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Harper glances at her out of the corner of her eye, taking her hands away from her face and letting out a nervous chuckle.
“Seven days is way too short, Victoria.”
“We’ve been through a marriage and a divorce. This is child’s play compared to that.”
Harper stares at her intently, and her laughter slowly fades, replaced by an intense gaze.
“You’re right,” Harper admits. “This is nothing.”
*
An hour later, the office they share has turned into a battlefield. The desk is buried under piles of proofs, color swatches, and two giant mugs of coffee that have already gone cold.
Victoria has been standing for ten minutes, a pencil between her lips, studying the bulletin board where she’s pinned up the first sketches of Serein Labs.
“It doesn’t fit,” she protests, taking the pencil out of her mouth. “The visual flow between the second and third pages is broken.”
Harper, who’s sitting across from her reviewing the draft of the text, doesn’t even look up.
“It does work, Victoria. It’s just that your perfectionist eye wants people to look exactly where you want them to.”
“That’s why I’m the art director, Harper! To guide the reader’s eye.”
“Victoria,” Harper says, setting the pencil down on the table and looking at her. “You’re getting nervous.”
Victoria crosses her arms.
“I’m not nervous.”
“I know you,” Harper reminds her. “When something really matters to you, you look for the flaw so you have an excuse to tear the work apart before others can criticize it.”
“It’s a very risky move, Harper,” Victoria admits, stepping closer to the table. “If we mess this up, we’re giving Eleanor the perfect excuse to wreck our careers. And goodbye to the plan we had.”
Harper stands up, walks around the desk, and stops just a few centimeters away from her.
“We’re not going to fail,” Harper says with a conviction that leaves no room for doubt. “Your design is flawless, and my copy is good. Besides… I trust you, Victoria.”
That last sentence pierces Victoria right in the center of her chest.
“That’s cheating,” Victoria murmurs, feeling her breathing quicken.
“What?”
“Using your seduction tactics to leave me speechless.”
Harper lets out a little laugh, taking another step toward her until the tips of their heels almost touch.
“Get used to it, because I plan to use them a lot.”
Victoria lets out a sigh and, without a second thought, opens the top drawer of her desk and pulls out a folder.
“We should go over this before the week is over,” she says, changing the subject.
Harper reads the title printed on the cover, and her expression immediately turns serious.
“The co-editorship proposal.”
“I want to have it drafted before we turn in the issue,” Victoria explains, opening the document on her iPad screen. “When Eleanor sees the sales results and the impact of this issue, we’ll present this directly to the board of directors.”
