Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
And for me, that wasn’t good enough.
So, I’d asked him if he’d be willing to sell his stake in The Squawker and start a brand new project with me. We’d be equal partners and we could build something from the ground up, instead of repurposing an existing brand. The idea we’d worked up was to build on the success The Squawker had with digital publication. Every week, we’d publish short form stories on various topics. It would be bite-sized stories people could pick up at will. In a lot of ways, Dominic thought the shift was similar to the TV model. TV packages had grown bigger and bigger until the only option was to buy access to 300 channels, even if all you wanted were one or two of them. Then streaming came along and completely upended the stale business model.
We thought maybe our new format might be similar for print and digital media consumption. You could just pick the stories you wanted and not have to pay for anything you didn’t.
We were calling it “McClain’s Media Bytes.” Dominic insisted on using my name. He wanted to get as far from relying on anything his father had built as he could. Elizabeth was excited and already brainstorming comedic themed pieces she could put out under the Media Bytes umbrella. Polly was going to write entertainment pieces, from movie reviews to restaurant critiques. Kirk and Farhad were going to sell us some of the political pieces they’d been publishing on their own, and Farhad said he planned to dip his toes into the world of fashion again, which he sounded thrilled about.
I was pestering my sister to write some pieces on art for us, but she didn’t think she was a good enough writer and kept turning me down. I knew I could help her get there, so I planned to keep bugging her about it.
The biggest surprise hire was currently doing an awkward little shuffle while swirling a glass of wine and sniffing it. That was my father, who was officially hired as a writer for McClain’s Media Bytes. I don’t think he wanted me to know how much the opportunity meant to him, but my mom told me he’d cried happy tears after we finished our conversation. That was only a few days ago and he’d already blown up my inbox with four submissions. I scanned them and was pleasantly surprised by how good they were.
“You look happy,” Dominic said. I hadn’t even realized he wrapped up his conversation with the guys.
“You could say that.” I smiled up at him.
“How’s the piece coming?”
“I’ve got to do one more re-read, then I think it’ll be ready.”
He smirked, but looked a little nervous. “You really think anybody is going to want to read that?”
“Um, yes. I put your picture on the front of it. I think every woman with a pulse is definitely going to want to read it. I think I’m calling it, Dominic Lockwood: Unlocked.” I raised my eyebrows theatrically.
He chuckled, nodding his head. “Yeah, that’s pretty good. I like it.”
“Thank you.”
He took my hands and stood me up, looking down at me with that intoxicating intensity of his. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Darcy.” He gestured to the room around us. “You built this. You made this happen. You realize that, right?”
“Not without help.” I half choked the words out. Why the hell was I getting so emotional? Was it that important to me for Dominic to be proud of me?
He cupped my face, smiling softly and planting a kiss on my forehead. “I love you, and you’re incredible. There’s also something I want to show you.”
“I love you, too.” Hearing the words from him made me feel like warm mush on the insides. I’d started to wonder if he was just the sort of guy who didn’t like to say things like that. I’d started telling myself it was okay, because I could obviously tell he loved me. It was so clear from his actions, but hearing it made me feel happy in places I didn’t even know existed.
I was beaming. “What is it?” I asked.
“Come here.”
The music had dimmed and I frowned in confusion, noticing everybody in the room was watching us now. “What is this?” I asked.
“Just come here.” Dominic dragged me by the hand to the windows at the far side of the office. The view of the city was beautiful, although the row of apartments across the street looked like they’d lost power. It was strange, considering the surrounding buildings still had lights on.
“You wanted me to see a power outage?” I asked.
“Just wait.” Dominic looked at his watch. He seemed nervous, which was rare for him.
“What’s going on, Dominic?”
“And…” he pointed out the window just as lights flicked on in the buildings.