Page 133 of First in Line

“Tell her I say hi!”

“Will do.”

“Fuck,” I mumble when I mess up my signature.

“Did I call you at a bad time?”

“There’s never really a good time, Mom.”

Because I’ve just exercised it too hard, my neck starts cramping in that position. That’s why when she offers to call me back at a better time, I agree.

I’m not done yet when someone from marketing comes to fetch me. “Give me a minute,” I say.

Instead of going away, the assistant stays right there, silently pressuring me to go faster. After the weekend I’ve had, what I need is a day off, not all this shit.

As soon as I’m done, I motion to Justine, who’s still on the phone, to let her know. She gives me a thumbs-up, and I stand up to follow the marketing assistant.

In the hallway, my phone dings. I check it mindlessly and see I’ve gotten two pictures from Evie. They’re screenshots of armchairs from an online furniture store. Both are brick-colored, but one looks a little more vintage, the other modern.

Before I can ask her what it’s about, we arrive at the marketing studio. It looks like they’re all waiting for me, with an official from Imperion who’s next to a reinforced briefcase. “Sorry, I came as soon as I could,” I say once I’m with them.

We get to work right away, and I slip on a black dress shirt despite still being sweaty from my training. This is for tests; they don’t need me at my best. The Imperion guy opens the case, and they slip some of the jewelry that’s in it on me. Two necklaces, a chain bracelet, rings, and they even take out my earrings to replace them with theirs.

We’re about to take some pictures when my phone rings. I’m too far from it to check, but someone does for me and lets me know it’s Evie. I’ll call her back later.

It takes about ten minutes to take test pictures, find the right poses, fine-tune the lighting… Imperion wants me with my car, which is why we’re doing it in the Altron facility.

My phone rings again when we’re near the end, but I don’t have time to take it. I can feel myself cool down, and I don’t want to have to warm up again before getting in the simulator.

It’s not as straining as the real thing, but I still need to brake and shit.

I’m arriving at the simulator when Evie calls once more. I’m considering taking it when Justine grabs my attention. “Jackson, I forgot, but I also need your signature on some Altron caps and T-shirts.”

“After the simulator.”

“Okay, I’ll prepare everything.”

The phone goes silent before I can take it. So, I enter the simulation room and walk to the locker to put on the light suit I wear for this. Because it’s for visibility testing, I have to wear the helmet too.

I’m about to put it on when Evie calls for a fourth time. Now, I’m getting a little worried. She wouldn’t try that hard to reach me if it weren’t important. Though it might be about those armchairs… With a sigh, I take it.

“I’ll call you back when I can,” I tell her.

“Just real quick! I sent you two pictures. Can you—”

“Yeah, I saw.”

“Which one do you prefer?”

“I don’t know, they both look good to me.”

The engineers all look at me, waiting for me to finish and get into position.

“It’s for the bedroom,” she continues. “In the corner by the window. I think the first one would look—”

“Buy the one you prefer. I don’t care. It’s not like I’m home enough to even notice.” I hang up and drop the phone in the locker before putting on the helmet.

I’m strapped into the simulator by the time I realize what I just did. Fuck… I can’t remember ever hanging up on her likethat. Today has been so fucking long. The past five days, actually. I’ve wanted to rebuff at least a dozen people. Five today alone. And all that somehow had to fall on her.