39. Alexei
It’s nine a.m. and Emily is nowhere in sight. I feel my back get tighter and tighter every minute she’s late. Oliver spins restlessly in his chair at the conference table while Ian taps his fingers anxiously.
Cliff and his minions sit stiffly, looking more and more annoyed.
“Clearly, this girl—” He falters at my glare. “Clearly, Emily doesn’t see this meeting as a priority. I think at this point, we can start without?—”
The door flies open and Emily bursts in with her hands full of papers followed by a woman I’ve never met before. She’s petite and dark blonde with an innocent round face but eyes as shrewd as a street vendor’s. I know her face, but I have no idea from where.
“So sorry we’re late,” says the tiny woman. “The copier at my office picked the absolute worst time to jam.”
“Kim, how nice to see you,” says Cliff with a tone that belies his words.
That’s how I know her. She’s Kimberly Pratchett, one of the best independent PR “fixers” in the city.
How the hell did Emily meet her?
“Cliff, dear, it’s been too long.” She smiles.
Her smile is more a baring of teeth and very intimidating. This tiny woman is two and a half feet shorter than me, but the way she carries herself has me shrinking back in my chair away from her and she’s on my side.
I hope she’s on my side.
“Well, now that everyone is here, we can finally start,” he says pointedly. “I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all seen the Gossip Gretchen interview.”
All aboard the S.S. Bullshit. We’re ready to depart.
We all nod.
“It was definitely interesting,” Kim remarks.
“Yes, and it’s made several implications that impact the integrity of this team. We are, after all, being watched by the world. Children look up to us, and morally—” he starts.
“Actually, I’m going to jump in here. Is there a morality clause in their contract with the team?” Kim asks.
Cliff and his minions stare at her, mouths agape.
“Do I need to repeat the question?” Kim demands.
“No.” Cliff bristles. “And, no, there isn’t a specific morality clause in their contract, but?—”
“I didn’t think so,” Kim says smugly.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Emily says, looking over at us, “but haven’t the three of you dated one woman at the same time before?”
The corner of my mouth twitches up into a smile. “We have. Twice before, in fact.”
“Now, I might be just some girl and I’m not familiar with these things.” Emily’s smile is feral. “But did management have meetings with you about these women?”
Oliver grins. “Come to think of it, they didn’t.”
“Now, were these girls socialites from wealthy families or connected to prominent families in politics?” Emily asks.
“I think they might have been,” I say dryly in an attempt to hide my smile.
Emily turns toward Cliff. “I think that’s very interesting that you didn’t have meetings with them over these women who came from elite backgrounds, but you are very concerned about a girl from a working class family. And if my social media research is accurate at the height of the media frenzy with these women, your PR team issued a statement in support of your ‘golden trio’, as you called them, and even demanded that the media leave those upstanding women alone.”
“I’m not sure I recall that,” Cliff sputters. “And frankly, the implications you’re making are quite offensive, young lady.”
Big mistake.
Emily bristles. “Implications? I’ll be clearer. Your protection of the socialite and the governor’s niece and your lack of protection of a working-class single mother in the exact same situation is elitist at best. Is that clear enough for you? Additionally, I’m a grown woman with multiple degrees, one of which is a DPT, so I suggest you refer to me as Doctor, or Ma’am.”
I don’t care that there are ten other people in this room. Seeing her stand up to the head toenail for herself and in defense of our relationship makes me want to throw her gorgeous round ass on top of this table and fuck her right here.
“Also, Cliff,” Kim adds, “I actually have the posts in support of both Ms. Jackson and Ms. Mayeski right here on page one of this packet.”
She takes the papers from in front of Emily and distributes one to every person at the table.
I take a moment to leaf through mine. There are at least ten pages of screenshots, graphs, and survey results, among other things. I’m not one to underestimate my woman, but I’d be surprised if she’d been able to get this done during the two hours she was gone last night. Maybe this is what she’s been so secretive about lately.
“Would you like me to highlight those posts for you?” Kim asks.
“No,” Cliff grumbles.
“Wonderful.” She smiles. “Now that we’re all on the same page, I’d like to walk you through the information in this packet. Emily and I have been working together for the past several days on a social media strategy for her family. She reached out after a mob of reporters swarmed her house in the hopes of finding a way to manage public interest in a way that keeps her family safe. As a courtesy, we’re informing you of our plans so you can decide which side of the issue you’d like to be on, though I’m sure once we’ve finished, you’ll see the sense in my plan and climb aboard.”
Emily sees me staring and rolls her chair closer to mine.
“What?” she whispers. “Too much? You had mentioned getting our own PR offhand before, so I thought I’d take the liberty to take that off your plate.”
“Kitten, I swear as soon as we get home, I’m dragging you into the house and throwing you on the bed,” I whisper back.
“Promise?” she murmurs.
Fuck, I love this woman.
“Now on page two is an overview of all the scandals members of your team have been embroiled in over the last five years. As indicated on the graph, the three most common scandals are adultery, gambling, and marijuana possession that exceeded the threshold for personal use. Below that graph is a paragraph with an overview of your management team’s responses. Underneath that is a graph of how well those responses worked. Please note that for this purpose, doing nothing does count as a response. If you flip to the next page, you’ll see the exact same data charts depicting four teams with the same three top issues and their media responses. I’ve taken the liberty of having my secretary highlight the key differences in strategy. And, Cliff, I’d be happy to reach out to them for you if you’d like some tips for your PR department,” Kim says.
“We’ve got it handled, but thank you,” he says tersely.
“Of course you do.”
After a general data overview in which Kim basically drags Cliff’s PR department through the mud, she moves on to the plan that she and Emily collaborated on for the press moving forward.
It’s absolutely brilliant, and if I had been in charge, I wouldn’t have done a single thing differently. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have done half as good of a job as Emily and Kim have. I’ve always left branding in the capable hands of Frank and kept it all professionally focused. The thought of creating a family social media account to control our story had never even occurred to me.
I had always known Emily was brilliant and capable, but seeing her like this makes my heart nearly burst from the pride I have in her. A quick glance over at Ian and Oliver tells me that they’re equally awed.
A look passes between us, and I know without a word that we’re all on the same page. As soon as we get home after this meeting, we’re going to worship her like the goddess she is.
By the end of the meeting, Cliff has completely accepted his defeat and submitted to every single one of Kim’s demands. They would now be working with us instead of against us.
As we exit, Cliff stops me and shakes my hand.
“That is a damn fine woman you’ve got there,” he says, nodding at Emily’s retreating form.
I smile. “Yes, sir, she is.”