Page 36 of The Shake Off

“Send me the details and I’ll see what I can do. I’m not promising anything.”

Susie’s face lit up. “Oh you’re the greatest, Payton. What would I do without you?”

Get fired, I thought to myself.

“Okay.” She stood up, smoothing down the linen of her dress. “Must dash. See you this afternoon.”

“See you.” I waved, and waited for her to leave before dropping my head on the desk.

Weak. That’s what I was.

Kicking off my shoes, I got up and resumed my position on the couch just as the subtle vibration of another message came through. I smothered my phone with a cushion; it was ten-thirty a.m. and I’d already had my quota of Ace Watson for the day.

I added ‘find out who’d given him my number’ to my list of things to do, because as soon as I did, I’d be paying them a little visit.

Leaning forward with a groan, I peered at the giant stack of manuscripts that I needed to go through but really didn’t want to, and reached for the first one off the top;The Sad Bunny…and threw it to one side. Nope. The next one didn’t fill me with any more hope;The Owl Who Lost His Hoot…and had my cheeks puffing in frustration. It landed on the bunny. The pile now featured a puppy –toss– then horse –toss– a kitten, a fish, a donkey… and finally a lost tortoise –all toss. Where was the misunderstood hyena? Or the spider who’d worked her butt off building a web, but still couldn’t get moved off the broken tree branch and into the cozy, warm house? What about her? Where was the relatable children’s book in that pile?

I needed more caffeine for this, and – clutching my stomach as it rumbled – some breakfast.

Snatching up my purse and heels, I headed out of my office, along the plush carpets of the hallway to the elevator. I was still slipping my shoes on when the doors pinged open, so I didn’t immediately notice that someone else was already standing inside.

The woman, in turn, was looking at her phone, so she didn’t notice that my mouth was now hanging open and my eyes were in danger of falling out of their sockets from how far they’d widened.

Holyshit.Stay cool, Payton. Stay cooool.

In my eight years of working at Simpson and Mather, I’d only seen Nathalie Cheung at company-wide meetings, or reporting on the quarterly figures, or on board panels discussing the newest trends in publishing. And all those times had been over Zoom, or from the back of the giant auditorium on the lower-ground floor of this building and over the heads of the two-thousand other people who worked here, or in the latest copy ofThe Reader.

Even inThe New York Times.

I’d never seen her up close, and I’d never been in an enclosed space with her.

Come to think of it, the execs on the sixtieth floor had their own high-speed elevator which opened directly there… but not today it seemed.

C.E.O. of Simpson and Mather for almost ten years, Nathalie Cheung was a powerhouse in her own right. She’d led the charge in changing the way books were read; specifically female targeted books. She’d brought romance into the mainstream markets as a genre to be proud of, and she’d taught a previously men-only board what it was like to work with women. She balanced motherhood, fought for equal pay and longer vacation time, for maternityandpaternity leave, and sat on boards across New York, championing equality and women in the workplace.

And while she’d been doing all that, she’d quadrupled profits at Simpson and Mather, brought in big name authors, world leaders, and celebrities for their autobiographies. The current jewel in the crown was an access all areas biography of President Andrews during her Presidential campaign trail.

I might have always wanted to work in publishing, but the woman standing in front of me had been the sole reason I’d wanted to work at Simpson and Mather.

In short, Nathalie Cheung was my idol.

I stepped inside, positioning myself as far away from her as possible, in case I had the sudden inappropriate urge to hug her or something. As it was, my heart was pounding so hard that I was convinced she could hear it, but thankfully she was still focused on her phone screen, and from the way she was looking at it, wasn’t happy.

That was fine. If she didn’t look up, I could stare longer.

I slid my hand over the elevator wall to press the button, trying not to make any sudden movements in case I startled her.

Think, Payton.Think.All these years you’ve dreamed of what you’d say if you ever saw her, and now your mind is cotton-candy. Think.

She glanced up from her phone and smiled.

“Hello.” I smiled back, hoping she couldn’t tell I was only just managing to hold my shit together.

“Hey there.” Nathalie Cheung went back to her emails.

She didn’t need to introduce herself. If I didn’t know who she was, then I had no right to work in this building.

The red numbers above the door flashed and lowered as we moved down the floors. I prayed no one else would get on and ruin this moment I was having. As luck would have it, they didn’t.

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