Harper
Doug was still waiting for me as he promised to do, and I told him about the invitation for travel. Since Marek specifically stated I had press access for both of us, I asked if he wanted to go with me. Since he was a freelance cameraman, he was excited about the offer, and we made our schedule arrangements for the following week.
Then we taped and recorded the short commentary segment of the press conference and went to work on it at the station studio. I met a few of the local reporters and left there feeling grateful for the day’s events.
Then I called a Lyft to drop me off at Jade’s gym so I could tell her all about what transpired before I have to hit the road back to Spokane.
The driver drops me off in front of her club and I open the front door, smiling and waggling my fingers in greeting at the front desk girl, Siena, who points toward the back where I’m heading to find Jade. Her dark head of hair is buried in her computer, her pen stuck in her mouth where she chews the ends off, just as she’s done for as long as I’ve known her.
When I mentioned it at one point in college, she simply grinned and gave a tawdry reply, said, “I have an oral fixation. What can I say?”
Jade notices me from the corner of her eye and her head pops up with a smile.
“Harper! How did it go? Come sit down and tell me everything.”
That’s one of the things I love most about Jade. She will drop everything to listen to a friend. The woman has a heart as big as a planet and warmer than the beaches of the Caribbean.
I try to hold back my smile, but it’s an exercise in futility because what happened to me this morning is too big to hide. It bursts from me like a team of players running out of a tunnel onto the field or court on college game day.
“You won’t believe it in a million years. I still can’t believe it myself.”
Jade leans forward, planting her elbows on the desk and propping her chin in her hands, her eager anticipation stretched across her face.
“You’re killing me, Harp…don’t leave me in suspense here.”
I riffle through my bag and extract the folder, placing it in front of her on the desk. Jade opens it and begins flipping through the materials. Then she raises her eyes back to mine in confusion.
“I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at here. This looks like the standard press release packet. What does it have to do with you and the press conference today?”
Inhaling a deep breath, I let it go and hold out the badge clipped to a lanyard as I begin to tell her everything that happened, starting with the questions I asked of Marek at the press conference and the invite to his office afterwards.
Jade’s eyes grow wide and her jaw drops, mouth gaping open. “Oh, my God! I knew you were due for something crazy big!”
She jumps from her desk chair and rushes toward me, yanking me to my feet and throwing her arms around me, lifting me like I’m a ragdoll. Shit, this woman is abnormally strong.
When she gets that all out of her system, my feet are gently returned to the floor and the adrenaline finally wears off, my nerves twisting and tingling in my extremities like they’re short circuiting. Feeling dizzy and off-balance, I reach behind me for the chair and sit down, a flutter of wooziness sailing through my head.
“Are you okay?”
I wave her off, but she grabs a bottle of sports drink from her mini-fridge and hands it to me. I take a few gulps and feel nominally better.
Slowly raising my eyes to hers, I worry my bottom lip in regretful shame. “I can’t believe I initially told Marek Talbert no!”
Jade gives me a fist bump. “That’s my girl! You didn’t fold and cave. You kept your priorities straight and he recognized that. Did you tell him why you couldn’t be there next week?”
“Nope. I wasn’t about to let him see any weakness from me.”
“Good thinking. Don’t let anyone exploit your soft spots.”
I drop my head into my hands, bending at the waist so I’m doubled over on the chair. “Oh, shit. Did I just bite off more than I can chew? What if I fuck this whole thing up and instead of helping, I actually ruin my career? I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I wasn’t…Oh, my God…I’m gonna hurl.”
My friend crouches in front of me, placing her warm palm on my lower back, rubbing it in that familiar soothing circular motion. The same way my mother would when I was a kid and got hurt. Then she tips my chin up with her finger and looks me straight in the eye.
“You made this happen, Harper. You had a goal and obstacles in your way. You broke those motherfucking conventional walls down that stood in your way, and you took the bull by the horns, baby. I am so fucking proud of you.”
She squeezes me in a hug, and I try to give her a thin smile. Yet, I’m still riddled with self-doubt. Jade is right about one thing—I did I make this happen by employing my never-give-up Jimmy Valvano belief system, but what happens next?
I’ve never taken on an assignment this big. It’s going to take a lot of time and preparation. I’m going to have to study my ass off to make sure I know everything, inside and out, about the upcoming draft prospects. What if I fail? What if I’m unable to turn in a solid piece that the station approves?