A shiver of excitement coursed between her shoulder blades. The Phoebe Lee business! She’d been waiting her entire life to hear those words. She knew Scott and the other executive were only interested in her film because of the controversy with Ted and their competition with each other, but it was a place to start. Warrior Bride was the shiny new object they were fighting over. Phoebe could work with that.

30

Holly

“Erin, check with the steward and find out the best time for me to call Flynn. I know he thinks he’s too old for it, but I’m still his mother and I want to say good-night.”

Outside at the party, Eddie Money begged his baby to hold on, while inside Holly’s office a war room had assembled. Holly was at her desk, with Erin standing beside her, Jane and the Blankenship Partners team were huddled up on the sofa, and Mark was on the floor with his MacBook in his lap.

“No problem,” Erin said. She bent her head to type into her phone, and her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose for the millionth time. Holly was going to spend the rest of her life watching this pathetic creature struggle to keep her glasses in place if she didn’t level up to a proper assistant. Somebody who met her criteria, not Ted’s. Holly didn’t need much—someone presentable, good with people, organized, discreet. Not a basket case or a wounded puppy. Someone like Jane. Maybe she could bring Jane in-house. The Stablers were her most important clients, after all. Holly could afford to make it worth her while. No more of this Mickey Mouse bullshit.

After the interview, the war room had sprung into action. Jane politely suggested to Serafina Clark that it would not be in her best interests to air that tape, not if she wanted access to Ted or any of Holly’s network of contacts, and if she didn’t get the message, Peter Leo would surely drive home the point. Handling Serafina’s assistant was the perfect job for Mark, and already his detective work had turned up some interesting material. Rona Krotki’s father was a member of the Polish parliament, but his wife had brought the children to the US when Rona was twelve. There were allegations of infidelity and even domestic violence. The family was Catholic, from a deeply Catholic country; surely she wouldn’t want a scandal. That left Phoebe for Holly to take care of, and she’d dispatched Marty to find out what Phoebe wanted. The Persistence Fellowship would have to go to someone else, of course, but there must be something Stabler Studios could offer her to keep her from repeating her baseless accusations about Ted.

There was only one tiny worry left to button up.