“No, wait!”
Travis leapt to his feet, not wanting her to go. Despite the fact that she’d never done a job like this before, and didn’t even own the basic equipment required in order to function ata minimal level of competence, he couldn’t stand the thought of her leaving.
“I, er, I have a spare laptop I can loan you,” Travis said. “I brought a back-up machine with me here, in case something happened to my main computer when I’m in the middle of writing. You can borrow it.”
Courtney, already at the door that led to the hallway, turned around again. “I can’t take your spare computer from you. And anyway, you need someone who’s already set up for this work. I should’ve realised that before I came here. I’m causing more problems for you, not helping you solve the ones you already have.”
“Look, I don’t want to have to start hunting around the jobs sites searching for anyone else. I liked talking to you today, Courtney. I think you can do this work for me. If the only thing standing in the way is me loaning you a laptop, then let me loan you the laptop. Please?”
She was clearly torn. He could almost see the cogs in her mind working.
“I really think I can do a good job for you, Travis. But I feel bad that you would have to loan me a computer.”
“It’s just sitting in my bag doing nothing.” Crossing the room to the desk, he reached into the rucksack on the floor and pulled out the spare machine, then held it out to her. “Please don’t make me go on to the online freelance jobs sites to hire someone. It’s a jungle out there, with more clueless idiots than you could shake a stick at. I’ve already had enough bad luck in the past, hiring people who take my money in exchange for doing an absolutely terrible job that ends up being worse than useless.”
The quip made Courtney’s lips curve. Her eyes flicked to the laptop Travis was holding.
“Are you sure you’re okay with me borrowing your laptop?”
“I’m sure.”
She searched his expression and then gave a quick nod. “Thank you, Travis. You don’t know what this means to me.”
“You’re helping me as much as I’m helping you.” Returning to the sofa, he pointed to the screen on his own laptop, where the Facebook notifications alone had increased by more than a dozen during the time they’d spent chatting. “See what I mean?”
Courtney joined him again on the sofa. “I’ll get to work as soon as I’m all set on your borrowed laptop. You won’t have to worry about anything, Travis, I promise.”
They spent a few more minutes discussing the freelance contract Travis told her he’d send to her email address for her to read and sign, the non-disclosure agreement he required in order to protect his author business, the pay rate, and a few other things. Courtney was happy with everything he outlined and then surprised him with a question of her own.
“I feel bad asking this, considering you’re already having to loan me your laptop, but do you have a copy of any of your books I could borrow? I think it will help me interact with your readers if I’ve at least read one of your Maura Shaw stories.”
Travis was impressed. Ideally, any new assistant he used would have a passing knowledge of his popular Maura Shaw series, but given the emergency situation he’d found himself in after Ruth’s unfortunate accident, he’d thought it wise not to worry too much about whether the temporary stand-in knew anything about his books. The priority was finding an assistant to handle his marketing load, and the cheat-sheet he provided would allow most competent people to find their feet without having to read the books themselves.
That Courtney apparentlydidwant to read the books was encouraging.
“I have a copy of the first book with me here,” he said, returning to the desk and digging it out from beneath a pile of notebooks. “When I need to check details from previousbooks, I usually rely on the files on my computer, but there are some detailed sections from the first novel that turned out to be important for this new story, and when that happens I like having the physical copy handy.”
He passed the book to her, and she examined the cover before flicking through the pages. “Will it slow your writing down if I take this away with me?”
“No, I don’t need it anymore. I finished writing the relevant chapters a few days ago.”
Smiling, she tucked the book inside her handbag. “I’ll look forward to reading this. Thank you.”
“I hope you enjoy it. Now, before you go, I’ll set this laptop up so it’s ready for you to use, and sort you out with login details and so on.”
He spent fifteen minutes dealing with the technical and admin bits and pieces while Courtney asked more questions about this and that. Once she was set up with the borrowed laptop, he turned his attention to the next batch of social media posts he planned to post to his author profiles.
“I typically post something new every couple of days. I deal with creating the original posts, and then it’s your job to handle all the comments and responses, as we discussed. I’ll keep the next few posts simple and straightforward, rather than dive into anything detailed from previous books or share any specific news about what’s coming soon. Sometimes I put together a few words about scenes I wrote in previous books, or characters I especially enjoyed writing, but as those posts typically prompt a lot of reader responses and detailed comments, I’ll swap them for something that will be easier for you to handle. I enjoy sharing quotes about reading and quotes about books in general, and the fans like those too, so I’ll stick with those next.”
“Thank you.”
“I often share photos too, from being out and about in London. As I’ve been holed up here writing since I arrived, I’ve had no opportunities for anything like that, but I have some photos spare that I haven’t shared yet from a research trip I took before I came to Hamblehurst, so I’ll line those up for sharing too. Those sorts of posts get lots of interaction, so I’ll wait a few days before throwing you in at the deep end.”
“Sounds good,” Courtney laughed.
“If there’s anything you need to ask, or anything you want to chat about, you have my number. And we’re only a few doors away from each other, so we can always arrange another meeting if that helps.”
It amused him that he was offering to meet up again, should Courtney need more help. The whole point of hiring an assistant was so he could offload all this work onto someone else, and yet now he was suggesting further meetings between the two of them. He told himself it was just because she was new to all this and might need further guidance, and that was certainly a part of it.
