Stacia walked Brooklyn down the hall toward Lela’s dressing room.
“Is Alec on set right now?” Brooklyn asked, hoping she sounded completely casual and even slightly disinterested.
“He’s not. He did most of the first hour of the show and now he’s in a meeting upstairs with news. I don’t think he’s slotted to be back before we wrap.”
Brooklyn decided this was for the best, even if it was disappointing. Alec was busy following his dream. She’d catch him some other time. “Okay. Tell him I say hi if you see him.”
“Will do. Here you are.” Stacia rapped on the door with the back of her hand. “Ms. Bennett? Ms. Monroe is here.”
Lela answered a few seconds later with a surprising squeal. “I’m so excited we get to do this together.”
Stacia wisely got out of the way and Brooklyn immediately went in for a hug. “I know. How awesome is it?”
“Come on in,” Lela said, closing the door behind Brooklyn. “I have a few product samples for you to take with you today. Things that I think might work well for a Posh Post box.” She pulled out a zip-top bag filled with various tubes and jars.
“Are these all things that are currently on the market?”
“No. The cream blush comes out early next year.”
Brooklyn tucked the items into her bag. “Perfect. I’ll get back to you later tonight or tomorrow with my thoughts. We might even want to put Lela B in more than one box. Or maybe do a box that’s exclusively Lela B? We could get you to do some video content for the website, or maybe talk about it on the show. What’s your favorite color? We should definitely incorporate that into the box design. Do you have a favorite font? Tom in the design department is big on typography.”
Lela stood frozen, her eyes wide with astonishment.
“Too much?”
Lela clasped Brooklyn’s forearm. “Let’s take it one project at a time.”
“I’m sorry. I get one idea and my brain starts running and the next thing I know, I haven’t slept and I have several notebook pages of things I want to do.”
Lela glanced at her phone, then flipped it face down on the table. “Look, we have at least fifteen minutes before they’re going to need us on set. Let’s have a chat.” She sat on the small sofa in the corner of the room and patted the empty cushion next to her.
“This doesn’t sound good.” Brooklyn proceeded with caution, hoping Lela wasn’t about to say that their burgeoning friendship needed to slow down.
“Don’t worry. I won’t bite.” Lela leaned closer, resting her elbows on her knees and peering into Brooklyn’s eyes with a look that could only be described as pity. “I know we haven’t known each other for very long, but I’m concerned about you.”
“You are?”
“Yes. After seeing you in action at Posh Post and starting to understand how you work, I think you might be headed for a serious case of burnout.”
“I don’t know why people think this about me. I’m fine.”
“I think you’re confusing surviving with thriving. And that’s because you and your sister have done a brilliant job with your company. But have you noticed that she takes time for herself and you don’t? Almost every time I call you, you’re at work or thinking about work.”
“Sometimes I think about motherhood. And babies.”
“While you’re at work?”
Brooklyn sucked in a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. “Yes.”
“Look. I only spent a few hours with you that day I was at your office, but I was completely exhausted by the time I left. I had to go to bed early. And I was only observing.”
“I thought that was a pretty chill day. We had lunch. We hung out with my mom.”
“No fewer than ten people interrupted the mailroom tour you tried to give me. Every single person who works for you counts on you, even for little things. You need to make that go away.”
“How is it bad that I know everything about my own business? Seems to me like that’s the best way to do it.”
“I get it. I was the same way at the beginning. Nobody was capable of doing things right. It was my company and I was the only person who knew how things should be done.”
