“And right.”
I stepped into my office, set my purse and laptop down beside one of the guest chairs, and woke my monitor. “It was fine.”
“Awww,” Mariah said from just outside. “That bad?”
I shouldn’t have smiled.
That was my mistake.
Mariah made a little sound like she’d just won something expensive. “Oh, wow.”
“Please go sit down.”
“No, because that smile means there was somebody.”
“There was exactly one.”
Her brows jumped. “Oh, wow.”
“Mariah.”
“Talia.”
“Go work.”
“You first.”
I hated that she made me laugh before coffee.
A few minutes later, a soft knock sounded against the glass.
Zaria stood there with her tablet tucked against her chest, sleek bob shining, expression composed in that way people wore when they were trying to stay professional through somebody else’s business.
Zaria was my assistant, officially. Unofficially, she was my shadow, my early-warning system, and a twenty-four-year-old with enough ambition tucked behind her polite voice to power the whole floor if the Wi-Fi went down. She wanted strategy one day. I could tell by the questions she asked, the meetings she lingered near, and the way she studied my edits like they were breadcrumbs leading somewhere she intended to go.
I liked that about her.
I also liked that she was smart enough not to say it too loudly yet.
I waved her in.
She stepped inside and set the tablet on my desk. “Morning. I tightened up the hotel deck, flagged the slides that still need your eyes, and highlighted the client email that used the phrase elevated experiential synergy like it meant something.”
I closed my eyes for one second. “Of course they did.”
“I figured you’d want caffeine before replying.”
“See?” I said, looking up at her. “That’s why I keep you.”
One corner of her mouth moved. “That and my winning personality.”
“That too.”
Zaria smiled properly then, quick and pretty. “Your ten o’clock confirmed. Mariah moved your eleven-fifteen to noon. And the food-and-wine activation vendor is pretending their revision delay is somehow our emergency.”
“Love that for them.”
“I didn’t,” she said. “I told them you’d review and circle back.”
