Prologue
Greco Studios' biggest client wanted to relaunch their website, and of course Hailey was the one leading the team because after all, she was Hailey Greco, the owner and founder of Greco Studios. It wasn't that she didn't pay attention to her smaller clients, in fact, she loved them because they were the ones keeping her company going, but she always felt that the bigger clients were more demanding, so she liked to stay as the leading designer with them.
Pierce Industries was a tech company that Hailey never even imagined working with, yet she always dreamed of it. It was one of the biggest tech companies and they were also international, with the Headquarters in London.
She thought of it as a miracle when the company contacted her. Being a tech company, you would think they had their own graphic designers on board, but nonetheless she was so excited to have been working with them for months now.
But although Greco Studios was very successful, Hailey was a very private person and would always keep to herself. Not many knew who was the person behind the design company, and it was always the talk around media. Only the clients knew who she was and it was also an advantage that everyone else called her by her middle name, Alex.
Not only is Hailey a successful designer with her own company that took her hard work to build, she also likes to invest in what she believes in, having her be a shareholder in a boutique hotel and an apartment complex, and be co-owner of a restaurant. But what Hailey is happy about, is being able to give to others and helping her loved ones.
Hailey had been a hard worker all her life. Being raised by a not so privileged family, she learned how to be grateful for life. Now she was able to enjoy the finer things in life because of her hard work, but she couldn't have done it without her family. She was very close to her parents, but life decide to take them away in a car crash. Now it was just her and her older sister, Casey, whom she looked up to and admired. Her sister always gave her everything and became a second mother to Hailey when their parents passed away. Hailey was only sixteen. Now, Hailey liked showing her gratitude towards her sister.
The meeting with Pierce Industries was making me nervous. It was only to talk about their vision of the website relaunch, but it was said that a representative from headquarters was going to attend and it was a bit intimidating. I had never worked with headquarters before, I was only used to the people from the Austin area, so it was new to me.
Only my assistant and I were attending the meeting, so I was getting everything ready to head to Pierce Industries. As I reached for my notepad, my phone started ringing.
"I'll answer it." Said Monica, my assistant.
I continued gathering all the necessary items for the meeting, when Monica interrupted me.
"Alex, it's Jessica, she wants to know where she is going to enter through?" Monica asked.
"Ah yes, tell her I'll be there in a bit. I'll show her the way." I said to Monica.
Jessica was a dear friend who I had helped start her catering business. She was such a wonderful cook and I love her dream so I helped her pursue it. She was going to cater the meeting because it was during lunchtime and they always loved having snacks, so I decided to offer them a catered meal and they had agreed.
"You ready?" I asked Monica.
"Absolutely!" Monica said excitedly.
Monica loved what we did and she wished to become a graphic designer, but she was not experienced, so I promised to pay for a two year degree and teach her everything I knew. She was only twenty-one, so she had her life ahead of her and I always believe education is important. She had already finished her first year and she was learning fast, helping me with a few projects here and there. Although I was going to be sad she wasn't going to be my assistant anymore, which she was wonderful at, I was happy for her and always wished her and everyone else to strive for more, after all, there was always new things to be learned.
We had arrived at the building after a few minutes, given that we weren't far from each other. Jessica had been waiting for us around the back, so before entering through the front doors, I went ahead and helped her unload.
"Aww you wore my shirt!" Jessica pointed out.
I had the polo shirt, that they used as a uniform, on. After all, I loved supporting other small businesses.
"Of course, I have to represent you some way." I told her.
"Thank you, and thank you so much for this opportunity." She said.
"It was a no brainer, you have amazing food and they always like having food in their meetings, so of course I thought of you." I told her.
"You might be annoyed by me already by always repeating the same thing, but I will not stop staying it. I could not have done this without you. If you wouldn't have believed in me, I would probably be struggling so much right now. I owe you this entire business and I promise to repay you everything you have given me."
"Jessica, you know you don't have to. I am glad I could help. You can even have the rights to it, just say the word." I told her.
"You know I cannot let you do that. Things are not just handed to you. And I want to be proud of something that is my own, you know?" She told me.
And I did know what she meant. It's a great feeling to know you built something from the ground up with hard work and own it.
We continued unloading her van, with the help of her two employees.
After finishing, I decided to enter through the back door, but Monica reminded me that there was going to be somebody waiting for us.
I was on my way to the front of the building when Jessica called out to me.
"Alex, wait. I forgot to give you some paperwork we need to fill out." She said.
"Actually, Alex is already running late by a minute, so I can get them for her. You go ahead Alex, we really don't want to keep them waiting." Monica said. She was honestly the best.
I headed towards the entrance by myself with nothing else because I had forgotten Monica had all my notepads. I was debating to go back yet I was still walking forward. When I raised my eyes, I saw a very handsome man on the other side of the door, looking at his watch.
I pulled the door open, and he looked up. I politely smiled at him. He just stared at me for a minute.
"Oh, no. I'm so sorry, but the help enters through the back. I'm going to have to ask you to enter through the back." He said in a bit of an accent.
Wait, what? The help? First of all, we are all equal and that is not cool. Second of all, who does he think he is?
I furrowed my brows as I looked at him. "Perdón, pero no hablo inglés, que dijo? (Sorry, I do not speak English, what did you say?)" I said in my perfect Spanish.
"Oh, um. Sorry, you... no here, over there." He said slowly, slightly raising his voice, and pointing towards the outside. What was it with people raising their voice when someone doesn't understand their language?
"Ah, okay." I faked smiled.
"Okay." He said and smiled.
I turned around and rolled my eyes. "Idiot." I mumbled and went back out of the building.
"Hey, where are you going? The meeting is in there." Monica said. She had almost bumped into me as we both had neared the corner.
"I'm yeah, not going in there. Some idiot kicked me out because I was wearing this shirt and he thought I was the help." I said, rolling my eyes once more.
"What's so wrong with that?" She asked.
I sighed. "It's how he said it."
"Couldn't you have just told him who you were?" She asked.
"And where's the fun in that?" I smiled. "I had something else in mind. I know you have been dying to do more, so I'm going to let you run this meeting on your own. I believe in you and know you can do it. I've known you could do it after you finished your first year of school, but I was just waiting for you to get a little more experience. But this is it. Go show everyone how good you are. I'll be calling in and telling them I had an emergency but I'll let them know that I'll be listening in. I'll see you back at the office, okay?" I told her. I was proud of her and that idiot gave me the opportunity to give her the chance of leading a meeting.
"Are you sure about this? They are such a massive company, Alex. What if I mess up?" She asked. She was getting nervous, and she was not one to get nervous.
"It'll be okay. We've been working with them for months now. You know what they like. And you've met all of them. And like I said, I'll be listening in. So get in there because they are waiting for you." I said to her.
"Thank you Alex!" She gave me a hug and went towards the entrance.
I quickly dialed their office and explained why I couldn't attend the meeting, which was a lie, but that guy was a jerk.
Didn't even matter if he was handsome.
