Page 58 of Just One Silver Fox

They all shouted another welcome to Nate and he knew he’d landed in the right place. “All I need is a cool nickname,” he said, and his new co-workers laughed.

“Don’t worry. They’ll give you one,” Mack said. “Enjoy every moment before that. Now, don’t sign off. We’ve got to talk about apartments first.”

* * *

When their call started,Sonia was surprised to see Cassie wearing a black T-shirt with #MeToo printed on it in pink. Cassie had her hair twisted up and was wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

Did Sonia have more in common with her boss than she realized?

She could certainly take a lesson from Cassie, who wasn’t shy about flaunting how gorgeous she was.

“You look like the sexy prof that every guy dreams about,” Sonia said and Cassie laughed.

She held up her hands. “And you changed your hair. It looks fantastic!”

“I love it,” Sonia said, shaking her head so Cassie could see. She spun around to show off the colors. “Lauren did it.”

“She’s incredible with color,” Cassie said. “I might have to step out of my comfort zone. But this is great for your debut. I was thinking we’d go with black and pink, and we’ll use the dark yoga room on six…”

“No, I’d rather use the light one on five,” Sonia said. “And film in the morning sunlight. If the show is about healing and starting fresh, then it needs to look light. Positive.”

“But we’ll need something distinctive, too.” She pointed at the screen toward Sonia. “What’s that you have on your walls?”

“Fairy lights,” Sonia said. “They’re strung all around the room. I like how it looks at night.”

“I like that,” Cassie said, scribbling. “I was thinking you could take a few moments at the beginning and the end of each podcast to share something of your own journey.”

“I want to intersperse it,” Sonia said. “I don’t want to dump on people or judge them, but offer help if they want it.”

“Can you send me some scripts?”

“I wrote two already. They’re just drafts but you’ll see what I have in mind.” Sonia emailed the files and they talked about branding, music and graphics.

“We do tie-in products for the podcasts, as you know, starting with one or two that are made on demand to gauge popularity before we produce a lot of them,” Cassie said.

“I was thinking about a journal,” Sonia said. She knew this was what the club did, and had wanted to be ready. “I found these online that can be easily customized. Writing about my experience was a big part of my healing process.”

Cassie was nodding and taking notes. “Good idea. If you were going to recommend anything, what would it be?”

“Drink lots of liquids,” Sonia said immediately. “I like green tea, even though it’s not always decaf.”

“How about a lidded mug or a travel flask, one of those stainless ones that hold a lot?” Cassie said. She was obviously scrolling through merchandise, and sent an image to Sonia with a mock-up. “Like that? Pink and black.”

“That looks great.” Sonia felt a bubble of rising excitement.

“If everything goes well, we can think about getting a green tea blended and branded. Sonia’s Choice or similar.”

“That would be awesome.”

Cassie gave her a hard look. “Are you ready for all the possibilities?”

“What do you mean?”

“This could bomb completely. Or it could really work and make you suddenly famous. Or results could fall somewhere in between.” Cassie took off her glasses. “No matter how much we plan, we never know how people will respond until they do.”

“I’m ready for whatever happens,” Sonia said, because she was.

Cassie smiled and put on her glasses again. “Stalkers? Fan girls?”

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