8. Beth
CHAPTER EIGHT
BETH
Present day
I t wasn’t my first time in the Palm Court at the Balmoral Hotel, yet it never ceased to make me smile. The glass dome ceiling flooded the large tearoom with light, tables were arranged beneath palm trees situated near the Grecian columns of the round room. Hand-painted wallpaper added a touch of elegant whimsy to the space, as did the harpist playing from a balcony above the doorway.
I spotted Sheera Green as soon as I entered the room. To my surprise, she was not alone. She pushed back from her table in time with the man at her side. Though she didn’t smile, her eyes held a warmth as they darted over me.
“Elizabeth?”
“Beth.” I held out a hand to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Sheera’s dark hair was curled with utter perfection around her equally perfectly made-up face. She wore a lot of makeup but in a way that looked like she didn’t wear a lot of makeup. Not surprising since she was the CEO and founder of one of the largest cruelty-free makeup brands in Europe. Her elegantly tailored suit was cut to perfection, the jacket slightly longer than regular, and the trousers extra wide in the leg. A diamond wedding ring glinted on her engagement finger, and two gold bangles accompanied a diamond tennis bracelet. Long, slender fingers ended in immaculately shaped French-tipped nails.
“Hmm. You too.” Her gaze flickered down me again and I straightened my shoulders confidently.
I’d dressed for the Palm Court. My own wide-leg trousers were the color of pale pistachio, and I wore a cropped silk T-shirt that showed off a couple of inches of skin. I’d paired the look with designer platform trainers I’d splurged on after Luke shared them on his Instagram. My outfit was youthful but expensive, which I’d hoped was the vibe Sheera was going for with her brand.
She was hard to read as she turned to the young man at her side. The guy was possibly a few years older than me, maybe even hitting thirty. He was good-looking in a preppy way that did absolutely nothing for me. I wondered for a split second if he was Sheera’s husband until she introduced him. “This is my son, Samuel.”
His gaze was warm as it roved over my body before returning to my eyes. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Beth.”
“You too.”
“Samuel has recently moved to Edinburgh for a new job in the financial industry.”
That didn’t really explain why he was here for the interview, but I nodded along.
“Let’s sit.”
Once we were seated, a waiter appeared to explain the afternoon tea menu and take our drink orders. Once he left, Sheera turned in her chair toward me. “You’re Braden and Jocelyn Carmichael’s daughter, correct?”
Her continued assessing gaze made me want to squirm in my seat, but I was too stubborn to allow anyone to know they unnerved me. “I am.”
“Impressive.”
“They are.”
“And it seems you’re following in their footsteps.”
From there we discussed how many clients I had, how far their careers had come since hiring me, and I launched into the speech I had memorized about how I would transform Aura Beauty’s social media presence.
“Right now, your engagement is lower than it should be. With all due respect, the company’s posts aren’t interactive enough.” I didn’t want to give away all my ideas at the interview stage, but I discussed how I’d be interested in coming up with creative content for Reels and TikTok, both greatly lacking in their current social media campaigns. “Aura Beauty skyrocketed because of beauty influencers, and while I would certainly recommend continuing to reach out to influencers, to nurture relationships with them, a company can’t solely rely on them. Your own social media needs to be engaging. Moreover, for how much Aura Beauty has grown, newsletter subscriptions are not where I’d expect them to be. I have several ideas on how to grow subscriptions.”
Sheera frowned. “Surely, newsletters aren’t as important as social media. That’s what my last PR company told me, anyway.”
“On the contrary, a newsletter platform is a business’s most reliable and consistent form of sharing updates, product links, and sales with their audience. Social media platforms can and have been known to periodically change the way their audiences interact and share information, which can impact sales. Algorithms change and followers no longer see your content because you’ve been pushed to the bottom of their feed. These are things we can’t control on social media.
“Moreover, if for some reason Aura Beauty were to lose its social media profiles on one or more platforms, say, for instance, because you were hacked … you’d lose all those followers and your main method of free and paid advertising. A newsletter is a far more reliable way to get your to-buy links out to your audience. It’s a must-have as well as an ‘in case of emergency’ backup. So, no matter if you decide to hire Social Queens, I definitely recommend concentrating on creative ways on your social media platforms to get people to sign up to Aura Beauty’s newsletter.”
Sheera considered this and then looked at Samuel. I’d felt his penetrating gaze on me the entire interview. “What do you think?”
He gave me a smirk. “I think Beth sounds like she knows what she’s doing.”
I tried to relax as his mother made a hmm sound again.
“I do have a number of other people to interview from around the country, Beth. We’re not rushing into anything. We’ll let you know by late September.”
“Of course.” I moved to get up because her tone had suggested dismissal.
But then Samuel waved a hand toward my chair. “Will you stay a moment?”
Sheera raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as I lowered into my seat.
“My new job requires me to wine and dine clients, and since you’ve lived in Edinburgh your whole life, I wondered if you might be able to impart some wisdom on the best restaurants and bars to take them to.”
“Oh, of course.” I racked my brain, immediately considering places in New Town. “There?—”
“Not now.” Samuel smiled. “We shouldn’t take up any more of my mother’s time. Why don’t we meet for lunch next Saturday to discuss?”
Alarm bells rang in my head at the interested note in his gaze. Was this some kind of date masquerading as a favor? One glance at Sheera’s no-nonsense expression, however, told me not to overanalyze and say yes. “Of course. Let’s meet at Howie’s on Waterloo Place. Say, one o’clock?”
He grinned, pleased. “I’ll book a table.”
Sheera’s lips curled at the corner. “That’s very kind of you, Beth.”
“No problem at all.”
I hoped.