Harriett took Chris’s measure from the doorway. He was attractive but short. Max liked to have good-looking people around him, but he was careful not to hire anyone taller or more talented. Chris didn’t share the CEO’s height or bombastic personality, but their egos appeared to be a perfect match. Like his boss, Chris seemed perfectly at home in New York with a group of American sycophants hanging on his every accented syllable.
There were four men in the room, all a few years younger than Harriett. When she appeared in the office, they glanced up with unease. Her presence always altered the energy of the room—like a teacher returning from a bathroom break or someone’s mom showing up at a keg party.
Chris paused in the middle of the tale he was telling and turned to Harriett. “So how long will he be?” he asked.
Movement on the couch caught Harriett’s eye. Andrew Howard, the head account guy, was squirming. “How long will who be?” she asked.
“Max,” the CD replied with a touch of exasperation, as though trying to make sense to a sweet but dim-witted child.
“Why would I know when Max will get here?” Harriett kept her voice cool and pleasant.
The creative director looked around at the men gathered in his office. Suddenly, none of them wanted to meet his eye.
“Who do you think I am?” Harriett asked. She knew. She just wanted to hear him say it. He thought she was an admin. If she’d played along, he might have asked her to bring him a cup of coffee.
Three months earlier, their exchange would have shaken Harriett’s confidence. What about her appearance made him mistake her for support staff? Did she lack gravitas? Did she look unsuited for her job?
The head of client services leaped to his rescue. “Chris, this is Harriett Osborne, head of our new business department. She’s been on vacation for the past few weeks.”
“Oh, of course!” Chris made a beeline for her, hand outstretched, no trace of shame or contrition anywhere on his face. He seemed to have no clue he’d committed a faux pas. “What an honor to finally meet you in person. I hear you were married to Chase Osborne. He does the Little Pigs ads. I’m a huge fan of his. The man is a genius.”
“I’m sure Chase would agree with you,” Harriett replied. “I’d pass on your kind words, but I don’t see him much anymore. He’s too busy fucking the head of his production department.”
The men in the room appeared to stop breathing. They all knew it. They would have filled Chris in the moment she left the room. But none of them expected her to beat them to the punch. Harriett grinned broadly. For years, veneers had disguised the natural gap between her two front teeth. During her vacation, she’d decided to get rid of them. Now they were all staring at the gap, struggling to remember if it had been there all along. It was fun, she thought, to keep them wondering.
“I believe we’re all here to talk new business.” Harriett took a seat in one of the office’s white leather chairs that no woman would have chosen. “And I’m the new business director. We don’t need Max for this, so let’s start. Who’s running the meeting?”
“I am.” Andrew Howard slid forward on the couch. He was a smarmy little asshole, Harriett thought. He couldn’t have cared less about the quality of the work, but he possessed a remarkable homing instinct for steak houses, golf courses, and strip clubs. Max liked him because he kept the clients happy—and happy clients didn’t call Max. “While you were out, we were invited to take part in two pitches. First up is Pura-Tea. It’s a new line of sparkling teas from Coke. They want to bring women over thirty back with the promise of great taste and health benefits. They’re pretty confident in the strategy, and they’re keen to see work. Chris and his teams have a few things to show us.”
“Anyone actually try the product?” Harriett asked.
“Yeah,” said the strategist. “It underdelivers on taste, so we’ve focused on health benefits.”