by Lisa Fenwick
“Well, you found me.”
Sam turned around again to see Randee standing there. Sam hadn’t seen her earlier, though she didn’t know how, as she was certainly hard to miss. She was wearing a skintight purple minidress that proved she had zero body fat. Her skin was extremely tan, most likely from a visit to the spray-tan booth. Her long grey hair was stick straight and parted down the middle, and giant glittery black earrings hung down to her jawline.
“That I did,” Lance said, taking a big gulp of his drink.
“Nice outfit, Sam. It’s very…turquoise.” Randee skimmed Sam’s body from top to bottom and back up again, a sneer on her face.
Sam could feel her face getting warm. She didn’t like to judge people, but she had known Randee was a bully. The way she talked, the way she shot dirty looks at most people. Of course, “most people” definitely didn’t include Lance. She was looking at him now as if he was a piece of steak.
“I’m ready to leave whenever you are,” she said to him while looking at Sam. Then she walked away slowly toward the back of the bar where the coats were.
Sam choked on her champagne.
“Are you two a thing?” she asked as she stood up. She coughed a few more times. The champagne had gone down the wrong pipe, and she was still coughing over it.
“No. A thing? No. I mean, I gave her a ride here, but we aren’t a thing. She works for me. I wouldn’t date someone who worked for me,” Lance said.
Sam rolled her eyes at him. Maybe he wouldn’t date someone who worked for him, but he sure would kiss one. Had he forgotten about that?
“Whatever you say,” Sam said, trying to sound cool. As she said it, she took a step away from the bar, her heel turning as she did so. She started to fall, and she instinctively grabbed for the back of the barstool, instead grabbing her purse, which was on the back of it. She tumbled onto the floor, her purse following and the contents spilling all over the floor. She looked like a pool of Caribbean water lying there and wished she would just sink into it and disappear.
“Are you okay?” Lance asked, leaning over and extending his hand to help her up.
“Oh, I thought I heard a loud thud. Must have been your body,” Randee’s smarmy voice said.
Sam grabbed Lance’s hand and struggled to get up. Her face was red from embarrassment, and she just wanted to die.
“Are you okay? What the heck happened?” Holly appeared, looking with bewilderment at Sam, who was standing next to Lance and still grasping his hand.
“Yes, I’m okay. My shoes are too big. I shouldn’t have worn them.”
“That’s not the only thing on you that’s big,” Randee mumbled under her breath.
Sam shot her a dirty look, and then her eyes moved to Lance. She was having a major déjà vu moment. This was far too similar to what she had dealt with from Tatiana. She wanted to storm out, but she didn’t. She wouldn’t give Randee with two Es the satisfaction.
“I’m fine, everyone, just clumsy. Please, go back to having a good time!” Sam told the crowd of people that had surrounded her now. She looked at Holly and opened her eyes wide, a sign for Holly to get her out of there.
“Err, Sam, come with me, I want you to meet some people.”
Sam gladly walked away with Holly, not even bothering to look back at Lance and Randee. She could see Lance’s reflection watching her in the mirror on the rear wall, while Randee was standing at the front door with an obnoxiously large fur coat on, motioning at him to leave.
“What the hell was all that, her comment? Talk about rude!” Holly said to her.
“Nothing. Nothing that I can’t handle, anyway,” Sam said.
She knew she would need to have a talk with Lance about Randee’s attitude. But for tonight, she would just try and have a good time.
********
Lance tossed his keys onto the coffee table and flopped down on his couch, rubbing his forehead. His head was throbbing from listening to Randee’s excuses about why she had been so rude to Sam, especially since Lance had lectured her ahead of the party to keep her mouth shut. Randee was extremely catty, and Lance’s biggest fear was that she would treat Samantha like Tatiana had treated her. Despite his effort to ensure it didn’t happen, it had.
Walking to the kitchen, he grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, cracked it open, and took a sip. He thought about texting Sam and apologizing for Randee’s behavior but decided against it. Apologizing in person would be better, more personal and sincere. He didn’t need anything, or in this case anyone, to rock the boat.
CHAPTER SIX
“Please tell me again why we didn’t hire movers,” Addi groaned to Sam as she wiped the beads of sweat off of her forehead. They had been bringing large boxes full of files up from the lobby. Sam had insisted that they didn’t need movers to carry the files, and now she totally regretted it. She was a sweaty mess, the hair around her face starting to frizz up and curl. Her sweat mustache was in full view, and she just wanted to get this stuff inside the office, because if she sweated any more, she would have to go home and change. She needed to stop always being hands-on and stubborn, she told herself.
“I’ll go grab the last one,” Sam said to Addi as she stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button for the lobby. She placed her hands on the cool, shiny metal wall of the empty elevator as it traveled downstairs. She stepped forward and placed the side of her face against the wall and closed her eyes. Maybe this would cool her down.
“Are you okay?” a voice asked her right after the elevator doors opened.
Sam winced as she looked up to see Lance staring down at her. She brushed a strand of frizzy hair out of her eyes and forced herself to smile at him.
“I’m fine. Just busy trying to move in. “
She rambled off the words as she quickly stepped out into the lobby, hoping that he would just get into the elevator and disappear. He didn’t, of course.
“I can help. Didn’t Randee tell you that? That I would help you move in?”
Sam rolled her eyes as she walked toward the corner of the lobby where the last of her file boxes was. Couldn’t he just go about his day instead of trying to help? She was all sweaty and gross, and the last thing she wanted was his help.
“It’s fine. There wasn’t much aside from all the files. Thanks for the furniture, by the way,” she said dryly. She was appreciative that their space had come furnished, but she also liked HER furniture in the other office. But it was all on lease, and of course Mo had jumped at Lance’s offer of free furniture.
“Well, let me carry that for you.”
Lance reached for the box that Sam had already started to lift. It was heavy, and instead of arguing with him, she just set it back down and stepped away from it.
“Thanks,” she replied, realizing this meant that the two of them would be alone on the elevator together. She panicked for a minute as they waited for it, hoping that she didn’t reek of sweat. Addi would have told her if she smelled, right? The elevator doors whooshed open before she could answer her own question, and she stepped inside, moving as far away as she could and keeping her arms close to her sides.
“So, how’s it going? The move, I mean,” Lance asked.
Sam watched him hold the box in one arm as he pressed the elevator button with his other. The box was bulky and heavy, and she could see his arm muscles bulging under his shirt.
“That’s nice,” she said, thinking about his muscles and horrifying herself as the words fell out of her mouth. “I mean, it’s going good. Great, really.” She tried not to laugh at herself.
“Err, that’s good. When you’re settled in, we should meet up. I have a few accounts to talk to you about.”
“Sure, that sounds great,” Sam replied, trying to sound cool even though she was anything but. She didn’t want to meet with him, and she shouldn’t have to. That was what Holly was for, and that’s what he had What’s-Her-Face for. She knew that she shouldn’t feel so hostile toward him after all these years, but
she couldn’t help it. Now wasn’t the time to argue about it though. She just wanted to get off the elevator.
The doors slid open at Sam’s new floor, and the two of them stepped out. There were dozens of boxes lined up in the hallway, and Addi was standing at the long bank of maroon filing cabinets, filing away.
“Well hello, you two,” she said, smirking as Sam glared at her.
“You can just put those down there. Thanks again,” Sam said to Lance as she pointed to the floor, opening her eyes wide at Addi, a warning sign to tell her not to ask Lance to look at the space.
“You should see the changes we made to the back area, Lance. We pulled apart all of those cubes and made an open area with couches and tables. It looks very chic.” Addi shrugged at Sam’s glare as Lance set the box down and smiled.
“That sounds great! Mind if I go take a peek?” he asked.
“Go ahead. It’s your building,” Sam said as she shot Addi a death glare.
“Oh thank goodness, there you are!” a voice yelled from the elevator. Randee practically ran over to the three of them, dramatically waving her arms as if she was trying to dry the polish on her perfectly manicured long nails.
“What’s going on?” Lance and Sam asked in unison.
“The awards show. She hasn’t shown up!”
Sam’s heart sank. She couldn’t be talking about who she thought she was. No. Please, God, no.
“Who hasn’t shown up?” Lance asked, looking over at Sam.
“Sydney Smith,” Randee said.
Everyone turned to look at Sam as she tried not to panic. For a brief moment, she thought about jumping out the window, but she knew they only opened a few inches, and she would never be able to fit.
“Where is she? This makes no sense. I spoke to her a few days ago,” Sam said, reaching for her phone to call Holly.
“It seems that she’s run off with Tyler Scranton. They’re in Bali, so there is no way that she will be here in time for the show,” Holly said as she appeared from her office doorway. Her face was as white as a sheet.
There was an audible gasp amongst them all.
“What? What do you mean, she’s with Tyler?” Lance asked with a bewildered look on his face.
Sam smacked herself in the forehead. Of course. Why hadn’t she put two and two together? She had introduced the two of them months ago at an event in Boston. She had encouraged Tyler, an MLB star, to woo Sydney about joining Horizon as a client. Sydney had felt the firm was too small, and Sam thought Tyler could explain to her the benefits of joining a smaller firm. Tyler had signed on with Sam after his contract with Rossi had ended, so who better to explain the pros and cons to her? After speaking to Tyler, Sydney had still wanted to go with a larger firm, and it had only been a week ago that Sam had sold her on Rossi. The Rossi team hadn’t been exactly thrilled to sign her because of her bad reputation. Sam had promised that Horizon would keep an eye on her, and here she was, missing her first appearance. She felt like an idiot.
“This is bad. We sold Bordiana on her. I spent months practically begging them to sign her on to be the first presenter at the awards show, and now she’s disappeared. What are we going to do?” Holly was pacing as she spoke.
“We have to cancel. What else can we do?” Addi said.
“Canceling will result in an enormous cash issue for both Rossi and Horizon,” Mo yelled out from his office, where he could clearly hear what was going on. “Please fix this!”
“If we cancel, this will be seen as a negative on us just as much as it will for her. We cannot just call them up on the day before the show and nonchalantly tell them that their first presenter for the show is now gone!”
Sam was yelling and trying to think of what she could do. Screwing this up would be a huge mistake that she might not be able to recover from financially.
“So, what’s the answer?” Lance asked, rubbing his head.
Sam’s mind raced. Lance probably didn’t even realize that this screw-up would also be such a huge negative on Rossi as well. All the press releases had been sent out already about the merger. So basically, this show was the first major event for their client, and now she was off frolicking at the beach or wherever the hell she and Tyler were.
“Okay, let’s think,” Holly said. “Where can we find someone who is personable, fairly new in the twenty- to thirty-something crowd, and seen as a role model type? They just need to open the awards show and announce the winner for the first category.”
“What is this show even about?” Lance asked.
“It’s the Trendies. Basically geared toward people who have trended on social media, like YouTubers and sports players, or like that girl from Florida who is the first female quarterback. Stuff like that. It’s become really popular. Over a million people watch it,” Addi explained.
Sam looked out the window, hoping an answer would pop up in one of the clouds that hovered over the city. They were doomed. There was no way that they could find someone on such short notice. She racked her mind, going through a mental Rolodex of her clients, but drew a blank. She took a deep breath and turned around to tell everyone that they wouldn’t be able to fix this.
Everyone was looking at her, a slight smile on their faces. Holly was nodding, and Lance was squinting as if he was trying to spot something that was on Sam’s shirt.
“What?” Sam asked, looking at her shoulder and brushing the invisible piece of lint off of it. What were they all staring at?
“You can step in,” Holly said as the others all nodded in agreement.
“HA!” Sam laughed loudly, stopping abruptly as she realized that Holly was serious.
“Oh, come on!” Randee scoffed, rolling her heavily mascaraed eyes.
Sam shot her a dirty look and then glanced over at the others.
“Look, I know we are desperate, but come on. Me? They are expecting a famous person. Not some random person.”
“You aren’t a random person though,” Addi chimed in. “Your name has become pretty big for the under-thirty crowd, which is the exact demographic for this show. It’s the whole strong woman thing. You know, like you worked for a jerk, then went out on your own, and now you’re successful because you stood up for yourself, that type of thing. ”
Sam watched Lances expression change as he looked down when Addi said the “worked for a jerk” part.
“Uh, sorry Lance,” Addi murmured.
“Oh, get a grip. She is in no way a replacement for Sydney,” Randee said.
“Hold on, maybe Addi has a point,” Lance said.
“Please. This is a show for fashion-forward people. I mean…look at her. That’s what you want your name behind?” Randee asked.
Sam wanted to disappear. Randee was right. Sam was overweight, standing there sweating all over the place, her frizzy hair looking like straw on top of her head. No one would want to see her on stage. She couldn’t pull that off.
“Yes,” Lance said, shooting Randee a dirty look. “Sam, I know you can do this, and you do, too. Let’s get things moving. We don’t have much time to work the details out.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sam stared out the window of the train as it sped along the tracks on its way to New York City. It was a gloomy fall day, drizzly and cold outside. The leaves had already changed colors and were now falling off the trees, leaving branches bare and the soggy ground around them a vibrant hue of yellows, oranges, and reds. She hadn’t ridden on a train in years, but there hadn’t been any flights available at such short notice, so the train was the only other option aside from taking a car, and there was no way she was going to be stuck in a car with this motley crew.
She turned her head to look around the cabin. Lance and Randee were sitting across the aisle, looking at her iPad. Randee was pointing to something on the screen, her long, pointy orange fingernail looking more like an eagle’s talon than a fingernail.
“How can she even type with those?” Holly asked from her seat beside Sam.
“She probably pecks at the keyboard with one finger,” Addi replied, making all three of them chuckle. Sam was glad that Addi had agreed to join them on this last-minute trip. Addi was young and cool and knew what the audience wanted to see at this show. Sam was relying on her to make sure she didn’t look or sound like a total idiot.
“Remind me again why I agreed to do this?” Sam asked, her nerves at an all-time high.
“Because if you didn’t, we would be screwed,” Holly said, pulling some papers from her tote bag. “Let’s go over this agenda they sent us.”
********
“Deep breaths. You’ll be fine. What’s the big deal. It’s no different than when you speak to an auditorium full of people,” Holly said to Sam.
“Uh yeah, except I’m not usually doing it on live television. Dressed like Big Bird. “
Sam looked at her reflection in the mirror for the hundredth time and frowned. She thought that she really did look like Big Bird. She was wearing a bright-yellow dress that no woman on the face of planet Earth would ever want to wear. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a nice dress. It was. It had a scoop neck and long flowy sleeves and hugged her curves down to just above her knee. It was just that it was so bright, like a mustard in-your-face color. Thank God she had brought some Spanx along; the dress was super tight around her midsection and showed every flaw.
“Okay, let’s get those boots on!” Michaela, one of the reps from Bordiana, said as she hurried over to Sam, red boots in hand.
“Uhh, what are those?” Sam asked in a panicky tone as her heart started to race.
There was no way her legs would fit into those boots. They were thigh-high boots, and girls with thick legs didn’t exist to the designers who made those things. Sam had bought a pair last year, wide width, and she hadn’t even been able to get them up past her calves.
“Your boots.” Michaela rolled her eyes as she shoved them at Sam. “Hurry up. You’re on soon.”
Sam looked at Addi and Holly, hoping they could see the panic in her eyes as she slowly reached for the boots. Her heart sank even more when she realized there weren’t even any zippers on them. She just had to pull them on. Great!