Page 100 of Out on a Limb

He hobbled to his desk, when it hit him that he didn’t drink coffee this morning. He put his bag under his chair.

It was just him and his computer for the next eight hours. More time for him to think about Cameron and to force himself to not think about Cameron, which would only lead him to replay the events of last week in his head again.

“Walker.” Patricia was at his side. He jumped back in surprise.

“Morning, Patricia.” He shoved his phone into his pocket. “Thank goodness it’s Friday!”

“Same to you! Can we talk?” She nudged her head to her office.

He followed behind her. Lucy sat in her usual chair by the window. She looked just as confused and nervous as him.

“I don’t have good news,” Patricia said, before breaking out in a smile. “I have excellent news. The Radiance client loved our pitch. Loved it! They called me this morning and said how much they regretted putting us up for review. They were impressed by the level of detail and strategy that we presented, which no other agency could even touch.”

Patricia beamed, and Lucy was not far behind her. Walker felt an immediate pit in his stomach.

“So we’re safe?” Lucy asked.

“We’re never safe, but we saved the account.”

“I’m so relieved because I really didn’t want to update my résumé.” Lucy cackled for all to hear. She didn’t love the job like Patricia, but she had a big family and liked her non-blip routine.

Walker wanted to celebrate with them. He made himself smile, but that pit of dread did not leave his stomach. It weighed him down like an anchor dropped in the sea.

This is good news. Be happy, dammit!His body wouldn’t listen, and the pit seemed to grow.

Patricia swiveled back and forth in her chair. She was a kid on Christmas morning. “That presentation was thorough and flawless, and this would not have happened without your hard work. You guys did a phenomenal job, and I’m keeping our team intact to keep working on Radiance.” She turned her gaze to Walker and gave him a nod.

But Walker didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, breathing became more difficult.

“So what happens now?” Lucy asked.

“Like I said, we’re not safe. We wowed them with our new direction, and now we have to carry it out. We have to be more on-the-ball than ever before. We may have won back the business, but we still have to earn it. For the most part, though, things will go back to normal.”

Normal.The word slapped Walker across the face. His routine wasn’t changing. The weeks of unease and nervousness and scrambling and worrying had all been reduced to a blip.

“He’s still in shock.” Lucy elbowed him in the arm. “Smile, Walker. We have jobs!”

Walker smiled like a good employee. The golden handcuffs squeezed his wrists.

“Because of working on the review, I know we’re behind with planning for the fourth quarter. Walker, put together a draft of the media plan and create briefs for our digital, TV, and print buyers. Plus see if they have any cross-promotional opportunities still available that they believe can generate substantial ROI. Can you get that to me by Tuesday? It’s a tight timeline, but we can’t show the client that we’ve let anything drop during these past few weeks.”

He pictured Cameron living his dream, reading scripts on his iPad with a smile on his face, because he wanted to, because his passion wasn’t just “what ifs” rolling around in his mind. Not because it was merely paying the bills.

“Walker?”

What am I doing here?He thought to himself.

“What did you say?” Patricia asked. Lucy gawked at him, too.

Perhaps he actually said that out loud.

“Right. I’ll get on that right away,” he said.

Patricia didn’t seem convinced, but completely ignored the comment. It was as if Walker flubbed a line in a play, yet the show had to go on.

“Lucy, I want us to redo our reporting. Now that I know what they’re most sensitive about, we can recalibrate reporting to address those concerns.”

“You got it.” Lucy diligently took notes. She was a master actress.