Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Emmy reached the curb, while her boyfriend was just about to begin crossing the street.
“Happy birthday, you crusty sock!” She threw her arms around me.
I patted her back awkwardly and looked up at Daddy. “I don’t know who this is. Ma’am? Please release me. Can I take you to the nearest hospital?”
“Ugh.” She pushed me away. “Ma’am? Freaking ma’am?”
Daddy grinned to himself and scrubbed a hand over his face.
Welcome to the family!
DECEMBER 16
Shut, up, Emmy.
Nana’s gonna guilt you hard for not coming with us. I’ll help her.
My sister could be such a turd. I pocketed my phone without responding to her. It wasn’t my fault! I had a million things to do since I was going to freaking Europe tomorrow. I had to pack, I had to sort shit out at work, I had to go over to corporate with Mr. Williams for a meeting—and in my defense? Nana could’ve come to dinner last night. It wasn’t my fault she’d thought the world had lost the plot and therefore refused to leave Thousand Oaks.
“Parker, did you find the speakers’ material for the first leg of the tour?” Mya asked.
“Yeah—and I spoke to Milton at Archway. They’re ready for any rush orders in case we have changes.” I double-checked a few folders so I knew where to go when I had to work in airplane-mode. InDesign and Illustrator were done, thanks to the IT guys when I’d picked up my laptop, but they’d neglected to download Photoshop and Sketch. I had to sync it all up with my iPad and my sketchpad too, because I preferred to think in illustrations when I was brainstorming templates and mock-ups. Of which there would be many for this shindig.
As a graphic designer, I had to say I really loved Wyatt’s vision for my role at the event. He was like, “You know what potential clients get enough of? Speeches from men in suits. They wanna see their product getting made.”
In short, he and I were gonna schmooze with eventgoers, and I’d show them what I could do—and how quickly we could get things done when, the day after, for the second part of the event, we showed up with the finished product.
Speaking of, I had to call that British guy again. He hadn’t responded to my last email. They’d promised they were ready for anything that needed prioritized delivery, but we were about to rush-order heaps of promotional items. And this was typically the New York office’s area; we didn’t deal with the European branches out here on the West Coast.
“Kim, do you have the list of the promo items?” I asked.
“Yeah, I forwarded it to you, babe. It’s been approved at both Archway and the place in Germany.”
“Thanks, sugar tits.” I went to my email, and Kim and Mya gigglesnorted at my term of endearment.
Checking the list, I confirmed they’d added the quantities too, and I made a quick note in my phone. Both print places had lanyards, two types of pens, ice scrapers for cars, tumblers, and key ring LED lights set aside for the events we were hosting. I scrapped the tumblers altogether, possibly influenced by Wyatt, because they were expensive to just give away willy-nilly. Instead, I highlighted the ice scrapers, the LED lights, and one of the pens, and I jotted down the measurements for the logo surfaces on those three items.
“By the way, did you hear back from Andy?” Kim wondered.
“Yeah—he was surprisingly understanding,” I replied. “He said he wasn’t too worried since we’re getting four rehearsal days at the outdoor place before New Year’s. The rest of you will still practice on Saturday, though.”
She nodded. “That’s good. I gotta help Kate nail the cartwheel drop from the third platform.”
I was about to respond, but the phone rang, so I reached over and answered. “Vitamin D-deficient graphic design at the bottom of hell, this is Parker.”
“Imagine if we took calls from others than just in-house peeps,” Mya mused.
I grinned.
Oh crap—it was Wyatt. His low chuckle triggered my reindeer senses.
“Come upstairs, brat. I brought lunch.”
He was here! He was supposed to be at corporate all day, but he was here!
“Yessir, I’ll see you in approximately one minute.” I hung up the phone and got out of my chair. “See you later, muh bitches—I’m having lunch with muh Daddy.”
Man, I needed this break. I was so freaking tired.
“Oh, Parker, you forget that you’re our bitch,” Mya teased.
I paused and looked back at her. “Yeah, okay, but you don’t have to say it so the others can hear.”
They laughed, and I headed off, satisfied, and jogged through the busy cubicle area till I reached the elevators.
Aaaall the way up to the top, where employees did not need to take extra vitamin D.
I hurried to Daddy’s office, and Suravi had to be on her lunch because she wasn’t at her desk. I knocked twice, then entered, and Daddy glanced away from his computer and smiled at me.