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“Just hire her when you start your own agency. She doesn’t have to be out of work for long.”
“That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. Hiring my girlfriend to work beneath me? Jesus.”
James laughed. “Wait. Girlfriend?”
I ran my hand down my face. “I don’t know. I think so?”
James whistled. “Well, as your girlfriend, I think she’d want you to do this. Although you can’t actually ask her because…”
“Yeah, I got it. Insider trading. You really think she’ll understand after it’s over?”
“Kruger is already dissolving. There’s nothing that you can do to fix that. You don’t even work for them.”
“That doesn’t really answer my question. What would Penny do if you two were in this situation?”
James laughed. “I tell Penny everything, so…”
“Not helping.”
He sighed. “When we were first dating and I didn’t have her trust yet? She probably would have done something stupid and rash.”
“I can’t fuck this up. I’m crazy about her. When we first met she was ready to move out of the city.” The tightness in my chest returned. Maybe I was having heart problems. “She can’t leave.”
“If she loves you, she’ll understand.”
“I don’t know if she loves me.”
“Well, like I said the other day, you can convince anyone to do anything. The contact info for Sword Body Wash is on that list I already gave you. It’s up to you. But you have to decide soon. Someone else is going to swoop in if you don’t.”
“Yeah.” I stood up. This was what I always wanted. And if Bee did love me and if we became a permanent thing, I’d need to provide for her. Just the thought of finality in that made my stomach turn. Was I even ready to settle down? Would I ever be? “Thanks, James. I’m going to call them now.”
“Good luck. Tell me how it goes.”
“Mhm. Later.” I hung up the phone and walked toward my office.
Matt had told me I could use Bee to get new clients. I hadn’t done that. I hadn’t done anything bad. She’d know about Kruger dissolving in a few days anyway. It would be fine. She’d understand. I grabbed the envelope James had given me and unfolded the piece of paper inside. It was alphabetical by company name. James was ridiculously organized.
Sword Body Wash was near the bottom. The chief marketing officer was John Landry. I typed in the number before I could change my mind. This is what I had always wanted. My own ad agency. If I landed this account, I could shove it in my dad’s face. I had been unfocused the past few weeks. I had pushed my ambition aside for a good lay. That wasn’t me. I was going to get this account. And every other account that Kruger had. I pressed the call button.
After a few rings someone on the other end answered. “John Landry, Sword Body Wash.”
“Hi, John. This is Mason Caldwell. I heard you were in need of a new advertising agency.”
John laughed. “Obviously. This is a fucking nightmare.”
“You could definitely use a PR fix.”
“Any ideas about that?”
“Well, my firm could help you through it. I have several years of experience cleaning up messes that other ad agencies have made for brands. And if you wanted to sit down and…”
“Look, you’re not the first call we’ve gotten. And you won’t be the last. If you have an idea, pitch it to me. I’m just going to go with the best one.”
I hadn’t prepared anything. So I just said the first thing that came to my mind. “I think you should go back to your roots.”
“Our roots?”
“Your brand thrived with guerilla style campaigns. And I know you’re trying to grow your brand here in New York, which is where we’re located. How about you do something here to get everyone’s mind off what just happened in Miami. Even make it seem like it just happened because your body wash is just that good, like you didn’t put advertising dollars in it.”
