SS NYM Ch 6

Tess picks up her stuff and hurries out, leaving the dim office lit mainly by the computer screen. Athena bends to look at the calendar, and Meri hurries over.

“Hey. Did you forget about Smith just now?” she asks, pointing in the direction of the other office, where Athena has a commitment in just a few minutes.

Her eyes pop open wide.

“Oh, fuck me,” she breathes, her voice thick with terror at the realization. Then she recovers, and for a second she has her old face on: the face of the CCL leader facing a crisis and deciding what to do.

Meri’s glad that Athena’s thinking, because she has no ideas. This is not fixable. Tess is already gone. Athena is in an impossible position. She can call Tess and admit to the mistake or admit it to Mr. Smith. Either way, she’s on thin ice. Little ten-minute meetings in this office often have million-dollar consequences.

“Can you do it?” Athena asks.

Meri stiffens. “What?”

“It’s a pitch meeting. Most of them are rubbish,” Athena assures her. “I’ll leave you logged into the calendar.” She stops and looks at Meri, who is speechless.

There’s this long moment of intense awkwardness. Athena feels obligated to say something apologetic. She feels obligated to warn Meri about how important this is.

But there’s no time to apologize, and the warning isn’t needed. Meri knows and Athena knows that Meri knows.

A bead of sweat rolls down Meri’s face. Not from the idea of the meeting or fear of Tess, but from the amount of trust that Athena is placing in her. This is both of their futures. Colby’s too. Colby cannot have a broke-ass wife. Meri has to make this work.

The last time Athena and Meri looked at each other this hard it was followed by clothes coming off fast and some very intense sex. Now Athena just grabs her stuff and jogs out of the room, leaving Meri standing there.

Athena made a mistake with her momentary loss of focus.

She has not made a mistake by tapping Meri to do this. This is correct. It’s risky, and not a good option, but it’s the only option. Canceling a meeting could have disastrous consequences.

Functionally, what Meri has to do is not that complicated. She’s qualified. Or at least, Athena has to believe that she is. Warmer Media Group gets hundreds of pitches each day and disregards all but a tiny fraction of them, but Meri can’t just turn this person away. If she cancels or refuses something that goes on to be successful somewhere else, Warmer Media Group will find out. Any hope that Meri has of a future here will be dead in the water. Everything is on the record. There can be no mistakes.