“Well, thank you for also not making it awkward today, too.”
Mina’s shoulders drop and her brow softens. “There’s no reason for us to be awkward. We’re both adults. Neither of us did anything to feel ashamed of or awkward about.” She says it so matter of fact I feel like an idiot for setting my alarm a whole hour early just so I could try and speak to her before the meeting. It’s the need to ease some of this humiliation that has me asking her a question I’ve wanted the answer to since I got home on Saturday night.
“But did you have fun? At the party? With… with me?”
Mina stares at me with an unreadable expression before the corners of her mouth curl ever so slightly. “Yes, I did have fun with you, Charlie,” she says, softly, before starting to walk away. “I’ll see you in the meeting.”
I probably shouldn’t watch her walk to her desk, especially when my eyes are narrowing in on her arse in those jeans which are sinfully tight. But I do. I do with a small smile because Mina had fun. Mina had fun with me, just like I had fun with her.
I shouldn’t be surprised when an hour later, I walk into the meeting room and see Mina already tapping away on her laptop at the square desk in the middle. I didn’t even bring mine to the meeting – opting for my trusty Moleskine notebook instead – but perhaps I should have. It makes me wonder if Mina already has something prepared on her laptop, something that she’s possibly already sent to Garrett. I try not to think about it too much – it was my choice not to talk about work on Saturday night after all – and I sit beside her at the desk. I figure we should sit close together so we can have an easy conversation and brainstorm ideas together.
Yes, that’s why I sit next to her.
I’m about to open my mouth and check Mina’s ready to start when the door opens again and Garrett walks in.
“Morning,” he drawls like it pains him to use his vocal cords.
“Morning,” Mina says sceptically as she looks above her screen. She flashes me a quick confused look.
“Oh, hi, Garrett, I didn’t realise you would also be here for the meeting,” I say.
“Figured you both needed as much help as you could get.” He sighs as he sits opposite us.
“Or we could update you after the meeting is over?” Mina offers.
“Do I smell?” He sniffs at his armpits and then makes a face that very much answers his question. “Fucking Northern Line,” he adds, before turning his attention back to us. “Let’s just start this shall we?”
I look at Mina who gives me another blank stare. I take that as an invitation to kick things off.
“So, I suppose we start where we always do and think about moods and themes and other top-level buzzwords that we associate with Status.” I open my notebook and flick to a new page.
“No,” Mina says before I’ve touched my pen to the paper.
“Pardon?”
“We don’t have time for brainstorms. The research and brand strategy is already there. We have to have a pitch ready in five days. We need to jump straight into concept ideas.”
I look at Garrett to judge if he’s as horrified with this idea as I am. We’ve done pitches without brainstorms before but we’ve always had a moodboard or something as our foundation. Frustratingly, he remains silent and when his gaze switches from Mina to me, I know he’s waiting for me to respond. And because I feel clueless and stuck and a little bit lost, I ask Mina a question I already know I’ll regret.
“Do you already have some concept ideas?”
Mina spins her laptop around and I see a PowerPoint ready to start.
A fucking PowerPoint?!And it’s even in the teal and gold colours of the Status logo.Jesus Christ. Is this what she spent her Sunday doing while I sulked in bed nursing a mild hangover and listening to Lenny Kravitz? Is this what she was up to while I was remembering the cool smoothness of the barbell through her tongue as it explored all the corners of my mouth? Is this what she was doing as I took a ridiculously long shower and flinched with shame every time I remembered coming in my underwear? Is this what she was doing while I finally crawled out of my flat and took Goldie on a long walk across Clapham Common where we played fetch before doing a quick supermarket shop? There I was having a leisurely and self-indulgent Sunday while Mina was coming up with a concept and putting it in a fucking PowerPoint I may as well admit defeat and hand the project lead over to her right now.
But then she turns to me and gives me a small but undeniably haughty little smile and something fires up in me. Something like fighting spirit. And possibly a little flame of attraction too, but I am quick to douse it with my resolve to not let her get the lead without a fight. I have more experience as a lead. I have just as many ideas, and as soon as I’ve finished this cup of tea, I should be able to come up with one and articulate it to Garrett just as effectively as her PowerPoint.
“The concept is that Status Hotels and Events is there when you need them most. When the time has come to get away and relax. When it’s time to celebrate a happy occasion with friends and family. When it’s time to find a memorable location for a memorable event, when it’s time for something special, Status is there.”
She flicks to a new page and there are three rough sketches displayed next to the tagline “When it’s time for something special… Status”. While still very much drafts, the sketches are nonetheless brilliant and her cartoon style of drawings hold plenty of detail. One shows a family, two young children and their two mums, walking through an English country garden with a stately home in the background. Another sketch is of a couple of men in white robes relaxing on reclining chairs in a spa, contented smiles on their faces and cups of steaming tea in their hands. And the final sketch is of a young woman reading a book in a hotel bed. I can’t help but notice that the woman has brown skin and tattoos, like Mina and it makes me wonder why she chose to have that woman in a sketch all alone; surely, having a couple cuddle up together in bed would be more powerful.
“Hmm, I don’t hate it,” Garrett mumbles and it actually makes my eyes widen. That’s a pretty big compliment from him. But he picks up on the same thing that I do. “Of course, you’d need to get rid of the single lady. That won’t sell. You need to have her tattoo-free, wearing lingerie and getting into bed with a muscular man who’s clearly ready to shag the wax out of her ears.”
Mina coughs lightly before replying and I wonder if that image turned her stomach too. “I actually thought it would be sort of ground-breaking to have a single woman looking happy on her own. You know, she’s perfectly content reading a book by herself, relaxing in a luxury hotel that she treated herself to as a little staycation. I believe the demographic is there and they’re still Status’ target market. Research shows that more and more women are staying single, and happily so.”
Garrett gives her a long heavy-lidded stare. “Yeah, not buying it.”
I feel the need to try to soften the blow to Mina, to help her see that doing what’s best for the client is the right thing in this instance. “I don’t disagree with the research or you Mina, but I think from the client perspective, they would prefer to see a couple in bed together. It makes it more consistent with their brand which is as much about events like weddings as it is hotels.”
