The Bucketlist

17 | THE GAME PLAN

A few moments later

"The Chair has announced its decision and recommended that Miss Mellon heads the Creative Development team. That would imply that Mr. Harris is to assist her as a subordinate." Will said, and I could see everyone giving me nasty stares.

Everyone except Josh.

Josh seemed lost even sitting just there, a couple of chairs away. Amanda, had done a PhD. by now in throwing spiteful glances at me. She whispered something to Josh, and he gave her a half smile. As if she had noticed my eyes on her, she looked my way with one of her many, stellar, bitchy stares. 

If the world were to end tomorrow and Amanda and I were to be locked in a room, despite the complete horror of the situation, I know in my bones that before everything ends, we would end up killing each other.

Will went on with his presentation on the three-month regime for the Ebook Library Project, but I couldn't seem to concentrate. My thoughts were all over the place, and I was worried about: What if Josh started hating me? I didn't want to be that girl who steals other people's opportunities, and I hoped that Josh would understand that I could do nothing about the situation. But, my mind told me otherwise the whole time he avoided my stares. He looked at the screen blankly and made frequent notes.

I felt like going back to twelfth grade in high school when all the other kids would sneer at me and call me names for getting good grades. What if history repeats itself? The winner stands alone. That's not an accomplishment; it's a bloody punishment.

My head reeled back to the days when I had to suck it up and pass the lunch break all alone because someone had started a nasty rumor about me: Eva Mellon is an erotica reading geek. It didn't go well with my teachers, Martha or Mom. College was calm, but high school was a disaster.

"I need your suggestions on the next thing..." Will said, and the screen popped up with upcoming book launches, and I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that they were of the same genre- Romance.

"What about it, Mr. Turner?" Rachel asked.

Did I mention I loved working with Rachel? She wasn't a half-headed bitch like most other people I had met. She had this inquisitive nature of asking all the right questions at the right time. No one hates Rachel. I repeat, no one!

"I am thinking about not going on with the conventional book launches hosted at posh avenues..." Will said, waiting for people to come up with ideas.

"What about an online book launch, then? It would be from the comfort of everyone's home plus- no rush, no crowd. It could be hosted at low costs too." Josh was the first person to come up with an idea. He was smart. As if I only liked him for his looks! Maybe, that too!

"That's a good one, Mr. Harris," Will assured.

"Any other suggestions?  Mellon?" Will directed his glance at me.

To my amazement, everyone was looking at me now.

That was getting intimidating. Was he trying to prove a point?

Even Josh was staring at me earnestly. What do I do now? All I remember was him saying something about book launches. But what?

"Do you have any suggestions on how we should host our book launches in the coming months?" Will cleared his throat.

"I proposed an online event. What's your say?" Josh interjected.

"I think we should make it offline, but affordable," I added, not knowing the source of inspiration.