"So that's it. That's my proposal." Brooke Hamlin forced herself not to wipe her sweaty palms on the gray silk blend of her designer skirt. Instead, she conjured her most winning smile and reminded herself to breathe.
"I understand that you only want six episodes for the first season," she continued. "But I really think that the goal should be to increase that in season two. Probably to eighteen episodes. And, although my working title is The Business Plan, I'm obviously open to change."
Shut up, Brooke, she told herself. Shut up before you say something stupid and their eyes glaze over.
The eyes in question belonged to two network executives, both with the kind of plastic Hollywood smiles that were totally unreadable. And seemed completely out of place in Austin, Texas, a town with a laid back vibe despite its recent growth.
"I just thought that since that's the title of my monthly morning show segment that it made the most sense." Why, why, why was she still talking? "It's really quite popular," she added, and wondered if they'd notice if she took off one of her Christian Louboutin pumps and kicked her own ass.
She wasn't usually prone to nerves or chattiness, but she also wasn't usually in meetings that could literally change her life. Under the circumstances, maybe sweaty palms were a small price to pay.
Across the room, one of the executives--Molly--lifted her phone to her ear, reminding Brooke that a third exec in Los Angeles had seen and heard the entire pitch over a video call.
A moment later, Molly lowered her phone and indicated the colleague sitting beside her, a lanky guy whose name Brooke had forgotten.
"Brooke, we'd like to have a little pow-wow. If you could just wait here for a minute?"
"Oh. Sure."
Brooke watched them go, hoping that was a good sign. Then she moved to the window and put her forehead against the glass as she looked down the four stories from this suite in Austin's historic Driskill Hotel to the hustle-and-bustle of afternoon traffic on Sixth Street.
She'd always heard that The Driskill was haunted, but right now she disagreed. It wasn't haunted; it was magical. A place with the power to completely change her life. Or, more accurately, to justify her choices. To finally prove to her surgeon father and oncologist mother that she knew her own mind and could run her own life.
She'd dropped out of med school mid-way through her first semester because her dream had always been to fix property, not people. Growing up, she'd gravitated more toward her grandfather and uncle's property development business than to her parents' medical practices. A reality that they'd written off to a child playing with toys. They'd expected her to get serious about medicine and had paid for a top-notch education.
It hadn't been pretty when she'd thrown it all back in their faces. Her father's words, not hers. But she couldn't be a doctor when the interest just wasn't there. It wouldn't be fair to her. And it certainly wouldn't be fair to whatever patient happened to wander into her office.
Now, four years after walking away before her second semester at Southwestern Medical School, she'd finally launched The Business Plan, a commercial renovation company specializing in small businesses that are open to the public. Bars, restaurants, B&Bs, and the like. It was a hell of a lot of work, but she was in the black, if just barely, and her current focus was on getting more clients. Which meant she needed to be out there, front and center so that she was in the line of sight of people who might want to hire her.
To that end, she'd finagled a regular segment on one of Austin's local morning shows. In each segment, she featured her recent clients and explained to viewers how to tackle various property renovation projects, using video footage she shot during construction.
It wasn't going to win her an Emmy, but the station kept inviting her back, so she knew the ratings must be decent.
But if she could land this television show, then she'd finally, truly be on the map. She'd garner local press, interviews, the works. And the exposure would surely give her the clout and the contacts to tackle even more challenging projects.
And maybe--maybe--her father would stop looking at her like she was a failure.
Foolishly, she crossed her fingers. She tried to cross her toes, too, but her spectacular shoes didn't allow for that, and she stumbled sideways as she tried to quickly put fingers and toes back in place when the door opened, and the two execs came back in, their bright smiles in place, but so generic that she couldn't tell if there was good news behind them.
"Have a seat, Brooke," Molly said, and this time when she smiled Brooke saw a dimple. A genuine smile. Her stomach flipped, and she hoped against hope that she wasn't reading the situation wrong.
Brooke did as she was told and perched on the edge of the sofa, her hands clasped on her knees so that she wouldn't fidget.
"As you know," the guy said, "we're on a tight schedule."
Brooke nodded. It had been less than a month ago that she'd seen the small announcement in the local paper. She'd learned that The Design and Destination Channel was accepting proposals for an Austin-based real estate show. She'd had less than a day to meet the deadline, and she'd thrown together a proposal, including video footage to prove she didn't look horrible on camera.
She'd been prepared to wait, but had heard back three days later. After an extensive phone interview, she'd received an invitation to this meeting. And the proposal she'd just presented wasn't much different from what had been on paper. Presumably, they just wanted to see if she was personable.
"We'll be honest," Molly added. "Andy and I both think that The Business Plan is the best proposal we have on the table."
Andy. That was his name.
Then Molly's words registered, and Brooke forced herself not to squeal. "That's great to hear." She managed not to keep her voice level, but from Molly's smile, Brooke knew that her excitement showed.
"We already have a crew in town and ready to go, and the plan is to get on the air soon with whichever show we end up choosing. As you know, we have a gap in our schedule that we're looking to fill with original content, and so this is going to be tight. But if all the pieces come together, it should work."
"Whatever you need me to do," Brooke said. "I'm ready to jump in."