count on me (l.h)

"lucky bastard"

chapter fifty-three: lucky bastard

THURSDAY AFTERNOON. It had been an uneventful week, to say the very least. Which had been a wonderful change of pace with all the unwelcomed excitement that I had experienced in the past month. My schedule hadn't been hectic and, thankfully, Luke hadn't been nearly as swamped either. We had shared many late-night phone calls and it felt unbelievably nice for things to be back to mostly normal. While things were becoming more balanced in most realms, things at work were completely changing.

Not surprisingly, my focus started to drift as I sat in a meeting with many of my coworkers. The news that I would be replacing Pat had been officially shared with everyone in the office, so this was the first official meeting that pertained to what the transition period would look like. It wasn't a meeting I should have been zoning out in, but I was notorious for having at least a five-minute spell of being less than present.

My focus was coming back slowly but before I could be fully immersed in the conversation again, I observed the actions of a handful of people sitting around me. First up was Emma. She was taking notes as Tony spoke, just like she always did. Despite her never having been a secretary for the company, and having no one tell her to take such detailed notes, Emma had become the scribe for meetings in her early days. Or so the story goes. Everyone dreaded the days where Emma wasn't present; trying to replace her minute-taking was useless but necessary. Things always went better with Emma around.

My focus then shifted to Pat. He seemed almost as distracted as myself, which wasn't out of the ordinary. Pat was either hogging the conversation or completely silent. Rarely was there an in-between. While it seemed like both of us should have been the ones doing a lot of the talking, we were mostly getting talked at. But I didn't personally mind.

"Josie's gotta start writing her backstage rider," Pat said through a breathy laugh. I hadn't caught what had been said moments before, but my eyes playfully rolled at his words.

"When's the last time we paid attention to yours?" Emma asked through an amused scoff. Pat jokingly gasped and placed his hand on his chest. "I can't say Josie's half as particular as you are."

"I'd say it would be pretty difficult to get to my level," Pat said, making a jab at himself. He and Emma shared small smiles before letting the meeting resume.

Getting used to Emma and Pat being genuinely civil with one another had been an adjustment; it was almost strange not to feel a tension between them. And everyone in the office was aware of it. At first, it was almost uncomfortable having them on good terms. But everyone got over themselves fairly quickly.

For the first time in a long time, it felt like every single person in the room was on the same page—playing for the same team. It felt amazing.

"Here's an idea," Mav, a scriptwriter, grabbed everyone's attention before continuing. "The viewers love Josie—there's no doubt about that. They'd love to see more of her because it's all they ever comment. And perhaps handing them clear evidence that she'll be taking over soon won't even penetrate. Sure, there will be handfuls of people that catch on, but that'll just start some discourse. Which could work to our advantage." Mav had successfully stolen my focus and, once again, I was fully engaged in the meeting. "Imagine we put out the main video next week with Josie doing the introduction. Pretending as though it's totally normal and she does it every week—then we pan to Pat walking into the studio as if he's just now coming in for his call, and then we have a funny moment of him being caught off guard. Until eventually he walks up to the set and kicks Josie out. Then it's never mentioned again."