Page 9 of Unless It's You
The creative brief stares back at me, almost done. Five o’clock on the longest Friday of my life. Actually, the brief’s just... done, not almost done. I can’t handle it anymore. I need to crash at home as soon as possible.
I type out a quick email and press send without re-reading.
To:Ethan Fraser
CC:Tessa Brown
From:Stella Hart
Date:05 July 2024
Subject:Brief Approval
Message:
Here’s the brief. Let me know your feedback and I’ll get the creatives working on it Monday morning.
Best,
Stella
After pressing send, I breathe a sigh of relief. I open an email from Chloe, which has a proposed timeline. The first storyboard meeting will be next Thursday, which is aggressive timing. Usually, the creative team has two weeks to come up with ideas for a new TV commercial, and this is just four days starting Monday morning. But they’ve been warned. They’re ready to start working as soon as we get the brief approved. As confident as I tried to sound in the meeting, it’s a tight timeframe.
It’ll also be a miracle if I can keep my shit together. I have multiple projects happening at the same time, and since Evelyn died, I’ve been so much less efficient.
Tessa pops up over my cubicle wall, like a boss-sized jack-in-the-box.
“Hi there. Can we have a quick chat?”
“Sure thing. I just emailed the client the brief, and I was about to head home and get some rest.”
“Wonderful. About that email.” Tessa holds up her phone and appears to scroll. “Can we, um, try to be a bit, um, more cordial? A bit warmer, perhaps?” She draws out the wordwarmer.
I flare my nostrils. “Was I not, uh, warm?” I click open my sent items and glance at the very short, somewhat curt email. Ah, okay, fine.
Tessa tilts her head. “Were you? Warm?” She shakes her phone in front of her chest, the screen facing me.
“Hmm. Yeah, you’re right.” I sigh and crinkle my forehead. “Sorry, Tessa. I’m just exhausted. I can send another email, if you’d like. Apologizing or something.”Please don’t make me do that.
She purses her lips, as if she’s considering it. “Listen. I’m English. I understand being passive-aggressive in emails. But to Ethan? I don’t really understand. There was a lot of confusing tension this morning in the meeting. Did I miss something?”
Well, shit.
“Sorry. No, you didn’t miss anything. I think it’s the jet lag.” Nope. Not the jet lag. It’s Ethan. I rub my forehead. “I promise I’ll try harder.”
“Right. But in the meantime, why don’t you shoot him a quick text to let him know you’re looking forward to getting his feedback? His mobile is in his email signature.”
“But—” I pause, searching for a good excuse. “I really don’t want to.”
Tessa regards me with tired eyes and shrugs. “Have a lovely weekend, Stella.” She wiggles her fingers at me and walks away.
I glance down at my inbox, which already has an unread email from Ethan.
To:Stella Hart
From:Ethan Fraser
CC:Tessa Brown
