Chapter 2: Opportunity Knocks

The next day, Elizabeth rushed into the skyscraper on the lower west side that held Lucas Media Group running slightly late. She had made it all the way to the subway station before realizing that she had left an important client's folder at home on her coffee table. Walking past the reception desk and into the area that held her office, she couldn't help but notice the terror-filled stares she was receiving. And I thought this was going to be a good day, she mused.

Settling herself into the old but sturdy desk chair in her cramped office, Elizabeth barely had time to turn on her computer before a knock on her door made her jump. Lydia Baron, the secretary she shared with three other managers on her floor, leaned on her doorframe and gave her gum a loud snap. "Mr. Lucas has been calling me every five minutes. He wants to see you immediately."

Suddenly, all of the stares she had received made sense. Elizabeth racked her mind if she had come across any downsizing memos recently. Mr. Lucas never wanted to see anybody that was in a lower income bracket than himself. It wasn't that he felt that he was above his subordinates, per say; rather, he felt strongly that networking and maintaining connections in the highest realms of business was of the ultimate importance. If he wasn't lunching with the mayor, he was playing golf with the CEO of Amazon or getting a pedicure with a widowed benefactress. He kept his schedule so booked with these appointments that he just didn't have time for any of his employees, a fact which didn't bother them much. What this did mean, however, was that if Mr. Lucas wanted to see you, it probably wasn't a good thing.

There's no point in avoiding the inevitable, she thought. "Thank you for telling me Lydia. I'll go see him immediately."

Feeling that they must have done some work to the elevators since they had never carried her up to the twenty-seventh floor quite that fast before, Elizabeth braced herself for whatever was coming her way. She knocked lightly on Mr. Lucas' door, half hoping she happened to come at a time when he had stepped out.

"Come in," a firm voice replied.

Elizabeth peeked her head in the door. "Miss Bennet!" Mr. Lucas exclaimed. "It's good to see you. Come in, come in!"

She offered her hand to him, which he heartily shook before asking her to be seated.

"So, I'm sure you can guess at why I summoned you to my office today?"

All twenty-seven flights up had not offered her any reason besides negative possibilities, and Mr. Lucas was certainly not sounding negative. "I have to admit, I don't know what I owe the privilege to Mr. Lucas," she smiled expectantly.

A wide smile spread across his face. "My dear Miss Bennet, I thought for sure you would have guessed. I recently received some extraordinary news, and I wanted to be the first to offer my congratulations. I had no idea that I would also be the one to tell you the good news, but I will do so with pleasure. Darcy Motors has selected your team's mock-up as the marketing campaign they want to move forward with for their new luxury mini-van."

Elizabeth briefly squeezed the arms of the chair she was sitting in to steady herself and forced her mind to wrap around the information she had just been given. What she had just been told was monumental; a potentially career changing opportunity. She could not believe her good fortune and the circumstances that had brought her this lucky career prospect.

Three months ago, Lizzy had come across a memorandum discussing London-based Darcy Motors soliciting submissions for a proposed branding and marketing campaign for their new product, the Longbourn Mini Van. Although Lizzy generally worked with non-profits, her creative mind quickly saw the perfect image to sell the new van. She imagined a two-page spread; on the left page, an abandoned picnic table, with all the parts of a child's birthday party being swept off and blown away by an aggressive wind. In the distance, a couple is running to seek shelter from the flash storm, the man holding a newspaper over his head and the woman holding his coat over hers in a pathetic attempt to not get drenched. Dark clouds menace in the stormy sky.

On the right page, a large tree grows up the far right of the panel, its branches over hanging the top of the page and also bleeding a little onto the left page. Underneath this protective arc sits the Longbourn, the trunk panel fully elevated to reveal the interior. Inside, a crowd of cheerful faces surround a birthday boy in the center. The warm glow from the birthday candles illuminates the entire scene, as dad happily takes pictures and mom looks on lovingly and crouches next to her boy, holding the cake up for him to blow out his candles and make a wish.

The vision was so clear and purposeful that Elizabeth felt that it couldn't hurt to submit the proposal. Briefly checking with the marketing department director to ensure that no one else was creating a submission, she ran the concept by her team. Not only did her team immediately get behind it, but they began adding their own touches to really strengthen the concept and create a slogan - "Enjoy all of Life's Luxuries." What resulted was one of Elizabeth's favorite concept submissions that she had ever been involved in producing.

And now she was finding out that it had been selected. This meant her team's work was going to be seen all over England, if not also in America if they introduced the car stateside. This visibility would most likely encourage other large corporations to seek out Lucas Media Group, and specifically her team, to work on their marketing needs. Elizabeth was beaming with pride, and she knew it.

Mr. Lucas read her like a book. "You have every right to be proud of yourself, Miss Bennet. I won't keep you another moment since I am sure you want to inform your team. Before you go, however, let me mention; Darcy Motors is holding a networking event for their employees and business associates here in New York this Friday, and Mr. Darcy himself made it very clear that an invitation was extended to my company due to our upcoming business relationship. He also stressed that he specifically would like for you to be present so that he could congratulate you himself. I'll email you the details."

This was too much. Although Elizabeth was a only mid-level manager, she realized that this opportunity was welcoming her to a new realm of the business. She rose and shook his hand. "Thank you, Mr. Lucas." Her dark eyes sparkling with anticipation, she returned to her office to call an impromptu team meeting in order to give them the fantastic news.