The Story Behind Perfect Assumption by Tracey Jerald

By Tracey Jerald

Once upon a time, I worked for a worldwide company’s legal department. I was one of three people responsible for the day-to-day ins and outs of outside media usage available on our corporate website. I worked for a team of brilliant women; all had different strengths and came from varied backgrounds. And I adored them all. To this day, I still miss working with every one of them.

It wasn’t my first exposure to the world of contracts, nor would it be my last. However, that team of women imparted to me lessons about entertainment law. DCMA, ASCAP, royalty payments, public domain, social media limitations, liability, and indemnity clauses are just a few things burned into my brain.

But oh, the rewards were often great: flying up to New York on the corporate jet for a meeting, strutting down the streets of Manhattan for lunch, and zipping back with a bag of bagels and a slice of pizza just in time for dinner.

All of it was a whirlwind time of my life, but the experience left me with incredible memories. And for the people who walk through the doors of the entertainment law firm in my new Midas Series, they live this life every single day.

Well, some of them do.

Legal assistant Angela Fahey is chained by her past. She can’t escape it emotionally nor through the persistent reminders of social media. Highly intelligent but fearful of spreading her wings too far to fly, she’s turned the doors of LLF LLC into her sanctuary.

And her shield.

She guards herself well from even the people who walk through LLF’s doors, even lawyer Ward Burke—brother to the firm’s founder and newest team member. A handsome man who is a favorite of the paparazzi, he comes off as aloof—the consummate grumpy boss.

Until one day, a dropped cup of coffee sets off a chain of events that begins to change everything between them.

Since I fell in love with my husband in the workplace, it’s something I’ve been itching to do for some time. But by adding a few zeros to their bank accounts, it may appear as if I deviated from my mantra of “Love. Hope. Reality.” I haven’t. You see, that company I worked for was a worldwide internet startup. Most of the senior team members I interacted with had shares in the company from the day they started working there. Most were millionaires; some flirted very closely to being billionaires.

And like Ward Burke, it happened overnight. Just in a very different way.

Knowing a person does or doesn’t have wealth doesn’t factor in to whether I care about them as humans. People don’t get a pass on trials and hardships because of the number of zeros in their bank accounts or brokerage statements.

For the team I worked with, wealth didn’t cause them to sit back on their laurels. They wore jeans and sweatshirts to the office, attended parties around the lake, and offered up their boxes at various arenas for employees to participate in concerts, sporting events, or to take their families to things like ice skating events.

They were real, just like you and me.

While not based on my former colleagues, Ward and Angie’s emotional journey takes you through a different set of social circumstances as they navigate falling in love while avoiding one of the two things Angie fears the most.

The press.

Tracey Jerald is the author of the new book Perfect Assumption.

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