“Oh fuck no,” he said.
Vivienne leaned back. “Read it again.”
“I read it.”
“You looked at it.”
He read it again. The campaign was clean, the photography concept, the brand positioning. He had no objection to any of it except the obvious one, which Vivienne was waiting for him to name and which he had no intention of naming first.
“They are going to surround us with fucking stuffed lions?” he said.
“This concept is absurd in all the right ways.”
“And the other client?” Piper asked.
“Noah Reyes,” Vivienne replied.
Piper set the proposal on the desk. “Viv, it’s a fuck no from me.”
“You keep saying that. You know we need to work on your image, the entire country thinks you are uptight.”
“I keep meaning it. And I don’t care what the country thinks of me. I am me, am I not good enough for the angry villagers?”
Vivienne folded her hands.
They sat silently for what felt like a while.
“The campaign needs the rivalry, they need you, and honey you need the attention,” Vivienne said. “That’s the creative concept. Two quarterbacks, opposing styles, same product. The loose MVP and the uptight neurotic with the perfect throw. The contrast is a tale as old as time. They threw in lavish stuffed taxidermy for effect and ridiculousness.”
“Find a different contrast. This sounds like a marketing team designing a fucking romance arc.”
“Ignore that shit. They want you specifically.”
“Well they can’t have me.”
Vivienne opened a different folder. Piper recognized the header. His licensing portfolio, the accumulated endorsements, the image approval clauses, the contracts he had signed or approved through the structured web of representation thatJayson had assembled over the years. Vivienne tapped a page near the bottom.
“Jayson has already reviewed the agreement and given the green light.”
Piper looked at the page. He looked past Vivienne.
“He reviewed it,” Piper said.
“He flagged it as a brand pivot for you, and baby we know you need one.”
Jayson’s flags always gave Piper anxiety.
“The photoshoot is one day,” Vivienne continued. “Studio controlled environment. Professional context. The brand handles everything.”
“And Reyes?”
“Has not yet confirmed.”
Piper breathed in for a moment, flashing back to the moment on the field. That wink.
“Though I understand Carmen is optimistic, that bitch is always optimistic.”
Piper looked out the window. The Hollywood sign sat in the afternoon light, the dry hills primed for burning.
