First Meeting
Mandy
I knew it was always the same for me, the process, the do’s and don’t, all of it were just adverbially the same.
The stares I received from the ladies were once that showed the agonizing feeling of being me, the jealousy, and also the admiration of being me- my kind of person.
Beautiful, outstanding, smart, sophisticated, and got it all going with nothing to break me down. It is as if I am this person who had the whole world wrapped around her fingers, and because of that, things probably move in my favor-always. But little did they know that all of these were images I’m trying so hard to keep up with every day. I wake up every morning and have to be reminded that I live in a world dominated by men and for a female to succeed, I need that extra spark. That extra spark was a whole lot heavy to carry, to maintain, and keep up with in order not to seem like a weakling to their eyes.
” Camilla, get me the files from yesterday, and reschedule my meeting with Mr. Thomas again,” I instructed my secretary the moment I got to my floor, ignoring her greetings and taking a deep breath, as I walked to my spacious office. I got on the seat of the CEO and smiled to myself, giving myself that little speech that sparks the motivation in me to keep the day going, before turning on my laptop.
“Here you go Miss Rodgers,” Camilla said, carefully placing the files on my desk, after which she did a small now and got no response from me.
” Thank you, Camilla, now please can you check in on the meeting with Mr. Thomas,” my voice was low, but I knew she could hear me. Repeating the same instructions to her twice only meant how serious I wanted the meeting with Mr. Thomas to hold and I wouldn’t be entertaining any excuses.
You must be wondering why, well cause he owns the most lucrative brands when it comes to interior decorations. I know Dad and others might not see any advantage in partnering with him when we barely have a lot of interior decor branches, but it’s necessary because of his social presence and I feel it’s going to be a good marketing strategy for the company in the future.
“Smart right? I know I’m pretty and a genius too,” I chuckled and immediately had shivers as I realized I was talking to myself again. I shook the embarrassing feeling off and instantly got back to work.
Writer pov’s
A few hours into the work, she started to yawn and could obviously feel her fingers hurting, but she knew in order to stay at the top and keep ruling this empire, she’s got to work a lot harder. She twisted her back a bit, giving her hand a long stretch and releasing a deep breath, slowly got her body relaxed and she dived right back into it this time with a genuine smile on her face.
“Ma’am, the meeting with Mr. Thomas has been scheduled,” Camilla said with a proud face.
” And what did I say about ma’am?” Mandy’s tone was firm, her eyes not leaving the screen, but it was as if she could see the beads of sweat that formed on Camilla’s forehead due to her tiny blunder.
“Sorry miss,” she immediately corrected, earning a light chuckle from Mandy.
“Good, now how long do we have before the meeting?” She asked calmly, now lifting her head, and slowly closing the screen.
” One hour,”
“Alright then, we better hurry. Get everything ready and maybe someone else can come with me if you can’t,” Mandy said talking about her pregnancy situation. She was cold, but she knew the limit and she knows what giving off emotions can take from you.
“I’ll be able to make it. Thank you miss,”. Camilla responded quickly and left her office before Mandy went back to being all mean again.
**
“Find somewhere good to park the car. We wouldn’t be wasting a lot of time, probably fifteen minutes, if Mr. Thomas hears us out,” Mandy explained the moment they arrived at the restaurant where they would be having a little lunch and mainly having the meeting. Her secretary walked alongside with her, and at some point she occasionally turned to stare at her, making sure she wasn’t so stressed at any point.
“You do realize that I need to exercise, I’m fine,” Camila responded, a light blush appearing on her face. She knows the image her boss had given to all of them at the company, but since her situation, she had found reason to believe she cares.
“You just have to be, ’cause I don’t want any collateral damages,’ ‘ her tone was formed and Camilla could tell she was back to herself again.
“Good afternoon Mr. Thomas,” Mandy’s chin lifted up to form a smile. She looked at him pleased and smiled back dryly as he helped her pull out the seat. She noticed he glanced at her secretary who had settled down already and she felt uncomfortable wondering what his thoughts were, but cleared her throat to get his attention back.
“So Mr. Thomas, here are the packages my company is willing to offer if you sign this partnership with us,” she said and swiftly turned the file to his direction, and watched him read through, closely and carefully, before passing it down to his assistant or preferably lawyer…
“Sounds exciting…” He responded…
“Really?.. So what do you say?” Excitement laced through her voice at his first compliment…
“I don’t know..,” she felt the air almost dry off her lungs immediately after he said that, and her once excited face was slowly shredding off.
“Your company’s social presence is questionable, the media is a big factor in business, and you know it right?” He made a point and she knew it was going to be a case for him, but the company is known by a lot already, but yes truly a special media presence would be a good thing.
“I understand that Mr. Thomas, we’ve started walking through on that, and myself and the social marketing department are trying to turn things around too.
“I can see that, and I commend that too. But probably you need to change the plots of how you present your ideas, probably some catchphrases, and a bit of show rather than tell. Something that is captive, even if it’s for thirty seconds ads,” he explained. He truly was interested in working with them, I mean who wouldn’t want to? But still, he wanted to make it right too.
“Okay, if you can do something in a few weeks about your social presence, then consider this a done deal. But until then we’re not partners, and just to add to the table I got similar offers waiting up, so make this work” Mandy could tell he was being serious, she was glad he didn’t just sign off like most people do cause they know how big the company is, and how much money they are just going to make out of it. Mr. Thomas knew what he wanted, and she’s glad he’s standing by it.
“Alright Mr. Thomas, hopefully when next we see, we will be partners,” they shook hands, while she watched him leave.
“It was a good offer miss, I have no idea why he’s trying to pull your legs that way. Why not just sign the deal” Camilla scoffed behind me, staring at his now-disappearing figure…
“He’s smart and knows what he wants,” I smiled, stating the truth…
*
After having lunch with Camila, Mandy knew it was time to leave. She felt great after going through his social and brainstorming with Camila on how to make the next move.
They got to the parking lots and found the driver standing beside the car and waiting for her. She handed him a takeaway with food in it, and he thanked her profusely while she smiled and ignored him again until her phone started to ring.
” Turn the car around, and give me a few minutes, ” she Instructed and excused herself to pick up the call, when she bumped into a hard wall, causing her phone to fall off her hands.
“What the actual fuck,” she said staring at her phone on the floor, and quickly lift her head to stare at the person in front of her, he was on a call too and had a dark shade on while he stared down at her back, and let out a hissed in frustration.
“Arrogant bastard,” she cussed under her breath and bent over to pick it up, when they hit again, causing her to yelp out, alarming her driver to immediately run to her directly.
“Miss, are you okay?” He asked, concerned. She rubbed her forehead and hissed pointing at her phone, which he quickly picked up while he stared at her with her hair covering half her face.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
“Just get my phone and let’s go, I don’t have energy for this,” she said and by that, she meant the arrogant man who didn’t care to apologize, but just kept staring at her anyways.
“Yes miss,” he helped her as they walked to her car, when she heard a manly voice scream the word “sorry” to her making her even more pissed.