Brandon (Members From Money Book 19)

by Katie Dowe

  Nicole decided to put the time to good use and got back in the pool. By the time Max was done with the call, she had done a few very hard laps.

  “Wow, you can swim,” said Max, when she finally stopped.

  “Yes, I can. I was hoping to lure you into a race. With interesting prizes, of course. But it looks like I can win my prize without racing.”

  Max smiled, but there was a shadow in his smile.

  Impulsively, she boosted herself out of the pool and wrapped the towel around herself.

  “Max, remember what you asked me a few days ago?”

  Max nodded.

  “Well, let’s do it.”

  Max looked doubtful.

  “Oh, come on. It wasn’t just a ruse to get me into bed, was it? And now that you have me, you don’t want to go away with me for the weekend?”

  She pouted exaggeratedly, to show him that she was pulling his leg.

  Max grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  “It’s not that, of course it’s not. But… Well, I’m getting emergency calls at six in the morning, Nicole. Do you really think I can take a weekend off?”

  Nicole shrugged.

  “Well, let’s say you don’t take the weekend off. What can you accomplish when you’re here?”

  He was silent when she asked that.

  Softening her voice, she placed a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him that she was there for him.

  “How bad is it?”

  Max shrugged.

  “It’s bad,” he admitted. “Sales are down. That viral post might have started it, but that isn’t all. We haven’t reached the target audience. Or at least, so it seems. Everything that’s been done to try and reach them has backfired, if anything. Though when I say sales are down, I’m not being very honest. Sales have to be up at some point for them to be down. It’s just a complete bust.”

  He looked so discouraged that Nicole, in that moment, would’ve done absolutely anything to make him smile again.

  “Well, will a couple of days make any difference, in that case?”

  Max turned to Nicole.

  “What do you mean?”

  Nicole shrugged, embarrassed. This was too much like work, now. But it was affecting him, and she had to.

  “Well, right now, that viral post has done a lot of damage. You know that your target audience is from the POIDH generation.”

  Max looked puzzled.

  Nicole rolled her eyes at him.

  “’Pictures Or It Didn’t Happen’ Generation, grandpa,” she said, needling him.

  He smiled sheepishly.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” admitted Max.

  “Well, they’re not going to put up any photos of themselves with the ale now because it’s so uncool. The reviewer who did that hatchet job is respected, but not liked. People don’t really know how to feel about him. Well, no, a lot of people hate him. But it was shared by a lot of people with huge followings, who are actually opinion makers. Nobody wants to be associated with it right now.”

  Max’s face got even gloomier.

  “But,” hurried on Nicole, “the Internet has a very short memory. What you need to do is focus on everything but the new ale until that memory resets, which shouldn’t take very long, and do a complete relaunch, with different branding. The ale itself will do fairly well, you know. It isn’t so bad. But you need to take some time away from it. You need to let people forget about it.”

  Max looked like he was wavering.

  “Besides, you need a break from it, too, Max. You look so tired. And, truth be told, I need a break from it, too. It’s just the weekend. Let’s do that break. It’ll be nice to get away from everything. We can just forget that everything else exists and go and lounge about on a beach somewhere.”

  Max looked thoughtful.

  “Do you really want to do that?” he asked.

  Nicole was surprised to see that she did. She wanted a break from the reality she’d been living in. She wanted that break with Max.

  Besides, she knew that it would be good for him. Anybody could see that he needed to get away for a while.

  So she nodded her head firmly.

  “Yeah, I think I really do. Let’s do it,” she urged.

  Max smiled, and there was some of that old sunshine back in that smile this time.

  “All right. We’ll do that. I know this very private place in the Bahamas,” said Max.

  Nicole perked up immediately.

  “You have a private island?”

  Max laughed and shook his head in the negative.

  “No, but I do have a holiday home…”

  Nicole laughed and hugged him.

  “I guess that’ll have to do,” she told him with a mock sigh, and they both had something to look forward to.

  They needed it, because it was only going to get harder.

  Chapter 8

  Maybe she shouldn’t have suggested the whole weekend thing, thought Nicole as she got dressed for work. But it would be nice.

  It had been three days since the momentous night when she had turned up at Max’s place. They hadn’t met since then.

  Not because they hadn’t wanted to, but with their weekend plan, the week had become incredibly busy. At least it was finally Friday, Nicole comforted herself.

  But the last couple of days had been awful. She’d been pulled back on Max’s account, and she had been shocked to see how badly things were going. Even worse, Derek Anderson was in no mood to listen to anything she might have to say. He was stubbornly sticking to his guns and determined to prove that he was right.

  Not that he thought there was anything to prove, of course. He was always so sure that he was right. Sometimes, she wondered what it must be like to live in a bubble like that.

  Still, one more day and she could have a break – a break with Max.

  Nicole felt like she had thoroughly earned it, with how the last week had gone.

  “Hey Nikki,” called Jeff as soon as she walked in.

  Nicole smiled.

  “You’re early,” she told Jeff.

  Jeff shrugged.

  “Aromatherapy meeting. You know, I keep hoping for a few freebies from them, but it never happens. Why do they never give me a few bath bombs? I like bath bombs.”

  “I got a gift basket once,” said Nicole, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

  Jeff looked shocked.

  “They gave you one and never gave me one?”

  Nicole’s amusement became more evident as she grinned.

  “Well, it was after that last campaign. You know, the one on which I worked day and night for three weeks?”

  Jeff snorted inelegantly.

  “Details, details. I should get one, too.”

  Nicole let him talk, soothed by the workplace chatter that had been sorely lacking in the last few days. The office had felt like a tomb, shrouded by what seemed to be the unceremonious and ignoble death of their campaign.

  “Dino isn’t in yet,” said Jeff, in the end, grabbing Nicole’s attention again.

  Nicole couldn’t help but be glad. She would at least have some time before she had to deal with him.

  “Maybe he’ll just take the day off. We can all dream,” muttered Nicole.

  “It’s been a bit shitty, hasn’t it? Everybody knows that none of it is your fault, Nicole. Dino never sticks his neck out for anything. His direction was silly. You pointed it out, too, didn’t you?”

  Nicole shrugged.

  “You know how well he listens. Honestly, he didn’t even tell me which reviewers he’d invited. He made those calls himself. He only gave me the list at the very last minute, and when I saw it… Well, you can imagine how I felt. We all know the reputations there. I don’t even think he tried the beer and knew what he was supposed to be branding. He was just all over the place, trying to be an aging hipster.”

  Nicole was irritated, and it was the first time she had been quite so frank and forthcoming on office premises. Jeff looked arou
nd warily.

  “Nicole, you know I agree with you, but I don’t think it’s the best idea to talk about it here. Maybe we can go for a drink after work. You look like you could do with that, honestly,” said Jeff.

  Nicole really loved Jeff in that moment for being willing to give up his Friday evening to make her feel better. She knew that Jeff always – but always – had a date on Friday evening.

  “No, it’s fine, Jeff. I’ve actually got plans for the weekend, so I’ll really be fine. It’s not a big deal,” said Nicole with a smile.

  Jeff’s eyebrows did the exaggerated wiggling again.

  “Ah, got plans with the hunky Fred, have you? Going wine tasting? Eating snails? Chocolate covered crickets? Playing golf?”

  Nicole had forgotten that she hadn’t told Jeff about breaking up with Fred.

  In all honesty, Nicole hadn’t spared Fred much thought in the last couple of days at all. He had come by her place and picked up his stuff – what little there was. It was been a surprise to see how little of him he had left behind in her home.

  She had assumed that she’d had more stuff at his place, but he had brought a box of her stuff with him, too, and she had seen that there was precious little in that, too.

  It did seem as if they had been leading separate lives all along. They’d never really made a very concerted effort to have a real relationship, the kind where you plan towards merging your lives and making everything fit, even if it took real effort.

  It had shamed Nicole a little bit. She had put such little effort into it.

  Fred had looked sad, though resigned, as if he, too, had realized that they had been living such separate lives.

  Nicole had felt even worse because all she had felt had been relief that it was over.

  She had loved him, Nicole reminded herself. She had been fond of him, she’d been attracted to him. They had been good together, for a while.

  But they hadn’t been in love. Nicole could understand that now. If they’d been in love, they could never have let go so easily – with so little bitterness.

  But Nicole shied away from thinking about love. That was the last thing she needed. If you thought about it too much, you could complicate things that could stay simple. She didn’t need more complications in her life.

  If the whole debacle with Fred had taught her anything, it was that her career was more important to her than most things. She wasn’t going to risk it again. She wasn’t going to attempt to juggle a relationship that important with such a demanding job, because she would only end up not doing justice to either.

  She refused to consider how Max would feel about that, too.

  “Jeff… Fred and I broke up,” she told him, when the silence seemed to stretch out forever.

  Jeff’s eyes widened in concern.

  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry! Are you all right? Do you need anything? A shoulder to cry on? Somebody to talk crap about him with? Anything at all? A rebound guy? A vat of ice cream, or a crate of wine? I can arrange all of it for you, if you need it.”

  Nicole smiled, charmed and amused. Jeff did have a way about him. But Jeff’s immediate compassion did stir the grief in her heart.

  “I’m all right, really. It was just all too much,” said Nicole, though she knew that there was no way that would satisfy Jeff’s curiosity.

  “What was? I got the impression that your Fred was happy enough to wait on the sidelines while you got cracking with your career. I always thought you were pretty lucky that way, really. It’s more than most people can hope for, to be fair. Well, unless you’re a man in a straight relationship, of course. Then you automatically become the most important being in the whole universe.”

  The resentment in Jeff’s voice made her realize that the world didn’t revolve around her, after all.

  “What’s wrong, Jeff? You don’t sound like yourself. Very much unlike yourself, really. Bitter, even, and not amusingly.”

  Jeff waved his hands as if it didn’t matter.

  “We all have problems, don’t we? We both work in an industry where we’re expected to sacrifice everything for the job, and they don’t even let us do our job, usually. You don’t get to do it because you’re a woman, and I don’t get to do it because I’m the right kind of man. Maybe I should’ve gone into fashion designing like my sister suggested,” said Jeff gloomily.

  Nicole couldn’t help the sympathy that filled her heart.

  “Oh, don’t say that, Jeff! You’re one of the biggest assets this firm has. If they don’t see it, it’ll be their loss. Trust me. And if you choose to leave, you know that you can have your pick of offers. So you have nothing to worry about.”

  The phone on Nicole’s desk rang, suddenly and out of the blue, making them both jump.

  Jeff stared at it as if he were fascinated.

  “I thought it was just a prop!” he exclaimed.

  To be honest, Nicole had thought that it was just a thing that somebody hadn’t bothered to disconnect, too.

  But there was only one person in the entire office who would call on an old desktop phone instead of pinging her on her laptop or via the office’s internal chat system

  With a long-suffering sigh, Nicole took the call.

  “Nicole, please come in here immediately,” came Derek the Dinosaur’s voice, crisp and annoyed as ever.

  Nicole would’ve replied, but he hung up before she could. Sighing her resignation, she got up, and with a shrug that Jeff acknowledged with a sympathetic nod, she walked to the office where she knew nothing good would ever happen to her, no matter how hard she tried.

  “Nicole, yes, come in,” called Derek Anderson as she raised her hand to knock.

  Nicole walked in and waited. She didn’t take a seat. It was usually not worth the bother.

  “Nicole, you know that I’ve given you quite some free rein with this Max Daniels account.”

  Nicole barely managed to bite back the retort that he had done no such thing.

  “Well, it hasn’t gone so well. I think it’s time for us to formally acknowledge that I should take over as lead on the account.”

  There was no way Nicole was going to take that kind of bullshit lying down. There was treating her like dirt, and then there was this.

  “Mr. Anderson, I was never the lead on that account. I have all the paperwork that states, very clearly and completely unambiguously, that you are the lead on the account. In fact, you insisted on making sure that it was as unambiguous as it could possibly be. I also have numerous emails from you that insist that I may take no action without your approval, which, of course, is the account lead’s prerogative, and rightfully so. In essence, what you’re saying is something that needn’t be done. In fact, it makes no sense for it to be done, because there is no place, formally or informally, where I have taken the lead on the Max Daniels account.”

  Nicole could only be glad that she had insisted that they keep the fact that she and Max were together a secret. If he had known, he would’ve twisted it around and used it in some way. She knew that.

  But for now, he looked a bit taken aback.

  “I’m not sure… I’m surprised, Nicole,” said Derek Anderson.

  Nicole just kept her eyes on him, steady and easy, and waited for him to say more.

  “Well, I shall be drafting a new alternate plan and campaign for the account. As you know, the launch didn’t go as well as we had hoped. So now we need to focus on damage control.”

  Nicole considered telling him what she thought, and hesitated.

  Finally, she decided that there was no point in keeping quiet.

  “Sir, if I might make a suggestion, I think we should rest on that account for a while. I’m sure you could convince Mr. Daniels that the best thing to do would be to let people forget about the last few days. With the Internet, which is where we sustained the most damage, it won’t take too long. All we’ll have to do is wait it out, and soon enough, something else will grab everybody’s attention. Then, we’ll be able
to launch a new campaign, and rebrand the ale, perhaps targeting a different audience and using different media. I do believe that there is still potential in that product. We need to, perhaps, readjust our evaluation of the brand and its target a bit.”

  Nicole wound down and wondered if, for once, he would listen to her and take her seriously. When he opened his mouth, she saw that she should just have shut up. She shouldn’t even have bothered.

  “Miss Richards,” said Anderson, emphasizing the ‘miss’ part, “you overstep your bounds. We planned that campaign, and it was approved. Now, the first phase might not have worked out to our expectations, but that is no reason to rebrand everything from scratch. We will need to tweak and adapt, and we will do that. I shall have a new direction to follow soon, and the team will be given the ideas to flesh out as soon as I do. Please don’t worry yourself about the biggest account we have ever landed. I require you to execute my ideas, and do a better job of it. I heard a few complaints about how the launch party went. I shall need you to make sure that you execute everything perfectly this time. I’m sure Mr. Daniels will agree with me when I meet him. Please set up a meeting with him.”

  Anderson actually swiveled away on his chair, as if anything she might have to say was immaterial, anyway. Nicole was incensed.

  “I’m afraid I cannot set up a meeting until next week, Sir. I talked to everybody at his office earlier today. They are showing immense patience with us, but they’re all very busy dealing with the falling sales. They wish to focus on their flagship products for at least a week, as is understandable. I’m sure we can set up a meeting with them once they’re less busy,” said Nicole stiffly.

  Anderson looked like he was about to have a fit. Nicole watched, fascinated, as he started turning red.

  “Also, Mr. Anderson, I’d like to inform you that I shall not be available this weekend. As you know, I’m usually available on phone or email even during the weekend. This weekend, I shall be out of town, so I shall not be reachable. At all. I will be in on Monday, as usual. Now, I shall try and give Jeff a hand with the aromatherapy campaign. He’s doing a fine job, but I know the client and their tastes very well, so I’m sure Jeff will appreciate the help,” said Nicole, and without waiting for an answer from him, she turned around and swept out of the room.