Me: Where would you even keep it?

Mom: Well in the house, of course.

It was like magic, my mom always seemed to know exactly what I needed. I smiled and made a mental note to call her later to talk her out of the impulsive purchase of a teacup pig. Then, I knocked on Dr. Haynes’s door and waited.

“Come in,” he ordered, and I let out a large sigh, then opened the door and let myself inside. Dr. Haynes was wearing black slacks and a button up shirt that clung to his muscles. His hair was gelled back, and he wore thick-rimmed glasses as he thumbed through papers on his desk. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing toward the chair in front of him.

I sat down and started shuffling through my various binders in my messenger bag. Once I found the folder containing everything I needed to run Oakley’s image control, I pulled it out and started sifting through pages. “The first game is this weekend, but it’s an away game. We are gearing up for the home game next week. I’d really like to get him featured in some local publications in a favorable light. I’ve looked into a few charities, but no one wants to work with him. I had no idea how far his reputation reached.”

“Good morning to you too, Miss Mathews,” he replied with a chuckle. “I think you’re onto something. It needs to be something that doesn’t take too much time away from his studies or practice schedule, but also needs to be public enough that it improves public opinion.”

I nodded. That was mostly the problem. Working around his crazy intense schedule was hard. I was surprised he managed to pass any of his classes leading up to this point. “I’ll research some opportunities and email you a list of options later this afternoon,” I replied. I was confident enough in my skills to steal my client’s phone and take total control of his scheduling and social media, but I still felt like I needed reassurance from Dr. Haynes on Oakley’s first big positive publicity event.

“I’m confident you can handle this, Miss Matthews. But I’m happy to provide some extra guidance,” he told me. “I think you have done an excellent job in a very short amount of time. Especially after such a rocky start.” Oh snap. That was the first time Dr. Haynes had brought up “the incident.” I thought we were just going to let it go. I fought the urge to literally hang my head in shame. “I can tell that you get your business sense from your father. How is he, by the way? I read in the New York Times that Plotify just implemented a new advertising stream that looks promising.”