Avril, my marketing director, was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. A middle-aged woman who could run circles around any of the younger techs there. She was my right hand at the company, the go-to person who I could count on to carry out any wild ideas I might have. She was one of the first people I hired in the early days—just arriving from India with her family and looking for work. Her background was in event work and sales, and there was just something about her that I loved. She had become family over the years. I’d lost track of how many holidays I’d spent visiting her house for dinners.
“Good morning, Cupid,” she said in her usual teasing tone.
I kissed her cheek as I hit the top step. “Morning, Av. What’s new?” I asked, continuing to walk.
Avril joined me. “I had Maddi clear your calendar next Friday evening,” she said.
“Why?”
“Social with the company I hired for our ten-year campaign and rebrand.”
I paused in my step and looked at her. “We sourced out?”
Avril glanced around us nervously and then nodded to my office. I followed her cue and waited until she had closed the door behind us to continue talking.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Our branding team is short four people,” she started. “I hired out because the ones who are left are spread so thin right now with other projects, I didn’t want to overwhelm them. Adding this might push some into doing work on their downtime.”
“I don’t want that,” I said. A work-life balance had always been essential to me. I never wanted anyone working more than they should.
“I know you don’t,” she said. “Which is why I found another firm to handle it. It’ll be nice to have fresh eyes on everything, too. They’re a younger company, very eager. I think you’ll like them.”
“What’s their company name?”
“Designare Fusion.”
I had never heard of it, but I trusted Avril enough to let her do what she thought was best for the company. “Okay,” I said, reaching for a licorice rope from my candy vase to chew on. “What else should I know about them?”
“Women-owned,” she said. “They haven’t had an account as large as ours before. I’m interested to see what they make of it. Both owners will be heading up the project.”
“The owners actually know how to do work in their field?” I asked.
“One is a marketing and PR guru who before this company was freelancing in public relations to C-list celebrities and working damage control for a few Twitter fiascos. I think she still does a little of that on the side, so should you ever be involved in some tabloid scandal, we have someone to call,” she said with a raise of her brow.
My smirk widened. “I’ll try to keep my name out of the tabloids just for you,” I said. “What about the design aspect?”
“Their designer also worked in freelance graphic design on her own for small, independent companies. She moved from simple Instagram and Facebook posts to designing entire campaigns within a year of going out on her own. Apparently her load became so much that she reached out to Ezra to partner for their own marketing company.”
“Ezra?”
“They call her Ezzie. You’ll meet her at the social.”
“What’s her partner’s name?”
“Ah…” Avril strummed her fingers across the back of the chair she leaned against. “I can’t remember off the top of my head. I’ll try to compile a brief for you this week so you don’t look so much like one of those incompetent owners.”
“You know that’s my favorite look,” I said.
Avril cocked a brow, her head tilting sideways. “It’s not mine, so we’re going with what I think.”
“Right,” I smiled. “Anything else?”
“These people won’t be used to working with you, so I need you to figure out somehow a way to represent what you’re looking for with the rebrand. I know you’re used to throwing ideas off of us like pennies, but with this group—“
“I’ll try to get my scatterbrain under control,” I said, sitting. I gave her a charming smile and leaned back, to which she rolled her eyes and threw a pen at my face.
“Elliot has paperwork for you to sign,” she said before turning toward the door. “I’ll tell him to bring them in in an hour.”
