One Little Letter_A Bad Boy, Second Chance Romance

by Robin Edwards

  Chapter Two

  Emily’s alarm went off, and she bounced out of bed with enthusiasm. It didn’t take her long to get ready, and she stood in the mirror examining herself. She had chosen a classic black pencil skirt, light blue silk blouse, and light weight black suit jacket for her first day on the job. Her stockings were nude, and her heels were a little higher than kitten heels but still comfortable enough to spend the day on her feet. She popped a straw in her smoothie and decided to finish it before she left since she still had twenty minutes before she had planned to leave for the subway station three blocks south of her.

  She peered out the window wondering what the city would be like on her first morning there and was slightly disappointed by the lack of traffic on the street. Emily was used to being surrounded by people, animals, and corn way before this time of morning and it was interesting to her that the busiest city in the world started later than rural Nebraska. That being said, Emily knew that jobs like hers would take her late into the evening, probably sometimes until early in the morning hours, and dinner time was the closing bell for the farmers in Nebraska. She had been so busy with school and preparations that usually while all her family were settling down for the evening she was just starting to feel that twang of pain in her stomach from living off of a pot of coffee and a bagel. Coffee sounded so perfect to Emily this morning but she was trying to keep a healthy lifestyle and not fall to the eat go routine she had in college so caffeine was not on her list of must haves. When her smoothie was done she grabbed her briefcase and headed out the door.

  The park was quiet except for a couple of homeless people who had spent the night on the benches out front. Emily tried not to stare as she walked past but there weren’t any homeless people in her small town, and the only ones she had experienced were on her eighth-grade field trip to Washington, DC. She reached the opening to the subway and went with the flow of the people hustling down the stairs. Luckily she had done her due diligence and purchased a month-long pass and practiced a couple of times on Saturday so that she knew what she was doing. Though she was new she didn’t want to seem that way since she was warned that people who looked new and confused were much more likely to be mugged, well at least that is what her mother told her.

  She waited patiently on the subway platform, her head down trying not to catch anyone’s attention. Emily instantly regretted not breaking in her new heels since she already could feel the pressure on her arches. The platform was busy, unlike the street in front of her apartment, and she felt a twinge of excitement as the train blew through the station and came to a stop in front of her. She didn’t push and rush like everyone else and stood to the side waiting for a comfortable moment to squeeze into the flow. Once she was on the train she found a seat at the back and placed her things in her lap, pulling out her hand-written map of what train she would transfer to. Emily shyly smiled at the Vietnamese lady next to her but held her breath slightly as the smell of chemicals and body odor wafted through the train car.

  The subway ride was uneventful, and she was lucky enough to have other business clad people mundanely travelling to their job fill the seats next to her as people got off and on the train. Emily thought about the looks on their faces and hoped that all of her work didn’t lead to a life where her spirit was crushed like the people on the subway. Every person she crossed looked utterly exhausted but Emily chalked it up to it being Monday and very early for work. Many of the people sat flipping through paperwork, listening to music, or talking on their phones. None of them seemed to notice little Emily sitting in the back corner, wide eyed, and motionless. She liked it that way. Though she was prone to being the center of attention since she excelled at almost everything she tried, she really didn’t like to have the line light on her. Emily succeeded for her and no one else.

  She had to switch trains a couple of times but eventually made it to Times Square where she stood staring up at the building that housed several large corporations including High Point Marketing. For some reason, the building seemed bigger and more intimidating, and she pushed her nerves down as she stepped into the lobby. Emily looked up at the huge ceilings and dark marble surrounding the entire entryway. She had been so focused during her interview week she hadn’t noticed just how amazing the building was. She could hear the click clack of the heels along the floors and she glanced around to make sure she wasn’t standing in anyone’s way. She pulled her paperwork from her bag and looked up at security. She was ahead of schedule at this point so her nerves were completely in check.

  Emily had scheduled herself to arrive twenty minutes early so that she could make sure her security pass worked correctly and she had time to collect herself before she met with Eric at 8 am. The security guard was in his fifties and wore a uniform similar to that of the New York City Police officers she had seen earlier that weekend riding horses through the park. He smiled kindly at her as he checked her badge in the computer and motioned her through the line. She stuffed herself into a full elevator noticing that the next would be just as full and made her way to the twentieth floor where High Point was located.

  She found herself at the back corner of the elevator and breathed a sigh of relief as half of the elevator emptied onto the sixth floor. Emily looked up at the other people in the tiny box but none of them paid her any attention. The man diagonal to her was wearing what Emily imagined to be a thousand-dollar suit, a gold Rolex watch, and his hair was perfectly maintained. She assumed he was either a partner is some huge law firm or the owner of one of these businesses. The lady next to him was older and looked as if she was ready to be done with the daily drudge up the skyscraper. She looked as if she were someone’s assistant or maybe the friendly face at the front of the law firm. She was standing pretty close to the man in the suit and was holding a leather-bound date book. Emily thought about her future and hoped she would one day have someone like that to help her keep track of everything.

  The office was quiet when she walked in, and the desks were only half full at that point. The receptionist was in her thirties, blonde, and wore a sweet, comforting smile as she answered phone calls at the desk at the reception. She looked up at Emily and motioned for her to come over as she hung up the call she was on.

  “You must be Emily,” she said with a forced bubbliness in her voice. “I remember you from the interviews. I have been instructed to show you to your desk, and Eric’s receptionist will call your phone when Eric is ready to see you.”

  Emily nodded and followed her to the bank of about fifteen desks that covered the main floor of the office. There were no partitions, and each desk faced someone else’s. Emily hoped her office partner wasn’t going to try to become bosom buddies, but she noticed the desk across from hers was empty as she sat down at her computer. Emily sat her briefcase on the desk and unpacked the files Eric had sent over to her apartment.

  No one had actually told Emily what she would be doing on her first day so she tried to prepare for everything from fetching coffee to preparing marketing schemes for any of the 500 clients that High Point serviced. She assumed that since she didn’t even know how to log into her computer yet, she would be doing new employee busy work and setting her office up for training. Emily called it an office because she refused to believe she would be in a cubicle without walls for very long. Besides, if she imagined the whole room as hers she had the biggest office on the floor. Emily flipped through the files until she came to a name that she recognized. Xbox was a video game console and the only reason she knew that was because the girls across the hall in college had one because they though being video game nerds would attract more guys, something Emily thought was completely ridiculous. She was about three sentences into the Xbox file when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

  Emily swung her rolling chair around and looked up at a stunning woman, her hair flowing over her shoulders and an earpiece in her ear with a cord leading to the phone she held tightly in her hand. She smiled, and Emily realized it was Bridgette
, the VP of Marketing. Emily pushed back my chair and stood up quickly, reaching her hand out to shake Bridgette’s but realizing she was still on a phone call. Emily pulled her hand back and looked out over the office in an attempt to not eavesdrop on her conversation.

  The tone of Bridgette’s voice was professional but had an heir of irritation in it. She was a busy woman and from the sound of the replies she was giving whoever she was talking to, they were not being very weary of that fact. Bridgette tapped her foot impatiently and rolled her eyes, looking down at her phone as her finger grazed the send button. Emily could tell she really wanted to end the call she was on but assumed it was either a client or a family member since she didn’t fulfill the urge. When Emily heard Bridgette say goodbye, she looked back smiling.

  “Ugh, I am sorry. These people with Trotting Dog Toys are really starting to drive me nuts,” she said rolling her eyes and absent-mindedly shaking Emily’s hand. “I need a vacation, hell, I need a whole new life.” Bridgette laughed to herself as if she had some personal inside joke playing in her mind and looked back at Emily. She glanced at the desk, and the folders laying on top and smiled.

  “I see you got the files I sent over,” she said nodding toward the desk. Emily looked back and nodded, realizing Eric didn’t send her those files after all.

  “Yes,” Emily said. “I have been reviewing them all weekend, and I took some notes on some things I thought might add to the campaign. I hope that is not too presumptuous of me.”

  “Not at all, I like a girl that can jump right in and not even fear drowning,” Bridgette said as she winked at Emily. “Working your entire first weekend in New York? You sound like me.” Bridgette smiled and motioned for Emily to walk with her.

  “Eric still isn’t in so I am going to take you with me to the meeting with Tilberts. Here is the file,” she said as she handed me a file about three inches thick. “You don’t have to talk; I am just taking you so you can see how these initial meetings go.”

  Emily started to flip through the file until they reached the meeting room down the hall. Inside were four members of the department store’s Board of Directors and two attorneys. Bridgette smiled sweetly as they entered and introduced Emily as the newest member of their team. Emily took a seat to the left of Bridgette and started to review the file. The company looked as if they were really back and forth with their ideas. There was even a section in the file that detailed how Tilbert’s had left High Point for a while only to return with a mess of a marketing scheme put together by another company. The CEO looked to have pretty bold ideas for moving forward and expanding but without the right plan of attack they would just waste a bunch of money. Emily went back to the financial portion and did some math in her head. She then turned back to the meeting going on in front of her and started really listening to both sides of the fence. Bridgette was straight faced but the tone of her voice was comforting but stern at the same time. Emily could tell Bridgette had been working with this client for a very long time, which could be both a blessing and a curse.

  The meeting was a tough conversation that was discussing how the Tilberts brand could market to a larger base of clients and their goals included expanding their chain to the East Coast. Ideas flew back and forth between Bridgette and the men from the board until Emily saw something in the file that sparked an idea in her head. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and sat there, not wanting to be too bold on her first day and in her first meeting. Feeling uneasy she jotted some notes on a piece of paper and slid it in front of Bridgette. Bridgette looked down as she was talking but paid no attention to the words on the page. Now Emily was starting to get restless and she knew that her ideas was brilliant but she was lacking that courage she knew she would need to muster. Emily took in a deep breath remembering that success often times required boldness and risk taking. She looked at Bridgette and cleared her throat loud enough for them to look over at her. She paused for a moment slightly nervous.

  “If I may,” Emily said as she stood from her chair and pulled a piece of paper out of the folder. “ These info sheets show that your base clientele is women. However, it’s not just your base it is your majority. Let me ask you, do you have a sporting goods section in your department store?”

  The men looked at each other and nodded at Emily. Bridgette tilted her head and stared at her with a look that either was irritation or curiosity, Emily couldn’t tell. She looked away from Bridgette and continued her thought process. She turned the file to the financials and set them down in front of the clients. She pointed to the marketing information on their base clientele and waited while they looked over the information. She could tell by the look on their faces when they were done that they still didn’t understand where she was going with her idea.

  “I am from Nebraska where Tilbert’s first department store was built. I grew up buying my school and church clothes from there. In all the years that I frequented Tilberts I never once noticed a sporting goods section, nor did my father, for that matter. If you want to grow your clientele you need to have a more diverse group of customers that come to the locations, not just this coast, but everywhere there is a Tilberts. If you do a little renovation, broadening you sporting goods collection dependent upon demographics of the different areas and then put half of your marketing efforts into bringing men into the store while the women buy dresses you are going to, in theory, bring 50% more people into your business on a daily basis. The women shops for clothes, the men buy golf clubs.”

  Emily set the folder down and held her breath as the board members looked at each other. Butterflies flew through her stomach as the stern looks turned to smiles and they looked up at Bridgette. A smirk had crossed Bridgette’s face, and she was still staring directly at Emily, something Emily was trying to ignore.

  “Well, Bridgette,” one of the board members said. “It looks like your company made a good hiring choice in her. I love this idea. I am going to get with the project team to broaden the sports good section, and I want to expand my contract with High Point to cover the entire country. I want two ads, one for existing locations and one for new locations. The new site needs to include the store as a whole but make sure people know Tilbert’s is for everyone.” He shook Bridgette’s hand, and she nodded agreeing.

  Emily followed Bridgette out into the hall and toward her office at the back. The walk was silent, and Emily feared repercussions from speaking out of turn on her first day. They entered the room, and Bridgette shut the door and turned to Emily.

  “Wow,” she said, a smile cracking her stern look. “That was brilliant Emily. I don’t think you know how much money you just made High Point. That contract already sat at over a million dollars, and we are going to have now to double it. Eric is going to freak! Remember, though, as awesome as that was, next time you might want not to jump out with ideas like that. If you had spoken wrong, it could have cost us their trust, which is essential in this business.” Bridgette clapped her hands smiling and walked over to her desk as the phone rang.

  “Hello,” she said. “Oh great. We will be right over.” She hung up the phone and walked towards the door. “Come on. Eric is back; this is the perfect moment to tell him how your first day is going.”

  Emily felt a surge of accomplishment and excitement roll through her as she entered the office at the side of Bridgette. Emily stood quietly in the back as Bridgette enthusiastically recalled the events from just ten minutes before. Eric looked up and flashed me one of his lady-killer smiles.

  “It sounds like I made the right decision then,” he said handing Emily a folder. “You are going to work alongside Bridgette with the Tilbert case. Take the rest of today getting comfortable with the office and coming up with your passwords for the system. Bridgette and I have business across town so take this file home with you and be ready to hit the ground running tomorrow.”

  “Thank you so much, Eric,” Emily said as she took the file and started to back out of the office. “I will be rea
dy to go.” Emily looked up at Bridgette as she left and caught the wink and smile she threw her way. Butterflies erupted, and Emily couldn’t tell if they were from the wink or from the fact that she just hit a homerun on her first day at the office. Either way, Emily wasn’t going to let herself be distracted, her night was going to be done researching Tilbert’s beyond some handwritten file. She wanted a week of home runs, not just one lucky hit.

  The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and Emily was pretty happy with how she had her desk organized. That was one of the biggest anxiety factors for her when she first arrived, not knowing where anything was. Her calendar was set and connected to both Bridgette’s and Eric’s calendars and she had alphabetized all of the files in the cabinets. She made a trip to the stock room and grabbed the essentials like paperclips, a stapler, back up ink, and a hand full of pens. It was like a shopping trip in the best store ever and she didn’t have to pay for any of it. Her desk was going to be amazing. When she was done she looked around and realized everyone else had already left for the day. She wandered around the open office noticing all the other desks had pictures on them and keepsakes from kids and spouses. Emily shrugged her shoulders not caring about any of that and turned back to her own little corner of the office.