I looked at the darkness under my eyes, which were barely open as I felt the heaviness of my eyelids.
Yeah, I couldn't sleep last night. How could I? And now I felt like I might fall while walking, so driving wasn't even an option, and I had to leave the car at home and told my mother to use it.
My mother's salon was on a contract that provided makeup artists to the Wright entertainment agency.
It was the company that Ella's father owned, and me being friends with his daughter easily made it possible for the salon to get contracted by them.
So, every six months, my mother had to visit the company to renew the contract.
And whenever it happened, she always visited me as it was close to it.
I forget about that. These days I felt like I was forgetting things too often. Maybe I was getting old—mentally.
Anyway, since I hadn't brought my car, I took a cab. It was actually very peaceful to ride instead of driving.
Maybe I could get myself a driver. It was not wise for me to be driving at this age, it seemed.
Crying to myself, I entered the building.
"Did you see her? I wouldn't believe my eyes."
"I think I have been blessed with the goddess herself."
My ears picked up the conversation that two of the employees before me were having. Not only them, but there was a commotion inside the building.
"Goddess? Yep, she is the goddess, alright."
"I wouldn't say a goddess, though."
"Yeah, she is a devil.....a sinfully attractive devil."
Hmm? What was going on? It was very unusual to have this much commotion inside the office because of someone, since most of the famous people were a common sight, whether it was influence-wise or attractiveness-wise. So, my interest piqued, and when I arrived at my department, I asked Zoey, who was the only one there yet.
"Oh, that? Some big celebrity is visiting our building."
As usual, she said in a flat tone.
Zoey was a person who would be very serious about things that interested her, and even if that celebrity who had made a commotion because of her arrival came on her knees before her, but if she didn't have any interest in them, then she would just disregard them as I did to all those of my annoying suitors.
"You know that Raven Queen? That's her."
Raven Queen?
I looked at Zoey in surprise. The Raven Queen was a young top actress who rose to fame solely by her cold-hearted villains role. All in all, she was an actress among the actresses—that was how popular she was.
"Why is she here?"
I couldn't help myself and asked that out loud.
"How do I know?"
Zoey leaned on the desk as she held a cup of hot tea to her lips with both of her hands, and as she spoke, the steam formed on the thick lens of her glasses.
And as she took a sip, it was very subtle, but her face crunched up. I furrowed my brows. If I remember correctly, she used to drink coffee.
"What are you drinking?"
Zoey looked up from her cup and then back at it.
"Green tea... I heard it's good for old age."
She breathed again, and again steam covered her glasses, and then she got up, nodded at me and started walking to her seat with her glasses still clouded.
Was she seeing things alright? For a second, I too thought of drinking green tea instead of coffee but after seeing her, I chose to stick with coffee.
Soon, other workers started to come, and I also immersed myself in work until I received a message from Mrs. Berson, the head secretary of the Ceo herself.
"A m—meeting? ....again?"
Leila's face turned pale as I called the main members of my department, with Leila still covering for the team lead.
"We don't know that. Maybe she is thinking of having her welcoming party."
Shaun said in a teasing tone while glancing at Zoey, who simply ignored him.
"Whatever it is, we are to head there now."
I too was curious—and was a little troubled. After all, no one knew what Alina was thinking.
We followed Mrs. Berson, but unexpectedly, she didn't lead us to the conference room but straight to the office of Alina.
I glanced back, and just like me everyone was confused. After receiving permission, we all entered, and what greeted us was the sight of two beautiful women.
One was in office attire with a white blouse and wide black pants. Her blonde hair was loose and curled along the length as she was sitting on the single-seater couch inside the sitting area of her office.
Sitting beside her, on another single seater, was a tall, slender woman. Her eyes were of silver color with long, straight raven hair. She was in casual clothes with a t-shirt and pants.
That was the Raven Queen everyone was talking about before. My eyes struggled to choose one of them, as both were just too beautiful.
Still, my reaction was acceptable, as the people behind me made a strange voice after seeing them.
"There you are, Director Patson."
"Ma'am."
I quickly composed myself and slightly bowed to Alina. With the change in how she addressed me, I picked up her intention and also followed along and showed even more respect than I usually do.
"This is Miss Iris Cross...Miss Cross is going to be working with us on our Century Grace series."
Again, someone—probably Leila and Shaun—whispered. As for me, I was more worried than surprised. It was actually a golden—no, platinum—opportunity, no doubt, but could we afford this high-priced piece of jewelry?
I turned towards the Raven Queen and bowed to her as well. She, with a faint smile, nodded in acknowledgement without rising from her seat.
And then for another minute or two, Alina told us how she was going to be a face of the upcoming launch and asked to choose a specific collection for her, matching her image—indirectly.
We needed to gain as much as we could for this opportunity, and it seemed like they had already talked about her fees, since she was now giving us the order.
Not only that but I felt like this was Alina's plan all along, and she had asked her personally as we were discussing this in her office.
Just then, I also remembered something. Because of the multiple collections, it needed multiple models of different features and tones, and one of them was chosen because they were recommended by me.
And my already bad mood worsened. It would be a lie if I were to say I was not sad.
"You all will be working together for a while... If it is alright with you, Miss Cross, then we can proceed further."
Alina, with elegance, addressed us before turning to the Raven Queen.
I shook my head from those thoughts—it wasn't the time to think about those things. Besides, what was done was done, and now I had more pressing matters at hand.
"No problem here."
For the first time, Iris spoke and just like all her character, it sent chills down everyone's spine. With a voice like that, there was no wonder why she played all those villain's roles.
She was just too indifferent to all the things—that was how I felt about her but her smile before proved that it wasn't true.
Anyway, the launch was still in the production stage, and so we had much time—if Alina wouldn't decide to turn things up, that was—to proceed things through.
"Understood, ma'am. Miss Cross, if you please, follow us..."
Then I turned to Zoey and continued.
"Chief manager, please escort Miss Cross to the conference room. I'll join you in a moment."
Zoey was confused but she didn't say anything and with Raven Queen, she and others left.
Like I said before, I had more pressing matters to attend to, and so I chose to stay behind to talk to Alina.
"Is something wrong, Miss Andrea?"
She was about to stand up, but after seeing me, she folded her arms as she looked at me with a calm gaze.
So, how should I go about this? I wouldn't be stupid enough to face Alina Kingsley without any planning. But since she was in her work mode, I felt a little nervous.
But I still relaxed my shoulders a bit. I didn't need to be so tensed up since I was just in front of Alina now.
"I came regarding the goods import—it is arriving in five days as you have asked, now in four."
After the meeting I completed the draft of the total material before contacting the trade company and this morning I received their reply.
"Okay."
She, after mentally noting the date, nodded and fell silent. None of us spoke—well, I didn't speak, as she just had been listening to me very seriously, so she asked again.
"Is there something else, Miss Andrea?"
"Yes."
I replied right away and then, after taking a deep breath, I finally asked.
"I wanted to ask why you want to go for inspection."