Limerence or not

Knock knock

"Come in."

That was Jotham's voice without any doubt. I hear it in my dream every night {not in a creepy way though.} More like in a 'your voice is a lullaby to my ears ʼ kind of way.

Swallowing my not so normal thoughts, "Good day Mr Wright." I found myself inside his enormous office.

I do not kid you when I say it's bigger than some people's living room. Maybe even mine. That was the first thing I noticed during my previous interview. What hurts me is that, it was only occupied with a regular office desk, a rotational chair, two other chairs facing the desk, and a couch. Yup, that's all.

Personally, I'll throw in a bean bag. Or maybe two. Perhaps, that would make it look a bit less elegant. I mean, you could already see the view of the city behind him.

It appears that Jotham's side of the room had a huge glass window, with an excellent view.

"Oh, hi Miss Anderson." Like a gentleman, he stood up from his CEO kind of seat, nothing special, just rotable. "Please have your seat." Gesturing to the chairs in front of him.

"Thank you."

Not minding the lack of bean bags in the room, I smiled brightly. Occupying one of the chairs.

"I hope you were not held up at the reception."

Seeing as we didn't have any jewelry incident, I was able to say, "No, your receptionist is quite nice."

"So I've heard." I could hear a grimness in his voice but it became cherry when he continued, "I didn't expect you to come today."

That caused me to furrow my brows, "You sent an email. Didn't you?" Except Aurum played a trick on me, which I'm sure she wouldn't. Surely, she was right about the email.

"Yes. Yes, I did. But, it wasn't acknowledged. No response whatsoever."

"Oh." My mouth curved into a circle as realization hit me. "Sorry about that, my assistant was held up. It's nice of you to allow the appointment to stand."

I didn't ask her to send a response, so she didn't. I bet if we were on speaking terms, she wouldn't have needed me to tell her what to do.

"It's okay. I didn't think you'll stand me up. Are there clothes in the box?"

"Yes." My box came with me to the meeting, sitting comfortably on my lap. Not capable of causing any harm whatsoever.

Delightfully, "Is this about my worries regarding leather?" He lips curved into a smirk. Smugness looks good on him.

"Yes, it is." How could I not also smile? "Are you a vegetarian or something?" I just had to ask, his hatred for leather was still quite confusing to me.

"Yes, I am."

Wow. I wasn't expecting him to say yes. Just that I've seen somewhere that a celebrity doesn't wear leather because she is fighting for animal rights and is also a vegetarian. But turns out he's a vegetarian afterall. The book didn't say that. 

"Oh. In that case, you don't have anything to worry about."

It was at this moment that I knew you couldn't trust anything. The book written by his mother is supposed to say everything about Jotham, but it never mentioned that he is a vegetarian. I would know, seeing as I've read it a thousand times now.

Thankfully, he couldn't read my mind and only nodded in agreement. "That's good to know. On the other hand, "Miss Anderson?"

Arching my brows, "Yes?"

"I want to know more about your business. Although, I have no doubts about your work, it's quite exquisite. Especially for a small business owner."

What was in my head was "OMG!!!!!!! Jotham Wright just complimented my work"

What came out of my mouth was, "Thank you. What will you like to know?"

"How you operate."

"Just as you mentioned, it's still small scale. So, most of the things are done under the four walls of my home." I smiled fondly to myself, "I have a dainty office where we have team meetings." It might be cramped, and Cory might be sharing a chair with Jacob, but it works for now.

The last time I was here for an interview, we didn't actually talk much. He only mentioned that he had seen my work and would be interested in working with me.

"That sounds...."

With the way he voice trailed off, and his face fell, you could tell what he was thinking.

"Small." Completing the sentence on his behalf, "I have tailors who brings my designs to life. I send the designs to them and they send the clothes to me." It is a very simple, yet efficient method of service. Kind of like a remote method of working. From the comfort of their homes.

"There's no building or proper office structure?"

"No." I said, not everybody can afford to have the three storey building that the Wrights' have.

Leaning into his seat, "How are you able to keep up with high demand scales?" His hands rested on the arms of the chair.

"Don't forget that we're still small scale." I tried to curve my mouth into a grin but I couldn't. "We don't have much demands. Nothing we can't handle anyways." So far so good, it has been going well.

"What about your models? The ones you have on your social media pages."

"We have three of them." Anaya, Joanne and Mitchell. "We got them from an agency, those pictures are taken at cync studios."

He inquired asking, "You handle these pages?"

"No, my assistant does." Let's just say Aurum does a lot of things.

"Your social media handle is pretty impressive." I don't know whether he nodded to himself or not, but he nodded. "Lots of followers and good reviews."

Sighing in relief, "That's thanks to the marketing team." In other words, that's thanks to Corianne.

"Hmmm. It sounds good. But I still have my concerns."

Uh-huh.

"Can I hear them?", Swallowing the worry in my voice. It wasn't like I didn't expect him to have concerns. I just hoped he wouldn't, so we could just sigh the contract and yunno, get it done with.

Why didn't he ask all these questions before anyways?

Much to my dismay, he deadpamned before saying, "You need an actual space."

"Is this about my tailors?"

"Yes. You need more of them." Jacob and the team have been doing really well. I don't see why.

Crossing my arms, "But,everything is going well." Limerence or not, I have to defend my business when need be.

"Yes, well enough that I noticed you. Don't get me wrong, your designs are good." I wasn't given enough time to focus on the compliment before he continued, "It's casual but sleek. Something I'll wear daily."

Jotham Wright wouldn't mind wearing my designs!!!!

"That's what this movie needs. Nothing over the top. Of course, we will be featuring top class actors and actresses."

"OK..." I wasn't still getting the point here.

"It's an everyday lifestyle theme, so I trust you to deliver. But, how well can you deliver? Those costumes have to fit perfectly."

We wouldn't want everybody on set wearing jumbo sized clothes now, would we?

"I know that."

He stared me down for a brief second, "You are styling the entire cast." This wasn't new information to me. "Every single one of them. Movie worthy outfits."

Of course. "I'm also aware of that." I informed him, biting the inside of my mouth.

"You can send designs to your tailors and they show up with the clothes few days later." Displeasure etched every side of his voice as he scrunched his face, "After spending over 48 hours in their homes, sewing and stitching."

I knew this wasn't going well, but it just became evident.

"They have sewing machines." I felt very defensive. Mr Jotham, this is the 21st century sir.

"Pfft." Breaking my fragile heart, I heard him scoff. "How long will they be able to keep up with the demands of this movie?"

Yes, Jotham is still my fictional lover. But being a victim of his scrutinizing gaze did nothing good to inflate my ego.

Trying not to grit my teeth, "Well enough." I just couldn't maintain any eye contact at this point. This man was trying to tear me apart. Business sucks.

"Are you certain?" I take it back, smugness doesn't look good on him. His eyes twinkled with it. "Miss Anderson?"

"Umm...." At the sound of my name, I stared him in the eye. Not even his chiseled jaw or white hair could help me to form words. Talk less of an entire proper sentence.

"I thought so."

As his eyes glanced towards the door, I knew the meeting was over. But.... Why? Why did he have his lips curved into a smirk?

Are you certain your crossed your fingers on my behalf?