Chapter 1 #2
“It’s the same guy Iris brought around some time before the New Year.
” Steven Danton, the fourth and last member of our Branding and Strategy Division, appears, balancing a tray of coffee cups with the precision of someone who might have been a waiter in another life.
With his utterly forgettable appearance—medium-brown hair, medium-brown eyes, average height and build—Steven somehow manages to blend into any background.
He’s the kind of person you could talk to for an hour and still not remember what he looks like five minutes later.
But his perpetual dad energy extends to feeding everyone within a ten-desk radius, and his uncanny ability to appear exactly when caffeine is needed most makes him indispensable.
“We met him, Flora. Remember? You and Joshua were out in the field, Eve, taking photographs of the Aerion 108.”
His words jog my memory.
“Oh, that guy.” I blink. “I thought he quit almost immediately. He never showed up.”
“He was very good-looking,” Flora beams. “Very charming, too, and so polite.”
I push away from Joshua’s desk, gesturing towards him with my thumb. “We thought that about this one, too, before we discovered he was actually raised by raccoons.”
“I’m good-looking!” Joshua looks up from the container in his hands, his mouth full of pasta.
Flora’s smile freezes. “Of course you are, dear. But he was—What was that word you used, Steven?”
“Surfer-boy-golden-looks.” Steven looks pleased that Flora remembers. “I came up with that title. I can’t remember his name though. Cake?”
“I’m sure his name was not Cake, Steven,” I snort, taking one of the coffees he’s handing out. “Though I would be way more interested in meeting someone named Cake than whatever Ken doll Iris has found to join our merry band of misfits.”
“Not Cake. It was something else—A good name, a handsome name,” Flora agrees. “Anyway, he’s joining today. And I heard he was headhunted by Ethan Wilder himself.”
Ethan Wilder. The tyrant CEO who took over the company half a year ago and immediately started making changes.
So many employees were let go. So many were demoted, including Charlotte Evans, the previous team lead.
She’s now been shifted to Frank Kolinski’s department.
However, despite how much pressure has fallen on our department, there’s no denying that the company is beginning to get back on its feet.
“By the way, I heard Natalie is going to go on maternity leave soon,” Flora whispers, her green eyes twinkling behind her glasses.
“She’s starting to show. She’s coming back to work today, but I overheard her assistant say she’s close to five months pregnant—Or was it four?
” She frowns thoughtfully, gathering her scattered thoughts.
Steven shakes his head. “I would never have thought that she and Ethan were together.”
“I heard they’ve been together for a while,” Joshua offers his input.
“But I don’t care what people say. Natalie may be sleeping with the CEO, but she stands for us little people.
I heard she and Ethan got into an argument when he wanted to fire someone.
Imagine someone raising their voice at that tyrant.
Balls of steel, I tell you. I worship her. I aspire to be her.”
“You aspire to sleep with our CEO?” I give him a bland look, arching one perfectly shaped eyebrow.
Steven laughs while Joshua sighs, giving me a pitying look. “Mind in the gutter, this one. I want her balls.”
“You want her what?” It’s Flora’s turn to look aghast.
“I want to have balls like her!”
Steven shakes his head and I snicker while Joshua keeps digging his own grave. “Stop while you’re ahead, Joshua,” Steven advises him.
“I’m glad everyone is here.” The familiar voice has us all falling silent, and I look over at the woman approaching us.
Iris Campbell is the head of marketing at Thalvyn Maritime and the one who poached me from my previous company.
She enters the room, her jagged blonde hair brushing against her shoulders, her chestnut brown eyes alert and assessing as they settle over us.
Despite the early hour, she’s impeccably dressed in a tailored pantsuit, her posture straight and confident.
She commands respect without having to raise her voice.
“You look terrible, Joshua,” she says flatly. “Go home and rest. I got your email and the file with it. Good work.”
Joshua lifts his fork in her direction in acknowledgement.
Iris turns her attention towards the rest of us. “We have another person joining our team. He was hired by upper management, but he’s quite good at what he does. He was headhunted by the CEO personally, which means you’d all better be on your toes.”
It’s a subtle warning. While the Marketing Department has been doing its best, we also have the most leaks, especially our team.
A few months ago, we were working on the revival strategy of the Serastra 70, our once-flagship yacht that fell from prominence under previous management.
The Serastra had been Thalvyn’s crown jewel—a 70-foot masterpiece of luxury seafaring celebrities used to waitlist for.
It was the kind of yacht that made millionaires feel like billionaires and billionaires feel like gods.
Hand-carved teak decks, mother-of-pearl inlays, custom Italian leather interiors—the works.
But sales plummeted after a series of PR disasters under the previous CEO, including one notorious incident involving a Saudi prince, three supermodels, and a flamingo that I am not legally allowed to discuss in detail.
Everything was ready for its comeback. The ground team was set to implement our relaunch campaign when the next morning, one of our European rivals launched their campaign matching our every word.
Not similar. Identical, right down to the tagline I’d spent three sleepless nights perfecting.
Pulling back cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars and pushed the Serastra’s revival even further behind schedule.
I lean back in my seat, studying Iris. “So when is Wonder Boy going to join us?”
Iris checks her watch. “He should be here any minute. And be nice, Eve. Don’t bully him.”
“Me?” My eyes widen. “I wouldn’t bully a fly.”
Joshua kicks my seat, sending me spinning to the other side of the desk. “No, you reserve that for us poor humans.”
Steven steadies my chair without batting an eye. “So what is he? A corporate spy? Do we need to be worried, Iris?”
Iris looks thoughtful. “I don’t believe so. He seems to be a talent that Ethan has had his eye on for a while. With everything going on in the Marketing Department, we need all the help we can get.”
A heavy silence follows her words, and the four of us exchange a look. It’s common knowledge that if we don’t plug the leaks and get the campaigns we are working on rolling, we could all very well lose our jobs. Three members of the Accountant Department just got fired last week.
With the recent attacks on his fiancée, the CEO has gotten more ruthless, if that was possible.
If you don’t meet the KPIs, you’re axed.
Joshua is right that Natalie has fought Ethan on several attempts at firing certain individuals, but those whose actions she cannot justify, she’s letting him do as he pleases.
That tells me, while she is not in cahoots with the tyrant running this ship, she’s also not going to blindly defend us till we give her a reason.
It doesn’t surprise me. When I joined this company two years ago, I had been pleasantly startled by Natalie’s work ethics. Over these past two years, she’s brought an incredible amount of change to the company, making our workplace safer and more comfortable than it once used to be.
“You’re going to be showing him around, Eve.
” Iris looks tired, now that I pay closer attention, a slight red tinge to her eyes as if she’s been crying.
But she’s ever the professional, her voice smooth and unwavering as she speaks.
“Catch him up with everything here. Share the last campaigns. Walk him through it. Show him all our previous campaigns, our current branding strategies. Also, he will be working with you four on relaunching the Serastra 70 model, so I want you to listen to what he has to say and not sideline him just because he’s a newcomer. ”
Her eyes settle on me once again, and this time I cross my arms over my chest, indignant. “Why do you keep assuming I’m going to do something? I’m a very welcoming person.” Joshua makes a show of rolling his eyes, and I glare at him.
“Eve.” Iris takes a step forward, her voice serious. “He’s here to stay. Play nice with him.”
As she heads into her office, I sprawl in my chair, glowering at Joshua. “I’m not a bully.”
“Not a bully,” Steven agrees carefully. “But you do have a reputation for being very... strict.”
Joshua lets out a laugh. “She’s a bully, Steven. You can put a dress on a duck, but it’s still a duck ‘cause it quacks.”
I blink slowly, my long lashes fanning against my cheeks. “Are you calling me a duck?”
He waggles his brows at me. “Do I want to die?”
“Now, now.” Flora claps her hands. “Behave, children. Joshua, please go home, and chan—”
My phone starts vibrating in my bag, and I take it out. Seeing the name on the screen, I sigh. I can ignore almost everyone’s calls, but not my oldest brother’s.
I get to my feet. “I’ll be back.”
I slip out of the room, lingering near the elevators as I answer the phone.
“Hey, Marco.”
“Hermanita.” His deep voice makes me smile. “You’ve not come by the restaurant in a while.”
I shuffle my shoes. Marco is eight years older than me. When our father died, he stepped in and helped our mother raise us. He may be my brother, but he’s more of a father figure. Disappointing him is worse than disappointing my mother.
“Sorry, I’ve been busy,” I murmur. “Our company changed management, and—I guess you don’t want to hear all that.”