Page 47

Harper

I’d been staring at my screen for more than ten minutes, attempting to hype myself up enough to press the button to call my boss.

The interview had been out for over a week and nearly every news outlet in America had picked the story up.

The original video had surpassed a million views, the quickest video in network history to do so.

Yet, I still hadn’t heard from Terry.

This morning before he’d left for a hitting session with Tommy, Jamil had told me to take my destiny into my own hands. I’d delivered more for the network than even some of the hosts did and I was well within my rights to highlight all of that while negotiating for the reward I deserved.

Before I chickened out completely, I hit the call button and listened to the video call ring. After I counted the tenth ring, I was certain he wouldn’t be picking up and I’d have to go through the whole process of building enough confidence to do this again.

“Harper!” Terry’s face filled the screen.

“Hi, Terry. How are you?”

You are in control of your own destiny, I told myself with my corporate smile plastered across my face.

“I’m great. Real busy. I’m sorry I haven’t reached out recently. The interview you did with Jamil. That was some great stuff.”

My eye twitched at how casually he discussed the one thing he held over my head this season. I delivered what he wanted and even went beyond his expectations, and it felt like I was getting a pat on the head for a job well done.

“Thank you,” I told him through gritted teeth. “Listen, I’m actually calling pertaining to that interview and all of the other interviews I’ve delivered.”

Terry’s eyebrow shot up.

“What would you like to talk about?” he asked. After four years of working for Terry, I knew when he was preparing himself for a negotiation or news that he wasn’t anticipating.

“I want a spot on one of the network’s shows.”

My boss tilted his head to the side as he considered my proposition. “There are a few different shows in our New York studio that I think you would be a good fit for.”

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving Chicago.”

You proved that you deserve even the smallest of demands. Do not fold. You are the commodity.

Now that Terry realized I was a formidable negotiator, he sat back in his chair and laced his hands together over his stomach.

“New York is our biggest studio with the widest audience,” Terry pointed out.

“I’ve brought the network new numbers over the past few months. I’ll build my own audience here. But I’m not leaving Chicago. This place has become home.”

Terry studied me through the screen and not even a week ago, I would have been squirming under his scrutinizing gaze. The silence stretched on as I waited for him to potentially crush my dreams permanently. Despite all my hard work, I could still be turned away right when I’d crested the summit.

“We do have a few new shows we are considering for the Chicago studio,” Terry mused as he examined me through the screen.

“One is to cover all sporting news in the area. The other is experimental—an idea, let’s say.

We want to do an all-day talk show platform but are looking at bringing a few Chicago professional athletes into the mix, maybe giving them permanent seats.

I think you’d be perfect for both. Maybe even spearhead the talk show project to get it off the ground.

We need a few other personalities to create good conversation, but we’d love you to take the lead on choosing who you’d like to have sitting next to you. ”

My mouth fell open.

“Wait, really?” Did I hear him wrong or was this actually happening?

“You’re a huge asset to SC News and it would be one of the worst decisions of my career to let you walk away. If this is what you are wanting, I think that’s a reasonable ask for me to fulfill.”

I wanted to celebrate. I should be celebrating. This had been the one thing I’d spent the last four years of my life working toward. So why did I feel so incomplete?

“Terry, can I ask you something?”

My boss nodded. “Sure.”

Before I could chicken out, I asked the one question I’d been wondering all year. “Over the past four years, why now? Did I need improvement?”

“You’ve been our best reporter over these past few years. We could always rely on your interviews for good content.”

Disappointment sank through every inch of my body.

Terry’s response shouldn’t have surprised me.

It was the unfortunate truth that I’d known all along.

But it was different hearing him confirm that I’d done nothing wrong—in fact, I’d exceeded in my job—yet others were promoted before me because they couldn’t afford losing me.

They would have rather kept me stagnant in my career for the sake of their own success rather than give me the flowers I deserved.

“I understand. Thank you for this opportunity, Terry.”

He nodded. “Of course. I’ll have someone draft up the contract and send it over to you in the next few days. We will have you start at the end of the current season with the Cougars. We wouldn’t want to take you away from potentially covering a back-to-back World Series team.”

“No, of course not.”

We exchanged pleasantries before we finally ended the call. I stared at my blank computer screen for a few minutes longer before I finally got up from the table.

At least now I knew it wasn’t me.

The world had a terrible habit of trying to put the strongest down. But they were the strongest for a reason. When they crawled out from under the fist that had tried to keep them down, the very people that turned them away would claim their success as their own.

But the only person that could relish in my successes was me . I had worked my ass off so far this season to prove my worth, all while challenging myself along the way. Despite the opposition I faced with my boss, with Nick O’Connor, I persevered. I did that .

My phone buzzed, flashing my father’s name across the screen.

“Dad?” I answered. I hadn’t heard from either of my parents since the dinner in Washington DC. I didn’t expect to hear from them after Jamil and I had walked out of the restaurant. My mother would have only been upset that I made her look bad in a dining room full of her peers.

“Hi, honey. I was just calling to check in. It’s been a while.”

Maybe it was the confidence I’d just garnered from my conversation with Terry, but I found myself clutching my phone even tighter. “Whose fault would that be?”

The other side of the phone went silent.

“Your mother is sorry for what she said at dinner.”

My eyes rolled hard enough that I feared they’d roll straight out of my head. “I’ll only believe it when she tells me that herself.”

My father cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with my animosity.

Good. They’d made me uncomfortable for most of my life. It was time I repaid them.

“Would you believe me if I told you that she called off her potential campaign for president?” my father asked me. “The week after our dinner together in Washington DC.”

I was stunned into silence. My mother, who loved her career more than her own family, canceled an opportunity to win the highest achievement in the industry she’d given so much to.

“But she’s been working toward that her entire career.”

She wouldn’t give that all up over me telling her that they’d prioritized their careers over me my entire life. Would she?

“Sometimes people realize there are more important things in life than a job.” My father paused as I tried to reconcile the woman that I’d always associated with crisp suits and perfectly styled hair my entire life.

“I think she and I have come to realize that there are more relationships that we’ve neglected than just the one with our child.

We’ve realized we’re practically strangers in each other’s lives and if you’ve neglected two of the most important people in your life, what else do you have? ”

This conversation felt like one bomb going off after another. “Are you saying the two of you are getting a divorce?”

My father laughed like that was the funniest thing he’d heard in a long time. “Oh no, honey. We’re just going to take some time off to get to know each other again. I’m not sure either of us would survive without the other.”

“That’s great, Dad.”

“We’re also wanting to maybe get on the road some and come watch the games you are covering.”

I checked the time and date to make sure I hadn’t entered a different dimension after logging off my call with Terry. “Well, you’ll only have the rest of this season because I got the promotion I’ve been working for.”

“Really?” my father exclaimed. “Oh, that’s great! Maria! Harper got the promotion.”

There was some commotion on the other end of the line, the sound of a door opening and closing.

“Hold on, she’s in the backyard gardening,” my father told me, the sounds of birds chirping in the background.

“She’s what ?” I asked. We’d never had a garden before and the idea of my mother digging in dirt truly had me wondering if I was dreaming. The call with Terry and this call with my father all a figment of my imagination.

“She’s been out there all morning trying to get the seeds she bought planted since she’s a little late into the season. Maria, Harper got the promotion.”

I was expecting a snide remark or a backward compliment. Instead, I heard my mother’s voice clear as day as she said, “Congratulations, Harper. We know how long and hard you’ve been working for it. I hope it’s everything you wanted.”

That was it. No line of questioning. Not even trying to put herself in the spotlight and take over my moment. Just a simple congratulations and recognition of the sacrifices I’d been making over the years.

This was the moment I’d been waiting for my entire life.

I’d expected it to feel like some grand moment—finally getting recognized by my parents.

I thought their validation would be all I wanted.

But the only person that I needed validation from was myself.

Their words of encouragement felt good for only a moment, but the pride I had for myself would last a lifetime.

My apartment door opened just as I was beginning to collect myself. Jamil walked through, drenched in sweat from his workout.

“Thanks, Mom.” Jamil’s eyebrows shot up as he realized who I was talking to.

“Harper, I want you to know that I’m sorry I ever made you feel like you weren’t important. You and your father are more important to me than anything else in this world. I just want you to know I’m proud of you.”

I paused to relish in the words. “I’m proud of you, too.”

The phone clicked off.

“That was your parents?” Jamil asked as he dropped his bag by his old bedroom. After my birthday, he’d stopped sleeping in his own bed. The only time we slept apart was during an away series. He came up behind me and placed a gentle kiss to the top of my head.

“My mother is gardening and she’s not running for president anymore. They’ve both decided to take some time off work to reconnect with themselves and maybe come watch some games.”

“Woah,” Jamil breathed.

“My thoughts exactly.” I closed my laptop, taking my time before telling him the rest of the news I had. “Terry gave me a seat on one of the network’s new shows.”

The smile that lit up Jamil’s face sent butterflies soaring throughout my stomach. I didn’t think I’d ever get over how attractive he looked with that much joy on his face.

“If he didn’t, he would have been an idiot. He knows the kind of talent he has in you. There was no way he was going to let that go.” Jamil pulled me out of my seat and enveloped me in a hug. “Congratulations. You are more than deserving of this.”

“Looks like that interview is changing both of our lives.”

The tone of the articles covering Jamil in the media had changed after the interview had dropped.

They had listened to how they’d acted like vultures, vying for any piece of information they could glean off his life and realized how they had been contributing to the problem.

A few tabloids and gossip columns had spun stories to paint Jamil as weak, but nobody was reading those stories.

Instead, they were reading the ones being put out that covered Jamil’s charitable actions or his business ventures with his partnerships and how he tried to work with organizations that made a difference in the world.

He was slowly becoming less of this mythical legend as fans discovered the true story of Jamil Edman.

Business opportunities had been pouring in over the last week. Jamil had to make it clear to his agent about what kinds of business ventures he wanted to pursue now that he had the opportunity to be picky.

Gone was the man who dreaded walking by fans demanding his autograph or ambushing him on the way into stadiums for a sound bite. Jamil had garnered respect from his peers, his fans, and from the rest of the sports world in a short time.

“Looks like we both have good news to share today,” Jamil said with his chin resting on top of my head. “Jordan is going through the program. I got a call from his therapist today. I’m still holding my breath, in case he bails again. But this time feels different.”

I squeezed Jamil back as hard as I could.

“I know for so long you’ve had to tear tiny pieces of your heart out as you’ve watched your brother destroy himself.

But you never gave up faith that one day he’d come back.

It’s because of that undying faith that Jordan is trying to make a difference now in his life. It’s because of you .”

Jamil’s body started to shake as the pent-up emotion he’d been holding onto for years released from his body.

We held on to each other, no longer alone in our own fights—stronger together than we’d ever been alone.