AN: Hey people! I've finally finished chapter one, so there's that! Before you guys get to it, I wanna point out something I added to the very beginning. I added a description of Christian in the first paragraph. I realize you all know exactly what he looks like already, but this whole thing is a sort of exercise for me to improve my writing and I think being able to describe characters is important. I also made some edits so the story will continue to make logical sense. So, if you're feeling up to it, go ahead and go back to check that out. I would appreciate it! Unfortunately though, I still haven't found energy to proof any of this lol sorry bout that. Alright, enjoy. I'll see ya at the bottom.
DISCLAIMER: The characters and some of the settings in this story belong to E.L. James. I do not claim them as my own. However, the plot is my original idea. Do not steal!
At 7:15AM I walk into the conference room. In fifteen more minutes my Media Director, Account Coordinator and myself from the Seattle branch will be meeting with the Regional Marketing Manager to kick start a huge new project we've been offered. Being the Senior Marketing Manager I have to make a good impression on this guy since he's just been added to the cooperate offices in L.A. about a month ago. We haven't met yet so I have to show him what I can do if I want him to come to me and my branch for future grand scale opportunities. Up until now our clientele has mainly been small businesses, but now we're looking at the major restaurant chain Victus which has recently come under new ownership and looking for a whole new, updated look. I set my briefcase down on the conference table, flip it open and begin pulling out my folders full of our success rates, marketing examples from past ventures and my personal ideas for the current project. I'm feeling slightly panicked as I glance at my watch. Seven minutes. I catch a glimpse of myself in one of the windows and asses my look. I didn't try too hard today, at least not any harder than I usually. I kept it simple with a tucked in dark blue, buttoned shirt, which I was told by a girl I met at a bar a couple weekends ago, complements my grey eyes and my custom fitted black slacks. I roll up my cuffed sleeves as I give my hair a onceover. It's a little messy, but not too messy. In the reflection it looks like a darker brown than it is, almost black, but it all looks good. A pretty young woman comes into the room, I'm pretty sure she's a new temp or possibly an intern. I'm not positive, I've never seen her before, but I take the opportunity to ask for her help.
"Hey, sweetie would you grab me a coffee from the break room real quick? Please, please be fast, I'm meeting with the regional manager in less than ten," She blinks at me and says nothing. My patience is low and I have no time for this.
"Excuse me, did you hear me?" I ask, letting my irritation show. A small smirk crosses her lips as she just brushes past me. I'm pissed at this point and run out to the water cooler right outside the meeting room since I now have less than five minutes. I make a mental note to probably fire her later on.
I come back to the table, greeted now by Kate and Jason. I watch as Jason makes his way to the same girl who just blew me off. He is always the first to hit on the hot temps, but as he spoke my jaw dropped.
"Miss Steele, so glad to finally meet you," He reaches his hand toward her. She takes it and smiles at him.
"Pleasure. Are you Christian?" I swallow hard as I listen to them. What the fuck have I done?
"No ma'am, I'm Jason Taylor, the Media Director." He looks over to Kate who is setting up her laptop and introduces her. My head is spinning. How the fuck does Jason know who this woman actually is and I don't? In the email announcing the regional visit it only said an A. Steele would be coming.
"This is Kate Kavanagh, our Account coordinator." Miss Steele walks over her and shakes her hand. I feel dizzy and Jason turns his attention now to me.
"But this," He motions his hand in my direction, "this is the one and only Christian Grey. Our fearless leader." His smile fades when he sees the look on my face. I'm frozen. Completely frozen. I fucked up, I fucked up so bad, what the hell do I do? I clear my throat and jump from my seat. Miss Steele reaches her hand out to me. Her grin is wide as if she's stifling a laugh. I take her hand in mine, not able to find words.
"Mr. Christian Grey," Her eyes bear into mine and suddenly the room feels so warm. "So excellent to meet you. I do hope you were able to get that coffee." With that she releases her firm grip on my hand. I still say nothing, but offer a small grin trying to mask my embarrassment as I take my seat.
And thus begins the meeting from Hell. Miss Steele makes her way to the front of the long table and has a seat.
"Thank you all for meeting with me today. I'm Anastasia Steele. I've recently been brought on board as the newest Regional Marketing Manager this past April. I want to begin by expressing how excited I am to begin this new chapter for Northbound Marketing. We have been given an amazing opportunity and I simply can't wait to see how we run with it. Though I may be new here, I have been well informed of the talent this team has. I expect you won't let me down." As she says this, she looks right at me. Only for a brief moment, but long enough for me to know she is talking directly to me.
"I'll start by giving a brief background of the project and how it has fallen in our laps. As you all know Victus has served the Pacific Coast with one of the finest steak and sea food menus around for a few decades. Recently, the founder's son Paul Clayton has sold the chain to Robin Adams. Robin is our client for this new assignment. His vision for the restaurant includes an updated menu, keeping only the high demand classics and a modernized look to absolutely everything. Basically he wants to create a new restaurant with the same rich history it already has. As all of you may already be aware, this is no small task. Long time patrons aren't very happy with the coming changes, but it will be our job to make them love it. We're going to do this with new advertisements, a built-from-scratch website and smart phone apps. Even if the old patrons don't bite, we'll be sure new ones do. Either way, we have a crowd to please. I've already pulled numbers on where sales left off when the Clayton sold and I expect that once we're done it will triple. I don't plan to accept anything less.
This project is also time sensitive. Victus will reopen on February 10th, which gives us only six months to build our market. From what I've heard, I believe this team is more than well equipped to tackle this, which is why I chose this company. And I don't plan on doing this alone, so please, any suggestions or feedback s welcome. We'll begin today with strategies and exchanging ideas and we'll roll from there. For right now, I want to hear your thoughts or concerns, so I'll turn the floor over to you." She gives confident smile and takes her seat.
I know that as the branch Marketing Manager it's my turn to lead the conference. I need to pull my shit together. How this meeting started can't change anything. I loosen my tie around my neck and meet her gaze, trying to remember everything I had planned.
"Thank you, Miss Steele. We are excited to have you here as our leader on this project. You are right to have faith in us. We have been the front-runner in marketing revenue here, in Seattle, for over a decade. We have single handedly helped to launch 40% of the local small businesses here and have succeeded in helping 30% of established companies retain their clientele. We plan on the same outcome with Victus. It is a well-loved chain in this state and we not only expect to keep it that way but to utilize it." I begin to pull out the copies of our sales numbers from the past year from a manila folder and say, "If you have any more doubts on our stats, here is our number from this year alone." I hand them to here, but she doesn't take them. Instead, she just smiles condescendingly and says, "That won't be necessary, Christian. I've already reviewed this information on my own time. What I want to focus on right now is Victus and what your vision is."
I should have seen that coming. "Right, um," I scramble through my notes, but find it hard to focus while her eyes are on me. "Well our web design team has already put together a prototype for the new site. It will include a new feature of an interactive menu for people to make mock orders, see the plate as it would be served and read reviews. Also, it will allow potential customers to take a virtual tour through the new setting, which will help them see the lure of the ambiance. Obviously, we won't have that worked out until the construction is over, but we do have the concept art to use for now. Also, we have a patent software created by our very own Jason which allows us to asses all of the searches, hits and various data surrounding the popularity of the site all in one place." I'll take this as my temporary way out. I need to just sit for a minute and let someone, anyone else take the stage. I can't stand her eyes on me anymore.
"Jason, how about you brief Miss Steele on your creation. I'm sure she hasn't seen this sort of thing before." I look in her direction, her eyes still on me. I can't quite read the expression she's giving me. Her eyes are slightly narrowed and her lips are turned up into a small attractive smirk, almost as if she finds something interesting. I know she is most likely mocking me in head. I have to step it up. This might be the worst way her time here could have started. As Jason begins to talk about his program, I take the time to strategize. Maybe I'll visit her office after this meeting, just to apologize for this morning. And then I can better explain the plans I've begun making for the project. I have so many and I completely blew my chance. I had also heard Miss Steele would be looking for someone to be her right hand for this assignment and it could be the break that I need to move up. I've been the Branch Manager for three years now. I love my job, but I know I can do better. One day I hope to be the boss to even Miss Steele as the regional Director, working right under the owner, Jack Hyde.
The meeting ends when Miss Steele says, "Well, I think that's all for now. Thank you everyone. I'm meeting with Paul this week to cement more ideas and I'd like to discuss that with you all next week. Come see me, in my office, anytime if you have questions or would like to share something." As she speaks, she puts all her papers in her bag and stands up. She looks over to me again and I freeze. I've never had this issue with women before. I've had female bosses before and I've never been nervous around them, but then again I've never done stupid shit in front of them either. I meet her gaze, mustering up the courage to approach her and apologize for my earlier comment, but Kate steps in my line of vision. I look at her, feeling grateful, but a little annoyed at the same time. I have to apologize eventually.
"Hey, Christian," Kate greets me, "You doing ok today?" Was it that bad?
"Hey Kate, yeah I'm fine. Why?"
"I don't know you seem a little of your game today. Everything alright?"
"Yeah, yeah Mondays, ya know?" Out of the corner of my eyes I see Anastasia leave the room.
"Definitely. Well, if you have a minute later, I have a question about one of the accounts I was reviewing last week. Something seems off in the numbers."
"Oh yeah, of course. If I forget, just remind me before you leave." I say, not completely paying attention to the conversation.
"Thanks. Now pull yourself together. You look pale." She gave me a concerned looked before exiting the room, herself. What the fuck is wrong with me? She's right, I need to pull myself together.
I walk out of the room and head to my office. It's a corner office with decent view of the Pacific. I don't have much of a knack for decorating so it's simple with all black leather furniture except for the glass desk which is directly in front of the window. I have a couple pieces of artwork which were gifted to me by my sister, Mia and potted tree sits in one of the corners due to my mother insisting how important it is to have indoor plants when you're inside for so long. I never really had to water the thing, so it didn't bother me. My favorite part of my office, though, is the 75 inch flat screen mounted to the wall across from my desk. If I was ever working late, I didn't have to miss my favorite games which made it all worth it. I set my briefcase down next to my desk and have a seat behind it. Andrea, the secretary had left a couple messages from calls I missed during the meeting written down for me, but I move them off to the side for now. I turn on my Mac computer to take a look at what I have to get done today, but I know I won't be starting any of it just yet. I left my finger over the intercom button, about to ask Andrea is she would bring me the cup of coffee I never got, but I stop. My mind wanders to Miss Steele again and I decide to get my own damn coffee. I get up and make my way to the break room. As I do, I pass the office Anastasia will be in while she's here. I can't help but glance over at it, but I notice she's not there. I finally reach the break room and it's empty. And so it the coffee pot. Great. I sift through the cabinets, looking for the ground coffee and sugar. I honestly don't even know when the last time I made my own coffee was. Once I'm waiting for the coffee to brew I hear someone come in. I look up slowly, feeling sluggish since I never usually have coffee this late and see Anastasia as the door closes behind her.
Since I don't have the rush of a meeting about to start, I'm able to take a better look at her. Her hair is a chocolate brown color of lose curls falling past her shoulders. Her skin is fare which makes her deep blue eyes somehow look deeper and her body is damn near perfect. She's beautiful.
When she sees me, she smiles.
"Christain," she acknowledges me while heading over to the refrigerator.
"Miss Steele" I say casually as I turn back towards the coffee pot. She says nothing in return, pulling a yogurt out of the fridge. She lets the door close behind her and she starts to leave, but now's my chance to apologize to her.
"Um, Miss Steele," I say too urgently. She stops and looks over her shoulder, smiling again at me.
"Christian, you don't have to call me that, right now. It's Ana, please." Unsure of what she means by "right now", I welcome the informality.
"Well, Ana," I correct myself and I realize how much I like how her name sounds, for some reason. She allows the rest of her body to face me now as she waits for me to finish, "I just want to apologize for my mistake this morning. I'm truly embarrassed," I confess.
She responds in a way I wasn't quite expecting. She laughs, "Oh, you're forgiven, Christian. Unfortunately that wasn't the first time something like that has happened to me," she takes a few steps in my direction as she speaks. With every step, I seem to become somehow more aware of her. She stops just a couple feet away from where I stand and says, "I don't get offended anymore. I just get immense pleasure from showing people who's boss."
Ok she's hot. I'll just say it.
I only manage a smirk in response and say, "Well, thank you for being understanding."
She chuckles and says, "I try," as she turns once again toward to door and walks out.
AN: Hope you guys enjoyed this update! Plenty more to come, promise! I wanna take a sec to thank each and every one of you who have followed, favorited or reviewed this story! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I hope you all stick around to see where this goes with me. Should be pretty alright : ) As always, I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have!
Anyway, I hope to have chapter 2 up pretty soon. Stay kinky, friends.