Pretty in Ink by Lindsey Palmer Page B

happy arrangement might not last for long, anyway,” I say. “I saw the latest masthead, and “Victoria LaRue” and “Leah Brenner” don’t even fit on one line—Mark had to shrink the font to ID us as co-executive editors.”
    “Well, shit.” Regina smoothes down my hair, and I notice her discreetly removing a Cheerio from a strand. “Everyone around here does kind of look like a bully stole their lunch.”
    “Yeah, and the bully is our new boss.”
    “Mimi stole your lunch, huh? Speaking of which, tell me, is she a big eater?”
    “More so than Louisa.”
    “Well, Louisa was permanently on the herbal tea and cottage cheese diet. I’ve seriously seen celebrities with bigger appetites. I’d prefer to do without the new boss’s judgment, but you know I don’t do plane food, and what I really need right now is a big old chocolate chip muffin before our little executive rendezvous.”
    “Ooh, get me one, too.”
    Regina has flown in for a meeting to discuss the November cover star. Mimi hasn’t yet shared her vision of an ideal candidate, but I’ve taken it upon myself to compile a list of actresses I think would set the perfect tone for the Hers relaunch. I’m gunning for Dina Monahan, the breakout success and critics’ darling from this year’s Sundance Film Festival; she has a new indie movie coming out in November that’s predicted to be a crossover mainstream hit. Plus, Dina Monahan’s career is in the sweet spot for Hers: She’s right on the cusp of fame, meaning she’d likely agree to an interview, and probably even divulge some real info about herself, not just the boilerplate, publicist-approved drivel all the bigger stars have learned to spout.
    The senior staff—Victoria, Mark, Abby, and I—file into Mimi’s office, where we discover that all of the chairs are already occupied by a small group of young women, spines like rods. We remain standing, awkwardly shifting our weight. “Don’t mind the whippersnappers,” says Mimi. “They’re all recent grads from my alma mater, good old Kansas State. They’re here for the day so we can hear their ideas and find out if any of them would fit in at Hers. ” Oh, great, so now Mimi plans to replace all of us with twenty-one-year-old know-nothings whom she can pay slave wages. When I was their age, I drew confidence from the fact that this industry tends to value youth over experience. Now, I want to Fed-Ex all of their fresh faces directly back to campus; I couldn’t care less about their youthful ideas.
    As Laura carries in chairs for the editors, Regina struts in and throws her arms around Mimi. “We finally meet up in the flesh,” she says. “What fun!”
    “Welcome to the East Coast, dear.”
    Regina must have treated herself to a triple espresso (or an alternative I don’t want to consider), because she launches right in, speed-talking like she’s been given a time limit: “I was just at the September cover shoot, and Liliana Line cannot be more of a nightmare. She hasn’t been in a hit movie since the nineties, yet she’s kept up her diva routine with full force. I had my assistant running all over the Valley trying to locate tropical Starbursts and Cherry Vanilla Coke for Her Highness. The upside is, we did get some killer shots that we can all look at today; Drew’s manipulating them now. I’m sitting down with Liliana next week for the interview, and I hear the trick is to get a couple glasses of merlot in her and then she talks.”
    “Whoa, let’s hold on a minute,” says Mimi.
    “Oh, I just assumed you’d want to get straight to business. I’ll start again. Hello, I’m Regina Peck, entertainment director of Hers magazine. It’s a pleasure to see you.”
    “Hello, Regina. Mimi Walsh. Of course you know Leah, Mark, and Abby, and this is Victoria, our new co-executive editor. My assistant, Laura, was the one who showed you in. So how long has it been?” I had no idea Regina and Mimi knew each other.
    “I don’t