Page 9

James

It was a long shot,but I was absolutely shocked when she agreed to meet with me.

Delaney responded Monday night that we could meet on Friday at 3 p.m. and gave me the name of a new coffee shop. It looked cute and trendy and had creative pastries, so I told her that was fine and went to bed with unsettled thoughts.

Now I just had the rest of the week to decide on what I wanted to say. As if I hadn’t had years already.

Sometimes there weren’t enough words, or you didn’t have the right words. As long as I led with sincerity and honesty and truly being sorry for what I’d said and done to her, the rest was in her hands. I couldn’tmakeDelaney forgive me.

Shit. I had a new client in ten minutes, and I hadn’t prepped nearly enough.

When I told people what I did for a living, they didn’t believe me.

“What the hell is a baby name consultant?” they always asked, and then “people pay money for that?!” It made meeting new people awkward sometimes.

I hadn’t gone to college for it, but I did have an English degree and a love for words. Their shapes and sounds and origins and meanings. It wasn’t as much of a logical leap as you’d think.

I’d worked for a few years as a literary and editorial assistant, an administrator at a small printing press, and as a fact checker for a few authors. The book world was an amazing place to work, but the job stability had been lacking, the pay wasn’t consistent, and I just didn’t want to be at the whims of someone else.My love for the industry wouldn’t pay the bills.

One day I’d been scrolling online and had gotten served a video from someone who was talking about unusual careers, and it had been like being hit by lightning. It was perfect.

I’d started my business before I quit any of my other jobs, and somehow found the right keywords and was immediately flooded with clients. Not only was it interesting work, I was good at it. I also donated my services to anyone trans or nonbinary to help them pick a new name that suited them best.

I logged on to the video chat and checked my appearance one more time before calling my new client. She was having twins and searching for names that would be complementary, but not too matchy. Such a fun challenge.

This was our first consultation call, so I needed to take her through my questionnaire and figure out what direction she wanted to go in.

The mom, Bella, was so sweet, and introduced me to her partner. Since I got so many inquiries, I had to be selective and queer families were always my top priority.

We talked and laughed, and I lost myself in the meeting and taking notes.

“So next I’m going to make up a list of ten options, and we’ll go through them at our next meeting. My biggest piece of advice once I give you the list is to write the names down for yourself, hang them up, try them out. A name that you might not immediately like might grow on you. I’ll also be sending you the report with my list and more details than you could ever possibly want. Whatever you do, do not ask your family or friends. Trust me on this.”

Bella laughed and I could see how utterly excited she was for this whole process. That energy rubbed off on me and sometimes it was better than caffeine.

“Thank you so much, we’ve just been totally lost with all of this.”

I grinned. “Don’t worry. That’s what I’m here for. I’ll have your report by the end of the week, and we can schedule our session. It was lovely to meet both of you and congratulations again.”

We said goodbye and I put in my notes from the meeting into the document I made for each consultation.

It was easy to lose myself in work for the next few hours, until my eyes were dry and my stomach was screaming. The best part of working from home was my ability to head to the fridge and pull things out to make a meal. Tonight a chicken Caesar pasta salad was calling my name, along with some oven baked potato wedges slathered in duck fat. Wanting to feel fancy, I made myself a little mocktail with fresh blood oranges, ginger ale and mint.

While I was still exhausted from moving, it felt nice to make myself a beautiful and delicious meal, even if I ate it on the couch in the sweats that I’d changed into after I’d finished my workday.

One hard and fast rule I had for myself was that I always dressed in professional clothing, even when working from home. I also filmed and created a lot of content during my day to help bring in clients and expand my business, so I couldn’t look like I’d just rolled out of bed and expect people to pay me money for my services.

After I ate, I set a timer to allow myself a little social media scrolling on my alternate accounts. Very early in my career, I’d made sure to keep my personal and work accounts separate so I could have a place where I wasn’t James, Baby Name Consultant.

Of course, the first thing I checked was Delaney’s social media. I’d followed her on my alt account and she must not have noticed, or else I wouldn’t have been able to message her.

I liked getting these little looks into her life. Seeing her showcasing her printed T-shirts, making silly faces with her friends, funny posts from the bookshop she worked at. I wanted to visit it so much, but I wanted to see if I could make things right first. It would be an invasion otherwise.

Instead I went online and placed a few orders for books, a tote bag, and a T-shirt that I knew were from Delaney’s collection. There. That wasn’t too invasive. I was allowed to buy her products.

Satisfied, and with my social media scroll time over, I made myself another mocktail and grabbed my ereader. Not a bad start to the week. Not bad at all.

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