Page 30 of Reconciling With the Rival

“So, what do you need from us?” Ella asks, her tone more clipped than usual.

“Well, we have a potential new client I think you both could be interested in. We have a meeting with them soon, and I want you two to put together a design portfolio to showcase what we could do for them.”

I scratch down what he’s saying as I let Ella take the lead in all the questions.

“What’s the client?”

“A publishing house.”

I can feel Ella freeze in her chair. I guess her love of reading hasn't wavered in the past few years. I remember in college that she was in some sort of book club with Grant’s girlfriend. I heard him talking about it one night when I was out with the hockey team. There’s four of them—I’m pretty sure I met them all when I celebrated Halloween with them last year.

“Which one?” I ask. I’m not too familiar with the literary world, but I’m good at my job. With a little research, it shouldn't be that big of an issue. Plus, having Ella working on it with me will be a big help.

“Literary Nook Publishing House.”

“The one who published Henry Hayes’ new novel?” Ella asks.

“That’s the one,” Brody says with a weird look on his face.

“Okay, well, Leo and I can start coming up with a—”

“Actually, that’s not going to work,” Brody tells us, and I’m starting to get a feeling he called us in here with an ulterior motive. “You two are going to be…competing for this account, in a way.”

“What does that mean?” Ella asks him, her fists bunched at her sides.

“Leo’s shadowing period is almost over, and I think this could be a good opportunity for him to prove himself. Ella, I know how much you’ve been begging Imogen to let you know when any account relating to books popped up.” He turns to look at me. “And Leo, this could be a great first grab for you.”

“So, what do you want us to do then?” I ask, confused as to why he’s pitting me and Ella against one another on an account she has clearly been waiting for.

“Well, you two have to work together to create the portfolio. Then, if we land the client, one of you can lead the campaigns we run for them.”

Oh, so we’re not competing to land the client. First, we have to work together and come up with a plan. If we get the publishing house, then we’re competing, or whatever. This all seems kind of fucked up, but I would love to lead a big client when I’ve only just started here.

“How long do we get to prepare everything?” Ella asks.

“The meeting is in three weeks. We will find out if they want to contract us at the end of September.”

“Wonderful,” Ella says as she gets up from her chair. “If that’s all, we’ll go get started.”

“That’s all. Thank you for coming in,” Brody says as he turns back to his computer.

I follow Ella out of his office, neither of us saying a word, and when she turns left to go into her office, I do the same. She heads to her desk, not noticing I’m still standing in the doorway.

I start to roll up my sleeves as I sit in the chair across from her. When she notices me, she jumps.

“What are you doing in here?”

“Well, we have to work together on this thing. I thought we should brainstorm or something.”

She sighs heavily. “Look, I’m not thrilled about working on this with you either, but if you want to take the weekend to think of some things, we can come back on Monday and coordinate then.”

“And there you go again.” Ella constantly jumps to fucking conclusions about everything. Yeah, it’s a little weird that Brodyis making us do this together when Ella is perfectly capable of doing it herself, but I never said I was pissed off about it.

“What?” she asks as she slams her laptop closed.

“I never said I wasn't thrilled about this. In fact, I’m excited to learn how you do things around here. Shadowing has been fine, but this is a real client. So, stop assuming the worst, and we’ll figure out a way we can land this account.”

“Fine.”

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