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He encouraged her to go on with a wave.
She wrung her hands together in her lap. “I have this friend—well, no, boyfriend actually—” It had been a few days since the family dinner, but Everly could still hear Logan’s words in her head.I’m all in.She could still feel the delicious pressure of his mouth on hers when they’d snuck from the dining room to make out on the back porch. It had felt new somehow, sharing kisses as a full-fledged couple. “Logan, the cameraman? I think you’ve met him.”
Bob nodded. His patience bordered on superhuman.
“Well, he has this dog sanctuary that he and a veterinarian friend of his are trying to get off the ground. It would be a place for dogs without homes to be taken care of, and trained, and hopefully adopted out to families. But if not, then they’d have a safe, comfortable place to live out the rest of their years. They also want it to be a daycare and training facility and even some kind of doggie café, where the animals could be supervised while being exposed to people regularly.”
“It sounds like a really great project,” Bob said.
“It is. And they’ve got some funding in place, but their branding is very… homespun?”
“Ah.”
Everly set her stack of papers on his desk so he could see what she’dbeen working on. Dummy website pages, sample logos, merchandise, social media graphics.
“If we could take them on,” she said, “I’d like to do the branding work.” She swallowed hard. This last part was so scary to say out loud. It was her making a decision. Finally taking a real step toward a career path, not a job. “And I hope it could be used toward possibly being considered for the next designer position that opens up.”
Bob shuffled through her work, giving each page a thorough inspection. A moment later, he handed them back, and his warm brown eyes met Everly’s. “Tell your Logan we’re happy to take on Sundae’s Sanctuary. Then finalize these and we’ll have you present them to the rest of the team.”
“Wait. Really?” Everly’s enthusiasm raised her voice four octaves.
“Absolutely.”
She jumped to her feet, clutching the papers to her chest. “Bob, thank you so much.”
She was halfway out the door when he said her name.
“I’ve seen the work you do in your free time at your desk. And how you guide James. It’s about time you asked to be promoted to designer.” He gave her one more smile. “You’re ready.”
She was practically floating as she made her way back to her desk.
Everly had taken a lot of chances over the past few weeks, but this felt like the biggest one.
Everly Winters: Outtake
Week 6, Day 6
3:45P.M.
The camera zooms in on Everly’s arm, slowly panning over her new tattoo. Her skin is irritated from the needles, giving a red shadow to the black and gray lines. The ornate birdcage takes up about half her forearm, starting from the elbow. The top and bottom of the cage have intricate floral designs woven into the metalwork, and scrolling stretches between the bars. One side has burst open, bent bars hanging out of the cage or folded inward. A flock of blackbirds erupts from the opening. The ones closest to the cage have the most detail: outlines of feathers, wild-eyed stares, beaks thrown wide in song. The farther the birds get from the cage, the more they become shadow as they loop toward the front of Everly’s arm.
She inspects Goro’s work, and a large smile breaks across her face. Her eyes shine, glassy with tears.
Becca crams into the shot to show off her own tattoo: a small etching of a bagel smothered in cream cheese on the top of her foot.
Everly wrestles Logan’s camera from him so she can take some footage of the new logo she designed for Sundae’s Sanctuary, which he’s had inked on the back of his left shoulder.
As they leave the tattoo studio, Goro is heard off camera telling Everly that he’ll see her in January for the start of her apprenticeship.
She calls back, her face bright, “And maybe my second tattoo.”
CHAPTER 30
Everly stared at her reflection in the dressing room mirror.
All around her hung colorful, stylish clothing that would soon follow her home to her own closet. Shiny, luxurious silks. Soft jerseys and cottons. Bright patterns. Fun silhouettes. Even without trying any of it on yet, she could already see how different she would feel.
No. “Different” was the wrong word.Morewas how she felt; more like herself. Her outside reflecting how she’d begun to feel on the inside.
