Page 20 of Stolen Hearts
Tony
PS: Julie, could you book the boardroom for four please, and contact the IT team to be on hand to help in case there are any technical issues?
A piece of chicken gets wedged in my windpipe as I reread the second line, and I drop my phone to the table.
“Chris, are you okay?”
Julie drops her phone and races round to me, whacking my back as I gasp for air. Her third whack dislodges the chicken.
“Thank you,” I say as air refills my lungs. I reach for my glass of water.
“Who does Tony think he is, asking me to help him. As if I’mhisassistant.” Julie’s face starts to turn red. “I have a right mind to go back to him and say get your lover to help you instead.”
I can tell Julie is trying to force a laugh from me, but I can’t shake the dread flooding my body. It looks like Tony may have found a silver bullet to salvage this campaign. At the same time, it will put me in front of the two people I now despise now more than my mother: Paul and Connie.
Maybe I should call in sick?
It’s not like they need me in the meeting anyway.
5.Alexander
Monday
Paul’s frozen image, staring at me from the laptop, matches the stiffness in my limbs I’m experiencing as a result of what he’s just shared.Your connection is unstableappears across the Zoom window.
Thanks, Zoom. Like I need reminding of how unstable I am.
“You still there?” Paul asks. The tinniness of his voice echoes around my trailer.
I nod in agreement while I try to find my voice and a stable internet signal. I stand up and move the laptop from the table opposite me on the couch toward the kitchen counter, waving it around until Paul’s video image unfreezes.
“Can you see me now?”
“Yeah, you’re back now. So, what do you think?”
What to think? I don’t know what to think.
It’s way too early to think.
The comedown from the MDMA makes even thinking thrice as hard to do.
Thankfully, this janitor’s outfit they have me in for the next scene, along with my rough-and-ready look, hides a lot of the blotchiness in my face. My sunglasses hide the rest.
This has to be Christopher’s idea.
“Are you sure this didn’t come from Christopher?”
“Christopher?” Paul sighs, scrutinizing me with his stare.
“He was working on the Brewed account. Did he ask for me to be in the campaign?”
Nearly two and a half months of no contact and now this?
It’s got to be progress. A sign he’s ready to talk.
Paul seems momentarily distracted, his face brightening on the screen from what I can only assume is him looking through his email correspondence.
“There’s no mention of Christopher in Kirk’s emails. Only a guy named Tony Neil from Elemental Creative.”
