Chapter 9 The Product Closet #2
Julia’s phone vibrated again in her hand.
Great. Was this how she was going to spend her afternoon, fielding calls from potential suitors?
Couldn’t they just space it out so she’d only have to deal with one awkward setup at a time?
Did it all have to come in like a flood, sweeping Julia into the Valley of the Undateables where it would be only her and likely her cousin Justin, the future podiatrist, left?
She let out a groan. “Let me know if you dated this one too,” she said to Jisoo as she pressed the answer button to accept
the call.
“Yes, this is Julia . . . Nice to meet you . . . I can’t do next Wednesday . . . I prefer not to drive in traffic at seven
o’clock. Just text me the restaurant. Please don’t google me.”
Julia heard Jisoo gasp and then follow it with a laugh she clearly tried to smother. But she was already just too tired to
care what kind of fool she was making of herself. How would she possibly survive three of these?
“Um, hello? Julia Song? I’m looking for Julia Song, the CEO of Starlight Cosmetics.”
Well, this guy was more formal than Julia had expected. Fine. He was into titles for his future dates; she could play that
game.
“Yes, this is the founder and chief executive officer of Starlight Cosmetics. Name and title please.”
A surprised bark of laughter came from the other line.
“Julia, hello, this is Andrew Lim. I’m an executive at Hansuk Holdings. We’re the holding company of top Korean cosmetics
brands such as SkinFin, Nabee, and Seoul Face.”
Julia swallowed at the introduction. She had been trying to get in contact with someone from Hansuk Holdings for months. It
was one of the few companies from Korea that could make for an interesting partner in product and distribution for Starlight.
How did her mother get someone from Hansuk Holdings on the setup list? And this couldn’t possibly work out, could it? What if she was a disaster on the date and it ruined all her chances for their business partnership? And oh my God, she had already been insufferable on this call.
She let out an audible groan. THIS LIFE.
“Julia? I—”
“Andrew, look. Thank you so much for calling. In fact, for reasons totally separate from finding a future husband, I have
been trying to get in touch with someone from your office to discuss a business proposition. So this is indeed most awkward
and unfortunate. But all that aside, as truly flattered as I am that your mom agreed to my mom’s request to set us up for
a possible love connection, or if that didn’t work at least for a relationship that we’d both agree to sans love but in title
only, I have to turn you down. I’m not sure if turning down a prearranged setup is within the rules. But I feel the need to
do it anyways. My sincere apologies. I can’t date someone within my own industry. It would be a conflict of interest.”
Silence.
Julia had devastated the poor man. He’d probably googled her and thought he’d hit the jackpot and now he was broken. Poor,
poor Andrew Lim . . .
“Ms. Song, I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. This is Andrew Lim, Chief Investment Officer at Hansuk Holdings. I received
a message that you’ve been trying to reach me. And after looking over the numbers and the prospectus, I’m quite interested
in having a meeting. We can keep it to an in-office meeting so as not to make any confusion of it being a . . . date . . .
or anything of a personal manner. So not to be, as you put it, most awkward and unfortunate.” He cleared his throat, but he could not hide the laugh in his voice.
Hansuk Holdings wanted a meeting with Starlight Cosmetics. Seriously?
Starlight had been having increasingly good year-over-year numbers since its inception, and with the addition of physical storefronts in New York and Los Angeles to their already-booming online business, they’d grown more than Julia could have even imagined.
It all made for a business bigger than Julia had planned for, and the opportunities before her were ones she wasn’t quite sure how to decide between.
She could try and stall the growth, keep Starlight the boutique skincare brand that was the darling of the start-up community.
Or she could try and keep going as fast and as far as this momentum would take them .
. . expanding into makeup and even into lifestyle products.
If the name got big enough and if her distribution expanded globally, Starlight could be a billion-dollar business and, possibly, even become a household name in Korea.
But all the potential banks and investors to date had been stateside. This was the first Korean company to show interest.
Julia dazedly looked around the room at the products her company had tirelessly fought to produce and distribute. The best
in clean and organic Korean skincare. She was proud of . . .
Jisoo’s face came into focus, with her eyebrows shot to her hairline and her jaw daintily hanging to the floor, her eyes big
as saucers, looking back and forth between Julia and her phone.
Julia’s phone.
With Andrew Lim on the other line.
Andrew Lim of Hansuk Holdings . . . who she’d mistaken as a setup.
Oh.
My.
God.
She looked back at Jisoo and matched her eyebrow to mouth to eyes. She swallowed . . . hard.
“Um . . . Mr. Lim,” she whispered. “I . . . I . . . I . . .”
Jisoo grabbed the phone from her. “Hello, Mr. Lim, this is Ms. Song’s assistant. Apologies, but she is late for a very important
product meeting and will need to get back to you shortly.”
Julia tried to grab the phone back. “Are you crazy? I’ve tried a million times to get a hold of this guy. You can’t hang up on him,” she hissed.
“You made a big ass of yourself, Julia. Abort, abort, abort! Regroup. And then try again,” Jisoo hissed back, holding the
phone out of Julia’s reach.
“But I may not have another chance. I can save this . . . oh my God, look . . . a giant spider . . .” Julia pointed to the
corner of the closet.
Jisoo shrieked and jumped behind Julia, dropping the phone.
Julia bent down, scrambling to pick it up.
“Yes, hello, Mr. Lim? As I was saying . . .” She was huffing and puffing. And what was it she was saying? Julia took a deep
breath to steady herself. “Mr. Lim, please excuse my earlier word vomit. I mistook you for someone my mother was trying to
set me up on a date with, and though I am now officially mortified, I do not want to miss out on the opportunity to meet and
discuss Starlight with you. If you wouldn’t mind erasing everything that happened today from your memory and just sending
over the time and place to meet, I would be most appreciative.”
His chuckle didn’t completely erase Julia’s embarrassment, but it helped a tiny bit. “I’m an unmarried man in my thirties
with my own Korean mother, Julia. I get it.”
Thank God.
“I actually only have a minute, so let me get right to it. I wanted to see if we could meet sometime in the next few weeks.
I’ll be coming over from Korea to visit family in California, so it just so happens that I’ll be in town. I was hoping we
could begin discussions about investment. I thought an in-person meeting would be nice. If your schedule allows—”
“It allows, yes. And thank you for understanding. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Great. I’ll email over a calendar invite.”
“Great, thank you.”
Julia dropped her phone and collapsed onto the plush carpet.
“Your life is a real-life K-drama rom-com, Julia,” Jisoo said, coming to sit down beside her on the carpet.
Julia turned her head to face her. “On a scale of one to ten, how emb—”
“There is not a number high enough.”
Julia closed her eyes and groaned.
Great. Just great.