Work That Skirt was probably the most fun chapter to write. I made the scenes with The Sorceress progressively more, um, intimate for the primary purpose of making the real Sorceress blush when she read it. I was on the phone with the Sorceress having the discussion when Simon came to the door of the Atlanta Eagle conference room. After Simon departed, the second half of the conversation was a text message exchange.
In revisions, I added the fishnet stockings/garters bit again for the purpose of embarrassing the real Sorceress. Although it breaks the wall between my ‘dream sequence’ interactions with the Sorceress, I think it serves well to make light of what was in fact a very tense conversation. Simon seemed pretty angry and definitely gave me the impression that we both knew that I outfoxed them – originally I used the ‘spiking the football’ sentence again here – but I didn’t want to imply anything I didn’t know for a fact (and surely Simon would deny it). I haven’t spoken to Simon since that conversation, which occurred on Friday, January 25, 2019.
I was comfortable saying he was surprised and bewildered and decided to leave it at that. I still find it hard to believe how unprofessional Simon and his partners were about the situation. Shadow of the Leader, I suppose. Culture…. Until Harriet came onto their radar, Simon had been among those in the office of which I thought the best. I should’ve trusted my instincts more than I did, and though a hollow victory is better than defeat, I made too many Aspergian mistakes (and first-time manager mistakes) to keep Harriet in the fold.
I made a compromise proposal to Simon, which seemed amenable to him, that was shot down by The MP via Vernon. That The MP would quash any outcome that would be mutually beneficial to Simon, Vernon, and me, really any outcome that would be at all beneficial to me, made sense and would be consistent with everything else. I wrote the scene, but I wasn’t completely sure of Vernon’s or Simon’s motives, so I left out that part.
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