“The Pura-Fide execution?” he asked, as though he couldn’t quite believe it. “I thought it was funny—and you have to admit that the structure is clever. I showed it to my wife. She laughed her ass off at the reveal.”
That was a lie. She knew his wife. The woman hadn’t laughed in years.
“Your daughter is how old? Seventeen?”
His megawatt smile dimmed considerably. “Come on, Harriett.”
“Seriously, Max. I grew up watching stuff that taught me that women who enjoyed sex were whores. That we should try to be who men wanted us to be—not who we really were. It fucked me up. It fucked up a lot of the women I know. Is that what you want for your kid?”
“So this is personal.”
“Of course it’s personal. Everything is personal. Anyone who tells you it isn’t is trying to screw you over.”
“Well, Chris is worried that you and he may not be able to work together. You’re going to need to smooth things over. Let this one go, Harriett.”
How many things had she let go? How much of herself had she already given away?
“Why me?”
“Because you’re wrong.”
“I’m a woman in the target audience. I’m also a woman with twenty-five years of advertising experience who hasn’t lost a single new business pitch in two years. And you’re telling me that I’m wrong about this?”
“Yes,” he said. “You don’t know what younger people find funny.”
It was a low blow, but she’d been expecting it. “If you say so. But I won’t present that ad to a client.”
“The way things are going, you won’t have to.”
Harriett’s laugh seemed to throw him. “You haven’t won a piece of new business without me,” she said. “You need a win now to justify bringing your boy in from London. I’ve heard you’re paying him five times my salary. Won’t look good if he falls flat on his face the first time out. You sure you want to risk it?”
“You know, you’re not as good as you think,” Max said.
No,” Harriett agreed. She’d known he’d get mean. She’d been waiting for it. “I’m better.”
His lip curled into a snarl, and Harriett glimpsed the fear that lay beneath his contempt. “You may not believe this, but there’s a reason I’m CEO of this agency and you’re not.”
Harriett laughed again. She saw how it infuriated him and laughed even harder. “Oh, I believe it. There is a reason, but it has nothing to do with talent.”
“Chris Whitman is worth a dozen of you.”
“You’re afraid of me,” Harriett observed. It was hard to believe it had taken her so long to see it. “That’s why you have to keep me in my place.”
“I’m afraid of you?”
“Yes, you’re afraid of me because I’m better than you are. And if you give one talented woman the power she deserves, another will follow. Then another. And together they’ll show that their way is better. Then your whole fake fucking world will come tumbling down.”
Harriett picked up a One Show pencil and tossed it to him. “You wouldn’t have this if it weren’t for me.”
Max caught the golden pencil and promptly hurled it at the wall, where it left a satisfying gash in the drywall.
Next Harriett tossed a Silver Lion, followed by a Webby. “Or these.”
They hit the wall as well.
“I made all of this happen. Without me, they’d have put you out to pasture a long time ago.”