Page 3 of So Not My Type
Her chest lifted. “What?Sweeeet.No pun intended.” Devil’s Doughnuts was one of the hippest bakeries in Seattle, boasting everything from a twelve-inch, truffle-butter, sugar-dusted doughnut to pickled-lemon mini-cakes, which sounded disgusting but she could vouch for their salty-sweet deliciousness. “For real, I love that place.”
He jiggled the computer mouse and scanned the monitor. “We’re gonna have to hand off your current campaign to anotherPM, because the Devil’s Doughnuts campaign needs to launch before you all leave.”
Okay, okay. She could do this. She’d been under tight timelines before… The nightmare of a reactionary ad during last year’s Cyber Monday shuddered to mind. “When does the cruise leave?”
His dark brown eyes softened. “Eight weeks.”
Eight weeks?Her throat jerked with a hard swallow. “The entire campaign needs to be done by then? All of it?”
“All of it.” His mouth dipped into a frown. “And we haven’t even started building the messaging strategy.”
The math didn’t math. Marketing strategy took a minimum of two weeks. Project workback schedules, kickoff, and handoff one week. Creative and copy developed, for a full social, web, and digital campaign, was three weeks minimum—with a solid A-team assigned. Then creative rounds with leaders, operations, execution… No chance in a fiery hell they could execute this in eight weeks.
She squinted, as if that would give her the clarification needed. “I don’t get it… why the push?”
He slid the mouse to the side. “Quick version. Sounds like some shady stuff happened to one of the main Pride Parade sponsors and the association dropped them. Devil’s swooped in and nabbed that spot, but they want to capitalize on it fully with the limited time. George guaranteed this turnaround time.”
Of course he did.The dude was damn near clueless about what it took to run a full campaign.
“And we can’t let all the top performers leave on a seven-day cruise if this is still in flux.”
Logically, it made sense. Obviously. If the top creatives were basking in the immaculate view of marine-blue glaciers and northern lights, the execution of the campaign—arguably the most important part of the entire campaign—would be left to thereplacement team. A logistical nightmare and surefire way to fail a campaign launch.
But just because it made sense, didn’t mean it felt good.
“Give this to me straight.” She shook out her tense fingers. “Are you saying I need to project manage all of this,alone, to go on the cruise?”
“We’ll have a senior program manager overseeing the entire scope, but you’ll be the main PM on all the channels.”
So… web, social, and digital.Combined.She coughed on the nervous saliva pooling in her throat. The deadline was not only on her—the entire team would have to work double time to get this out. Part, sometimes a large part, of Sophie’s job was keeping up morale. The ones going on a cruise had an incentive to work long hours. The others didn’t. And she didn’t foresee a world where the overlooked teammates would jump at the long days to help ensure the others made voyage time. “I… I honestly don’t know if I can do it.”
“Good news, though.” Malcolm’s grin returned. “We brought in relief. A last-minute PM. Just heard about it this morning, actually. She’s getting introduced to folks today and starts tomorrow. You’ll be training her and she can partner with you on this project.”
The heat trapped in her chest released. They trusted her to train someone? Hell yes! For the past two years, training was a personal goal. Probably living out some childhood fantasy like when her parents left her alone and she passed the time pretending to be a teacher to her raggedy dolls. If they brought in a new PM, that person might have more project-management experience than her, which meant, together, they could knock it out of the park.
Maybe the cruise could be a reality. And if she were on a cruise, maybe there would be another woman who was traveling alone. And their eyes would meet across the deck, a whisper ofwind fluttering through her hair, and they’d be drawn together, her true soulmate, while waves crashed in the background?—
Malcolm’s fingers slapping the desk jolted her out of her thoughts.
“What do you think?” he asked.
About the fact that she’d been single for almost six years, and the idea of meeting someone was basically the only other thing that occupied her mind besides work? But that she didn’t want just anyone, she wanted thatsomeone, the one that flipped her stomach and zinged her to Jupiter and back and curled her toes, and ifonlyshe would have a tiny bit of time off work, she was convinced she could find the woman of her dreams?
He probably meant what did she think about the work situation. “Do I have a choice in all of this?”
“Sure you do.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Pink Flamingo is hiring, I heard.”
She groaned. She’d never work for the competitor. When Pink Flamingo moved into the same high-rise as Mahogany and Moon’s building, occupying the second and third floor, friendly banter and threats of a field day competition with tug-of-war and tire races flung between the agencies. But soon, rumors of client meddling and sabotage filled the space, and all friendly banter ceased. It was them or us. And Sophie chose her alliance. Besides King George, and a couple of less-than-desirable co-workers, she loved this place.
“The cruise leaves May 15th out of California. I’ll send you the info.”
She glanced at the calendar hanging on his wall and quickly counted the weeks with her fingertips. “That’sexactlyeight weeks from yesterday.”
He tugged on his beard. “I know. Sorry, Soph. I really want you to have this opportunity, but you have to wrap up by then in order to go. Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to knowyou’re hanging out with retired folks playing bingo, eating at the chocolate buffet, and reading romance novels while watching the waves.”
She scowled. “Um. I’m twenty-four, not sixty-four. Why wouldn’t you assume I wanted to go to the nightclub and bars?”
“Because I’ve worked with you for six years and know your type.”