“And let you squirm out of it?” She folded her arms. “Ms. Fong is not as subtle as she thinks she is.Youhave not been taking time off, firstly—”
“Oh, god, I should have known she’d run her mouth. Linyue—”
“Andyou,” she said, pointing at Julie. “Why don’t you come have a private meeting with me in the building lobby?”
“Linyue, do not kill Julie,” I said flatly. Julie put her hands up.
“Helena and I are really counting on each other right now to make this project go through, so maybe you can kill me once it’s done? I mean, I’d really hate to inconvenience her.”
“Julie. Nobody’s killing you.”
Linyue scowled, her eyes narrowed, until—clearly entirely out of her control—a laugh slipped out. “I,” she said with a declarative air, “will pencil that in. What is happening? This one comes back, and now Ms. Fong is talking to Cheng Shiyi under my nose, and then I check in with Ms. Adesina and find out you are building some kind of unauthorized industry event for her brand under her nose?”
“Yeah,” Julie said. “We could use your help, actually, if you have time.”
Linyue threw her hands up. “You do all of this behind my back, you put Ms. Warrick through everything she’s been through, and then you ask for my help?”
“Yeah,” Julie said. “We’re having dinner, if you want to join us.”
Linyue scoffed, storming past us into the apartment. “I’ll put on some water.”
I stared dumbfounded as Linyue marched into the kitchen, turning on the kettle and, as far as I could tell from the sound, rummaging in the fridge, probably having decided our food wasn’t quite enough and needed something extra. Julie shrugged at me, dropping her voice.
“She’s in a better mood than I’d expected.”
“You call that a good mood?” I said, and she shrugged again.
“I don’t know, I think that’s how she does a good mood.”
“She told you to go with her so she could kill you.”
“Yeah, with her own two hands. The personal touch. I’m flattered.”
I laughed, pinching the bridge of my nose. Julie Branch, truly, operated on her own frequency. I couldn’t complain. It seemed to work.
Maybe it was that… king’s mindset of hers.
Linyue had dinner with us, where she spent most of the time yelling at Julie, and Julie took it all in stride, even offering up more ammunition for Linyue to yell at her about, describing the situation in more detail. Apparently it was what the situation needed, because eventually, Linyue got all the yelling out of her system, and then, suddenly, she slumped against the table.
“So, what are the parameters on this new event plan of yours?” she said. “I will have to review your OKRs. We’ll be working on an expedited timeline now, and I don’t like expedited timelines.”
I got a rush, awhooshin my chest as something released, relief flooding me, but Julie didn’t even blink, her phone out. “I’ll send you the project documents,” she said. “We’ll touch base and make sure this goes through smoothly, or else it’s going to kill me, and then you won’t get the chance to.”
“These are laid out terribly,” Linyue said, having looked at the documents for three milliseconds.
“Well,” Julie said, “we have approximately zero time to make them better.”
Linyue waved her phone at me. “And you?” she said. “You’re the business planner now, Ms. Warrick. You also have to answer for this.”
I felt a strange, fizzing feeling in my chest, and I almost laughed. It wasn’t really real until Linyue acknowledged it, and then, just like that, I guess it was. “I appreciate your coaching,” I said. “I have a lot to learn from your systems.”
She scowled in that way she did when she was trying not to smile. “Don’t try to flatter me. I’m very angry right now.”
Just like that, we were on the same page, and Linyue worked with us well into the evening, brutally assessing our timeline and strategizing the most we could possibly do with it. By the time we finished, we had something serious, practical, workable, not just a pie-in-the-sky idea that was operating toomuch on hopes and dreams for being this close to the deadline. Linyue sighed as we sat together in the living room now, massaging her temples.
“It’s a good thing you’ve gotten the network so solid and that the interest is high, but the logistics will be strained with this little time…”
“The biggest problem is Adesina,” Julie said. “She’s still dragging her feet, so if we have enough of a gap that it will make more sense for her to just step in and fill it, then she’ll be able to do a lot of that.”
