I give myself twenty minutes. I text the group chat.
MAYA: JUSTIN SAID YES!!
HOLLY: I KNOW HE TOLD ME!
HOLLY: FULL RATES, MAYA!
EMILY: SHE DID IT!
LILY: THE PITCH WORKED!
MADISON: I need you to understand how proud I am right now!
CHLOE: This is the beginning of everything for you, Maya!
AMBER: The luxury resort content empire begins!
MAYA: I'm shaking a little.
HOLLY: You're allowed to shake.
MAYA: Anthony went to Justin. He advocated for it.
EMILY: ...
LILY: He what?
MAYA: He had a conversation with Justin about the pitch.
MADISON: Without telling you? Or asking you?
MAYA: Without telling me.
HOLLY: How do you feel about that?
MAYA: Complicated but in a good way. But like, I know he was just being a Daddy, looking out for me but also he should have talked to me about it first. I’m going to talk to him about it.
HOLLY: Good. That's exactly right.
LILY: Go talk to him.
MAYA: I'm going.
Then I go find him.
He's at the reindeer enclosure, which is becoming its own kind of landmark in my internal map of this week. He's checking feed supplies with Colt, and Colt takes one look at me crossing the garden and finds something extremely important to do on the other side of the building.
"Subtle," I say, watching him go.
"He's learning." Anthony closes the feed locker. Turns to face me. "Congratulations."
"Thank you." I look at him. "You went to Justin."
"I did."
"Before I sent the revised pitch, or after?"
"After. I read it on your laptop and I knew what it was worth. I wanted to make sure he knew too."
