“We have a staff, for God’s sake. What’s left for her to do?”
“Plenty. Just leave it to me. Besides, I’m a lot tougher than you are. Let’s see how she toes the line with me.”
It was certainly an interesting experiment. When Julia picked up her daughter later that day, Courtney climbed into the car reluctantly and sulked all the way to the office. When Julia told her she was expected to work and what she’d be doing, her anger was hard to ignore.
“Are you planning to babysit me every day?” She made no effort to disguise her resentment. “What about my friends? I want to hang out with them after school. This sucks. And I don’t want to work for you. You don’t do anything but criticize me.”
Julia flinched. “Courtney, if you made better choices about your friends and paid attention to house rules, this wouldn’t be necessary. Anyway, technically you won’t be working for me. You’ll be working for Claire.”
“Oh, great. The warden herself.” Courtney slouched down in her seat. “I think she’s a refugee from the Gestapo.”
“Enough, Courtney.” Julia was out of patience. “I’ll expect you to conduct yourself courteously and professionally, and do what you’re told. You might not like some of the alternatives.”
“Oh? And what are they? Locking me in chains and throwing me bread and water?”
“Don’t tempt me.” Julia tightened her fingers on the steering wheel. “Try to remember under your pathetic layer of hostility you’re actually a decent human being.”
The afternoon went better than Julia expected. Claire was ready for Courtney as soon as they walked in. She showed her how to enter client information in the database and print reports. She also instructed her on how to organize client folders.
Julia watched sideways across the reception area through the slightly open door to Claire’s office. It amazed her to see Courtney’s annoyed posture change as she listened and tried to absorb the instructions. When she started to do her assigned work, she didn’t look enthused, exactly, but there was more animation on her face than Julia had seen in a long time.
Maybe this would work. Maybe this would make a change in her attitude.
If it kept her away from the dregs of humanity she seemed to enjoy hanging out with, Julia would consider it a major accomplishment.
And she absolutely had to get the child some new clothes. Courtney had, for whatever reason, taken to wearing spandex bicycle shorts and oversized T-shirts as her normal style of dress. They were the clothes Julia bought her for hanging around the house or riding her bike, not for school and certainly not in an office where business was conducted. How had she even let her get away with wearing them to school? Because it was one more argument she didn’t want to have?
Julia stared at her computer. Claire was right. The constant uphill battle kept her edgy and exhausted. What would Luke say if he could see how his daughter was turning out? Would he blame her? Would he help her?
They were getting ready to close up shop for the day when Claire hurried into Julia’s office holding a fax.
“You aren’t going to believe this.” She stared at the paper in her hand, a stunned look on her face.
“Believe what?”
“I just got a call from someone at Connell Wilson. You know them, right?”
“Are you kidding?” Julia widened her eyes. “Who doesn’t know about them? They’re one of the biggest national manufacturers of sporting goods and apparel for college and professional sports. I read in the business journal they just gobbled up some smaller companies.”
“Yes, well, it appears they’ve got something new going and we’re invited to the party.”
“What?” Julia dropped her pen. “I don’t believe you. We’re small potatoes compared to the agencies they use.”
“Yeah, I was a little skeptical myself when the call came in, so I asked the guy to fax me the request in writing. Here it is.” She held out the piece of paper she was holding.
Julia took it from her hand and skimmed the message. Connell Wilson, following some recent acquisitions, was changing its name and wanted a major advertising campaign to establish its new identity. Would Bright Ideas be interested in making a presentation?
“Major advertising campaign,” Claire repeated, standing there in a daze.
“This just came out of the blue?” Julia asked. “No recommendation from someone?”
“No. Just the request. We got a follow-up phone call about ten minutes after they sent the fax.”
“But why us? Connell Wilson is big league. Huge. And we’re far from being close to major.”
“Read what it says. They’re aware of similar campaigns we’ve done before and they’d like to talk to us.” She flopped down in one of the client chairs. “This is too weird, right?”
“Maybe they have our stuff on file.” Julia was referring to the huge structured mailing Bright Ideas recently did in a prospecting, throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks campaign.
Claire sat up straight. “If we get this account, it would mean really, really big bucks, Julia. I mean, we’re actually fine. More than fine. We’ve got a nice portfolio of clients and they usually recommend us to others. But this is like representing the palace.”
“Can we do something this huge?” Julia asked. “We might need to hire additional staff.”
“Something to worry about later. Bright Ideas has come a long way since the Hot Ticket rollout, kiddo. Their campaign got us a lot of referrals and we’ve been humming ever since. This could be our biggest step up the ladder yet.”
“You think?” Julia was the conservative one, Claire always the more adventurous of the two. They balanced each other out, allowing them to look at an opportunity like this from every angle.
“I do.” Claire nodded. “If you agree we should go ahead, I’ll call this guy back and get him to messenger over the information we’ll need. Then I’ll ask him when they want the presentation.”
Julia fiddled with the pen she held. Maybe a challenge like this was just what she
