- Landon -
was starting to think working with Margot was a really bad idea. Not that she wasn’t capable. She was bright, full of energy, and seemed to genuinely enjoy problem solving.
But ever since last Friday, I was having a much harder time separating my personal and professional persona. And sometimes when she was talking, I got so distracted by her lips that I couldn’t follow the words that were coming out of her mouth.
“Landon.”
The sound of my name interrupted my trance.
“Are you even listening?” she asked, leaning back in her seat at the conference table.
I thought it would be better if we met in the fishbowl room that week, thinking the glass walls might encourage me to focus better since we had an important deadline coming up.
“Don’t you have to present all this stuff on Thursday?” she asked, batting her eyelashes more in annoyance than flirtation.
“Yeah, I’m listening.”
She clasped her hands on the table. “What did I just say?”
“You said you wanted to kiss me again, and I was about to tell you it wouldn’t be appropriate in this setting.”
She rolled her eyes, but a soft smile pricked her cheeks. “That’s not what I was saying at all,” she said, glancing towards the hall before lowering her voice. “And for the record, you kissed me.”
“I think you’ll find that you started it. When I burnt my thumb.”
She cocked her head. “Landon.”
“What?”
“Can we talk about this later? I still have two more ideas I want to run by you, and I’m taking minutes for Dick at two thirty.”
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll stop picturing you naked and start paying attention.”
The pink tint of her cheeks intensified.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
She leaned forward and set an elbow on the table between us. “Can I be honest with you?”
“Of course.”
“I’ve never been so uncomfortable in my life.”
My face drooped.
“But I’ll only feel worse if you apologize for it.”
“Noted,” I said, the corner of my eye catching Dick mid-swagger in the hall. “Now, as far as your other ideas, I assume one is a proposal for the commercial?”
“It is.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“I was thinking it could feature a montage of brilliant, instantly recognizable snapshots from around the world, but they would flash so fast you’d miss one if you blinked.”
“So viewers see something new in the ad every time they watch it?”
“Exactly,” she said. “And I think if we pull it off—and get the music right—it might even raise the viewer’s pulse, which would make it even more memorable.”
“I like it so far,” I said. “When does the advertising come in?”
“In between the snapshots,” she said. “One word at a time.”
“I thought you wanted the frames to flash rapidly?”
“I do,” she said. “And I know it’s a risk for the actual message to move fast as well, but I think it could work to our advantage.”
“Go on.”
“Well, even if a viewer misses a word or two the first time around, that should only increase how likely they are to pay attention the next time.”
“Because brains like to solve puzzles.”
“So you get it.”
“Not only do I get it,” I said, “but I think it could be great. Not to mention well within budget, which the client will love.”
She straightened in her chair. “I figured we’d keep the message in the commercial similar to the one in the print ad for consistency. So it would say something like, ‘Make new memories without sacrificing your old ones.’”
“We’ll have to lock that down verbatim before Thursday.”
“Along with the final image,” she said. “I think that’s vital.”
“What were you thinking?”
“A plain white background featuring a passport with a Fujama SD card on it, and that shot will remain for several seconds.”
“Which will feel like an eternity after the rapid-fire images.”
She nodded. “What do you think?”
“I think the passport could confuse the final message. It might be more effective to just have the product and the brand name.”
“I could see that.”
“I also think you’re not being paid enough.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Landon. That really means a lot.”
“I mean it, Margot. If we land this campaign, it’ll create a lot of business for the firm, and it’s only fair that you be compensated for your contribution.”
“Let’s land it first and deal with that later.”
“Sounds good. I just wanted you to know that I’m in your corner, and I’ll go to bat for you if I have to.”
“Thanks,” she said. “As far as my last idea, it’s actually based on the final image.”
“Shoot.”
“I think you could suggest to them, even though they haven’t asked, that if they ever wanted to run an ad in airline magazines, they could use that final image—the one with the passport.”
I raised my eyebrows as she pulled a sketch from a brown folder to her left and slid it across the corner of the table towards me.
“Under the items, it could simply say ‘Travel Light’ or ‘Packing List’ with a checked box next to the words ‘passport’ and ‘Fujama memory card.’”
I stared at the page.
“Something like that,” she said. “Which, personally, if I were traveling, would fill me with vorfreude.”
I furrowed my brow. “Vorfreude?”
“The happiness you experience from imagining future pleasures.”
“Which is pretty much why people buy memory cards in the first place.”
“Bingo,” she said. “So?”
“So I think you should present it on Thursday.”
She shook her head.
“It’s your baby, after all, and it would be a great opportunity to demonstrate that you can bring a project from seed idea to pitch on your own.”
“Not a chance.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because speaking in front of people isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“You can’t grow if you don’t leave your comfort zone, though, and I’ll be right there in the room with you.”
“I’m not ready for that, Landon. Trust me. I’m not.”
“Just because Matt spoke over you your entire childhood doesn’t mean you can’t speak for yourself now. No one is going to interrupt you in that meeting.”
“You don’t understand.” Her pretty face grew serious. “I deliberately bombed a test in eighth grade so I wouldn’t have to give the valedictorian speech at graduation.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and noticed her hands were gripping the edge of the table so hard her knuckles had gone white.
“This isn’t a quirk or a preference. I have a real fear of public speaking. Honestly, if I thought I had to present this stuff on Thursday, I’d have too much anxiety to come to work tomorrow. Please.”
“Jesus, all right. You’ve made your point.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “I know it’s a hard thing for someone like you to understand, but—”
“What do you mean someone like me?”
“Someone who doesn’t mind being in the spotlight.”
“I think you have me confused with someone else,” I said. “I don’t enjoy speaking in front of people. I just get on with it. Like an adult.”
Her eyes drooped at the corners. “It kills me to let you down by not jumping at the chance, but—”
“You haven’t let me down,” I said. “Ever.”
She pressed her lips together.
“And you never could, okay? No matter what.”
Her blue eyes held mine for so long the room faded away, and I could’ve sworn I felt something shift inside me. Something I hadn’t felt before. Something that made me think I might actually have it in me to love someone again.
But I decided not to dwell on it.
Because in three days’ time, I was going to betray her trust.