Touch The Sky | ✓

One

My eyes are burning, exhaustion hitting hard. The computer screen shines brightly in front of me and I gently knead a spot on my temple, trying to dissuade my headache from getting any worse.

The design on the screen dances in front of me merrily and I heave a sigh, pushing my chair back and heading over to the window of my office.

I've spent the last few hours trying to finalise the front cover design for our next book, but something about the whole thing just isn't right. I can't seem to get any of it to look any good.

The beautiful view out on the city calms me a little, though, and I smile. The classic New York skyline stands out against the bright blue sky, the sun beating down on the bustling streets below.

'Cora?'

I turn around and find my co-worker, Karen, standing by the door. 'Hey, Karen, is everything okay?'

'Yeah, everything's fine. I've tried to phone you a few times in the last, like, hour but it kept saying your line was busy or something, so I just thought I would come and see you instead,' she explains.

I wince. 'Oops. I unplugged my line earlier to stop getting distracted by the calls and I guess I forgot to put it back in again. Sorry.'

She just smiles and shakes her head good-naturedly, seemingly unbothered by my mistake – although I'm convinced that she hasn't really been trying to call me for an hour, but probably just a couple of times.

It's not like it's the first time I've unplugged my phone to stop getting distracted, either. It often helps me focus.

Karen and I have always gotten along really well. Despite her being twenty-nine, three years my senior, she's never begrudged me for getting promoted to one of the senior designer positions, when she's actually more qualified than me. In fact, she was the one who showed me the ropes here at Garth Publishing when I first started, fresh from college.

It was to my utter delight, then, that six months ago, she got promoted to the same position as me, replacing Simon, who retired. We've been working on everything together since and honestly, it's been great.

I sit back down again at my desk and gesture for her to sit in the chair opposite me. 'So, why were you trying to call me anyway?'

'I had an idea for the design you've been working on for the book. Not that I want to step on your toes or anything,' she adds quickly. 'But I just thought if you haven't gotten any further with it, we could work on it a bit?'

I breathe a sigh of relief. 'Oh, thank goodness. I'm literally running dry, Karen, you've no idea. I can't make any headway with it. Please come around and help.'

She scoots her chair round to my side of the desk and proceeds to explain what she wants to do, showing me exactly how it would look.

I am paying attention to what she's telling me, but I'm also interested in her body language and the way she's animatedly explaining what ideas she has. The pure enthusiasm pictured on her face isn't something you can find just anywhere. She finds such joy in her work and I've always admired her for it.

We spend the next half an hour or so finalising the cover for the next book that we're publishing and at the end I can't help myself but to hug her tightly. 'You're a real gem, Karen, honestly.'

She smiles lightly. 'You know it's no problem, Cora. I just wanted to help.'

'Save my ass, more like,' I laugh. 'This is one of the ones we're presenting to the board on Monday, so thank you so much. I'll make sure to mention that you were instrumental in the whole thing.'