Don't Move Your Desk: Chapter Seven
In which much hotness enters the chat
A summary for you on what to expect in this edition in case you want to scroll down to the interesting bits: TikTok roundup; Chapter Seven of Don’t Move Your Desk; and the progress report with an update on my week-on-week sales and writing progress (plus an exciting change).
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This week has been chaos in ways I can’t even describe, so I won’t begin to try. How about a roundup of some of my recently successful TikTok videos, instead?
Let’s start with some terrible business advice I was given at the expo I attended recently, and how I dealt with it. Next up, someone had asked how to tell if a book is ghostwritten, so I gave my best tips. This week, I shared a glimpse of an old video to show how my voice has actually become lower since giving birth, which is wild to me. I talked about what I learned from writing a failed series, and I incited quite a lot of discussion when I (innocently) mentioned the scenarios in which I usually get hired to ghostwrite books. That led on to a discussion of how you can even showcase your work when you’re not supposed to exist.
I’m yet to find a successful way to promote Substack on TikTok. It’s a difficult mix of formats. If anyone has seen this done well with good conversion rates, I’d love to see it!
As a quick reminder: this chapter will go behind the paywall 60 days after publication. Don’t miss the chance to read the next chapter for free by subscribing for email updates!
Okay, that’s it! On with the chapter!
Keaton
“How did this happen?”
Mr. Harvey’s face was set in stern lines as if he was carved out of stone. In fact, he could easily have been a Roman statue, like the marble replica he had sitting on one of his shelves – but one made to commemorate a moment when someone was really, really angry.
Ace was sitting opposite him. It felt odd to be part of their meeting but not – witnessing it from my desk but not invited to join them at the coffee table. There were reams of paper scattered in front of them: all of the contracts Mr. Harvey had arranged for Ridley Angus, plus a copy of the bogus contract highlighted all over with bright orange pen.
“It must be malicious,” Ace said, shaking his head slowly. “I can’t see any way that this happens, otherwise. I don’t imagine the sponsor’s law firm would have invented a contract between us just to get themselves more business, would they?”
Mr. Harvey directed his stony gaze in my direction and I felt myself sitting up straighter, sitting to attention. I had an absurd and immediate urge to start typing something, anything, so it looked like I was working. “Keaton, email the sponsor and ask them for a copy of the contract they have. Tell them we need to check some details. They don’t need to know why.”
I nodded and quickly navigated to the email server. I typed a message to Leo Couvon, asking him to send over the file and including a quick, lighthearted comment about his vacation plans. I wanted to hide the request in civility so that he wouldn’t question it too much. It seemed like this was really important, and I didn’t want to be the one to screw things up by not getting the needed documents in time.
“Who would do this?” Ace quirked an eyebrow. “Coleman Group?”
Now my ears were burning. I pretended not to be incredibly interested as I stole a look at Mr. Harvey’s face. He was as stony as ever, giving nothing away. “Coleman plays fair,” he said with a shake of his head.
“All of his team, though?” Ace asked.
Mr. Harvey only sighed heavily.
My computer made a small ping, alerting me to a new email in my inbox.
Hi Keaton,
Thanks for your email. I’ve attached the PDF here. It’s lucky I already had it on my desktop! I’ll be sure to check out those passes you recommended. If they save me time on check-in, they’ll be worth every penny!
Leo
“I don’t know them all,” Mr. Harvey was saying. “But Coleman wouldn’t sign off on this.”
Ace snorted. “Do you think I’ve asked you to sign off on everything I’ve ever done?”
Mr. Harvey gave him a very hard look. Not even stony anymore. More like flinty.
I cleared my throat, not exactly wanting to turn that look on myself but needing to get their attention. The printer started whirring behind me as the full force of Mr. Harvey’s gaze hit me, making me shrink involuntarily in my seat.
It was intense – but my god, his eyes. They were so… blue.
“I have the contract from Leo Couvon,” I said.
“Print us a copy,” Mr. Harvey ordered with a snap.
I reached wordlessly over to the printer and lifted the still-warm pages into the air. It had just finished printing the full load – only a few pages long.
With a crafty look thrown sideways at our mutual boss, Ace was the one to leap up and grab it out of my hand. He winked at me before he sat down as if to celebrate the fact that I’d gotten one over on Mr. Harvey’s expectations. It was pretty hard to hold back my own smile, but the serious mood in the room meant I just about managed.
Ace spread the papers across the coffee table and both of them bent their heads over it, craning from each side of the table, both of them joined in silent reading for a moment. I held my breath as I watched their eyes rapidly scanning over line after line. I already knew from feel alone that it was a far lighter contract than the one I’d seen them passing back and forth earlier. Something had to be different.
They both reached the end of the last page at the same time, and I watched their eyes snap up to meet one another. Something silent passed between them and I felt the temperature in the room drop by at least a full degree.
“Keaton,” Mr. Harvey said. I almost jumped to find his attention suddenly on me again. “We’re going to be staying late tonight. As late as it takes.”
I waited for him to ask if I was alright with that, but apparently, it wasn’t a request – it was an order. I nodded gamely. What else could I do? I’d already agreed, literally earlier today, that I would stay as long as he needed me to, whenever he needed me to.
But there was one thing I needed to make him aware of. “Sir?” I asked. “I don’t want to contradict you, but there’s a meeting scheduled in your calendar for thirty minutes from now.”
“Cancel it,” my new boss ordered immediately. If I had wondered how serious this was, the fact that he didn’t even hesitate – or ask who the meeting was with – told me everything I needed to know. There was nothing more important than this, right now. This was the meeting.
I grabbed the desk phone and started dialing the number listed in the contacts card attached to the calendar notation. It was too close to the time for an email. I had to catch the other party now, in case they were getting in a car and driving across town already to get here on time.
“Get Ridley in here,” Mr. Harvey added, but I realized from the curt jerk of his chin in Ace’s direction that the instruction wasn’t for me. Thank god – because my heart was thumping in my chest at the thought of having to call Ridley Angus.
Then I realized I was going to be in the same room as Ridley Angus, and it thumped all the harder.
I made the call I needed to make quickly, tuning out Ace’s voice as he made his own call. I made a few quick apologies on Mr. Harvey’s behalf and rescheduled the meeting for a clear spot he had on his calendar a couple of days from now, frowning lightly as I did so at the fact that the calendar was a little disorganized. I was going to have to do something about that.
I looked around once I was done, but no one was shouting orders for the moment. I grabbed my phone off the desk while I didn’t seem to have any more instructions to carry out and brought up my text chain with Clara.
Clar, will be late again tonight. Late meeting… with RIDLEY ANGUS!!!!!!
I glanced up, making sure I wasn’t getting caught looking at my phone. Ace and Mr. Harvey seemed to be going over the fine points of the contract that West Morson had sent over.
“What about the metadata in the file itself?” Mr. Harvey asked abruptly, staring at me again. Christ, the man was like a tiger, always pouncing. Only he was definitely a Siberian tiger because those blue eyes were stronger than any amber.
I hurried to move, right-clicking my mouse on the file I’d been sent and examining all of its properties. “It says it was created by L. Couvon,” I said, disappointment gnawing at me. I wanted to give them an answer that would help. “Actually, looking at the edges of the pages, I think maybe he scanned in a paper contract to create the file.”
Ace and Mr. Harvey leaned over the pages again, each of them picking one up and bringing it to eye-level. “I see what you mean,” Ace said. “The contrast was increased enough that it doesn’t look like a scan at all, except right at the edge where some shadow crept in. Good work. He must have a great secretary.”
I wilted a little under hearing praise for someone else – particularly since the start of the praise had sounded like it was meant for me. I could be that good at scanning. I really could. Lining things up and getting the settings exactly right was the kind of thing I enjoyed doing.
My phone buzzed under my hand. OMG, lucky Keat. You’ll finally meet your crush! Are you gonna “trip” and fall right into his arms?
I tried to hold back a blush. SHUT UP, I texted back immediately.
Then again…
Now that she brought it up, this was exactly the kind of thing I had wanted to see. Corporate sabotage, the boss working overtime to get to the bottom of it before it became a scandal, the biggest star at the company being brought in. I hadn’t had time to figure out what kind of camera I could hide around the place here. All I had was my phone.
I remembered seeing something…
I opened one of the drawers of the desk, and there it was. A phone stand, meant to prop it up and charge it at the same time. I set it up quickly while Ace and Mr. Harvey were distracted by their own discussion, making sure it pointed right at them. I turned on the camera, started it filming, and then shut the screen off. It wouldn’t record forever – the phone would either overheat or run out of memory – but it was a good start.
And then I just sat there and tried to look like I was totally innocent and not at all secretly recording a secret meeting that I would probably get fired over if anyone found out.
God, this was awkward.
Being in Mr. Harvey’s office was fantastic for getting access to things I wouldn’t have normally, but it also meant I was right under his eye all the time. Like, all the time. Exposed. And suddenly I was so aware of every single move I made, it was like I was sitting under a giant microscope.
“Keaton Dunbar,” Mr. Harvey said, and I bit back a whimper just in time before it leaked out. “Why do you look so guilty?”
I blinked.
Just like that?
He’d already found me out?
“Um,” I said. “I’m not. I’m just… not used to sitting in meetings like this. Or, not really in the meeting, but just… here. It’s a bit…”
“Awkward,” Ace finished for me with a look of sympathy. “Why have you brought him in here, anyway?”
Mr. Harvey fixed him with a glare so heated I thought Ace was going to melt. “He’s my secretary,” he said gruffly. “I can make him sit wherever I like.”
“Can you, now?” Ace replied slyly, and I felt my face go so hot and red that I was glad someone chose that exact moment to knock at the office door.
Until, after springing to my feet and gladly banishing the image of myself sitting on Mr. Harvey’s lap from my mind, I realized who it was I was about to let in.
It had to be, didn’t it? Even though he’d arrived very quickly, there was only one person we were expecting right now.
I swallowed hard and reached for the door handle, feeling all of a sudden like I’d forgotten how to twist and open it. Somehow, I managed.
And there he was.
Turning from the empty space where my desk used to be, looking down at me with an expression of confusion – and it was down, because Ridley Angus was huge. That was part of what made him such a good football player, yes, but it was also part of what made him so…
Hot.
“Mr. Angus,” I squeaked, and then stepped aside, desperate to get out of his view and go die in a corner on my own where no one would notice my embarrassment. “Please, come in.”
“That was fast,” Mr. Harvey said, and I hated myself even more for feeling jealous about how impressed he sounded.
Jesus, this room. The hottest and most talented football player on the planet; probably the hottest and most talented sports agent on the planet; and Ace, who had to be something like top ten himself.
And me.
Me who was not supposed to be thinking of his boss as the hottest anything.
I sat down behind my desk and prayed they wouldn’t notice me again.
“Well, I’m known for my speed, aren’t I?” Ridley Angus said, turning to wink at me as if I was a TV camera pointing at his audience. Oh, god. I felt my insides shrivel up to tiny, dried raisins. Ridley Angus just winked at me. “I was in the neighborhood. I’d actually been thinking about calling Ace and going over the schedule for that resort contract, so it’s good you wanted to see me anyway.”
“There may not be any resort contract,” Mr. Harvey warned.
Angus dropped down into one of the two remaining empty chairs as if he’d been felled by an axe. “You have my attention.”
“Someone’s trying to screw you over. Or us.”
Ace and Mr. Harvey explained the whole scenario so far for Angus – as if they were creating the perfect summary just for my documentary. Such as it was, so far. But this was going to be an amazing hook if I could get a way to publish the footage as an exposé. I just needed to figure out what the angle was.
I had suspected that there had to be something going on in the world of sports agents and their multi-million dollar deals. Getting a complete meltdown from Oliver Harvey on camera would be incredible, but getting a scandal involving the top football player in the country would be even better. I had to admit, I had considered that there could be extra angles to the footage I captured – if I was lucky. I certainly hadn’t expected it to fall into my lap quite this quickly.
“So, what are we going to do to fix this?” Angus asked – and I found myself leaning forward, dying to find out the same.
Here ends this week’s chapter! What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts below. I really appreciate your comments - what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’d like to see next.
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Progress Report
Don’t Move Out sales total: ebook - 728, paperback - 7, KU pages read - 295,294 (DMO = 238 pages, so the equivalent of 1,240 full-book reads)
Don’t Go Outside sales total: ebook - 78, paperback - 6, KU pages read - 109,008 (DGO = 222 pages, so the equivalent of 491 full-book reads) - We overtook Bloodless in all-time earnings for the first time! See screenshot below. Feels inevitable that CC will one day represent the full top 6 (with BUW).
Don’t Fly Home sales total: ebook - 45, paperback - 4, KU pages read - 67,623 (DFH = 224 pages, so the equivalent of 301 full-book reads)
Don’t Leave Town sales total: ebook - 54, paperback - 4, KU pages read - 46,586 (DLT = 299 pages, so the equivalent of 155 full-book reads)
Don’t Check Out sales total: ebook - 45, paperback - 2, KU pages read - 24,572 (DCO = 192 pages, so the equivalent of 123 full-book reads) - I’m not sure if this is a reporting glitch, but the sales and page reads have… gone down? I do get notifications of refunds, and I’m not seeing any, so not sure what’s going on there yet.
CC 1-5 Boxset sales total: KU pages read - 10,384 (Boxset = 1,068 pages, so the equivalent of 9 full-set reads) - no change
Don’t Move Your Desk - written and edited fully, serialisation underway, half the chapters queued up ready
Kiss The Cook cover revealed, full plot fleshed out, first draft currently at 15k words - should be at 35k; like I said, chaos week
(Books 7+): 9 covers, themes, and titles done, Crowhill Kitchen release schedule announced, all Kitchen characters created and romances/interpersonal relationships between books set up
Subscribers: free - 38, paid - 1 - hi, new friends! And hey, first paid subscriber! We’re 4 people away from getting a chapter released early…
Followers: 130
By the way, please like this post if you enjoyed it and would like to see more! This helps me decide what to do for future content.
XO Rhiannon
Sitting on the edge of my seat! I hope you are well and family all good and you have plenty of time to write! Because, I only have two words for you... more, please!