Page 68 of Only After We Met
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: Forget it
I know, Rhys. I’m sorry. These weeks have just been so up and down, between Christmas, going back to the dorms, realizing that I barely have a few days to present my work proposal for graduation…
I’m freaking out. I don’t know what to do.
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: RE: Forget it
Imagine yourself leading a company. What do you see?
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: The reality is…
I see a warehouse full of wooden samples and sawdust. Further off, to the right, I see a long gray hallway that leads to the offices where the managers meet with the PR people, the board, and the designers. That’s what I see, Rhys. I guess I could focus on the job differently, somehow, examining the company as it exists, looking at the weak points or possible areas of improvement. But if my father reads it, he’ll probably have a heart attack. And I’m afraid my professor will fall asleep during my evaluation. Let’sbe honest, no one gets excited about cabinets. Kate is doing an amazing project (she started a month ago) about an electric car company that rents to tourists. I wish I could just steal it from her.
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: Change reality
The cabinet doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all of your future, does it? Forget cabinets for a second, and imagine what kind of company you’d like to run if you had the means to do so. You told me that when we met, right, that you loved the idea of running something? Creating. So think of it like that. What would your dream be? (It doesn’t matter if it’s just that, a dream.)
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: RE: Change reality
I’ve been thinking about it all day…
And I think… I don’t know… I imagined a publisher. A little one, right? Nothing too pretentious. I’ve never been tempted by the idea of writing, but every time I read a book, I wonder not just about the writer, but about the person who decided to publish the book when it hit their desk—who got excited, looked at the letters and words, and saw potential, something interesting that needed to be shared with people. Isn’t that something? I mean, almost everything in life is like a chain. Like dominoes,one falls, and the rest just go along with it, but there’s always got to be something that starts it, a spark, even if we don’t think about it much of the time. Things are so weird… I’m going to stop rambling.
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: RE: RE: Change reality
I love it when you ramble. And I like your ideas even more. Tell me, what would your publisher be like? How would you focus your work?
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: Okay, let’s ramble then…
The project is to develop a business plan with hard numbers and strong proposals, just like if I was putting it together for investors, understand? There are many different aspects, and I have to take a global approach, looking at the economic and social aspects, anticipating possible roadblocks, looking at my location, the competition, the market as it exists, strategy…