Page 41 of Never Say Never
“And there’s the thing with Rawley Battle too, right?” Taylor asks when Mom’s done, and I see Aiden cock his head.
Annoyingly, it’s been forty-eight hours and the story has not died down. The video from that night is now all over social media, and people are taking stills of it to create their own posts.
“Yeah, that’s just gossip though,” Mom replies. “Right, Avery?”
“Right, there’s nothing to it.”
“Okay,” Taylor says, digesting that. “From a PR perspective, I can think of a few directions. We could play up the ‘badass female athlete’ energy, like I’ve done with Rori Reilly.”
That option feels good. “She’s so cool, and I could see that working for me.”
“Or we can find a way to soften up your image, make you feel more approachable—in a genuine way, I promise. We’d figure out what that looks like. Aiden, what are you thinking would help most?”
Aiden launches right in with the prompt. “Well, first of all, Mrs. Parker?—”
“Sylvia, please.”
“Sylvia, I commend you for getting this far with SkyHigh. They’re notoriously prickly to deal with.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m going to be direct with you both, since you already know me via Dylan. I won’t play small with Avery’s options, and with the right strategy, I believe we could blow past WNBA player records and push for reaching the top of female athlete endorsement levels, period.”
“Seriously?”
He’s actually surprised me. His answer comes fast and loaded with confidence.
“Yes. Your game has to be there, and we need to take control of your public persona like Taylor’s suggesting, but yes. The WNBA is exploding in popularity, and I’d love to be the one to help break through the assumptions of what’s possible.”
“That sounds incredible.”
“We’re talking nine figures, not just eight.”
Right now,sevenfigures sounds great, so my head is spinning.
“Okay,” Mom says, a little breathless.
“And I’m not saying your family name doesn’t help, but we’d want your personal popularity to transcend beyond being Paul’s daughter. Right, Taylor?”
“Definitely.”
He’s speaking my language.
“That’s the approach I’ve taken with Dylan too. Anyway, as next steps, I can work with Taylor to create a few options, if you want us to collaborate? Then if you like what you hear, we can move forward with an official engagement. If you prefer to talk to us separately, we can do that too.”
“You guys collaborating sounds great,” I say, and Mom nods in agreement.
“Okay, we’ll get to work and circle back within a couple of days. You have a road trip coming up?”
“Yes, for four days.”
“We’ll try to catch up with you before then, if we can.”
After another minute of pleasantries, we’re off the Zoom.
Mom immediately calls me.
“Wow,” she says. “What just happened?”
