anxiety. I would sit there, counting the students in the rows ahead of me, trying to figure out which sentence I would end up getting so I could try to translate it ahead of time. The same feeling is creeping over me now. Back then, my best friend Ursula sat at the desk behind me. If she saw me struggling, she would whisper the correct translation over my shoulder.
Halfway through junior year, I caught Ursula hooking up with my boyfriend in the back seat ofmycar. Three years of friendship, right down the drain, all because she decided the other eighty-five boys at our high school weren’t good enough. The one she wanted was the one I had chosen.
I keyed both their cars, digging silver teeth deep into the paint, carving gritty lines across the doors and trunk. After that, I had no best friend, no boyfriend, and no help translating in Spanish class.
“All right, so, I already posted a bunch of stories and a few photos from the party last night. That was Charlie’s soft launch. I’ll need you, Charlie, at golden hour today so we can grab some content for your hard launch, and that’s when we’ll update our bios, tag everyone, and make the official announcement of your hiring. I’ll boost it too.”
It suddenly sinks in that this is my life. Social media is mylife. The money is too good to turn down, but I can’t be lackadaisical with my page anymore. The experience with Sage flattened mycreativity, including online, but I can’t half-ass posts once a week now. This is a job, and I have to work.
“Okay, girls, your turn,” Viv reminds me of a schoolteacher bossing around an unruly class. I can tell from her lifted chest and slight smirk that she enjoys this immensely.
“Rachel and I are doing the healthy gut partner posts Tuesday,” Ashley says. “Thursday is my virtual Vinyasa class.”
“Rachel will take stills for that you can post?” Viv asks. Rachel nods. “Use the Canon, it’ll be better than shots from the phone.”
“I’m on it,” Rachel replies, then she looks at me. “House camera. It’s easy to use, I’ll show you later if you want.” She turns back to Viv. “I have cooking videos prepped for Wednesday and Friday. Today I’m doing a post-party detox thing.”
Viv nods appreciatively. “Fee?”
“Same as usual, Viv. Three looks, one how-to vid. I’m thinking ‘how to stack looks,’ like how to easily change your daytime look into a date-night look.”
“Love it. Piper?”
I lean forward. My skin is sticking gently to the leather. Piper isn’t sitting around the ash-colored coffee table with the rest of us; she’s curled up on an armchair nearby.
Piper sighs, as if she’s answered Viv already even though she hasn’t said a word all morning. “Mika brought me a new delivery. Two outfits. And a spon post with Juicee Clothing. Plus, a Live tomorrow with @ForTheFashion.”
Her voice is lower and calmer than it was last night, but since her eyes are hidden by her sunglasses, I’m having trouble getting a read on her mood.
Viv watches the blond girl for a minute, like she’s waiting for her to say something else. When Piper ignores her, Viv clears her throat. “Good. We’ll chat aboutEmpress’s specific content next, but first… What about you, Charlie?”
My stomach drops. So much for flying under the radar.
Chapter 11
I swallow. Maybe I can play stupid. “What about me?”
“Any ideas for your first post onEmpress?” Viv asks, clearly expecting me to be bursting with thousands of ideas, inspired by the opportunity and luxury. “I mean you’ll obviously need to collaborate on our welcome post and create your own. And you haven’t reshared any of our tagged posts from last night; you should do that ASAP. But you need to follow it up with something good.”
“This week?” She nods, and my hands curl into fists on my lap. “I don’t have any books here. I-I’m not sure—”
Viv must see the panic on my face, because she comes closer, her voice softening. “Where do you want to take @ChaptersWithCharlie next?”
I shift on the love seat so that my legs are tucked underneath me. I remember Rachel telling me to ask Viv for help because she wouldbe happy to take charge. I look up at Viv. “To be honest, I need some inspiration. I want to…pivot my page. To fit in more withEmpressand its aesthetic. But you’ve seen my stuff. It’s very casual. Bookish. I’m not sure how to elevate that.”
