Page 24 of The CEO I Hate

“Okay,” Paula said. “I’ve gone through what was left of Lyle’s notes. Managed not to have an aneurysm as I did.”

The table snickered.

“And it looks like he planned for the season to open with a funeral.”

“So, we immediately get the big reveal of who died last season?” Jerome asked. “We don’t want to draw that out some more?”

“I worry if we draw it out,” Mia cut in, “we’ll run the risk of losing some of the audience. We have to remember they’ve been waiting since the end of last season for answers. I’m not saying we should resolveeverythingright away, but we need to provide some answers even as we pose new questions. We want the viewers to leave the first episode satisfied but eager for more.”

“I agree,” Paula said. “We should add some sort of twist in there to keep audience engagement.”

“Maybe one of the deaths is unexpected?” Kait threw out. “The audience already knows a group of firefighters die from the old timeline because of that memorial plaque we’ve shown glimpses of on the wall of the firehouse. But what if we lose someone in the fire we showed from the new timeline as well?”

“Difficult to do because contracts have already been settled with most of the actors,” Paula said.

Kait clicked her tongue. “Right.”

“What if in the new timeline, someone is badly injured from the fire?” Mia suggested. “I do think there should be serious consequences from that fire, not just the one in the past. And an injury that takes that firefighter out of the job creates a lot of high-stress drama, depending on what the recovery process looks like.”

I glanced up from my phone, studying Mia across the table. I knew she was pulling from her own experiences with Jake. People often said the best writing came from personal experience, and there was no doubt Mia would craft a compelling narrative with that.

“I like it,” Paula said. “Let’s get it on the board.”

Mia jumped to her feet, walking over to the whiteboard. “Okay, so last season ended with dual fires, one in each timeline. We saw a building collapse, but the audience doesn’t know in which timeline. We also know there were four casualties in the fire from the old timeline.”

“Right,” Jerome said. “So that gives us our first episode of season two. Show the aftermath of the fires. The funeral reveals who we lost in the old timeline. And we can intersperse that with the injury from the new timeline.”

“Perfect,” Mia said. “And Tanya had that great idea about the team finding that keychain at the arson site, which I think works to start layering in clues. We can carry that keychain thread all the way through the season as they try to track down the arsonist.”

I glanced down at my phone again while the table kept talking. Carl had sent a meeting invite. I scowled at it. I didn’t okay this for Friday.

What is this?

That pitch meeting you keep promising Damien Alverez.

What pitch?

The one for that new show idea. Something about a colony on Pluto. Space. Aliens.

God, I’d forgotten. It was the kind of thing I’d usually pass on, but Damien had caught me at a networking event and name-dropped just enough people that I’d promised to take a meeting with him.

I wanted to cancel, but this damn meeting would have to happen, wouldn’t it? Because I couldn’t afford to piss anyone off right now and have them turn around to the press with the Lyle mess already hanging over me.

“I still really want us to light a silo on fire,” Tanya said, pulling my attention back to the table. “Lyle wouldn’t let me do that last season.”

“That’s such a great visual,” Mia said, adding it to the board. “You know those things can just spontaneously combust?”

“I know!” Tanya said excitedly, hopping out of her chair. “That’s why it’s so cool, because it could be related to the arsonist, but it could also be another red herring.”

“How about we use that for our midseason finale?” Mia suggested.

The table agreed enthusiastically. I couldn’t help but be impressed with how quickly Mia had gotten everyone working together. Though I was a little pissed she seemed to be making a full-time job out of ignoring me. Everyone else was at least shooting me looks to see if I approved of what I was hearing, but Mia was acting like I didn’t exist.

“Okay,” she said. “I know at my interview we talked about giving Cade a larger arc. But we also need to talk about the other characters and their?—”

“Doesn’t that scream more of a finale thing?” I cut in.

“Excuse me,” Mia said, pausing her writing to glare at me.

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