Page 82 of Reconciling With the Rival

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Some Aches A Dildo Can't Fix

November 7th

Nothing in my lifethe past day has made any fucking sense.

Not only did the person I despise the most proposition me with a sex pact, but I’m actually considering it.

Tonight, we’re stuck in the office doing overtime because of this huge presentation. It landed on Imogen’s desk this morning, and the meeting istomorrow. She left ten minutes ago, needing to get some rest, but the rest of us—Leo, Adam, Rae, Brody, and I—are here until we finish. If it takes all night, it takes all night.

And the only reason she saw it so late was because it got lost in the shuffle of other paperwork, all thanks to Brad. Needless to say, he got sent home for the rest of the week, and his employment is under review because of how much he pissed off the board and Imogen.

“Ella, can you figure out a color palette for their new brand? The rest of us can configure the slides and figure out an order,” Brody tells me, and I nod, immediately opening their social media accounts and seeing what they have going for them already.

It’s fine, I guess. It’s definitely doing…something for them.

This contract is for a local grocery store chain expanding to a few more locations across Virginia. In order for them to do it, they need to ramp up their marketing, so they approached us. We just didn't find out about it until earlier today.

All through their social media accounts, there's a mix of fonts and colors, and nothing is cohesive at all. Most of the time, companies assume bright colors will pop on their ads and social media pages, but this looks like a color nightmare. For a chain like theirs, I think more muted colors would work best—like earth tones. I think some browns, greens, and beiges will look better. I’m also thinking of creating a custom serif font for them. Serif fonts usually look better online, and they’re easy enough to manipulate so it’s still readable.

“So, we have twenty slides that outline a rough draft of the campaign we would run for them,” Rae tells us. “Ella, what color scheme are you thinking?”

“Muted earth tones. They’re a grocery store, and if we make them their own serif font they can use for every post, it might draw more people in.” I swipe on their feed. “Their accounts are all connected, so if we do a complete overhaul and start fresh, it might help to attract more people to their stores.”

“Good.” She smiles at me. “I’ll head home and work on the slide designs and match it to the projected feed we want to create for them. I’ve seen way too much of this office today, and I need a change.” Rae starts to pack her stuff up, gathering her laptop and everything spread across the table.

“Yeah, I hear you,” Brody says, also packing his things up.

“I’ll work on Imogen’s pitch,” Adam says, also grabbing his laptop. “I’ll write it out at home so she’s not reading from the presentation and send it over to you guys to proofread before I give it to her.”

I look at my phone, noting the time—seven p.m.—before I decide if I want to leave with Rae and work from home tonight, or if I should keep chugging along here.

“I can read it for you, Adam. Just send it to me whenever you have a chance.” I can’t go home. If I go home, I’m going to fall asleep, and that’s something I can’t do, at least not until we have a solid foundation and this is done.

“You’re not headed home?” Rae says as she notices I’m not moving to pack anything up.

“No. I’ll focus better here. Plus, the conference room has a bigger screen for me to see if their new social media feed will look okay.”

“Ah, well, whatever works best for you, Ella,” Brody says, his tone condescending as fuck. Sometimes, I wish I could deck him in the face for the way he speaks to the women in this office, but I always refrain. “Leo, do you wanna come grab a drink with me and talk some stuff out?”

Leo—who has been unusually quiet tonight—only looks up at him from where he’s typing. I actually don’t know what he’s working on.

“No, I think I’ll stay here. I’m the new guy, right? I should stay and learn how a last-minute presentation goes.”

I feel two pairs of eyes on me—Adam and Rae.

“Are you sure? I feel bad leaving you two here to do all this.” Adam is looking at me, knowing how I feel about Leo.

“It’ll be fine,” I say to the room. “We’ll get it done. Won’t we, Zimmerman?”

He smirks at me from across the conference room table. “We will.”

“Suit yourself,” Brody says as he opens the conference room door. “See you guys tomorrow.”

As soon as he leaves, I swear, the air in the room is much cleaner. I can suddenly breathe better.

“Ella?” Rae questions me.

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