Chapter 1 #2
She pivoted towards the corner office. By now people were rubber-necking from their cubicles as she walked past, some smirking, some wincing in sympathy.
She kept her shoulders back and her head held high.
She had done nothing wrong. It was ridiculous to think she could gag a celebrity, particularly one like Aria.
Harold’s personal assistant said, “Go right in. They’ve been waiting for you.”
Nerves danced in her stomach. She could do this. Chelsea smoothed down the front of her sleeveless navy dress and knocked on the door before cautiously pushing it open. Harold sat behind his desk with Ellen and Vivian, the client from Tours Australia, across from him.
The tension in the room was palpable. Vivian glared at her and Harold frowned in his impatience. Only Ellen’s expression held a hint of sympathy.
“You took your time,” Harold said.
“My apologies. Aria wasn’t in a rush to get to the airport this morning.”
“Did she post the apology?” Vivian demanded.
Chelsea clasped her hands together. “I’m sorry, she refused to. I offered to rewrite it to suit her, but she doesn’t believe she has anything to apologise for.”
“This is unacceptable,” Harold said. “She was your responsibility. Why did you let her post it?”
Let her? She glanced at Ellen, who shrugged as if there was nothing she could do. Right. No support from that front. “Unfortunately her social media is out of my control. She posted it last night after I left her in her hotel room.”
“What are we going to do?” Vivian asked. “We can’t use anything we’ve just filmed.” She glared at Chelsea again.
Chelsea had been considering options. “We have a lot of scenery footage we can still use,” she said. “We could use a different celebrity to voice over it.” But it would cost a lot more to get the celebrity on camera and take them to all the places they’d taken Aria.
“I’m sure we’ll be able to salvage a lot,” Ellen agreed.
“I’m going to be crucified,” Vivian moaned. “Whose idea was it to use Aria?”
Chelsea raised her eyebrows, but a shake of Ellen’s head kept Chelsea’s lips pressed firmly together. Vivian had been the worst kind of fan-girl when she’d met Aria at the airport on her arrival.
“My management is not happy,” Vivian continued. “I want whoever it was fired.”
Some of the tension left Chelsea’s shoulders. It hadn’t been her decision, and she had it on record that she’d opposed the idea. She’d be safe.
“Now we know Aria’s stance,” Harold said, getting to his feet, “we can rework the campaign and come up with a solution.” He gestured Vivian towards the door.
“I need this before midday,” Vivian demanded.
“We’ll get it to you,” Harold assured her as he walked her out of his office.
Less than four hours to rework something that had taken weeks to put together. Chelsea looked at Ellen. “What now?”
“Now you need to work some magic.” Ellen stood. “Let’s go.”
Chelsea followed her boss out of the room, the tension returning ten-fold.
She received the unspoken message loud and clear.
This was all on her.
Four hours later Chelsea watched the new ad and smiled, the tension of the morning finally dissipating. She’d done it. “You’re a genius, Kylie,” Chelsea said to the video editor who’d reworked one ad in record time. “I owe you big time.”
“Dinner’s on you next time I’m in town,” Kylie agreed and hung up.
Chelsea checked the time. Two minutes to midday. She saved the video to the folder along with the updated proposal outlining how to restructure the campaign without Aria. She rubbed her temple where an insistent throbbing had taken up residence three hours ago.
“Are you done?” Ellen walked into her cubicle.
She nodded, pressing print on the proposal. “I’ve redone one ad with a voice over by rock star, Kent Downer.”
Ellen’s eyebrows raised. “How did you arrange that?”
Chelsea smiled. “I have contacts.” It was good to remind Ellen she had value. Her boss didn’t need to know Kent had married one of her friends from primary school. She pressed play on the ad Kylie had reworked.
Kent’s Texan drawl was recognisable on the video and at the end he did a shot to camera standing in his living room wearing an Akubra hat, suitcase in tow as if he was about to embark on one of Tours Australia’s tours. The video quality was excellent.
“This is fantastic,” Ellen said.
Chelsea grinned as she fetched the proposal from the nearby printer.
“We’ll need to arrange payment to Kent for his work.
” Aria had never been a great representative of Australia, whereas Kent’s transformation from goth rocker to guy-next-door rock star after his secret identity had been revealed was perfect.
“How much?”
She named a very reasonable price. Kent hadn’t wanted any money, but she wasn’t letting her boss have him for free. “Is Vivian coming back here for the presentation?”
“Harold and I are taking it to her,” Ellen said. “Get some lunch and I’ll let you know how we get on when we return.” Ellen took the proposal and walked away.
Chelsea watched her go. She liked her boss, but Ellen was very career focused, and willing to blame mistakes on others rather than admit they were her own fault.
Chelsea lowered herself into her chair, enjoying being back in her space.
She’d been excited about touring around Australia for the campaign, but then she’d had another project which had kept her in Melbourne for a month, and she hadn’t been at her desk for about six weeks.
She watered her small pot plant. It was looking sad, its leaves wilted.
“Chelsea, I’m getting souvlaki for lunch,” Jo called from the cubicle next to hers. “Do you want one?”
“Yes, please.” She transferred money into Jo’s account.
“Crisis averted?” Jo asked in a murmur, coming to stand at her cubicle.
“I hope so.” She swallowed two headache tablets. Right now, all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for twenty-four hours, but her inbox was already full of emails asking her to comment on Aria’s post, and she needed to update Toni on the progress.
Maybe Aria was right. Maybe it was time she did something else, something she had more control over.
She shook away the thought. She had a steady, well-paying job she enjoyed… most of the time, a tidy apartment and a good relationship with her family. She was grateful for what she had. It wasn’t right to wish for more. Life had taught her how hard it was when she didn’t have stability.
She wouldn’t risk her security on a whim.
With a sigh, she got to work.
“Chelsea, can you come into my office?”
Chelsea glanced up at Ellen’s voice and checked the time. She’d been working solidly for three hours. Ellen and Harold must have spent a lot of time smoothing the waters at Tours Australia.
She followed her boss into the office and Ellen closed the door with a click.
Chelsea stiffened. Ellen only ever closed the door for performance reviews. This wasn’t a good start. She pushed through the unease as she sat down. “How did it go?”
“Tours Australia were pleased with the proposal. We’ve pulled down everything from last night’s launch and issued a statement distancing Tours Australia from Aria’s comments. We’ll release the first video in the new campaign by the end of the day.”
“That’s great. Did they agree to the rest of the celebrities?” She’d put together a list of celebrities who could do voice-overs for the remaining campaign. They were all people she’d worked with before and who she believed would do it.
“Yes.” Ellen paused, a deep frown on her face.
Chelsea waited, knowing there was more to come.
“There’s one more thing,” Ellen said. “Tours Australia have requested you no longer work on this campaign.”
Chelsea jolted. “Why not?”
Ellen glanced at her desk before sighing and meeting Chelsea’s gaze. “They feel as if you didn’t choose the right celebrity endorser.”
Chelsea gaped as disbelief coursed through her body.
“But Vivian insisted on Aria.” And she had the documentation to prove it.
Chelsea had worked so hard on this account.
They’d set a ridiculous deadline for the work to be completed and because they were a big client, Viral Posts Media had bent over backwards to make it work.
She was exhausted trying to please Vivian.
“Vivian is also extremely influential in town. If she doesn’t recommend us, no one will touch us.”
Chelsea bit her lip to stop herself from saying her stepfather also held a lot of clout.
It wasn’t a card she was willing to play.
She exhaled, thinking of the positives. It would give her more time to work on her other accounts.
“So I’ll hand the account over and continue with the rest of my work? ”
“I’m sorry, Chelsea. Tours Australia stated they wouldn’t recommend Viral Posts Media while you work here. I tried to talk Harold out of it, but they’re our biggest client.” She cleared her throat. “I must advise you that your employment at Viral Posts Media is now terminated.”
Chelsea shook her head. “You can’t do that. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve worked my butt off for this company for the past five years.” She’d been the one to win them the Tours Australia account.
“I’m truly sorry,” Ellen said. “I’ll write you a good reference.”
This couldn’t be happening. “Effective when?”
“Immediately. I’m to escort you from the premises.”
Chelsea studied her boss for any signs of a joke, but she stared back, sad but unruffled. “I could report you to the Fair Work Tribunal.”
Ellen nodded. “But you won’t. You’re not that kind of person and you won’t get another job in the industry if you do.”
She was right, but Chelsea had bills to pay.
Her brain whirled as she considered options, pushing down the panic that wanted to take control.
“I want a redundancy package,” she stated.
“My four weeks’ notice plus my accrued long-service leave, annual leave, and my sick-leave paid out.
” It wouldn’t be a lot, but it would be enough to tide her over.
It also gave her the option of saying she wasn’t fired.
Not that word wouldn’t spread fast in this industry.
Ellen stared at her for a long moment and then gave a small smile of approval. “I’ll get HR to organise it now. Why don’t you pack your things?”
Chelsea got to her feet, her movements stiff. This was really happening. She blinked as tears threatened to form but straightened her spine and returned to her cubicle.
She tapped her finger rapidly on her thigh and then clenched her hand to stop it. It wasn’t the end of the world. There were plenty of other agencies in town. Not all of them would believe she was tainted. She’d have a job in no time.
She took three slow breaths as she considered her next steps.
There wasn’t anything personal on her work laptop.
She opened the desk drawer and pulled out her stash of tea bags and snacks, putting them into a reusable shopping bag she kept in her purse.
She fetched her coffee from the freezer in the kitchen and retrieved her mug.
Then she returned to her cubicle and went through the other drawers.
Her favourite fountain pen and her personal organiser went into another bag and then her hand hovered over the framed photo on her desk.
Aunt Maggie, a ten-year-old Chelsea, and her mother at Lilydale Cottage.
Happier times. It was taken before her mother met Chelsea’s stepfather.
They’d gone to visit her mother’s aunt, Maggie, at Lilydale Cottage like they regularly did, and the photo was taken in front of the bed of pink and red roses that were blooming so beautifully.
Those days at Lilydale were the best. An escape from everyday life where Chelsea could run through the gardens and play with her friend Lauren, who lived down the road. It was before she was old enough to get a part-time job to help with household expenses.
She’d adored Aunt Maggie and had written her letters every month when they’d moved from Rockingham to Sydney and could no longer visit on weekends. Aunt Maggie had insisted emails were too impersonal.
A jolt of longing passed through her. What would it be like to return to Lilydale? Would it be the same without Aunt Maggie there?
Tears threatened to overflow and she sniffed, tucking the photo into her bag. Chelsea had been devastated when Aunt Maggie died last year.
“Are you OK?” Jo poked her head over the cubicle wall.
Chelsea swallowed hard so she could speak. “I’ve been made redundant.”
Jo’s eyes widened, and she hurried around the wall to hug her. “That’s not fair.”
Chelsea sniffed again and cleared her throat. “It’s been nice working with you.” The words came out as a whisper and she turned to check her drawers again. She had everything that was hers.
“At least Aria got what’s coming to her,” Jo said.
Chelsea frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The fashion show dropped her.” Jo grinned. “They saw her post and said they didn’t want to be associated with those kinds of opinions. A bunch of the other brands she normally models for are also distancing themselves.”
“That’s great.” It gave some measure of comfort that Aria was dealing with the ramifications of her comments, but right now Chelsea had bigger concerns.
Ellen returned holding a contract and Jo made herself scarce. Chelsea reviewed it and then signed the bottom and handed her key card to Ellen.
Ellen walked her to the elevators. “I’m sorry, Chelsea. I wish you all the best.”
Chelsea nodded, unable to speak. This was it. She was no longer employed. She grabbed her suitcase, managed a smile at Meg before she stepped into the elevator.
It wasn’t until the doors closed and the elevator descended that she let the tears fall.