Page 155 of Smoke and Glitter

Anna folds her arms. "What do you want to build?"

"A firm. Small on purpose." I sit forward. "Crisis work, reputation strategy, launches when they make sense. People who are good at making things and not necessarily good at becoming public property because of it. Authors. Performers. Founders. The kind of clients who get flattened inside a big agency because nobody has time to learn how their world actually works."

Anna is still long enough that my pulse starts climbing.

"Do you have clients?"

"I have people who would become clients the second they found out I owned an invoice template."

"That isn't a no."

"It isn't a yes either."

She laughs. I do too, but my hands are still tight together on the table.

"I don't want leaving to mean I stop working with you."

Anna leans back and studies me. "Autumn. You do not owe me your career because I hired you."

"I know." It comes out easily, because I do. "That isn't what this is. You took me seriously before my résumé made it convenient. You gave me rooms I hadn't earned on paper yet and expected me to prove I belonged once I got inside. I don't forget that."

She looks away for a moment, which is about as close as Anna gets to being caught by an emotion she didn't schedule.

"What are you proposing?"

"Consulting. Select accounts. The disasters you know I'll be furious about if you hand them to somebody else."

"Your rate goes up, I assume."

"Significantly."

Anna shakes her head. "I created a monster."

"You promoted one."

Her laugh comes through the laptop speakers over the rain. When she settles, she points at the camera.

"Finish the extension. Then send me a real proposal. Not three bullet points and a threat."

"That was one time."

"It was four times."

"Two of those worked."

"Send me the proposal, Autumn."

We spend another ten minutes on things that sound less like an ending and more like logistics. When we hang up, I stay in the darkening conference room with my hands flat on the table.

I said it out loud.

I didn't make Anna guess. I didn't build a whole future in my head and wait for everybody else to notice where I'd gone.

My phone lights up beside the laptop.

Sam: I found another bridge. Starting to think they have too many.

Me: come get me when you're done judging british infrastructure. I have something to tell you