Authority Figures

Two days at a book fair and he is almost ready to call the career finished. Then a girl in a white shirt and a black skirt hands him a card. Heather Davis. Talent agent.

The house is full of women who buy books for a living. The girl from the fair, takes his shoes at the study door and leaves him on the rug. Davis wants to know what ENF is, and why his version is different from the rest. He tells her the usual answer. His stories are plausible. Embarrassment is situational. A woman will strip for a lover, or a camera, and freeze if the wrong person walks in.

Heather is not interested in theory.

She points at Sarah and asks him to plot her embarrassment. Here. Tonight. The unsigned contract sits on the desk between them, one percent and a favour, and the room beyond the door is full of the people who could make his name.

Authority Figures is an ENF story about authority, performance, and the price of being believed.