AllFreeNovel
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CHAPTERONE
Sophie
Ouch!Motherfu—
“You okay, Soph?” Esmeralda, my best friend and business partner, asked from behind me as I shook out my hand.
“Yeah, I’m good.” I stuck the hurt fingertip in my mouth to soothe the pain and glared at the offending pins on the dress.
“Sooo… not good?” she teased. “I’ll warn the employees.”
I rolled my eyes. Es was one of the few people who could pull me out of my funks. Nothing waswrongper se, but all the little things had rolled into one big abominable snowman of irritation. My office was a catchall for my work and had fallen into disarray, yet again. I handled the social media accounts in one corner, tested out new designs in another, and everything in-between ended up on my cluttered desk along the back wall.
“I’m fine, just frustrated. This isn’t looking the way I had envisioned it in my head.” I stared at Thelma, the lucky mannequin I’ve had since college, and examined the material I’d been pinning into place, focusing on the neckline while muttering, “It needs another inch over here.”
“Sophie,” Es sighed. “This is the first time you’re pinning it up. It was bound to happen, even if Thelma’s involved.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I stepped back and tried to put it out of my mind. Logically, I knew I’d solve it later. But I’d been in a shop earlier that day and found myself frustrated with the lack of options for plus sized womenagainand wanted to fix it all overnight.
Sure, the industry had made some improvements over the last few years, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted elegant and stunning, not floral prints and cheesy sayings screen printed onto T-shirts. Why was that the default for curvy women’s clothing? Who had decided that for everyone? I’m going to guess they didn’t have a vagina or a sense of style.
No matter; I was changing that, one outfit at a time with my brand—So Free.
Es had come up with the name when I described my vision for it and how I enjoyed using clothes to express myself. It was freeing to wear exactly what you wanted on the outside to reflect how you were feeling on the inside.
As a proud member of my prime demographic, I took delight in my work and designed clothes I wanted to wear. My brand was doing well because of it, and I was determined to make it even better, one viral TikTok video at a time. But Es was right; slow and steady would win this race, and cursing at good old Thelma wouldn’t solve anything.
“Better?” Es asked, fluffing her curly brown hair and assessing me with her vibrant green eyes, knowing she had won that round.
“Yes, and I hate that you always know when I need to take a breath. It derails my workaholic tendencies.”
“And that’s why you love me. You never take a break unless I force you.” Her cheeky grin made me smile, and I stuck my tongue out at her. “Speaking of, there’s something you should see.”
Es wasn’t one for keeping secrets, and the way she was bouncing on her toes meant this was a big one.
“Don’t look so worried,” she chastised, taking my hand and leading me over to the computer on my heap of junk known as a desk. “This is a good thing.”
“Yeah, yeah. You said the same thing when Tumblr got rid of all the nudes. Said it would make for less NSFW in office places. That was a horrible thing. Let the people have their porn gifs!”
Es rolled her eyes and gently pushed me to sit in my chair. “Trust me?” she asked as she pulled up the company’s TikTok account.
“With my life, but my mood is something else entirely,” I deadpanned. “What’s going on?”
She opened up the messages, scrolled down to one she had obviously already opened in her own office, and turned the monitor toward me.
I read the message, then scrolled back up to read it again.
“What is this?” I asked. “What did you do?”
She held up her hands in surrender.
“There’s this new dating show and they’re recruiting from TikTok. I figured they would get like a bazillion applications from more famous people, so I didn’t tell you when I applied. They put a call out for influencers and brand managers and people who wanted to apply.”
“I am none of those things.”
“But you are a brandowner. So I took a shot anyway and applied for you. They must see what a hot piece of… sexy, strong, independent woman you are,” she amended when one of our employees passed by my open door.
“Applied for… for adating show!?”
