In a few days, Lily finally got the call she was dreading.
"We need you at the office," hissed Laura. "Now!"
Lily sighed and quickly hopped on a subway, getting off at the station and walking to her office.
What could've happened? Why would she be summoned to the office today? She worked at home on Tuesdays. And today was a Tuesday. So why was she being called to the office right now? It must've been something bad. Was she about to be...
No.
Stop thinking like that.
After ten minutes of fretting, she finally reached the office. She parked her car and made her way up to her boss's office and knocked. When nobody replied, she slowly opened the door and looked around.
"Yes, Laura? You called for me?"
"Lily," she snapped. "You are in big trouble."
Uh-oh.
That didn't sound fun.
"What happened?" she asked slowly.
"Exactly what I predicted!" she exploded, standing up and banging her ballpoint pen against the table. "The clients quit, Lily, they quit. They went through with the deal!"
Lily's eyes widened in horror, her mind flashing to a billion scenarios.
"This… No…"
"It happened, oh yes. I told you this would happen, didn't I?" demanded Laura. "And if I recall, who was the one saying they wouldn't? Convincing me that I was being stupid and overreacting?" Well, Lily hadn't exactly said that. But... "Now we need more marketing ideas. Fast."
Lily pressed her hands against her temples. "Okay. Let me think-"
"No. You will not think. You will do. If this doesn't get sorted out…"
"I know, I know. I'll think of something."
"I hold you accountable." Shut up already!
She closed her eyes. "Why did they quit?"
"Because they did! I don't ask them that crazy stuff, Lily. That's not exactly the first thought on your mind when you lose a labeling deal-" Well, it should be, Lily thought, "-Get this fixed, now! I need marketing ideas. Fast. We need some sort of big… popularity rush. People need to know our brand."
"Yes, I know."
"The clients are waiting for some paperwork to be signed. They're down right now. You need to go and put your signature on some papers."
Lily sighed. "Okay. I'll do that. Anything else?"
"Do not take this lightly, Lily Evans. I need you to get us some money made. Fast. Remember, I hold you accountable for this company's loss. I don't care how you do it. I don't care what you do to do it. I don't care about anything."
"Yes. I know."
"If you don't…"
"I know," she repeated. When would her boss just shut up and let Lily make some decisions on her own? For once? Could she stop being so pressurizing?
"You will be fired. This company's loss is solely and only because of you."
Lily bit back a harsh retort. Wasn't it Laura's, too? She'd signed the deal in the first place, not Lily. And whenever the company made millions, Laura was in the headlines. Not Lily. But now, when they were incurring a loss, it was suddenly Lily's fault? And Laura had nothing to do with it?
Ergh.
How on Earth was that fair?
"Yes," she repeated. "I know."
"I hope you do, Lily Evans. Consequences will be quite severe if you don't get our company out of this mess."
Lily nodded silently.
"Now go. Sign the paperwork so the clients can cut off this deal."
"Yes, ma'am." Lily turned away and swiftly left the room, meeting the clients on the level below them. "Hello," she greeted.
"Good afternoon."
"I'm Lily Evans. I believe I have some papers to sign…"
"Yes. Here you go." A man handed her a few papers, and she signed them all, handing them back.
"May I ask… why you decided to break off the contract?"
The clients exchanged surprised looks, like they'd never been asked that before. Stupid Laura. "What do you mean?"
"Well, is it because of our delivery? Price? Models? Samples? Quality? Design? I'd like to take your feedback to improve our next contracts and future projects."
The man nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, yes. Good idea. Well, ah, no, we loved your samples and quality. We just… we found another brand with more reputation."
"Reputation?"
"Yes. Your company is relatively new, yeah? And we found a designer brand which is more reputable. Widely known, many reviews."
Lily nodded slowly. "So you found a better deal."
"No, your price was better. And quality, too. Your deal was all together better, but... They just have a safer route, since the brand is well known."
Ugh.
Annoying.
Those brands only launched because someone had given them a chance. Like Gucci. So why not this fashion designer company?
"Okay," said Lily. "Thank you. I hope you enjoyed working with our company."
The clients smiled and nodded. There were a few handshakes, some more nods, some "It was a pleasure working with you", and then the clients were off, and the deal had been broken.
Lily managed to make it into her office, and then she let out some sort of strangled scream. She was paying the price now, for what these clients had done. She had to find a way to fix it.
But how?
How was she possibly going to do that? She needed a way to raise this company. Fast. Money, popularity…
How had Gucci done it? Prada? Burberry? Louis Vuitton? These were all famous companies that had started just like hers. They'd managed to make it big.
How was Lily expected to raise her company to that level?
Back in her apartment, Lily was in a horrible mood.
Just then, Marlene decided to call. Marlene was one of her best friends from college, and she'd moved away to Raleigh last summer. Lily cursed (was now really the time?) and picked up the phone.
"Hi, Lily!" she said. "How are you? What's up?"
"What do you want?" Lily demanded.
"What? Lily, it's me. Marlene!"
"I know who you are, stupid. I asked what you wanted."
Marlene didn't sound hurt. Of course not. "Well… I wanted to talk to you! My, it's been ages since we last talked. When was that college reunion? Um, last year? Winter, right? There was this big winter ball… ah." Marlene started reminiscing about the reunion, and Lily grit her teeth together.
Marlene was another enthusiastic person. She was a chattermouth like none other. Lily, who was more of a listener than a talker, and Marlene, who never stopped talking, never clashed, because Marlene would chatter away and away and Lily would just sit there, nodding absentmindedly and making remarks at the right times.
But right now, Lily was not in the mood for Marlene's chitter. She had work to get done, money to make.
"-and aww, he was sweet. But what about you? Boyfriend, husband, anything?"
"Nothing," growled Lily. Would she not realize Lily just wasn't in the mood?
"Really? Well, that sucks." She paused. "Aren't you going to ask about me?"
"Is there a reason for why you decided to call me, or was it just for fun?" asked Lily impatiently. "If it was for fun, go call Emmeline or Mary or Carolyn or Anita or someone. I am not in the mood!"
"But… why?"
God, she was really hopeless.
"Don't you have any work to do?!" Lily snapped, the words coming out harsher than she intended.
"Nope. My employer gave me a day off. No work! Woo-hoo! Well, if you aren't going to ask about my love life… hint hint…"
Lily let out a growl.
"Okay, fine. I'll tell you. I found this cool guy. Mario. He's super cool."
Lily rolled her eyes, dropping her phone and going into her closet to change back into comfortable clothes. Well, not that fancy clothes were uncomfortable (some could be, she wouldn't lie), but she needed something more casual.
"-and we were just chilling out, in the pool, and then he was like-"
Lily came out of her closet, wearing a fluffy white sweater and black tights. She flopped against her sofa. Buddy came up to her and licked her hand, and she moaned, pushing him away. Buddy came back just a moment later, and Lily sighed, pulling him up for a hug.
"-and I was just like… omg-"
Lily was staring at the ceiling, realizing that she was staring at James Potter's room. The annoying guy. The mall-dude. The ice cream truck dude. Why was he everywhere? Why was he so annoying? What mischief was he cooking up now, who was his next target to annoy? She pitied that person. She would know, anyway. She'd been one.
He'd seemed to be nice enough to Marissa. They'd gotten along fine and chilled out. But he kept teasing and making fun of Lily. Had she really made that bad of an impression? She groaned. How was she going to fix this? Was she that unlikeable? She'd always been a teeny bit antisocial, and her friends had always teased her for that before. But this new guy doing it just put it on a whole new level, because he was a stranger.
Shut up. You don't care about what he thinks.
"-and so then we just sort of chilled out. He's cool, don't you think?"
Lily didn't reply.
"Lily? Lily?"
Why did James… and that stupid sidekick of his, whatever his name was… keep teasing her? Mocking her? Make her feel like an idiot? Making her feel insecure about herself? All the time? And to Marissa, he'd been so kind, and even Marissa had gone all lovey-dovey to that man.
Who the heck was he? What charm did he have? How did his mind work?
"Lily! Are you listening to me? Are you there?"
Lily still didn't say anything, and she heard Marlene say a, "Oh, maybe you have bad internet!" and then she disconnected the call.
She felt a little bad for being so mean to Marlene, but it wasn't the prominent matter on her mind. She had to make money, fast.
She went to her computer and to Google and looked up, 'Ways for a company to make quick profit'.
"Investing… hmm," she muttered. "Chatbots on a website. What does that have to do with anything? Get a celebrity to endorse your company… well, not like I have any Shawn Mendes chilling out on my contacts list. Find a model to model for your clothes." They didn't have a model. "Get the word out."
Yes. That was the best way. To make their company known. It had to be reputable.
How was she going to do that?
She pulled up one of her video-maker apps and started making an advertisement that they could put on YouTube. Companies got known that way. Ads were most commonly viewed on YouTube. Unless they got a Superbowl ad, but that cost millions. She went to their website and pulled up screenshots, product pictures, and some testimonies from their previous clients. Added with some text and background music, she quickly started editing.
Then she pulled up her phone and texted Laura,
Laura.
I'm making an advertisement for our company.
It's a video.
Maybe we can get it on YouTube if we contact some managers?
Her reply came five minutes later, and it was, Do it fast.
She rolled her eyes and also started cooking up some flyers, turning on some Selena Gomez in the background.
Ever since the dumb elevator incident, she hadn't left her apartment room that much. She hadn't wanted to bump into those two. It wasn't childish. She didn't want them affecting her and getting to her. Two unknown men teasing her in an elevator was not what she wanted.
Of course, she'd received a bunch of texts from Marissa about how she knew James, if she could introduce them, what she thought about him, and when she could give Marissa his phone number.
"Like, seriously!" she cried, furiously typing up a caption on her flyer. "Does she not realize she's engaged or something? I haven't told Jake yet out of loyalty, and because it's probably no big deal, but…"
Buddy barked, like, Why are you talking to yourself?
Lily let out a little laugh, wondering why her life was so hard. Marissa was cheerful. About to be married. James, a man she didn't know, could laugh at anything and had girls falling for him. Marlene had a new boyfriend, and was always cheerful. Laura was able to pin the blame on Lily for her company and save herself.
And Lily?
She was trying to save a struggling company, on the verge of being fired, and snapping at all her friends.
"Ergh," she grumbled, leaning forward to grab her phone. She accidentally knocked over a glass vase on the table instead, and it fell to the ground, smashing into little pieces. A trickle of blood ran down her hand and she rolled her eyes, impatiently stomping over to get a Band-aid.
Why, oh why, was Lily Evans's life so infuriatingly complicated?
A/N: Lots going on.
James/Lily interaction next chapter, and some pretty juicy drama with James too! Oops, did I just say that aloud...