“Yes, but I have to keep it looking golden brown. Trust me, it fades so easily. And I refuse to use a tanning bed. Those things are so bad for your health. I cannot tell you the amount of horror stories that I have heard from people who have used those things. Remind me later to show you a list of statistics that I have about it.”
“You have a list of statistics about tanning beds? Now who’s the nerdy one. But seriously, you go, I’ll just watch. I’m more than happy here in the sun. The sun is just what I need. After all, isn’t that the most natural way to go brown?” I thought I had her there, but of course she was always one ahead of me.
“Yeah the sun is great. Unless you’re people like us. And not to be rude, but when I say us I really mean you.”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong with me?”
“I’ve seen your skin in the sun before. You don’t go brown. You go red. Then you go all blistery. Then you peel. You don’t go brown. Come on, I’ve known you long enough now. Be honest with yourself.”
I sighed. “You got me there. I never go brown. And admittedly, I’ve always been a bit jealous of your sheen.”
“My sheen? You make me sound like a dog. Now come on, strip off, we don’t have all day. You deserve a little bit of tender loving care.”
“Uh… can you go first? I’m still half asleep.”
“No problemo!”
The truth was that I felt a bit shy suddenly getting undressed out in the open. I’m not sure why because Danielle had seen my naked body many times before and she had seen me through many different stages in my life. And Miss Marian had probably seen a hundred naked bodies before and I’m sure seeing mine was not going to bother her in the slightest. But still, I felt weird. Instead I watched as Danielle took her clothes off with ease and stepped into the tanning booth while giving me a big thumbs up and a massive grin. She was in her element here. Watching her I suddenly wished that I had chosen to go first and I was so grateful that there was nobody else around but the three of us. Danielle was beautiful and she had the type of confidence that just made her even more beautiful than she was. She was wagging her bum at me now and making me laugh but I couldn’t help but think what a nice bum she had and how white and unimpressive mine was going to look after this show. Danielle had a beautiful backside, as one of her ex-boyfriends had once described – which she said made up for her lack of boobs. But her small boobs suited her. She was tall and lanky and big breasts would’ve only weighed her down. She was all elegance and sophistication. Everything that I was not.
“Okay, your turn now. You’re going to love it. Trust me. Soon, you’ll be wanting to do this every week” She said and came out to sit on the lounger.
“Oh I doubt that!” I was not into things like this and she should know it.
But she just laughed. “Oh trust me, you might not think you’ll like it. But you will. At least, you’ll like the way you look afterwards and you’ll never want to go back to that pale skin again. Miss Marian, make her beautiful.”
“What? So I’m not beautiful already? You’re meant to be my best friend. You’re meant to tell me that I’m already the most beautiful woman in the world even if it’s not true. You cut me deep Danielle. You cut me deep.”
“You ARE the most beautiful snowman in the world. But if you want to become the most beautiful woman in the world you’ll have to get a bit of color on you.” She laughed at that as if she had just told the funniest joke in the world and I tried not to laugh back.
“Fine fine. I’m going in.” I took off my clothes and stepped inside, completely aware that both Danielle and Miss Marian could now see me naked. As Miss Marian started spraying me I suddenly felt emboldened by this nakedness and for a brief moment I felt free. Looking down I was glad that I had taken Danielle’s advice to get a Brazilian wax – because this moment right now would not have been pleasant the way I had looked a few weeks ago. It had been my very first Brazilian wax and I had been petrified. I had even told the ladies behind the counter and they had laughed at me, telling me that they had many clients still that came in for the first time and that there was nothing to be worried or ashamed of. I told them that I wasn’t ashamed at all but more frightened by the thought of the pain that as about to come my way. Again they told me that it was not going to be painful and that even if it was it would still be worth it. And they had been right. I had never thought something like that would make a difference to me and yet it had given me a strange and quiet confidence about myself that I never had before. As the cool spray hit my body I noticed how smooth it felt where they had done the Brazilian wax. A shiver formed up my spine at the sensation and I realized that despite being naked in front of strangers, I actually felt sexy. If only there was a man standing in front of me and not two girls.
“You know what, Jane?” Danielle said while watching me, “That asshole Justin doesn’t know what he’s missing out on here. You would’ve been his happily ever after. Now, he will always regret what he did and he will always wish that he had stayed with you. Guys like that will just never be happy with anything. They could be with the most gorgeous model in the world who also has a great personality and they’ll still look somewhere else. Those are guys that just always want more and more and more. And they are not worth the time and effort. Don’t you ever think that you were the reason he left you. HE was the reason. You really are beautiful my friend and I mean it. I’m saying it to you while you are naked in front of me. I must be telling the truth!”
“Thanks Danielle. You know what, I agree with you about Justin. He is an asshole.” It felt good to hear those words coming out of my mouth.
“That’s it! Say it again. But say it loud.”
“JUSTIN IS AN ASSHOLE.” It felt even more invigorating screaming this while completely naked. I’m not sure why. It just did. I laughed and threw Danielle a grateful smile.
“So, on that note. How about you start looking for someone that’s not an asshole. A gentleman. A real man. I have just the man for you. He’s everything that Justin isn’t. And I know you thought that Justin was gorgeous, but trust me, this guy is even better looking. And to go with the looks comes a sparkly and shiny personality. Just what you need and deserve.”
“Thanks Danielle. But I’m going to say no. I’m sure you’re not surprised at all at. But it’s not because I’m anti-men. Well, maybe I am a little. But I won’t be forever. I just need a bit of time to be myself. To figure out who I am as a person. I was with Justin for a very long time. Years of my life wasted on that idiot. And in that time I have completely forgotten about who I am as a person. What I want. I’ll be honest, I actually have no idea who Jane Griener even is. If you had to ask me I could only tell you that I’m a 26 year old female with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and MBA and that I’m particular good with social media and company branding. I can tell you that I have curves in places I like and curves in places that I don’t like. I can tell you that I have light brown hair and light brown eyes and that I hate how everything is just light brown and nothing else. How I wish my hair flowed down to my legs rather than just cutting short just above my shoulders. How I hate that I’m not taller. I can tell you all these things. But you already know that. And a stranger talking to me would pick all that up within minutes. That’s because that’s not all that I am. But I don’t know what that is anymore. I don’t know who I am. I need this time to just be me.”
There was silence after that. My spray tan was finished and I was standing in the booth just staring into space. Danielle was looking down at her feet. Then she looked up and smiled.
“I’m proud of you Jane. This is your time.”
And standing there, completely unclothed and free for the first time in a long time, I knew that she was right. This was my time!
Chapter 6 - Sebastian
“Hi everyone. Thanks for all coming today on such short notice. So are you all ready to talk business?” I laughed at their solemn faces. It was a common practice for me to cal
l meetings at all hours of the day and night but it didn’t seem to be to most people’s liking. Right now it was 9pm and most people either wanted to go out or go to sleep. For me, this was one of my best thinking times. My best times to strategize. I’d prefer it to be later even, perhaps when the rest of the world was asleep, but I knew they’d kill me for it. They would still show up, though, even if I did hold a meeting in the middle of the night – because at the end of the day I was still the one that paid them – but they’d do it begrudgingly. And I needed everyone quick on their toes. And I still wanted them to like me.
“Oh come on everyone. Don’t look so grumpy. I have pots of coffee and whisky and a hell of a lot of snacks.” I pointed to the array that I had put out. Well, that someone had put out for me. It looked amazing.
“Great, coffee to stop us from sleeping and snacks to make us put on weight. Just what I need right now.” Grumbled Abbie while rubbing her eyes. Abbie was one of the best assistants in the marketing department, and she always had a smile on her face. Unless we held our meetings at night. Then she complained. Sometimes I felt that I did this just so that I could see her grumble.
“Oh Abbie, you could afford to put on some weight anyway. You’re all skin and bones. I’m actually doing you a favour right now. You should be thanking me.” I said and then handed her my sweetest smile.
“Hmmph. Don’t try and use some flattery to change my mind. You know that things like that don’t work on me. I’m not one of your casino girls.” But I could see that she was already starting to smile. Girls were so easy.
“Okay, so thanks to everyone for coming in today. I promise that we’ll make this quick. We only have one agenda item for today so I don’t see why it has to go on for too long. Then you can all go party your asses off. Or fall into some well-needed sleep. Whatever it is you’re after. Let’s try get this done in an hour at the most. I’ll probably see some of you on the dance floor later which is why I am personally adding some of this whisky to my coffee. There’s some cute girl waiting for me.” I high fived a few of the guys and laughed at Abbie mumbling, “Isn’t there always?” under her breath. I absolutely loved grumpy Abbie.
“Anyway,” I continued, “Today I want to talk about the online contest for the social media campaign that we ran and to finally decide on the right candidate for the job. We’ve had a lot of entries so thank you to Abbie for going through all of them so carefully and for selecting the top ten. For those that don’t know I sat with Abbie yesterday and we whittled that down again until we were left with three. Three fantastic candidates who I really think could turn this place around. Just imagine what this place is going to be like with a bit of media buzz surrounding it. I’m not sure why it’s taken us so long to do this in fact. Okay, Abbie please tell everyone about the top three candidates. And please everyone, help yourself to something to eat and drink.”
Abbie cleared her throat and got out her papers. I noticed that she didn’t bother to stand up. She did, however, take a big gulp of coffee. That seemed to perk her up a bit. “Okay, well like Sebastian said…”
“SIR Sebastian.” I interrupted.
She glared at me and I grinned back at her. “Like Sebastian said we had some great entries for this competition. Of course also some not so great entries but those were discarded easily. I was shocked at how many people thought they would be great for the job and had absolutely no qualifications. Some guy actually wrote ‘because I like casinos and money’ in his application.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of him.” I interrupted again.
Again, she glared at me. “Well then you hire him.” Snappy Abbie. “So, like Sebastian was saying before he so rudely interrupted me… we have three candidates to choose from. The first is Jane Greiner, a 26 year old female who got her bachelor’s degree in Communication and MBA from the University of Arizona. She’s got a good solid background in social media and knows what people want to see and what they don’t want to see. She was the one that headed the Beanz campaign a few years ago that turned that company around in a matter of weeks. So she definitely knows what she is doing. Then we have Martin Trumpor, a 32 year old male, no postgraduate degree, went straight to work with some of the top companies and moved his way up until he was heading their social media and marketing team. He might be different in terms of what we’re used to, but he is a hard worker and doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants. He’s had quite a few jobs over the past years which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it but it seems that when he gets a job he certainly does it justice. Lastly we have Molly Earnest. Like Jane she also received a bachelor’s degree in Communication. She has lived in New York her whole life and has lead the marketing team in four of her company’s divisions. She is also a graphic designer and creates beautiful vision representations for her marketing campaigns. This is always a good thing to have – because a vision without an eye for design often doesn’t work. Having said that we already have some great graphic designers so we probably wouldn’t need much more than just her input. I have a copy of their CV’s to show each of you,” Abbie handed one out to everyone, “And then I’d like to take you through the ideas that each of them had for the company. You’ll be surprised at how different their visions are and hopefully after that you’ll be able to figure out who you like best. Sebastian, I think we take it to a vote at the end. I know who I want already.”
I nodded and signalled for her to continue. Abbie took the team through the slideshows and I was impressed at just how much time and effort these people had gone through to prove that they were the ones for the job. I liked people like this. All three were proving that they wanted this badly and it was hard for me to not just hire all three. There was merit in all of the ideas and I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t taken steps to do this before. But I was also quite proud that I had managed to get the casino to where it was today without the help of social media. I had a feeling I was about to see this casino explode to even greater heights. My parents were going to be very surprised. And hopefully very proud. I wondered briefly if my brothers were going to be jealous of my success.
“That was great and very interesting. Thanks for that Abbie, I know people don’t see the work that you do behind the scenes but I know it was a long process to get to where we are today. Trust me everyone, Abbie literally had piles and piles of paperwork to go through.” I noticed that she was back to her sweet and smiling self. She always perked up when she was asked to do her job, and I’m sure the coffee helped in making that happen. She was a good girl and a great assistant and I just loved messing with her. Also, she was a girl and so was easily swayed by compliments. “Now, let’s go around and see what everyone thinks. Let’s take it to a vote.”
In the end it was down to either Jane Greiner and Martin Trumpor. Three votes for Jane and three for Martin.
“I honestly think Martin is our guy. He’s by far the most interesting one. Also he’s a bit older than everyone else and for once that might be a good thing.” David Ellis was the main marketing director at the casino and someone that I had hired because of his ability to stand up for his beliefs at all time. He had a good eye for people and it was important that the right person was chosen for him – because he would be working with them closely. However, for probably the first time, I disagreed with him.
“No, I don’t think so. I’m sorry to disagree with you but I have an inkling not to go with him and I think I should follow my gut. It’s never lied to me before. I think Jane’s our girl. Martin seems great but he seems a bit all over the place. That can be good in a lot of ways, but I want someone with a more clear direction. I want to be able to see their vision clearly and to see how they are going to execute it without me constantly wondering what they’ll do next. Jane sounds like someone with a good head on her shoulders.”
“You can’t say that though, you haven’t even met her. Okay, let’s ask Abbie. Abbie, you’ve met everyone – what are your impressions of them compared to what
they showed you on paper.” I knew that Abbie had voted for Jane so I was confident that this was going to help my case. Not that it mattered, I’d choose Jane regardless. But I’d like everyone to think that they at least had a choice in the matter.
“Well, my vote is for Jane too. Now, don’t get angry David. I know exactly why you wanted to choose Martin. Martin is great. I chose him for a reason too and if the majority were going to go with Martin then I would’ve been happy with that decision. But there was definitely something about him that I didn’t like. I had a feeling that he would be the one that would flip decisions easily. Jane is a solid choice.”
“I think that as the marketing director for this company I should have the biggest say in the vote. It’s three for Martin right now so surely I have the right to choose him? I’m going to be working with him after all.”
I looked at David then and felt bad that I was going to undermine his authority. But I always believed in going with my gut and gut was telling me to definitely not go for Martin. “David, I do appreciate your input. That’s what this whole thing was about. And like Abbie said, if everyone went for Martin it would’ve been another story. But as the owner of the casino I do believe the final choice is ultimately mine. And with that I’d like to hire Jane Greiner to head this marketing campaign. But, having said that, we can keep Martin’s details on file so that if something does go wrong and we need someone else then we can have a back up.”
David looked at me and then sighed. He knew that he didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to final decisions. At the end of the day, I was still his boss, even though he was ten years older than me. “Fine, Sebastian. We’ll take Jane. I’m sure it will all work out just fine. But please do keep Martin on file.”
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