Part 1
Sleepless in Seattle
Chapter 1
Willow
Willow tried hard to stifle a yawn.
The meeting was another long and drawn out one. Willow was sitting in a stiff, uncomfortable chair, trying to ignore the numb feeling creeping up into her lower back. She stared down at her laptop. Usually, she would have lots of detailed notes, but today all she had was a blank page.
‘Ow!’
Willow turned to her colleague, Toby, and tried not to giggle. The kick he had planted into her right ankle stung a bit. She bent down and rubbed it carefully, trying not to draw too much attention to herself. If Kirk saw she wasn’t paying attention, he wouldn’t be pleased.
‘You need to focus,’ Toby muttered through closed lips. ‘Kirk is about to get to the main point.’
Willow blinked and then quickly straightened her body. The meeting room was too hot and stuffy, and she had a mild headache building up behind her eyes. She smiled at Toby and nodded discreetly, pushing an escaped lock of hair behind her ear and attempting to rearrange her face into one that looked attentive and keen.
She needed to pull herself together. After all, this meeting was a big deal.
In front of her, Kirk stood confident and in control.All eyes were on him, as they always were – he was the type of man to command attention with his sharp designer suits, slicked-back hair and beaming white-toothed smile. And usually, Willow would be like the rest, absorbed in his speech, taking notes on her laptop and nodding along eagerly.
But today her mind was elsewhere. She tried not to think about her phone, locked away in her desk drawer, and the stuff that she had just found out.
Above everything else, she tried not to think about Jake and their argument earlier that morning.
Kirk was building up his pace. In his hand, he clutched the prototype. The new coffee brand that they were going to test out with consumers. This had been top secret for months.
‘Noix Noir is our deepest, richest blend yet,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘This offers our customers the chance to experience quality smooth instant coffee for an affordable, competitive price.’
Toby nudged Willow. ‘This is a great opportunity for us,’ he whispered under his breath. ‘We can really get noticed.’
Willow nodded, even though she was trying to desperately hide her frown. The jar Kirk was holding looked drab and brown, almost like it should contain instant gravy. It didn’t scream luxury – more bargain basement. She couldn’t even imagine it would have been a drink her grandma would have had in her cupboard, not that her grandma particularly liked coffee; she was more of a tea drinker.
Just thinking of her grandma made that hollow ache inside her open up again.
Willow bit her lip in an effort to refocus. She couldn’t afford to let her thoughts drift again. As Social MediaManager in the marketing team for Café Crème, Willow knew this was another opportunity for her to shine. Without dwelling too much on her misgivings, she stuck up her hand. Kirk turned to her and beamed. ‘Willow. I see you are as excited as we are with our new leading product.’
‘I know just the target audience for this,’ Willow replied brightly. ‘I can’t wait to get started on a new social media campaign. I think we can build excitement for this brand quickly.’
Toby flashed her a suspicious look, but Willow just ignored him.
It didn’t matter how she was feeling inside. She had to make this work. After all, wasn’t this what she had always wanted to do?
She just had to learn to fight her doubts.
Toby insisted they go to a coffee shop for lunch and Willow didn’t have the heart to tell him that it really was the last thing she wanted. In her notepad, she had already sketched out a couple of vague ideas to build brand engagement. Lunch would be the perfect opportunity to talk them through with Toby. He was her ambitious, if not slightly too eager assistant, who she knew was desperate for recognition. He reminded her a bit of a yappy dog, slightly irritating to be around but too cute to tell off.
Toby ordered his usual flat white and avocado toast, and Willow settled for a leafy green salad and one of the new matcha drinks on offer. As she sipped it, she wondered if she would ever have the heart to admit to Kirk that she really didn’t like coffee all that much. The matcha was much nicer.
‘You have to love our product to sell it,’ Kirk alwaysenthused, handing out free samples regularly and frowning at anyone who wasn’t permanently on a caffeine high. Willow was getting very good at sipping milky equivalents and wondered if her love for it would ever grow.
She didn’t know much about matcha except there seemed to be ads for it everywhere and a lot of their influencers were suddenly imploring its benefits.
Even the barista was quick to point out how good the matcha was for her as she handed over the bright-green drink. ‘It’s a wonderful antioxidant,’ she gushed. ‘You may even find it helps with your brain functioning today.’
Willow smiled. ‘I sure need some help with that.’
