Chapter Thirty-Seven
Maddie
Monday rolls around pretty quickly, my wake-up routine flying by in a rush while I get ready for the day, running late after staying awake too late watching horror movies with Caid and Ryan.
Thankfully, Ryan decided to tag along to work with me, bringing two cups of delicious coffee and his charming smile that relaxes me better than a Xanax would.
After parting ways at the lounge, me offering him a quick wave after he drops a brief kiss to my cheek, I delve straight into my first shoot of the day.
It’s an easy shoot, a campaign for a popular jeans brand where I’m blessed with photographing three beautiful and sweet actresses who’ve been made the ambassadors of the brand for the season.
By the time I catch a break, Ryan is busy on the phone, and I decide not to interrupt.
Instead, I head to my office and snack on a fruit cup Zeke brings me before sitting in the chair behind my desk.
Jolie is seated beside him, searching through her planner, while Gretchen lounges on the couch near the door with her nose stuck in her tablet, each of us searching for the perfect time to book two whole weeks off for a vacation I didn’t want.
“I mean, we can always shuffle bookings around, right?” Zeke asks, scanning his laptop screen intently and shaking his head.
Jolie shrugs. “Shouldn’t be much of an issue so long as we rebook with enough time in advance.”
“And we need to make sure our schedules line up. If Maddie isn’t here, then there’s no need for us to be here, too, right?
I mean, we’re her assistants, so what do we do if there’s no Maddie to assist?
We’re spare parts, and if the machine is away, then surely our presence isn’t needed, either.
Right?” Gretchen wonders in a flowing rush of words without a single stutter, peering over at me over her tablet.
I already know what she’s doing, amused by her efforts, and I smirk as I shake my head slowly.
“Nice try, Gee, but you and I both know there’s plenty for you all to do while I’m away,” I say, watching as she slumps in her seat after I dash her hopes and dreams of getting a free vacation.
Sadly for her and the others, they don’t need me here to be busy.
Since they often plan shoots well before their bookings, doing plenty of research and building concepts based on my original plans, there’s too much work for all four of us to take a vacation.
Jolie snickers, flicking through pages of her planner, her old-school mind rebelling against using a digital calendar as opposed to a good old-fashioned paper planner.
Not that I blame her, because a paper planner is far more reliable.
“We have roughly three projects that need our attention, but if you give us the design plan, the concept you’re aiming for, and locations if we’re not shooting here, then we’ll work on those in the two weeks you’re away. ”
“We just need to find a slot where Boss Lady doesn’t have a packed schedule. Have you guys found anything yet?” Zeke wonders, a pen sticking out of his mouth as he continues searching through our shared calendar, the same one open on my screen.
Popping a strawberry in my mouth, I skip over this month, already knowing that is a no-no.
I have far too many shoots planned this month, too many deadlines, and I can’t reschedule any of them.
Next month isn’t looking so hot, either, and I start to begrudge my vacation win all over again.
A little robot vacuum would never have given me this much trouble.
“How about here?” Zeke finally asks after all four of us grow silent as we delve deep into our search for the perfect time to jet off for two weeks.
“Where?” I ask, unable to see his highlighted cursor among the scheduled meetings, bookings, and reminders that litter the entire calendar.
“Right here,” he repeats, as though I’ve suddenly found where he is on my screen in the last second.
“We can push this meeting back, reschedule these two, and bring forward this shoot. That’s week one.
Week two is mostly packed with things I need to do with sign-offs from you, but I think it could work if we plan it properly. ”
Shaking my head, I blurt, “I have no idea where you are on my screen, dude. Come here and show me, because my eyes are only being assaulted by all the different color tags.”
Snickering, Zeke stands and rounds my desk, slotting himself into the space at my right. Just as he reaches for my mousepad, Jolie hurries around to my left, her planner and pen in hand. “Wait for me. I need to double-check that things are good on my end, too.”
Zeke pauses and looks over at Gretchen. “You too, yapper. Come over here so I don’t have to do this a second time.”
Gee hauls herself up, slinging her legs off the arm of the couch before shuffling over, standing at my back with a smart-ass salute that tickles me more than anything.
Though she’s a yapper, a woman who is a big fan of small and big talks, she’s also comically sarcastic when she’s comfortable with those around her.
Since she’s worked for me for only a year less than Zeke and a year more than Jolie, our relationship has been built on plenty of late nights, bonding over snacks, work, and random things through the years that have blessed me with easy and fun relationships with my assistants.
We’re a well-oiled machine, a functioning unit, even if all three of them can be as sassy as my best friends.
Thankfully, it’s a part of their charm, even though I’m sure it’s Zeke’s fault the other two have grown in their sarcasm and attitudes over the years.
Jolie isn’t quite at the same level as Zeke or Gretchen yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
“All right, so the next two months won’t work, so it would have helped if you were on the right month,” Zeke notes with a heavy dose of mockery, and I glare at him before focusing back on the calendar.
I watch as the mouse swishes to and fro, Zeke whizzing it around before he stops on the month after.
“Right here. Check your diaries, ladies, because from what I can see, this is the perfect time for a two-week vacation.”
Sure enough, it’s the clearest month in my entire calendar.
One week includes three meetings and a photo shoot I’ve planned with Henley for a mansion she’s renovating from top to bottom.
Zeke is right. I can reschedule two of the meetings and push one back until I’m home from vacation.
I’ll call Henley and discuss rearranging our shoot, and hey presto, there’s one week of freedom.
The following week is a little busier, with more notes that will need clearing, but it’s doable.
Jolie presses her planner down on the desk and flicks three times to the same month, dropping her finger to the weeks in question.
As though the universe is trying to apologize for the bird fiasco yesterday, Jolie’s schedule is clearer than mine, a healthy sign that she’ll be able to function for those two weeks without me.
“This could work for me,” Gretchen declares from behind me, leaning over my shoulder to double-check with her own calendar, and things start looking up a whole lot more.
Zeke nods, pointing at the screen. “This right here will be the trickiest, but I don’t think it’ll be a big problem. We can work something out. But those are two weeks we can clear enough for everything to run smoothly here while you spend some time in the sun. You’re looking a little pasty, boss.”
I ignore him, looking over the calendar once more before retrieving a sticky notepad and scribbling the dates down, nodding as I mutter, “All right. So we can all do these dates before I book them, right? Should we double-check the rest of the year before we cement it?”
With three different agreements, we all lean in and check the following months for a better spot.
We’re so absorbed with our task, in fact, that not one of us hears the door open and close.
We don’t hear or see anyone walk into my office.
And we certainly don’t realize there’s a presence in the room until there’s a sharp knock on the desk.
We react as a unit, fear manifesting from all of us in a mirroring fashion that I would actually consider kind of startling.
Especially when it comes in the form of four fully grown adults screaming in terror, three of them descending on the one in the chair as though I could actually save them.
Zeke damn near crumples into me, his scream a decibel higher than the rest of ours, while Jolie ducks and shoves her entire body into mine with a hug tight enough to almost steal my breath.
The scream that’s tickling my throat steals enough of it as it is.
And then there’s Gretchen, who almost smacks me upside the head with her tablet when she grips me from behind, also releasing a sound of fear that mingles disturbingly well with the rest of ours.
And all because Ryan has appeared in front of us like an apparition, not there one second and there the next.
He stands there looking just as shocked as us, eyes wide as he visibly leans away from the desk, hands held out as though he’s just happened upon a litter of terrified kittens and doesn’t want to frighten them even more.
The moment my brain finally realizes it’s just Ryan, I slump in my seat, and the others stop screaming and slowly release their hold on me.
From my peripheral, I catch Zeke shaking his head with an embarrassed blush staining his skin, and I spy Jolie ducking her head with her eyes closed, likely feeling the same level of mortification as the rest of us.