Me:Hate to cut this short, but we’re FINALLY boarding.
Ford:Safe flight. See you when you get here.
When I finally do get home nearly four hours later, he’s sleeping. He shifts when I climb into bed, and he kisses my neck as he wraps his arms around me.
I sleep in the next morning, and he’s already gone when I wake up. I find a note from him on the kitchen counter.
Glad you’re home safe. I need to head to the training facility for exit interviews. There’s a breakfast order in the fridge for you from the restaurant downstairs if you want to heat it up.
I find the food and pour myself a cup of coffee, and then I grab my laptop and start to triage my poor, poor inbox.
I give up on that pretty quickly as I think about how Ford is absolutely right. I need an assistant.
I didn’t find Kenzie until I rented an office space, and maybe it’s time for me to get out and explore this city a bit more.
Though truth be told, I’m perfectly fine working out of the penthouse, and the offices at Winston Manor would be an ideal place if I needed to get away. But with either of those options, I don’t have the luxury of meeting people.
I decide to take it to Starbucks for the day in hopes of meeting people and making a place for myself here.
Except when I arrive, I realize I left my laptop on the kitchen counter at the penthouse.
I grab myself a coffee, let out a heavy sigh, and head back home.
My phone rings as I’m in transit back home, and it’s a Chicago number I don’t recognize. I pick up.
“Tatum Barker,” I answer.
“I thought it was Bradley now,” the female voice on the other end says, and my brows dip as I wonder who the hell it is. “I’m teasing. This is Everleigh, by the way. Ford said you wanted to chat about branding?”
Wow. He made quick work of that one.
“Yeah,” I mumble. “I do. I have one venue, and I’m planning to expand into more, but I’m overwhelmed with the one, and I have no idea how to build a brand. My entire business in Vegas has been word of mouth, and word’s getting out here, and I need an assistant and someone who can make decisions and help me figure out my life but—”
“Tate,” she interrupts, and I stop talking.
“I think this could be mutually beneficial. I’m just getting my branding business going, so I’d love to add you to my portfolio. This would be a full brand build for multiple venues, am I correct?”
“I guess that’s what I’m looking for, yes,” I say.
“Market value on that runs right around twenty thousand and would take me about a month to turn around to you.”
“Twenty thousand?” I repeat. I mean, yeah, we just got that five million back from Ms. Winston when we opened her wedding envelope to us, but twenty thousand sounds steep when I’m trying to pinch pennies to invest in another venue and save a bit for any reno work we need to do at Winston.
“Oh, sorry—that’s market value. I’d do yours free of charge, of course, as long as you agree to tell anyone and everyone that I’m your brand strategist and help me with my wedding to Maverick. And I’ll agree to share your venues with everyone I know, too. As I said, I think we can help each other.”
“Free of charge?” I echo. “For services you’d charge other people twenty thousand dollars for?”
“Well, yeah,” she murmurs. “You’re making me second-guess myself.”
“No take backs! I agree! Send me the contract, okay bye!”
She laughs. “Don’t hang up! Just to be clear, a full brand build would include new logos, color patterns, press kits, a growth campaign strategy, styled photoshoots, social media campaigns, advertising strategies, brand books…the works. Is that what you’re looking for?”
“Yes. All of it.” My voice is adamant. I’m ready for this.
“Then I’ll send over the contract plus the paperwork that details everything I’ll need from you to build your brand. Think mission, vision, brand pillars, even favorite colors for the palettes. And your company name, of course. Then I’ll come up with a logo, a slogan, and everything else we talked about,” she says.
“A company name?” I echo. “You mean…I can’t just use Tatum Barker?”
