Was it possible the entire scene with Lucia van Arpels hadn’t happened, that Imogen had imagined the entire thing? She kept replaying it over and over in her head as she popped into the chemist to fill her prescription and then again on the way to the office – Eve’s hand moving in slow motion across the table. The whites of Lucia’s eyes expanding as she tried to comprehend what was being done to her. It couldn’t have been real. It was too much like a scene out of a movie. But when Imogen glanced down at her phone, there was Lucia’s text to her.
Eve was perched on a table in the kitchen regaling the staff about her meeting with Lucia when Imogen walked in to make an espresso.
‘And then I just told her, “I know what is good for your brand.” You should have seen her face.’
‘Yes, you should have.’ Imogen wished she weren’t still surprised at Eve’s nerve, but it managed to blindside her at least twice a day.
‘Eve, let’s have a chat about this in my office.’
Eve popped off the table and did a small dance, biting her bottom lip and shaking her ass.
Imogen had no choice but to show Eve the text. ‘She won’t work with you again, Eve. What you did just made you a techbitch in Lucia van Arpels’s world.’
The word ‘bitch’ didn’t faze her in the least. If anything it energized her. The girl twirled a piece of hair around her finger. ‘It’s not my fault she can’t see that we’re the future. She needs us.’
‘No, Eve, right now we need her more than she needs us. We need people like Lucia to want their designs sold with us. Lucia’s dresses are the kinds of things our readers will really want to buy.’
Eve shrugged. ‘So call her back. We’ll have another meeting.’
‘She won’t take another meeting with you, Eve. That’s the point I am trying to make.’
‘Fine. What do we do?’
Imogen sighed. ‘Money talks, Eve. We offer to buy two million dollars at wholesale to prove how serious we are about moving her inventory.’
Eve scoffed. ‘Two million dollars is crazy. That’s like thirty percent of our new round of investment.’
‘It’s the only way to save this situation with Lucia. And I can tell you another thing, Eve. Lucia doesn’t have a big mouth, but her staff does, and unless you want to get us blackballed in this town, we need to find a way to mend this situation.’
Eve lifted her eyes and fixed Imogen with a look of utter bewilderment.
This was the part of the job that was making Imogen feel ill. When she described what she was doing to Massimo, he referred to it as being paid to open your kimono. Imogen was opening up her network to Eve. No, she was opening up her network to Glossy.com. That was how she had to think of it. She was doing what was best for the company. But at what price? How long could she protect Glossy’s reputation from Eve’s antics?
‘Pay the bitch then.’ Eve stood. ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. I was assertive in that meeting, Imogen. If I were a man in that meeting Lucia would’ve called me powerful.’
If she’d been a man in that meeting Lucia would have called her abusive, Imogen thought irritably. She had always agreed with the hypothesis that men in powerful positions could be complete bastards and be promoted, while women could be called cows for the smallest offense. Still, even Donald Trump couldn’t have gotten away with what Eve did.
‘Maybe you should try keeping your hands to yourself in the next meeting, Eve.’
GChat between Eve and Ashley:
GlossyEV: I need to vent for a min. About Imogen. I MEAN SERIOUSLY?
Ash:??
GlossyEV: Why doesn’t she understand how to do ANYTHING? I swear something is always wrong with her computer or her phone or her iPad. She swears it is never her. It is always the fault of the technology. I can hear her huffing in her office RIGHT NOW.
Ash: She’s getting better.
GlossyEV: It’s just cray that someone made it so far in their careers without ever learning how to use any kind of technology. I try to help her. I do. I am a nice person. You know I am a nice person. It’s just so frustrating. I can’t keep repeating myself. ‘Tell me my password again, darling,’ she titters as though it’s adorable that she is as forgetful as an Alzheimer’s patient.
GlossyEV: And what about when she talks to the screen like extra loud like a dumb American in Europe for the first time. Just figure it out ALREADY. I don’t know how you do it. How r u so nice to her?
Ash: *shrug*
GlossyEV: ROFL
Ash: She’s learning. It’s getting better.
GlossyEV: Not fast enough.
Eve slipped out of her heels, Louboutin knockoffs she ordered from Korea, to stretch her calves. She rose onto her bare toes and rocked back on her heels a few times.
It was proven that people made decisions quicker when they stood up at work. Sitting at a desk all day made people lazy.
Eve’s desk was immaculate except for her devices: a laptop, an iPad mini, an iPhone and a Samsung Android. She craved order. All of the other girls back home had rooms filled with trophies and riding ribbons. Eve kept those things in a pretty little box under her bed. She prided herself on having a room as neat as a hotel suite.
She had been the right amount of assertive with Lucia. It wasn’t like she face-palmed her or anything. She’d made an affectionate gesture with her hand, that was all. Imogen needed to quit it with the overreaction.
How much longer did they need Imogen Tate here anyway? It was nice to keep her around for the transition, but was she more trouble than she was worth? She’d just cost them a lot of money. Worthington really liked her, but if Eve could prove that Imogen wasn’t a team player for the new Glossy.com maybe he wouldn’t want to keep her around anymore. He was a man after her own heart, one who thought in terms of cash instead of emotions. So what if he was a little Handy McGrabberson under the table during their meetings? He could paw at her bare thigh all day for all she cared. Maybe she would invite him out to dinner next week, slip into that low-cut new Alaïa dress she’d ordered (from the site, natch!) and see what he had to say about Imogen’s future with the company.