AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Five
Iwas on cloud nine right now. Even after being in PR for seventeen years, I still got a huge buzz from organising a successful launch.
Last night was the long-awaited MIKA Cosmetics Influencer Lipstick launch at Harvey Nichols, and it had gone even better than we could have anticipated. Not only did the store sell out of their stock in record time (despite ordering extra), but we had over a hundred women that hadn’t managed to book tickets to the customer event in the evening, queuing outside the door, eager to meet and greet Amelia and Céline in person. The store had even had to draft in extra security.
The lipsticks had launched online this morning and sold out in seventeen minutes. Social media had also gone crazy. #MIKAbyAmelia and #MIKAbyCéline were still trending, and there were thousands of posts on Instagram. The boomerang post Amelia put online last night of her jumping for joy next to the giant illuminated poster of herself in the window of the store had currently been viewed 30,709 times—a figure that was increasing by the second.
As well as the sales and social media success, the floods of editorial were also coming through thick and fast, with articles already live on Vogueuk.com, Graziadaily.co.uk and theDaily Mailwebsite. SundayTimesStyle were running a big profile piece in this weekend’s issue.
It was a huge relief. That campaign was one of the biggest and ambitious we’d run to date. Even though we’d planned every last detail, I still always worry about something going wrong. Until the event is over and you get the seal of approval from the client, nothing is certain.
As well as being major for the company, it was also significant in terms of my own personal progress on the control-freak front. Whilst I had been involved at every stage and had overseen everything carefully, Robyn had led this campaign from the get-go. She’d continued to impress me and was definitely due a promotion. Perhaps to associate director, or maybe even deputy managing director? I’d need to give it more thought.
Her incredible competency meant that I no longer needed to work late every night or at weekends. With this in mind, even though there would be post-event activity to take care of, my involvement would be minimal. Which meant, despite being a little tired from last night, I was able to be bold and keep this evening free to experience the seventh stage of Tinder: the actual dates.
As we’ve established, when it came to my career, I was fine. But this dating stuff somehow caused my confidence to turn to jelly. So the only coping mechanism that seemed to be producing any modicum of success was relating everything to a work scenario. In this way, dating was just a meeting and going for drinks was like attending an evening networking event. So on that basis, I’d arranged three dates back to back across one evening:
6.30 p.m.: Riccardo—a thirty-three-year-old lawyer
7.30 p.m.: Diego—a thirty-one-year-old accountant
8.30 p.m.: Bruno—a twenty-nine-year-old restaurant manager
And yes, the ‘o’ at the end of all of their names did mean they were all Italians. Pure coincidence. Honest…
Was I bothered about the fact that they weren’t MDs? Not really. Whilst there’s a school of thought which says you shouldn’t date outside of your ‘professional circle’ as you won’t have anything in common, as my main goal is to have fun and gain more ‘experience’, I wasn’t fussed. As long as they were interesting, had ambition and could pay their own way, that was good enough for now.
I’d allocated an hour slot per date, to give us around thirty to forty mins to chat, at which point Roxy (who I’d also sent details of whom I’d be meeting, when and where, just to be safe), would call my phone and I’d have to leaveunexpectedly. In other words, make my way to the next date. I had learnt the ‘get out call’ was, once again, standard practice in the new dating world.
I’d made sure my hair, make-up and outfit were on point and had even embarrassingly struck different poses in the mirror—practising how I would smile and act when I greeted my dates. Big cheesy, confident smile? Or act demure and sexy? I was nervous. Understandable, as it had been a while since I’d been on a date, so packing three into one evening with men I’d never met before only intensified those feelings. Even though I wasn’t sure if they’d turn up or what to expect, it was also quite exciting.
I was looking forward to meeting Riccardo. From his messages, he seemed like an ambitious lawyer, and I loved anyone with drive. But I should have known it was too good to be true. The man who rocked up (ten minutes late, I might add), wasnotthe man I’d seen in those photos. That sexy stubble I’d been drawn to was in fact a full-on beard that would give Father Christmas a facial hair complex, and that cute head of ringlets was tied up into an unkempt, greasy man bun.
Turns out he wasn’t, in fact, a lawyer. He’d graduated from law school six years ago and currently worked part-time at Caffè Nero but would start looking for a job in the industry again ‘soon’…which, judging by his lack of energy, didn’t seem likely to happen any time this century.
In contrast to Riccardo, Diego surprised me. He actually looked just like his photos. He’d already told me he was five foot seven, so I was expecting that, and at first he seemed very interesting.
Then out of nowhere, he’d asked, ‘How do you feel about being worshipped?’
Random. I was pretty sure he wasn’t talking about religion…
‘You’re a beautiful, intelligent and clearly successful woman,’ he’d added. ‘Someone like you deserves to be worshipped. So I would like to be submissive to you. What do you think?’
Whilst the idea of a man pandering to my every whim did sound appealing for a few fleeting seconds, I quickly came to my senses. I didn’t want some sort of bedroom slave. I was attracted to strong men with their own mind and would rather us be equal instead of me being dominant. Each to their own, but this wasn’t for me.
Thankfully, right on cue, my phone rang. Roxy! She apologised profusely for missing the first get-out call, as she had been stuck in a meeting, but her timing now was spot-on. After ending the call, I told Diego I had to rush off to meet a friend.
To be polite, I reluctantly exchanged two friendly cheek kisses with him, but then his tongue licked the inside of my ear. ‘Mmm…you tastesogood,’ he groaned suggestively.
Surely licking yourmistress’ear without permission wasn’t good sub behaviour? Gross. I wanted to go home and take a shower.
I hot-footed it to my next date, hoping it would be third time lucky.
Bruno…was a vision. Not as breathtaking as Lorenzo, but still stunning. Anyway, I needed to forget about him. Back to Bruno—he actually lookedbetterin real life than in his photos. He had the most beautiful dark eyes, gorgeous full lips and a beard so perfectly shaped, it would make the most skilled barber give it a round of applause. Although, sitting in front of him rather than a phone screen suddenly made things feel very real, and I did wonder whether it was wrong for me to drool over him?He’s only twenty-nine, for goodness’ sake. The same age as Harrison. Surely he’s far too young?
Unlike Riccardo, this was a man putting his goals into action by using the knowledge he’d gained from working at one of London’s top hotels to launch his own concierge company.
Once he found out I ran my own business (I’d just said I worked in marketing on my profile), that was it. The questions about how he should promote himself came thick and fast, which was draining. When I was thinking about comparing the dating thing to work, I wasn’t quite expecting it to feel like I was actually at a new business meeting. He was like an overexcited puppy with verbal diarrhoea, and any initial attraction I’d had started to evaporate. So when Roxy’s call came after forty minutes, I told him I had to leave as I had an early start.
So that was it. My seventh stage of Tinder was complete. I’m sure there were an infinite number of steps after this. Perhaps Stage 8 was Hooking Up, but right now, I was exhausted and thought I’d opt for ‘Tinder Time Out’.
At least for now, anyway…
Well, you know what it’s like. Never say never, particularly as these apps aretotallyaddictive…
