Page 43 of Wild Catch
ARE YOU FOR REAL??
Rogers, David [16:15]:
It’s a possibility!!!
I push away from my desk so hard that my chair slams into the wall of my cubicle, making the whole thing rattle. Stuffing my fists against my mouth is the only way I can contain the squeal that threatens to explode my colleagues’s eardrum.
This changes every freaking thing.
Dave and Tom know my career aspirations, and it’s true that it will require me to be on the side of the camera that I’m not used to. Heck, it even makes sense to use this silly campaign to really get me acquainted with the fans.
As for what happens after Logan and I ‘break up?’
Who cares—the whole thing won’t be real anyway. This isn’t on the same terrain as if Ben and I had dated publicly, to then have him drop me like a sack of potatoes by going to another team. There are no feelings involved now, and it won’t be a secret from the team.
I’m so on board now. It legit makes time move even slower, but I’ll wait as long as it takes. This might be my big chance.
Six in the evening arrives and passes before Tom returns. By this point, Dave and I are hanging out by the entrance to Tom’s office, and he motions at us to go in. At least half of the marketing team is already gone for the day, but even so Tom shuts the door before speaking.
“It’s a no go.”
“What?” Dave and I screech at the same time.
Tom lifts his hand to scratch the back of his head. “Cox is definitely in. Anything that attracts attention to the team is a go by him. And to quote him verbatim, this is the kind of shit that would make merchandise sell like hotcakes. He also started pitching ideas like selling heart shaped hotcakes in concessions.” He shakes his head.
“Okay but then what happened?” Dave squints.
“So,” Tom continues and folds his arms, “communications and PR are also in, they can spin this like a top. Operations is iffy because this might distract Logan from performing at his best, but I reminded them that we’re talking about Logan Kim—theLogan Kim.”
“Right,” I mumble. The guy has enough cojones to march up to someone and tell them to stop doing their job because he said so. Nothing fazes him.
Dave snorts. “Remember his sophomore year with the Eagles? He played a whole series with a broken clavicle until someone noticed. This is nothing in comparison.”
“Exactly.” Tom opens his eyes wide and nods in an exaggerated way.
I fiddle with the hem of my oversize sweatshirt. I had forgotten about that incident. I honestly didn’t need further reminders about how remarkable Logan is.
“So then why is it a no go?” I ask.
“HR said no,” Tom says and is immediately interrupted by my boss.
“Screw that guy.” Dave snorts.
“Unfortunately he gave the reasoning that the situation between Hope Garcia and Cade Starr might’ve set a precedent that we don’t want to normalize.”
“He’s gonna eat his words when Hope and Cade get married and have five babies, am I right?” Dave imbues copious amounts of sarcasm to the question, but he’s not entirely wrong. Those two are so besotted that I wouldn’t be surprised if they get hitched by next season.
“Wait.” I shake my head to rearrange my thoughts back on track. “So because Michael Watson from HR said no, then Cox changed his mind?”
“Oh, no. Cox still wants this to happen.” Tom shrugs, further confusing me until he says, “The issue is that we then called Logan’s manager to negotiate andhesaid no.”
I suck in air.
“Sorry, who said no? Logan or his agent?” Dave asks.
“His agent,” Tom confirms. “So in that case there’s nothing really we can do.”
“Unless…” This attracts their attention to me. “Well, I’m kind of on friendly terms with Logan—” At leastnow, but I don’t say that part aloud. “Since, you know, Cade and Hope basically drag him everywhere, and I’m Hope’s roommate after all.”
