Member-only story
Exiting Time
No Re-entry
It was just too obvious. Rita loathes being obvious. She genuinely believes she has built a career as a best-selling powerhouse author by avoiding being obvious. Arly has been designing the covers of her novels for five years now and until this one, he’d hit exactly the right notes.
“Look at this, would you? Hammer upside the head much?”
“Rita, you’re overreacting and understandably so considering, well, you know.”
Wrong answer. The icy silence that sucked the air out of the room confirmed that Evelyn had misstepped with her rockstar client. Again. Oh, well, perhaps the rockstar would dump her and Evelyn could go back to hand-holding her mid-market dreamers. She should be so lucky. But…maybe? Evelyn typed a judiciously worded email but didn’t send it yet. Then she rang the florists down the street and ordered a new orchid to be delivered to Rita’s secret lair in the warehouse district. The woman really should consider some psychoanalysis if she thought that she wasn’t “obvious”.
The launch was going smoothly. Rita was watching her wine intake and could practically see Evelyn unwind like a cartoon cat settling in for a nap. Arly had made her requested adjustments and if she still thought that cover with the bent-over old guy going through the door was heavy-handed, well, life is compromise. Even on…
