AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You can go back to your seat,” she says with a warm smile.
I don’t stay for the wrap-up. I know it will be the sales pitch for his executive coaching program. Sure, there are drinks and networking after the event, and these people are my perfect clients. At least a few among them have the resources to hire someone like me if they’re plant lovers. That was one reason I’d been able to justify paying $2,000 to attend. I even had professional business cards made and perfected my ten-second introduction.
But now? The last thing I want is to have any more strangers looking and laughing at me.
I hurry to the coatroom and collect my purse and jacket, leaving my notebook behind at my seat.
“It was horrible!” I tell Georgia. “He didn’t focus on the way any of the men were dressed. He’s a sexist asshole. I can’t believe I threw away all that money.”
Georgia is six years older than me and shares my normally positive disposition. “One day, when you’re rich and famous, this will be a great story in your memoir.”
“You’d think!” I stand, anger even stronger now. “But no, because we all had to sign nondisclosure agreements before being allowed in. We’re not allowed to talk about what happened inside that auditorium in any public forum.”
“If you do?”
“Total annihilation.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, shit.”
“Well, the jacket’s worth a pretty peony.” She makes a goofy face. The one she uses to cheer me up. We love puns, but that one has been used to death. “If you can prove it was owned by the High and Mighty Will Power, I bet you could make your money back.” She waves for me to give it to her. “Let me try it on. It will be as close as I ever get to touching a billionaire.”
I lift the jacket from the kitchen chair.
“Ooh, shivers,” she jokes. Georgia does up the buttons. “So, do I look like a million bucks? Maybe instead of selling it, we should rent it out.”
“Or maybe … you should tailor it so it actually fits me, and I should wear it to some hoity-toity event, get myself photographed, and make sure Mr. ‘Pill’ Power sees me in it. I’d be interviewed, and the only quote I’d give the paparazzi would be, ‘This jacket changed. My. Life.’ Then I’d roll my eyes.”
Georgia pulls off the Power suit and smooths it on her cutting table. She flips it over, turns it inside out, puts it the right way again. “I could totally tailor this for you. Want me to?”
“Why the hell not? I imagine there’s something in the NDA fine print that would have me arrested if I tried to sell or rent it using his name. But he did gift it to me in front of a thousand people, so it’s not like he could sue if I made it fit me. Right?”
Georgia shrugs. “Damn it, Virginia, I’m a seamstress, not a lawyer,” Georgia says in her best impression of Dr. McCoy fromStar Trek.
“But you can tailor it?”
“Not so much tailoring. I’ll take it apart and start fresh with the pieces. It’s so big, I won’t have any problem.” Georgia continues to fuss with the jacket while I make dinner.
“Hey, check this out.” She waves a small gold-colored card at me. “It was in a pocket like I’ve never seen before in a man’s suit jacket, just big enough to hold one business card.”
I take it from her.
“Oh. My. Goddess.” The air leaves my lungs. “It’s his golden ticket.”
4. Virginia
A MOCK MARIGOLD
Georgia grabs the card from my hand and flips it over four times.
“Explain.”
“I can’t even believe this.” I grab the card back. “OK, so you know inAmerican Idolhow the panel can push that button and it automatically sends the competitor to the final round?”
My sister nods.
“This is the Will Power version of that. If he gives you one of these, it gets you one-on-one coaching time with a person trained by him for his Power Broker Program. It’s worth at least $20,000 because that’s what it costs to get in. But this is even better. He basically says that one of these cards is his personal guarantee that you’ll hit your business targets. Like, not just a money-back guarantee since, well, it was free, but—” I am hyperventilating.
