I looked at him with surprise. “You’re kidding me.”
“I wish I were.”
“I don’t want your office,” I said. “I thought Potts just wanted me to oversee the Bank On It campaign. I wasn’t trying to take your job.”
“I know. It’s Potts’s way of doing business, divide and conquer.”
“This doesn’t have to divide us, does it?”
“No. It’s not like I got a pay cut.”
He lifted a large box off of the desk. “There you go. It’s all yours.”
“Wait,” I said. “I’ll just tell Potts I don’t need an office.”
“That’s not a good idea,” he said. “Potts is a control freak. If you don’t take the office, he’ll leave it empty before he’d give it back to me. And he’ll be angry at you for defying him.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does to Potts. To him, life is about gaining power and the burden of protecting it.”
“That’s just stupid.”
“Maybe, but that’s how the world turns,” he said. He walked to the door carrying a box. “You should know that. That’s why you’re in Chicago.”
That afternoon Potts called me into his office.
“I’ve scheduled a meeting with the BankOne marketing team for Thursday afternoon. They’d like to brainstorm some direct promotion ideas for increasing clientele.”
“What do I need to prepare?”
“Nothing. They just want to talk things out. So how’s your new office?”
I resisted saying anything about Timothy. “It has a great view.”
A peculiar smile crossed his face. “Speaking of great views, what did you think of Brandi?”
“Brandi?”
“My fiancée. You met her your first day.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know her name. She’s beautiful.”
“She’s a model. I met her on a photo shoot for Victoria’s Secret.”
“Burnett has the Victoria’s Secret account?”
“Had,” he said. “We lost.” He looked me over. “What about you? Anyone special?”
“Had,” I said. “I also lost the account.”
“What did you do to lose it?”
“I came here.”
“I had a wife like that. She didn’t want to leave Pocatello, Idaho.”
I was as surprised to hear that he’d been married as that he was from Pocatello. “You’re from Pocatello, Idaho?”
“Someone’s gotta be,” he said. “The thing is, some people dream in black and white. And some people, like us, dream in Technicolor. You can’t change them. All you can do is change the channel.”
“I wish it were that easy,” I said.
“It is,” he said. “The trick is to never fall in love.”
CHAPTER
Fifteen
I think I’m in love. What a frightening proposition. I don’t know if I speak the language, but I’m pretty sure I don’t understand it.
Joseph Jacobson’s Diary
During the next week our team poured out a river of copy to support the new BankOne campaign. Even though I hadn’t been there long, I sensed the dynamic had changed. I figured that Leonard must have told everyone that I’d fired him because Parker and the women were acting strangely around me. Unctuous. Fake. I just hoped it would pass.
The week had one highlight. April and I had made dinner plans for the following Wednesday. I told her that I’d meet her at her apartment. I took the Blue Line to her street, then, following the directions she’d texted me, found her apartment.
She opened the door. She was more dressed up than the last time I’d seen her. She wore a light green sweater that accented the green of her eyes. Every time I saw her, I thought she looked more beautiful. “Come in,” she said.
Her apartment was small, with a sofa and desk in the front room and no pictures on the wall. Actually, there was one—a picture of Jesus that looked as if it had been cut out of a book or magazine. Across from it was a black and white poster of Kurt Cobain smoking a cigarette. The contrast was strange. April noticed me looking at the poster.
“That’s Ruth’s,” she said. “My roommate. How was your day?”
“Busy. Strange.”
“Strange?”
“Ever since I was promoted, everyone acts weird around me.”
“What’s strange about that? You’re the boss now. No more fraternizing with the enlisted men.”
I laughed, not expecting her to say something like that. “I’m the least bosslike person you’ll ever meet.”