Without any further hesitation, he said, “I love you too, Evie.”
“Good morning, everyone!” Evie announced.
She stood in front of a room of at least twenty people, and they were not going to be an easy crowd. The client of the day was a locally owned fashion brand that touted sustainable fabrics and garment making. The founder and main executive was none other than Bailey Bones, a socialite and debutante of the entire Kansas City Metro with a killersurname moniker. Her rich daddy was investing over a million dollars in her company, and Bailey was looking for a company to not only design their logo and marketing designs, but also host the release party for her debut collection.
This was Evie’s biggest client ever. If she played her cards right, her work would be shown on a website that would host hundreds of thousands of visits a month, and her logo would be displayed on the catwalk at KC Fashion Week in which Jamboree was hosting the music and the lighting flair for.
Bailey was a younger woman, about twenty-five years old. As she sat on a chair, she felt her hands up on her slick ponytail. She wore it like Arianna Grande, but her hair was jet-black and glossy like an onyx mirror. Even though Bailey was younger, she dressed like a full-blown businesswoman. With a tangerine sweater dress and large gold hoop earrings, her white boots showed off she was both business and fun. Bailey was about to be the first successful Black fashion designer in Kansas City, and Evie was bound and determined to contribute to that success.
Evie’s confidence shone like a diamond. “I’m very honored to have been selected for the opportunity to demonstrate how I can contribute to DVine. I have prepared five samples of the work that I can provide, each with their own style and flair. Given the collection colors, I tried to adhere to those golden and orange tones.”
She passed out the folders, and Bailey took one and passed the others along.
Evie clicked to turn on the sleek projector. The lights were dimmed, and she gave a glance to Mr. Perry, who remained expressionless.
Evie couldn’t care less. She wasn’t trying to impress him. The fashionable Bailey Bones was her goal.
The screen showcased a beautiful logo of a blonde copper palette and abstract leaves with clear lines as the background. The name “DVine” was simply stylized in solid white serif font with the D and V capitalized, and the I was dotted with a beautiful leaf that had another little baby leaf out below it.
Bailey’s brows went up, and she gave a surprised nod. “I’m feelin’ this, girl. Give me more.”
Evie smiled. “I’m very glad to hear that! Every brand needs to have a logo that people can correlate them with. With Chanel, it’s the reversed C’s. With Dolce and Gabbana, it’s the large D and G. Nike has their infamous swoosh. You were very crafty in utilizing a capital D with a simple leaf inside of it, and so I wanted to pay homage and respect to that for brand continuity.”
The first presentation carried on, and it stirred numerous murmurs, sounds of pens scribbling, and smiles. Not once did Evie’s heart rate elevate. Not once did she panic or feel dizzy. She ignored Mr. Perry and focused straight on her client, her target. Her mission.
After ten minutes, Evie took a breath. “Now, we’re going to move on to my second presentation.”
Mr. Perry spoke up, “I hope you realized that our client is atrendyyoung girl, not an editorial fashion company.”
Evie didn’t even need to compose herself this time. She was already calm. “I would appreciate all feedback to be reserved for Jamboree’s prospective client and not for anyone else.”
But Bailey Bones held her hand up. “I don’t wanna see anymore.”
Evie breathed calmly.
Mr. Perry shot her a look.
Miss Bones smiled. “I’ve already made my decision. I’m in love with this first one. You got me hook, line, and sinker.”
All the way home, Evie absolutely gushed to Caleb on her car’s speaker phone. He was beyond thrilled for her and eagerly took time away from his work to listen. She couldn’t stop talking about how she singlehandedly got Jamboree their biggest client to date.
“I mean, I’m so freaking happy!”
“You should be! You did all of this hard work on your own! And you know what you need to do now?”
“Celebrate!” she said.
“Well, yeah! But why don’t you go to the salon to let Sandy and Kelly hearallabout it?”
“You’re terrible,” she laughed.
“Damn straight! Hell, I’ll pay for it. I’ll send you some money. Go out and tell the hens at the salon I paid for it.”
“Wait, why would you wanna do that?”
“Because if you were to be active on Facebook, you would see that everybody knows. It’s no secret anymore, and I’m so damn proud of you and to bewithyou. So go ahead and show the world how much I care about you.”
She paused. “Wait, are you serious right now? You really want me to do that?”
