Page 26 of What We Got Wrong

“Love you too, buddy,” Quinn replied. “Give my Paisley Mae a hug for me.”

There were two afternoon breakouts, and Quinn and Mel once again took a divide-and-conquer approach, attending separate sessions to interact with as many people as possible. They met up again before the mixer, taking a few quick minutes to debrief before heading back to the ballroom for the event. Quinn was anxious to get it over with, in part because she knew they were supposed to meet Liv’s dad, but mostly because she was hoping to get away quickly to get some laps in the pool.

They showed up fashionably late, the room teeming with people by the time they’d walked in. The chairs that had been set in rows that morning were gone. There were bars set up at each end of the room, pub tables for folks to stand around sprinkled throughout the space, and a DJ playing music, loud enough to set a tone, but quiet enough to not be distracting.

After waiting in line to grab drinks, Mel led Quinn to a group of people that she’d met that afternoon, introducing Quinn and explaining that this team worked in the marketing department at different offices across the country, and this was the one week in the year that they were all in the same place. They took a few minutes to chat with this group before circulating around the room, this time working as a team so that they could be sure to meet Mr. Palmer together. The whole time, Quinn kept her head on a swivel, on the lookout for Liv, though she didn’t see her anywhere.

“Hey, Prism Group,” Quinn heard someone say, and she turned to find Audrey approaching them.

“Hi friend,” Mel greeted her, reminding Audrey of their names before she even had the chance to ask.

“Oh, I remember,” Audrey replied, eyes gleaming. “How’s your week going so far?”

Mel turned to Quinn, allowing her to answer. “Day one was great. First impressions, y’all put on a terrific event.”

“Aw, thank you,” Audrey said, and though she said it lightly, her gratitude appeared genuine. “Is there anyone specifically you’re hoping to talk to tonight?”

Mel pulled a face, trying to give the impression that they hadn’t thought much about it. “We’re just doing the rounds right now. If we get the chance to meet Mr. Palmer and thank him for having us, that would be cool. If not, we’ll try to connect later this week.”

“I think I might be able to make that happen.” She led them towards a table in the back corner, where her uncle was standing surrounded by a group of people.

“Uncle Scotty,” Audrey said after making her way through the crowd. When he turned to them, he grinned.

“Ah, the Do It Badly girls! I loved your video,” Mr. Palmer said, approaching them with his hand out to shake. While Quinn didn’t love being referred to as a girl, given she was over thirty, she was still surprised Mr. Palmer had seen their viral clip, that it had resonated with him, so much so that she didn’t call him out for the comment. “I’m Scott, it’s so nice to meet you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Quinn said before sharing their names. She tried her best to mask how strange it was to meet him. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to be here with J&P this week. It’s been great so far.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” he replied. “You’re based out of Detroit, is that correct? It’s been a while since I checked in on our operations there. I should make that happen sooner rather than later.”

“We flew in from Detroit, yes, but we’re about forty-five minutes outside of the city,” Mel answered. “We work with businesses across the mitten, but Prism is based between Detroit and Lansing, not too far from Ann Arbor. We’re building a pretty sizeable client base in Grand Rapids, too, just about two hours from us.”

“Sounds like a great location,” he replied. “A lot of clients in automotive?”

“Some,” Mel said. “Manufacturing in general is going well. Plus, we’ve gotten a few bigger clients in healthcare.”

“It’s good to diversify,” Mr. Palmer said, almost sounding like he was proud of them. He was known for supporting small businesses—it was a point Quinn had highlighted when she sold Mel on pitching the conference—so maybe that wasn’t completely off base. “Michigan is a great place to start a business, especially with something like you have, where you work with different sectors. It’s smart strategy.”

“Thank you, Mr. Palmer,” Quinn replied, overwhelmed by his praise.

“Call me Scott, please. You know, my Olivia went to school in Michigan.” Quinn couldn’t decide if she wanted to focus on his searching eyes or Mel’s smug face, because she could see that her friend was already plotting her ‘I told you so.’ “Are you familiar with the Brighton area? She went to Livingston State University.”

“Huh,” Mel said. “You know, Mr. Palmer, we are familiar with that school.”

Quinn wanted to shove her. “Mel and I actually met there, in the MBA program, about eight or nine years ago.”

“What a coincidence,” he replied. Mel could hardly keep in her laughter, and Quinn felt like she was literally watching the wheels turn in Audrey’s mind. “You would have just missed her, though. She graduated ten years ago this year.”

“That is wild,” Mel replied, her acting performance subpar at best. Quinn’s eyes locked onto her friend’s, trying to telepathically communicate to her that, while she understood her promise of torture, maybe it would be in her best interest if she shut the fuck up. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Mel continued, “You know, I only did grad school there, a bit after that, but my good buddy here did undergrad at Livingston, too. The years sound right. Maybe they had some overlap.”

“Were you at their school of business?” he asked, his full attention on Quinn.

“My bachelor’s is in psychology,” she answered quickly.

“I see. Well, maybe you had a class or a club in common,” he suggested.

“I swam all four years. It took up most of my time,” Quinn replied.

“Ah, well. Even still, you’ll have to find her sometime this week,” he continued. “She’s not feeling well tonight, so she skipped this, but she loved her time there. I’m sure she’d appreciate the walk down memory lane.”