Page 93 of Serving the CEO

One more thing in my world that was falling apart. One more thing I could have prevented.

“That sucks,” a skinny Black girl said, shaking her head. “Big business people always gotta come in and chase out local places, hurting great little shops like this. It ain’t right.”

Her friends vocalized support and I smiled. I understood the positive things that the internet had brought to publishing, but one of the unfortunate casualties was the loss of actual bookstores, particularly ones like my parents’. I’d always thought there was room for both, but most people didn’t share my opinion.

“I know,” I agreed. “That’s life, though, isn’t it?”

A few minutes later, they were gone, and I retreated back behind the counter. The despondency tried to rise up again and I grabbed a pad of paper in a fit of desperation. I’d find a way through this. I had to. I had too many people counting on me for anything else to be an option.

Just as I started making a physical list of distributors, my phone rang. With a sigh, I picked it up and my breath caught in my throat when I saw the name of the caller on the screen.

“What the fuck?” Dazed, I tried to figure out why Rand Distributing might be calling me. They were one of the biggest distributors in the country. The big four used them. I had Rand’s information on my phone because I’d helped smooth out an issue with the store for my parents a while back, but there wasn’t anything going on now, was there?

The phone rang again, startling me.

In a rush, I answered with a shaky, “Hello?”

“Hi, yes, may I speak to Jessica Ellis, please?”

“This is Jessica.” My heart slammed against my ribs. The woman’s voice sounded familiar though I couldn’t place a name to it.

“Jessica, hi, it’s Kate Jorgen with Rand Distributing. We’ve met at a few events. How are you?”

Kate Jorgen. I remembered her now. She was from the Midwest somewhere and was probably a decade or so older than me. We’d bonded over a love of graphic novels and Zane Grey books, generally looking for each other at publishing events over the past few years.

“I…I’m fine, Kate. How are you doing?” I spread my free hand wide on the counter and tried to will my heartrate to slow.I didn’t want to get my hopes up as to why she was calling me.

“I’m doing well. Listen…I’m being a little quick on the trigger here, but I believe in jumping on it when I hear about a big opportunity. I hear you’re working with a popular blogger who is putting together a book…Bristol Hayden?”

My heart lurched. “Yes…I am.” How had she heard that? The circle of people who knew about Bristol was small, and those who knew we were still working together was smaller still.

“Excellent. I’m a diehard fan of her blog and I’ve been following her along as she talks about the book she’s writing. I was wondering if you’d found a distributor. I know this is unorthodox—”

“No!” I winced at the sharp, high sound of my voice and softened it before continuing. “Sorry. You’re fine, Kate. I’m actually trying to work distribution out. I had plans but they fell through.”

“Oh…well, I…I guess I should say I’m sorry, but that works out wonderfully for me, because I’d love to talk shop with you. Would you have time to come by the office tomorrow?”

My jaw hit the floor. Snapping it shut, I squeezed my eyes closed. She was serious and it sounded too good to be true. “Ah, tomorrow? Of course, tomorrow sounds wonderful.”

We chatted another couple of minutes, confirmed the time and I went over details of what I had in mind for Bristol’s book, making notes automatically because I wouldn’t remember anything once I hung up.

Then, in a daze, I ended the call, staring at my phone for nearly a full minute while I tried to process what had just happened.

“What the hell?” I whispered. “How…?”

No. It didn’t matter how. All that mattered was that it’d happened. Excitement smashed into me, breaking my paralysis, and I hurriedly dialed Amelia’s number.

She answered with a cheerful note. “How’s my new business partner doing?”

“I’m fine. More than fine, actually,” I said, laughing giddily. “I just had the most amazing call and I think I’ve got an even better distributor than I thought I had. You’re never going to believe who I just got off the phone with.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

DERRICK

The door closed shutbehind me as I walked into the near-total darkness of my empty apartment. I didn’t bother turning on any additional lights. It was almost eight and I didn’t intend to have a long night. Not after my long day.

In addition to needing to handle the distributor issue for Jessica, there’d been a mess in the office with the book Jami Gold had been working on and Martin Danbridge hadn’t been happy to hear that Jami was no longer employed by Broker Publishing.

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