Devereaux is going with our pitch.”<br />“Hey, that’s just great,” I said superperkily. “Wendell’s or mine?”<br />“Yours.”<br />“But you want to fire me. So fire me.”<br />“We can’t fire you. They loved you. The head guy, Leonard Daly, thought you were, I quote, ‘a<br />great kid, very courageous’ and a natural to do a whispering campaign. He said you had<br />believability.”<br />“That’s too bad.”<br />“Why? You’re not quitting!”<br />I thought about it. “Not if you don’t want me to. Do you?”<br />Go on, say it.<br />298 ♥elavanilla♥<br />“No.”<br />“No what?”<br />“No, we don’t want you to quit.”<br />“Ten grand more, two assistants, and charcoal suits. Take it or leave it.”<br />Ariella swallowed. “Okay to the money, okay to the assistants, but I can’t green-light charcoal<br />suits. Formula Twelve is Brazilian, we need carnival colors.”<br />“Charcoal suits or I’m gone.”<br />“Orange.”<br />“Charcoal.”<br />“Orange.”<br />“Charcoal.”<br />“Okay, charcoal.”<br />It was an interesting lesson in power. The only time you truly have it is when you genuinely<br />don’t care whether you have it or not.<br />“Right,” I said. “I’m giving myself the rest of the day off.