Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
DEIDRE
“M andy!” I shout.
“What?!” she returns from down the hallway.
“Where the fuck are my shoes?”
“What shoes?” she replies, still sounding like she’s in her room.
“The black ones.”
“You have a bunch of black ones,” she replies.
“The ones you borrowed that I need for the meeting today.”
“They should be in there.”
The only downfall with having a female roommate is when she borrows your clothes and shoes because you two are practically the same size.
“They aren’t here,” I holler.
There’s no answer from Mandy, so after double-checking my walk-in closet a second time, I stomp down the hall to her room.
I don’t bother saying anything and head straight for her messy closet.
I stare blankly into it, still unsure how she can find anything in the dang thing for as chaotic as it is.
“They aren’t here, huh?” I question, holding up the shoes.
“Oh, those,” Mandy replies.
“Yes, these.”
“I thought you meant the other pair I borrowed the other day,” she returns with a smile, not bothering to look at me as she flips through her magazine.
Twenty minutes later, Tony and I are entering Victoria’s office for our third meeting with potential advertisers this week.
Victoria has been squeezing in as many as she can before Halloween hits since most businesses will stop functioning until after the New Year.
Plus, we’ve got a trip scheduled overseas.
Most of these meetings are over the phone or via a video conference.
We’re looking for new function suggestions and advertisers for the app.
We’ve spoken to two adult sex toy manufacturers.
I’ve got to decide which one Flirt will offer an exclusive contract.
I’m grateful when they don’t push to have an ad with their product and my face.
We’ve been having different meetings, at least four or five a week, for the past week, with more scheduled for next week.
“Apologies, gentlemen,” I say, walking into the conference room.
Victoria gives me a heated stare since I’m ten minutes late, and the sponsors are actually in her office.
I’m usually early by at least ten minutes. This is the first time that I’ve been late for a meeting. Parties are one thing; it’s a Hollywood thing to show up an hour or two after the official start time, but not with business meetings.
“No worries, Ms. Lawrence,” the first man comments. He looks to be in his late forties, possibly early fifties.
“We’re happy that you’re meeting with us today, Ms. Lawrence,” the other man states. He’s a bit heavier than the first man and also appears to be the same age.
Their age alone concerns me. Our average app users are women and men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five who make up fifty-six percent of our clientele.
“Deidre,” Victoria begins. “These gentlemen are Mr. Burns and Mr. Stroker. Their company has several products that our clientele would benefit greatly from,” Victoria comments.
Why is she saying our clientele? She may be in charge of getting the contracts drawn up, but they’re my clients.
Victoria never gave me any information about who we’d be meeting.
Several things are starting to feel odd with her lately.
After the movie came out with me in the papers with Ethan, and our infamous kiss and secret love affair, we’ve had an increase in potential advertisers and sponsors.
Some of them are companies whose products don’t make any sense for our clients to use.
Just last week, we had a guy trying to present some kind of cream.
I think it was foot cream—maybe it was a vaginal cream. I don’t remember.
“Which are?” I ask, taking my seat.
The men look a little nervous. The slightly younger one slides me their portfolio. “We have several products that would work great with your demographic.”
I flip open to the first page and see that it’s for a pregnancy test. Okay, this makes sense. When I see the second product, I say, “I’m not sure our users would be interested in knowing about laundry detergent while meeting up with a potential hookup.”
“Of course not,” the older gentleman states. “We think that the pregnancy test would be a great fit as a secondary option to one of our other products.”
“A secondary option to what?” I investigate. My eyes glance down at the next page and I fight the urge to laugh at the irony of their names—Mr. Burns and Mr. Stroker. “Makes sense,” I state, suppressing a giggle as my eyes register the name of their condoms.
“What’s so funny?” Victoria asks, catching the expression on my face.
“While a pregnancy test would be a good fit, I’m not so sure about the prophylactics,” I say as calmly as I can.
“We want to promote safe, protected sex,” Victoria challenges.
“Of course I want to do that.”
“Then, what would be the challenge?” Mr. Stroker asks.
“The name,” I say.
“The name?” Victoria repeats.
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure I’m following you, Ms. Lawrence,” Mr. Burns states.
I try really hard to keep a straight face as I think about how I want to explain my reasoning to a Mr. Burns and a Mr. Stroker. Their names alone are hilarious with the concept of promiscuity.
“The Greeks used the horse to defeat their enemy,” I comment.
“Yes,” the men agree.
“It was taken over by the Greeks,” I elaborate the reverse, hoping they catch my meaning. “As in, they penetrated the walls of the enemy.”
“So?” Victoria presses.
“The name is associated with war, a notion that I don’t think women would like to equate to a man’s penis entering her vagina as an act of war.”
The three of them look at me, dumbfounded.
“The Greeks got through the barrier …they got out of the horse and penetrated the interior walls,” I expound.
“I wouldn’t want my face on an ad with a guy using a condom that would hint at the chance of one of his or all of his swimmers just waiting to get out of the condom, aka horse , to penetrate my walls, aka my vagina, where I could end up pregnant… or receive a STD.”
“Gentlemen,” Victoria begins sharply. She clears her throat. “Why don’t you let us discuss this a little more, and we’ll get back to you?”
I stand after Mr. Stroker and Mr. Burns do so and shake their hands. Once they leave the room, escorted by Victoria, I plop back down in my seat, knowing that Victoria’s not happy with my comments.
“What the fuck was that?” Victoria quips, slamming the door behind her.
I raise my brow, but don’t reply otherwise.
“That was completely disrespectful,” Victoria chides as if I’m her daughter.
“Next time, you won’t keep me in the dark,” I quip coolly.
Feeling more like a pimped doll than Victoria’s client and how she’s wording things is a little concerning. Our marketing efforts were supposed to change, but they’ve become more blatantly sexual, especially those with me directly involved in ads.
Victoria pinches the ridge of her nose and takes a deep breath in and then slowly releases it. “Who would you suggest then?”
I smile. “Bunnyland.”
“Bunnyland makes condoms?”
“Yes. No one has ever heard of the owner impregnating anyone for all the rumors of his promiscuity.”
Victoria looks at me blankly. “Matters like that can be easily handled.”
“Aside from the name, they want my face associated with the product.”
“We could work out the details that would exclude that,” she claims. “Besides, they have a brand that is called Magnum.”
“Which makes me think of the magnified ill-effect of the condom.”
“That’s not funny,” Victoria states.
“Yeah, it is,” I smirk, hoping to ease the tension.
“You need to stop shooting down these advertising chances with our sponsors,” Victoria declares. “If you want to make more money and keep the sponsors happy, you need to be willing to make sacrifices, Deidre.”
“Victoria,” I say, spinning in the chair to face her more directly. “Whose company is this?”
She watches me for a second, unsure of my tact. “Yours.”
“That’s right,” I confirm confidently. “I pay you and your company for PR and marketing. Aside from the name of their product, I don’t feel comfortable with my name and face being associated with any condom company on a fucking billboard or in a television commercial.”
“You’re going to have to seriously decide what you want for the app,” Victoria directs. “If you’re so hung up on the name, then let’s consider meeting with Bunnyland.”
“I don’t mind having these companies as paid advertisers, but the last thing I want is to have my family see my face all over the place with something like condoms, lubricants, and sex toys.
It’s one thing for them to know what the app does as well as see me on television or in the magazines on occasion.
It’s another thing to have me pimped out while pimping out these products so openly. ”
“Since when do you care what your family thinks?” Victoria asks.
“That’s none of your business.”
There’s a small part of me experiencing a sea change in this exchange. I’m not quite sure what to equate it with, but I feel empowered and more in control than ever.
“Bunnyland could have the same requirements. If we work something out where you’re not in the ad, would that make you feel better?”
“Yes,” I agree.
Last week, Victoria had me meet with two different rideshare companies, a lingerie company, several alcohol companies, and a cigarette company.
I turned down the smoking products immediately.
I’m considering the alcohol and lingerie companies, and I’m in the middle of reading the proposals from the transportation firms.
Ten minutes later, I’m in the car with Tony, on my way to see Luke.
I need some distraction from the tension at work lately.
The more Victoria pushes with meetings and for me to do a public advertisement piece with as many of the sponsors as possible, the more I’m eager for my days off.
Those days are filled with either working on my next app or seeing Luke when things aren’t too weird between us, especially when I’m stressed.
That’s not completely true. I’m happy to see him regardless of my stress levels.
Other than Mandy, I feel like Luke is the only person who knows me, gets me, and who doesn’t judge me.
I know that I’m starting to have feelings for Luke, but I need to keep them in check at least for the next few years.