Chapter Seven
Seven
The meeting, which was held in Destiny’s Child, was a small one.
When Stella and Effie arrived, the only people at the round table were Melanie; Katy, one of the other content writers; and the three new editorial fellows, Sam, Tracy, and Liz.
“Okay, I think this is everyone,” Melanie said as Stella closed the door.
Melanie sat at the head of the table in front of the blacked-out TV with a branded Yellow Sparks notebook in front of her.
Unlike everyone else in the room and most other Yellow Sparks employees, Melanie did not carry her MacBook with her wherever she went.
She once told Stella that she could only brainstorm with pen and paper.
As far as bosses went, Melanie was an interesting one.
She was only thirty, a mere three years older than Stella, and had made her way to Yellow Sparks via Tumblr.
Not that she worked for Tumblr; she’d just amassed a large following there, and after Yellow Sparks had made a number of viral posts based on her content, she threatened to sue if they didn’t hire her.
Or at least that was the urban legend. Melanie said legally she wasn’t allowed to talk about it.
Regardless, Melanie was a peak woke white woman millennial. She went out of her way to make sure everyone on her team felt heard and validated, and she always emphasized that she was an Ally??, although it took her way too long to finally remove her Hogwarts house from her bio.
For the most part, Melanie was chill, letting the team write about almost anything as long as it fit with the Yellow Sparks brand and wasn’t some long-form essay about why comparing Beyoncé to Taylor Swift was like comparing Jay-Z to Harry Styles, something no one does because they’re men, not women.
Stella had pitched that one a couple weeks ago and was reminded that was something the Spark News team would handle.
Today, however, Stella had the perfect pitch, so when Melanie said, “Happy Hump Day, everyone! Who’d like to start us off?” Stella’s hand shot straight up in the air.
Melanie gave her a polite smile. “Stella, as I’ve said many times, you don’t have to raise your hand. The pathway of communication between you all and me is always open and clear.”
Beside her, Effie snorted, and Stella shot her a glare before shifting her attention back to Melanie.
“Right, sorry,” Stella said. “I’m just excited about this one.”
Melanie waved her hand as if to say, “Go on,” so Stella did.
“ ‘Eleven Places to Lose Your Virginity,’ ” Stella said proudly.
“Or ‘The Eleven Best Places to Lose Your Virginity.’ I was thinking it could be either general, like a car or in the house, or I could make this a series and do it by city. We could even open it up to the Sparks community and ask people where they think the best places to do the deed are. That would generate even more traffic!”
In the midst of all her tossing and turning last night, Stella had found herself asking why she thought having sex in a sex club would ever end well. Then she wondered, where was the best place to lose your virginity?
From there, she spiraled herself into a pitch. One Melanie seemed to like, based on the way she was nodding her head.
“Interesting,” she said. “I think let’s do it based on location, starting with New York, of course.
Though don’t crowdsource it. We’ve been getting some backlash for that lately.
Come up with your own places, and maybe ask around the office if others have ideas, too.
We can see how this one does and then you could do other cities if it succeeds. Sound good?”
“Great,” Stella said, beaming. It wasn’t a personal essay per se, but it was personal, and maybe she could weave her own experience into the post as well. Without mentioning Max by name, of course.
Melanie glanced around the room. “Anyone else?”
The small room fell quiet, and Stella looked at Effie, who was still working on her post, clearly paying no mind to what was being said. Stella rolled her eyes. She obviously hadn’t needed Effie’s support, but if she had, Effie would’ve been no help at all.
Melanie let the silence hang for a moment before clapping her hands and jumping to her feet.
“Alrighty then, meeting dismissed,” she said. “Fellows, don’t forget you have quiz training this afternoon at three. Everyone else, don’t forget about the all-hands at four. I expect you all to at least look up from your computers when Miles speaks.”
Melanie gave a pointed look to Effie, who either ignored it or simply could not feel the glare. Either way, Melanie rolled her eyes and then she was gone. Everyone else was standing to leave, and Stella had to nudge Effie in the shoulder before she finally noticed the meeting was done.
“Good job,” Effie said.
Stella raised a brow at her as they stepped out of the meeting room.
“Did you even hear what I said?”
“Yes, virginity and where to lose it,” Effie said. She smirked at what Stella presumed was a look of surprise on her face. “I can multitask, you know.”
Stella chuckled. “Apparently so.”
Stella could make fun of Effie’s singular focus, but the truth of the matter was, when Stella got hooked on an idea, she was the same way.
Excited about her new post, the rest of her day flew by in a blur, and by the time four p.m. rolled around, she’d completely forgotten about their big meeting happening at the end of the day. This was probably why it took her a couple blinks to realize what she was seeing.
There, in the middle of the office, at the demarcation line between Spark News and Yellow Sparks proper, stood her CEO, Miles.
And Max.