Autumn and Summer by Danielle Allen Page A

had a chance to pick up our lists, Gabriella slammed a manicured hand down in the center of the papers. The loud smack made us all jump.  Her brown eyes bore into us and I felt the tension. 
    After a moment of silence, Gabriella whispered, “There’s a lot riding on this ‘Summer of Love’ series. If June doesn’t do well, there will be some major changes being made…starting with all of you. John is a lot more easygoing and trusting than I am because, let me be the first to tell you, I wouldn’t have chosen any of you to work on this project. Well, maybe you, Tyler. But the rest of you, you need to prove yourselves. And you…” She looked at me and sneered. “I can’t believe John trusts this project to an untested amateur. You better pray you get this right, new girl.”
                  As soon as I opened my mouth to respond, John Orlando appeared. “Gabriella, our meeting is starting soon,” he said as he walked by.
    Giving us one last look, she turned on her heel and followed John out of the work room.
                  “Wow,” Tyler breathed, running his hand through his prematurely greying hair. He adjusted his glasses and then handed each of us our sheets of paper. We all reviewed the list in silence, but I was fuming.
    How dare she talk to me like that? I bristled silently. My eyes flitted over the list, not recognizing any names, but I was preoccupied with my growing hatred for Mega Bitch.
    “Listen, we are all competent at what we do. John hired us all for a reason. Let’s do our jobs and shut the haters up,” Tyler said.
    We spent the next thirty minutes figuring out deadlines. The writers divided the list up, each taking two people. I had to photograph all twenty. And that’s when the idea hit me. All twenty of these men are eligible bachelors. At least half of them are likely to be Autumn’s type…which means I have my pool of educated, sexy, and single men! I can photograph them and chat them up and then see who would be interested in dating my best friend. Easy!
    “…so are you good with that?” Tyler asked. “Summer?”
    Shit! I thought nervously, looking around. Everyone had gotten up from the table except Tyler. I got so excited about Autumn’s future dates that I completely spaced on the conversation. Not that it is completely necessary for me to pay attention to who is writing about who since my job is to shoot the photos. Sometimes it helps to know the direction of the piece but they don’t even know that right now. Crap, he’s still looking at me. I did it again!
    “Summer!” Tyler repeated.
    “I’m sorry. I—”
    “Don’t let what Gabriella said get to you. Just pay attention and do your job.”
    “Thanks, Tyler.”
    With a tight smile , I got up from the table with the list of bachelors. After setting up photo shoot appointments with each bachelor for the next couple of weeks, I sat back in my office chair while reviewing my calendar.
    Starting tomorrow, t his is going to be a breakneck schedule. Between the actual shoots and the edits and any reshoots that need to take place, this month I am completely booked, I thought as I exhaled a deep breath. Contentment and complete satisfaction rolled through my body and I squeezed my eyes shut.
    “Knock , knock,” Meghan said as she stood in the doorway. “You okay?”
    “I’m good. Great actually! And to think, it’s not even Friday.”
    “Good. I just wanted to check on you. I just heard about Mega Bitch when I was getting some coffee. Just wanted to make sure she didn’t get to you.”
    I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “No, she didn’ t. But here’s what I don’t get about why you call her Mega Bitch. She never transforms . I’ve never seen or heard of her being anything other than a bitch.”
    “Oh yeah you have,” Meghan responded, walking through the doorway and right up to the edge of my desk. “You were here the day Mr. Ford was here. Gabriella turns the charm all the way