“Okay I will, but don’t call again. You love to blow up my phone in meetings,” I chastised my best friend, who ended the call with a “whatever you love it.” The week before, with my mother holding my hand, I’d called the former Smithson-Napa rep and asked if she’d be willing to talk to me about partnering to make the bookish collection a reality. To my surprise, she had. I’d also called Theo, who had been in New York. He asked that I let him see me when he returned to Dallas. I’d told him I would, but so far he had made no attempt to find me.

“Alba,” Yazmin called, standing up to greet me as I reached her table. As always she looked great in a bespoke linen suit and oxfords.

“Hey, thanks for meeting with me.”

“Are you kidding?” Yazmin said as we bussed cheeks. “I was elated to hear from you. To be honest, I’d been biding my time to call you. I didn’t want to seem too thirsty.” I smiled at that, hopeful that this could be the door I’d been hoping would open.

“Clearly, I have no such qualms,” I joked as we sat down. I quickly took my tablet out of my bag and placed it facedown on the table. “You’ve seen the concepts I did for the store already,” I said with a grimace while Yazmin twisted her mouth in distaste, then surprised me with what she said next.

“I just want to tell you that I thought your designs were brilliant. I can’t say too much but I want you to know that the issue was not with what you presented them.” I nodded, without pushing for more information.

“Thanks for saying that,” I told her sincerely, feeling even better about my decision to call her. Yazmin only nodded. There had to be quite a story there, but that would be for another time. “I do have a few other things to show you.”

“I’m ready.” She made grabby hands and I relaxed a little more. Yazmin had been the quieter of the two women, and now I wondered if she had been doing her own code switching in that job. Not wanting to show her true self. I knew only too well how that went.

I held up a hand before I launched into things, needing to get one thing out of the way. “I just want to be clear that I’d like this to be a partnership. That if we do this I’d have as much of a stake in it as you. I don’t want to license my work, I want to own it.” My heart pounded as I waited for a response but Yazmin didn’t make me wait too long.