He shakes his head as soon as I saybar. "No, thank you."
I let out a sigh.
“Come on, it would be good to meet everyone! You’ve been here forhow longand haven’t done anything?”
He lifts an eyebrow, and for a moment, I think he’s going to tell me he very muchhasdone something, but the look is gone quickly, melting back into neutrality.
“I don’t need to meet anyone. I’m here for work.”
I roll my eyes.
“Ah, yes, hold on, let me translate it into corporate asshole for you.” I put a hand to my mouth and clear my throat dramatically. “It would be a fabulous networking opportunity, and a chance to do some integration with the local habitat.”
“Local habitat?” he asks. Sutton watches the back-and-forth like a ping-pong match.
“Yeah, maybe that was more Steve Irwin than Don Draper.” It happens again, the subtle tip of his lips, and it makes me smile wider. I amsogetting through to him. I decide to use the last tool in my arsenal, the one that has never let me down. My eyes go wide, and my lips pout. “Pleaseeee?” I whine. “Please, please, please? It would make me the happiest girl in the whole wide world, and I’ll leave you alone about being boring and lonely and grumpy for, like, at least a week.” I think we both know I can’t promise forever.
He looks at me, assessing. My heart lifts with hope, nearly bursting, when he closes his eyes and sighs.
“Will you stop making that face if I say yes?”
The face gets them every time.
“YES!” I shout, and again, I get that tiny, infinitesimal smile. My heart soars when I see it.
“Fine. Just let me know when and where. But only for a bit,” he says in warning, but I’m barely listening, jumping and clapping.
”Of course! Oh my god, you’re the best! You’re going to have so much fun and meet everyone! You already know Deck and Grant, but Claire and Lainey, and Benny and Miles and?—”
“You’re not actually selling this,” he says, and I grin wider.
“Too late, you already said yes.”
“That actually worked,” Sutton says in awe, and when I turn to her, her eyes are wide. “If I didn’t watch it happen, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“It works every time. It’s my secret weapon,” I say with a shrug of my shoulder.
“Yeah, I can see it worked great on Graham,” she says, her smile turning knowing. “Maybe that’s because–”
“Why are you here, anyway?” Graham asks, cutting off whatever she was going to say with a glare. Whatever thread of entertainment that was on his face moment ago is wiped clean, but for some reason, that makes Sutton smile wider.
“I came to see if June wanted to grab lunch and make sure you weren’t making her too miserable. I’ve confirmed the latter,” she says, giving a look to Graham that has some kind of meaning I don’t understand, before turning to me. “Is your lunch coming up?” I check my watch and nod.
“I was planning to take it in about thirty minutes.”
“Perfect, I’ll wait. We can celebrate and yap about how to get you even more sales. Now that you’re up and running, you can’t fend me off.”
I roll my eyes, but it’s half-hearted. Sutton is great with social media and has offered to help me build a brand more times than I can count.
Excitement bubbles in my chest where the thought of running social media used to fill me with dread. If I got a sale without even talking about it, maybe promoting it would go even better? I don’t actually know what I’m doing or how this works, but maybe, just maybe, Claire and Lainey and even Grahamwere right: maybe I could make something real of this? My mind moves to the mural bid, getting the idea before deciding I’ve been plenty brave enough for now. That’s something Next Week June can contemplate.
“Go,” he says, ushering us out of his office. “Go on your lunch now. Get Sutton out of here.”
“Want to come?” I ask, a bit hopeful.
“Not this time. Thanks, though,” Graham says.
“You sure?”
