A few moments later
"The Chair has announced its decision and recommended that Miss Mellon heads the Creative Development team. That would imply that Mr. Harris is to assist her as a subordinate." Will said, and I could see everyone giving me nasty stares.
Everyone except Josh.
Josh seemed lost even sitting just there, a couple of chairs away. Amanda, had done a PhD. by now in throwing spiteful glances at me. She whispered something to Josh, and he gave her a half smile. As if she had noticed my eyes on her, she looked my way with one of her many, stellar, bitchy stares.
If the world were to end tomorrow and Amanda and I were to be locked in a room, despite the complete horror of the situation, I know in my bones that before everything ends, we would end up killing each other.
Will went on with his presentation on the three-month regime for the Ebook Library Project, but I couldn't seem to concentrate. My thoughts were all over the place, and I was worried about: What if Josh started hating me? I didn't want to be that girl who steals other people's opportunities, and I hoped that Josh would understand that I could do nothing about the situation. But, my mind told me otherwise the whole time he avoided my stares. He looked at the screen blankly and made frequent notes.
I felt like going back to twelfth grade in high school when all the other kids would sneer at me and call me names for getting good grades. What if history repeats itself? The winner stands alone. That's not an accomplishment; it's a bloody punishment.
My head reeled back to the days when I had to suck it up and pass the lunch break all alone because someone had started a nasty rumor about me: Eva Mellon is an erotica reading geek. It didn't go well with my teachers, Martha or Mom. College was calm, but high school was a disaster.
"I need your suggestions on the next thing..." Will said, and the screen popped up with upcoming book launches, and I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that they were of the same genre- Romance.
"What about it, Mr. Turner?" Rachel asked.
Did I mention I loved working with Rachel? She wasn't a half-headed bitch like most other people I had met. She had this inquisitive nature of asking all the right questions at the right time. No one hates Rachel. I repeat, no one!
"I am thinking about not going on with the conventional book launches hosted at posh avenues..." Will said, waiting for people to come up with ideas.
"What about an online book launch, then? It would be from the comfort of everyone's home plus- no rush, no crowd. It could be hosted at low costs too." Josh was the first person to come up with an idea. He was smart. As if I only liked him for his looks! Maybe, that too!
"That's a good one, Mr. Harris," Will assured.
"Any other suggestions? Mellon?" Will directed his glance at me.
To my amazement, everyone was looking at me now.
That was getting intimidating. Was he trying to prove a point?
Even Josh was staring at me earnestly. What do I do now? All I remember was him saying something about book launches. But what?
"Do you have any suggestions on how we should host our book launches in the coming months?" Will cleared his throat.
"I proposed an online event. What's your say?" Josh interjected.
"I think we should make it offline, but affordable," I added, not knowing the source of inspiration.
"You imply?" Will asked, a little amused.
"An online book launch can't do any justice to the readers. All readers want is a space where they talk and praise their favorite authors, something that brings them closer.
We know online book launches aren't a hassle, but the truth told, books on screens are okay, but book launches should be a more outgoing event.
We are too stuck on our screens. Why give our readers another reason for the same!
Plus, I think most of our targeted demographic is the new adult and young adult readers, so all we have to do to make it more affordable and host book launches on campus!
Not only will this save them the trouble of skipping classes, but it could make the book launch event more fun.
It would be like a get-together of on-campus fans. More of joy and less of bother!"
I was blabbering what all came into my head, and by the time I was talking, the whole room was silent. I should have just stopped talking. I watched Amanda whisper something to Will. Will nodded at her occasionally. What's her fucking deal! Why the hell does this happen all the time?
"How will this benefit us?" Josh intervened when I half expected Will to blast me with questions.
"Well, I'd say that if you are a picky reader and that too a teen, then your only source of a new paperback is your pocket money or your side job. If you have the privilege of getting to fangirl over your all-time favorite writer without spending a fortune on travel expenses, why won't you buy a few more books from the same venue?
Keeping it short, the less they spend on other shit- I mean things- the more profits we earn!" I proposed.
"You mean we can set up a tiny book fair on behalf of Bexley authors at school and college campuses?" Will asked with his eyes full of life.
"Ummm...Yeah. Pretty much." I said.
"Those in favor, please raise your right hand," Will said.
Oh my god! Nearly two-thirds of the people had raised their hands, and those who didn't were Amanda, Josh, and Riley and her two lookalikes. I did expect Josh not to and Amanda to be her usual self, but what's with Riley? I barely knew her name, let alone anything else. She didn't even look like the type who openly hates people. She had black hair cut into a sharp bob and wore pearls. News: She was a part of the 'Amanda' Gang.
"Okay, so the majority decides we should go with Miss Mellon's idea! Good job, Mellon." Will beamed happily.
I had only seen him that happy when he had pulled a few strings in the publishing market and outdone ourselves. The Parakeets were trailing way behind Bexley's, and there was a celebratory dinner in the upcoming months. They called it Awards Convocation or something like that.
"Except those on the Creative Development, please feel free to leave for home," Will said.
Almost three-fourths of the crowd left. Rachel, Will, Amanda, Josh, and I sat in the halo lights of the board room. How good life must be, not working at Creative Dev! I was hampered with work all week, on all weekends and could barely get any sleep when I reached home. I practically lived on coffee, and my wailing soul pleaded me to get a day off. How could I? A break was off limits with Will Turner.
"I want you to get in touch with the developers who will work on our user database," Will instructed Josh.
"Rachel, please look into the email and find me a list of sponsors."
Okay, so Rachel was 'Rachel' and not Miss Thompson. Rachel speeds off to punch in names in a word document.
"Miss Richards, get the recruits to work for the project." Weird. I thought Tyranny would call Amanda by her first name, but he doesn't. Amanda walked off with her file. Sulking in her laptop, she typed furiously on the keyboard.
"Mellon, I need you to give me an outline of event coordination by tonight!" Will said.
"By tonight? It's 8:30 in the evening. How's that going to happen?" I complained. No, no more over-working.
"Figure something out." He said and shrugged.
"See you all tomorrow." Will moved out.
I walked out of the meeting room. My head was too occupied with thinking of a way to bail out. I entered his office without knocking. I found Will staring out of the window. I think that's his hobby because when he is not doing that, he is probably staring into people's souls, torturing them to work till they are grey and old.
"I need to talk to you," I said.
"Please, please let me give you the portfolio by tomorrow," I said.
"Why should I?" He asked with a smirk.
"Because I might practically die if I work a second more..." I added.
That is only half a lie.
"Give me a good reason. You have ten seconds." Will said. This jerk! His 'we are friends' aura is all gone.
Think Eva! Something that this bastard could not deny! Something that would be more fun than sitting in your cubicle.
Think.Think.The bucket list! That's it.
"Okay, we will go on with the bucket list hunt tonight. That works for you?" I said, quite amazed at my own words.
I had no idea what I was to do tonight, but the words did their magic. I saw his pupils dilate a little, and his cheeks turned red. He was a little excited; there was no point hiding that. At the moment, he was like Martha's kids, too tempted to refuse the chocolate.
Take it, Will! Take it!
"If I don't see you out in ten minutes, I might change my mind!" He said and grabbed his waist coat, and I found myself following him out.
Okay, now I only had to do one of the things on his bucket list.
"Did I tell you that sometimes you have the best of ideas, Mellon?" Will said as the elevator closed onto us.
Between the metal doors engulfing us, I saw a pair of sea blue eyes staring at us. God.
"I don't think I could agree..." I said sarcastically.
Damn. Josh had seen us leaving together. Fuck! Stupid, stupid Eva!
It was going to be a long night.