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 micromanag
e 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.
"Okay great," she says. "I'll call everybody into the conference room and we'll meet you there."
"Perfect."
I gather all my materials and think again about Liam. He was actually right. I don't have to do everything myself. I don't have to hold the world on my shoulders. Having this insight is a giant relief.
I wish I could tell him about this revelation but my pride keeps me from calling him. I don't need more of a bruised ego than I already have.
He knows how to hurt me, just like he knows how to make me explode into wave upon wave of pleasurable orgasm. Liam, like Charlotte, is someone that I can't hide from. He seems to understand me in this unspoken way.
He grounds me and keeps me centered. I imagine the feeling of his strong arms around my body and I miss him.
But it's over. I've wrecked that. I may never see him again and I'm feeling like it was all my fault.
As much as it pains me, I don’t have time for this sentiment right now. I have work to do. I store my feelings away and gather my mess of things and take it all into the conference room where everybody's waiting for me.
"Hi everyone, thanks for coming. I've decided to do something a little different with his Velvet Luxe project. I have the basic idea here in my notes, but I need some help. So, for the designers in the room, I'd like you to go beyond your normal scope of work for me and really help with this project. I think if we work together we can make it really insane and really fierce."
"Wow," my graphic designer says. "You've never delegated anything this big before, Claire. This is a really big step for you."
"We're excited to get to work on this," my designer, Brian says.
Their enthusiasm really touches me. I don't know why I couldn't depend on them like this earlier. I guess I first needed to see that not everything has to be done by me.
I'm giving up control and I have to say it feels good. I guess Liam has taught me that. He's so in control all the time that I guess with him, I can finally release.
This can carry through to my business where I see, by the enthusiasm on everyone's faces, that it's okay to assign tasks to different people and I can trust that it wi
ll get done.
I like this new set up because I don’t have to deviate much from my usual work practice, but at the same time, I don’t have to be so overwhelmed by accomplishing the whole projects by myself.
I think it's time for a little speech.
"And you guys, I just want to say thank you for everything. All these years that we've worked together, you've really supported me and my dream for this business. You all could be making a lot of money somewhere else, at a bigger firm, but you chose to stick with me here at Epica.
“I know everyone's aware of our financial situation and if we don't get this big client our doors will have to close. I don't want to harp on the dire situation but I think you should know how grateful I am for the years of service and friendship and loyalty you've given me."
It feels good to express my gratitude to my team of employees. At the same time, this meeting stings with sadness because my dream may fade if we don't get funding soon.
The rest of the meeting is a rush of excitement and ideas. Everyone's brainstorming on how to make the campaign even more perfect. Working together feels better than ever and I know it will be my new way of doing things going forward.
What's better than a group of designers feeding off each other and motivating each other to reach new heights?
Liam
I brace myself against the cold New York City wind.
Winter is starting to fall over the city. It’s going to be dark nights and cold days.
I flip the collar of my trench coat up to try to protect myself from the elements. I don’t mind the cold. In fact, I enjoy it. Shorter days mean longer nights to do filthy things between the sheets.
This leads me to think of Claire, of course. She’s always on my mind, no matter how hard I try to escape her.
I haven’t seen her since our fight, and I don’t expect to. It’s as if she’s vanished from my life entirely, and our time together was nothing more than a dream.
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