by Vivien Vale
Expensive art adorns the walls and yet it doesn't quite cover the exposed brick that's at least a century old.
I try to give him more details about our company practices.
"In here we have a combination of old and new, trendy and classic, black and white, etc. I feel that a blend of opposites is essential to help those creative sparks fly. Don't you think?"
He holds me by the waist.
"This is a world away from my corporate environment. If you saw my office now you'd likely be disappointed. It's nothing like this."
I'm happy about his reaction. Most people have this sense of interest when they see how I've situated the office. I just know how it needs to be because I'm an artist. I know where I would want to work and so I've created that exact environment.
A part of me wants to lament the fact that I may have to close my company. I wish I could confide in Liam about such matters, but I hold my tongue.
Instead, I take him into my office and he walks around the room and examines all my little treasures.
There are mirrors and rugs, art and artifacts. I have little pieces of memorabilia from every country I've ever visited. I certainly haven't traveled the world as much is Liam, but I've made it a point to get around.
"What's this?" he asks holding up an artistic mask.
"That is from Zimbabwe. I went on a safari there not too long ago."
"And this?" he examines my little Buddha statue.
"Blessed by monks. I got that in Tibet. It was a magical trip."
"I've never been."
He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me in close. I can smell his cologne and the strength of his body makes me feel safe.
"You need to go to Tibet. You would love it." I place my hands on his chest.
He looks into my eyes and kisses me. I feel like we've formed a new kind of connection now that I've let him into my life a little bit more. I've exposed him to my work environment and because it defines me it means a lot to have him here.
We kiss in my office and I can tell everyone's staring at us through the glass. It's times like these I wish I installed real walls instead of transparent ones.
He kisses me hard and unabashedly. I get the feeling Liam could care less who watches us.
I think bringing him here to my office was a good idea. Maybe it will shake him up a bit and help them to realize that the corporate world is not everything.
Liam
Claire's got me in her office and it's interesting being led by a woman for once.
I have to say that seeing where she works is an unusual experience for me. She practices some unique concepts in her workplace environment, and I think it seem to work for the people working for her.
Her little creative oasis is a far cry from my corporate building.
Now I feel kind of glad that she hasn't seen my building. She's been in my private penthouse, yes, but not my office. To her, it might seem more standard and ordinary than ever.
Her building is odd and offbeat. It has an unrestrained quality of freedom that one normally doesn’t find in an office space. She really has tried to make something here, something fresh and innovative and I admire that.
All her employees seem extremely happy. Their own offices are decked out with every manner of toy and trinket that could make work feel less like a tedious experience.
I hold her in my arms and take the opportunity to tell her how I feel.
"This place is...amazing. You really built your own little empire here. I see your vision clearly," I tell her in all honesty.
She smiles at me, proud of the work system she implements, and delivers the final kiss between before pulling me to the couch in her office.
"Want a drink?" she asks.
"Why not?" I say.
She has a mirrored little bar in her office. It's quaint and cute, very Claire.
She doesn't even bother to ask what I want but makes us each a vodka soda.
I'm starting to unpeel some of the layers to Claire. She's not what she seems at all. She may not have a ton of money or be good at business, but she is immensely talented. It's no wonder she can create such amazing ads when the place she works is so attuned to creativity.
Her mission is to stay away from a corporate atmosphere and I'd say she's succeeded.
She brings me my drink and curls up next to me.
"So," she says. "How would you say my company measures up to your own?"
It's an easy question.
"Well, for starters, you’re very hands-on. At Dignity Creative I hardly ever delve into the process itself. I'm more of a manager."
She looks surprised.
"You are? Don't you miss being in the thick of it? Within all the creativity?"
"Not really. I used to work a lot on that side of things but then the company got so large that I hired people to do that for me."
"I don't know how you work like that Liam. Don't you like to get your hands dirty in every aspect of the business?"
I think this is rich coming from someone who has virtually no experience in the business world. Claire's mismanaging her firm if you can even call it a firm. I want to tell her this but I hold back not wanting to offend.
"Being artistic isn't everything Claire. You'll come to see that one day. You do too much work to build your business. Why don't you hand it off to the people that work for you?"
She pulls away from me and I can I made her angry with my blatant honesty. Whether I've said too much or not she needs to hear the truth.
"Because, I like the work. I don't want to just tell people what to do all day. I want to make things happen. Creativity is about putting your vision to life. Only you can see it, so how do you expect others to put it to life as you wish it to be?"
I lean back into the sofa and think I don't like where this is going. She's getting pretty heated and not in a good way.
"Well, I like my work too Claire," I say, defending myself. "But there are different aspects of it that you just don't understand. Keep in mind that I'm running a billion-dollar corporation and you have a little brick-and-mortar company."
Her eyes turn angry. She's become enraged and pulls away from the crook of my arm. She goes off on me.
"You know what Liam? I don't know where you get off saying that to me. I'm trying to be as unlike your company as possible. You're nothing but a suit. And I think you have a lack of work ethic because you refuse to get your hands dirty. You're nothing but a cold, faceless head of a company and that’s nothing to be proud of."
Now I'm pissed. She's insulting my work ethic? I'm a goddamn billionaire. Her company is about to fold. You do the math.
I'm not about to stay here and be insulted like this.
I get up to leave but not before giving her a piece of my mind.
"Claire, you got it all wrong. You don't know anything about business. And because of that your company's gonna go under. Don't you see that I'm trying to help you? You're not running things right."
She stands up to face me angrily.
"Liam, you’re not the guy I thought you were. You come off as this creative, artistic person and now I realize you're just like all the rest. How dare you tell me how to run my company."
Her words infuriate me. She doesn't even know who I am. She knows the face I present to her, nothing deeper than that.
"That's fine Claire. Then we don't need to see each other anymore," I say as I take my leave.
"Maybe that's best," she says as tears form in her eyes.
The image of her sad like that makes me feel terrible. I might be a bastard sometimes, but I can't stand to see a woman cry.
She's so very beautiful and vulnerable that I hate to leave her like this. But I can’t offer her solace now. I also have my wounded ego to nurse.
She and I are obviously different people and we'll never be on the same plane.
I turn and leave her there to cry. I storm out of the building and walk down the street to meet my waiting limousine.
My blood is boiling with rage. I've never had a woman talk to me like that before. Who does she think she is?
In the car I determine that Evan might've been right. We need to take over Claire's company because obviously she doesn't understand business at all.
I'll be doing her a favor. She’ll see.
Liam
I'm back in my office, in the penthouse where I belong.
That little foray into Claire's world was interesting but it’s definitely not me.
I like things bigger and better, always. That’s how successful people work. Always on a big scale, always expansive, always aiming for growth.
I'm fuming actually, and analyzing all the things she said to me. She's not right. She doesn't even know me. I've let her into my world just a little bit and she thinks she can tell me how it is.
My need to dominate her has not gone away. A part of me still wants to make sure she never touches another guy.
But at this point, I don't want to see her. I think things between us may sincerely be over.
My head is spinning with all things Claire. I try to wipe her from my mind but it doesn't work.
I decide to double down and try to win the Velvet Luxe account. I'll show her what it means to be creative. I would love to be the reason that she doesn't win this client. Then she will understand my point.
I tell my secretary not to let anybody bother me for the rest of the day. I lock myself in the office and work for hours and hours perfecting my ideas.
Once I open up the folder and see all of my designer's ideas I realize they have it all wrong. I delegated the task to them and yet I see that their work is not as good as I thought. I can certainly do better.
This makes me question whether Claire was right. Maybe I haven't been involved enough. Maybe I should be more a part of the artistic process. But I can’t always be hands-on in every campaign. That’s what your employees are for.
I’ll never admit that she's right. But I’ll pour my heart and soul into this campaign to make sure that she doesn't win it. That's how pissed I am. Now, I'm invested in her ruin.
Trish comes in at various points to bring me coffee and food. But I barely take a second off from work. I’m solely in charge now of making this the most prestigious advertising campaign the world has ever seen.
I'm sketching and drawing and digitizing my ideas. I've got papers drawn out all over the place. My office is a mess and I like it that way. It reminds me of the old days when I used to do my own work.
Night falls upon the city and soon I'm all alone in the building. Even Trish has left. I don’t mind, and I felt freedom knowing there won’t be anyone to disturb me at all.
I blast some music over the speakers and continue to work. I find that it helps me to be inspired more and get the creative juices flowing.
I think of Claire and of her company and how artistic it was. Maybe it inspired me or maybe it's my fury at her, but I feel the zeal to create like I haven't felt in such a long time.
I paint my sketches and draw my ideas. The penthouse has turned into an artist's studio in the span of 10 hours.
This is the first time in a long time that I remember why I got into this business to begin with.
I work all night to make my ideas a reality. Time passes quickly and I don't even realize it. I'm genuinely enjoying the process and I think that's ironic considering the hell I just gave Claire about hers.
I haven't entirely forgiven her but as I work she's in my thoughts. I try to forget her but images of her beautiful face cross my mind frequently.
I consider that this is the way Claire works every single day. She makes it her mission to be involved in every project. That has perhaps kept her company small, but I think she's made it that way on purpose. She seems to disdain everything impersonal, everything corporate.
I still don't think she's right. She obviously doesn't know how to run a business. Running a small business is definitely different from handling a large scale one. But maybe there's something to the fact that as the boss, the CEO, I need to be a little bit more involved.
This is especially obvious by the way I see that my designers have not done a good job. I need to micromanage them a little bit better. Or perhaps hire a whole new staff because the concepts I've seen are not up to par with my standards.
Without this fight with Claire, I never would have seen the flaws in my business. I never would've looked into the designer's work or my own management process. I've been operating on cruise control. It's an easy way to live but also a dispassionate one.
It's the middle of the night and the city is pitch black aside from flickering lights that come from the various skyscrapers.
I'm surrounded by my artistic mess and it feels good. I want to call Claire. Not to apologize, nor to admit my wrongdoing, but to invite her over here so I can fuck her hard and have makeup sex.
I'm in no position to offer that considering our fight. Maybe if I had some claim to her, but she and I are not even an item. As far as I know, things between us are dead.
I take a break to have a whiskey as she dominates my thoughts.
To think of never seeing her again feels like the wrong decision. What is she doing to me to haunt my thoughts like this?
I don't get wrapped up in women, especially ones that fight with me like that. She should know her place and not to defy me. But then, Claire's a bit of a wild card and I knew that before going into this.
She's artistic and strong. She does what she wants. And she's a free spirit if I've ever seen one. And I guess I have to respect that, as much as I want to control her.
I work all night and have my ideas clearly defined by the time morning light hits my office.
It's time to go home. I've been running all night away from our argument, away from Claire. I put my everything into this campaign and it's basically wrapped up.
Either Velvet Luxe will love it or they will hate it, but a part of me still really wants to beat Claire.
I still want to buy her company so that she will know that ultimately I was right.
Claire
I feel like the walls are closing in.
Nothing's been the same since my argument with Liam. He's the last person on this earth I want to fight with. To make things worse, I was maybe starting to fall for him and now all of that is ruined.
I pace around my office and tell myself it's for the best. Maybe life has spared me from loving him because I’d only get hurt in the end. He's not someone you fall for, he's someone you fuck.
He hasn't called or anything, and I guess I don't really expect him to. Our argument seemed to put an end to all that’s between us. We had a good run and now it's suddenly over.
I do, however, have one more course of action. I can work as hard as ever on this campaign and be sure to win it so that this company will benefit. I’d love to win this and show Liam that my way of working is better.
He was so smug talking about how I don't know how to run a business. He might be right but who actually says that to somebody's face? The bitterness of what happened engulfs me and I feel as mad at him as ever.
At the same time, there's this aching hole in my heart that can only be filled by him. I know I wasn't his girlfriend or anything, but the idea of not seeing him anymore nearly devastates me.
This is a truth I can hardly admit to myself, much less anybody else. When I started going out with him, I thought I had it all controlled. But now I don’t know anymore.
Charlotte comes in to check on me and she brings me some tea which I thankfully take. She knows what happened between Liam and I and she's been my shoulder to cry on.
"You okay?" she asks.
I try to come off as cool, calm, and collected when the truth is I'm shattered inside.
"Of course I'm okay. I'm not gonna let a guy like that get to me. It wasn't going anywhere anyway. I think it's for the best. Besides, it's motivated me to really want this campaign...for personal reasons."
/> She looks at me like she doesn't believe a word of what I'm saying and that's the virtue of having a best friend. She can see past all my bullshit and into the core of who I am. I can't hide anything from her. But also, I don’t need to say it directly to her, which I am grateful for.
"Okay then, I'll just leave you to work. You're gonna crush it," she says.
I sip my tea and try to get inspired. It's hard to think about lingerie when you have no one to share it with.
I decide to use that as part of my theme for the campaign. I'm going to feature a woman, a model, who seems forlorn, without love. And over the course of the ad, she’ll come to find a man who completes her. He offers her the lingerie and they live happily ever after.
My commercial is going to tell a story, my story. And all the advertising around it will center on this romantic kind of love.
If anything useful has come from Liam and I's break up it's the fact that I have this new idea for the campaign. It should be based on love. What is lingerie if not to be seen by the person you most care about?
I work throughout the morning on my idea but the details are just overwhelming. I think again about Liam's advice. He suggested that I delegate things to the other designers in my company.
I'm going to take him up on that but I'm glad he's not here to see. I’m actually starting to think he might be right.
I call Charlotte over the intercom and she appears in my doorway.
"What's up?"
"I'd like to call a meeting in the conference room with everybody. I think I'm going to loosen the reins a little bit on this project," I say to her disbelieving face.
"Wow, you're going to spread the work around huh? You've never done that before."
"Well, I have the basic premise down but it's going to take a lot to pull the entire campaign together. And I think I'm willing to take a risk on our designers," I say.
Charlotte looks pleased as if she's been waiting for this day for a long time. I wonder why she never said anything about this if she agrees on the idea.