Capítulo 9: Alterations
I sat huddled on my bed, laptop in my lap as I tapped angrily away on the keyboard. The Venue owner was thinking about backing out because of our themed idea from the last show. I won't deny that it wasn't our best performance yet, and we lost some service, but we still had all of our key buyers. If our celebrities that thought so highly of us, still kept loyal, then that should say a lot about our product. So now I had to work myself up to make the phone call that would hopefully turn their heads back in our direction.
Otherwise, we would lose the huge venue to our biggest competitors Illia and Liliah Designs. They were always second best to us, and even swiped some of our buyers. Every time we put on a decent show, they would do everything they could to upstage us. It was a lot of back and forth between our two companies, and I honestly love it. They kept us on our toes and made us strive to do our very best to stay in out top spot on the grid. In fact they pushed us so much that huge stars like Celestia Morris, the country's star acting princess always sought us out for personal made clothes.
I'll say she definitely keeps me on my toes, but I love the challenge. She has been my constant inspiration, and her bubbly personality brought the best out in me. Over the years, she has become a close client that I cater too. She also doesn't put me down or degrade me when she doesn't like something like other clients do. She truly was a gem that has grown into the very small circle of people that I care about. The venue owner was another person I had come to love over the eight years I have been working as a designer.
Speaking of venue owner, I gritted my teeth and stilled my hands on the keyboard. I glanced at at the clock on my wall, noticing that it was nearing 1. I had tried to call the venue earlier, but they said they were stuck in meetings. Right now I could only patiently wait and building up the confidence I normally had stored away, to try and convince them that we where still worthy of our presentations. I had no doubt that her backing out, was to keep a hold of her reputation for showing off the best brands.
I familiar meow sounded in the distance, pulling me from my thoughts. It almost gave off a lonesome and tired aura. I giggled to myself, knowing the frisky feline had finally awoken from its nap. After the incident at the office, Aaron brought me to a pet store to buy some temporary things for the black cat. Of course, I never really had a pet before, so I think I went overboard. I bought an automatic cat scooper pan, a self-feeding dish, and a small self-watering dish as well. Aaron told me that cat's also liked to climb and scratch as well. It was necessary maintenance for their claws. Against much protest from Aaron, I ended up buying a huge cat condo for the little feline to play with while I was away.
For the most part, it seemed pretty low maintenance to have. Besides the demands for attention and having to make sure it has food and water; it mostly plays by its self. I don't think having a feline companion is bad at all, and in fact I found myself enjoying its presence. It took some of the empty void I felt about this place away. It wasn't human conversation or contact, but I couldn't claim I was necessarily lonely anymore either.
I watched as it lazily walked into the room, meowing it's entrance before leaping onto the bed. With the most grace a cat can muster, it flopped down next to my leg. It rubbed it's head against my leg before rolling on to its back. I couldn't help laughing softly as I scratched the top of its head. It started to purr, vibrating loudly as it enjoyed the attention it was receiving. Such a cute an innocent little thing.
I almost didn't want to find the owner, but deep down some child was probably missing it's companion. After I had arrived home yesterday, I had done some research on lost animal platforms across multiple social media pages. After taking a few quick pictures and gave some detailed descriptions about it's personality, I posted them online. Slightly praying no one would answer the lost cat ad, and sort of hoping I could find the original family if it indeed was missing and not a random stray.
With that now done and taken care of, I knew I needed to make the most important phone call. With a gentle pat on the cat's head, I took the phone from my night stand and dialed the Venue's number. I chewed my nail nervously as I listened to the ringing of the phone. It felt like forever until someone ended up picking up.
"Thank you for calling The Many Wishes Venue, this is Margaret speaking. How may I assist you this afternoon." She was way to cheery and delightful. Her enthusiasm was forced and you could really tell. I pasted on a smile, hoping that it wouldn't give away the anxiety that I was feeling inside.
"Hi Margaret, it's Rosaline Freed calling again. I was just calling back to see if I could talk or maybe book an appointment with Rita. I have somethings I would like to discuss with her about the show I had requested time for." I breathed inwardly, pleased my voice didn't break once. I have been doing this for years, you would think that I would be over my fear of phone calls by now.
"Rosaline! It's so good to hear from you! Unfortunately, it looks like Miss Rita is out of the office for the rest of the day. How about I set you up an appointment for tomorrow afternoon! She has a clean schedule then. Can I put you down for twelve thirty?" I could hear paper being spread about as she moved around. I smiled inwardly, knowing I could throw together a power point or prepare a collection of premade sketches I had made to try and sway her. If I could impress Rita, then there was no doubt she would let us keep our prescheduled time.
"You know what, that sounds absolutely grand. I will see you all tomorrow." With the meeting actually confirmed, we said good bye and hung up. I better let Bastion know that I have secured a meeting with the Venue. Maybe I should just set up a conference call with Bastion and Aaron since Aaron will need to be in attendance to help me win them over. With my smarts and his charm, they couldn't possibly refuse, right? I sent an email to both of them, and then waited.
It would be so much easier if I was at the office, but Bastion told me that until my head at least healed a little I couldn't risk going to work. The accident was two days ago, and they were still babying me. I didn't really know what I was going to do with these two. How was I supposed to help the company if I was stuck behind the four walls of my room? I was a better asset in the building, than I was at home. But I know I couldn't fight the both of them, so I just had to behave and do as I was told.
So, if I had to wait, I was going to take this opportunity to relax and unwind. I placed my laptop on my vanity so I could keep an eye on the screen if someone decided to video chat. I found my iPod stuffed in the top drawer of my dresser and synced up to my Bluetooth speakers attached to my ceiling. Normally people would play some kind of meditation music or something with a little bop to it, but I would always prefer rock or heavy metal. After all, it was something my father and I listened too.
Pulling off my shirt a dawning a sports bra and yoga pants, I caught my reflection in the mirror. The bruises on my abdomen and chest where gnarly black and purple splotches. They still where really tender and hurt if you touched them, but otherwise they had made some progress in the healing department. It didn't feel like I was being sucker punched every time I breathed. With that in mind, I found my black yoga mat in the walk-in closet and rolled it out. The foam like rubber felt squishy under my feet as I started to do some basic stretches.
Having done my warm up stretches I started doing some basic yoga poses. The Warrior, Devotional Warrior, Down ward Dog, and I was in the middle of Bird in Paradise when my laptop started to go off. Before I could even start to react, I hadn't noticed the small black cat slink across the room and up on to the vanity. With a small meow, it flopped on to my keyboard, answering the ringing of my laptop. My eyes went wide with surprise as I dropped my leg to the floor. Aaron and Bastion where on the screen, equally surprised what they were looking at. I grabbed the music player from the ground and switched the music off.
"You naughty cat. I swore you did that intentionally." I tried keeping my voice bored and disinterested so they wouldn't really see how embarrassed I was. I was met with another pitiful meow as I pulled the vanity chair back and sat down. While snatching the cat, I avoided eye contact with the screen, hoping they wouldn't make any remarks about what they saw. Aaron awkwardly sat there, trying to suppress his laughter as Bastion cleared his throat.
"You wanted to talk with us Rose?" I gave a quick nod. I really hope the blush wasn't creeping on to my face, the last thing I need is to give either one of them fuel to start making jabs.
"Yes, I need Aaron to accompany me to the Venue tomorrow. Bring the designs you and I had discussed about showing. If we can sell this idea to them, I am sure we will have the venue back in our grasp. I was thinking about making a power point, but that might be too much and would seem like we were over selling it. I don't think showing off a few designs would hurt." I hoped that with my current status, he wouldn't try hindering me from going. We couldn't afford to hesitate.
"I actually wanted to bring this opportunity up and make another suggestion to your theme. We keep the fairytale idea, but we should make a matching King and Queen outfits. I think having that as our main and last how, would really be the key suspenseful part." I could feel the little kid in me jumping up and down with excitement. Not only where my fantasies being recognized, but it also felt like the bigger we went, the better.
"If we are going to model a King and Queen, then I want Celestia as the Queen. I feel she would play the role well." I offered. Bastion sat thoughtfully; eyes squinted at a paper in his hands. He seemed to be swayed with the thoughtful expression on his face, but something hadn't quite toppled him over the edge yet.
"I agree that Celestia would be the best suited for our show casing, but I don't feel she should play the key part. She is still young, as is her career. Why don't we go bigger and add a squire and Princess. A little romanticism is exactly what the woman audience want. If we can land this show, I have no doubts we can even further our efforts with movie corporations too. They are always looking for new tailors." Bastion leaned back in his chair, proud. This was probably the best idea he has ever had. If we can show case that we can think be more than just modern-day designers, being movie corporations might just seek us out as well.
"We should have thought of this long ago. Rose, get a hold of Celestia and convince her to model for us. If we can convince Ashely Tine and Darek Chamberlain to be our models for this show as well, I think we can be set on the trio. We just need someone to play as our squire. I will leave that up to you Rosaline. Any alterations and adjustments that need to be done with your sketches need to be done tonight." Right, our performance tomorrow, will be the key to our success. With the rest of the meeting wrapped up, we hung up the call. But not shortly after the call did, I receive a text from Aaron.
He forgot to mention that there is an important meeting at the end of this week. Everyone will be in attendance. It's about our new sponsor for the makeup we will be using.
I had forgotten all about receiving a new sponsor. I hope this production is better than the last one we were using.
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