Dating Mr. Texture

Good luck, Ginger.

Ginger Fields got down on the sidewalk from a taxi and walked towards the large office plaza she works which was 4 blocks ahead of her, it was the end of her sixth month working as a fashion intern at “Texture” – a luxury fashion brand in Suncity, and after 6 months of internship one lucky intern who must have wowed the head staff of Texture gets retained as permanent staff.

She was feeling a bit anxious today, but not because she was enthusiastic about being retained -she already had a feeling her friend, Lucille was going to be the lucky intern- but it was because it marked the end of one phase of her journey and she was anxious to find out how the next phase goes.

Born in New Oaktown to single parent Ray Fields, Ginger Fields was brought up with enough self-esteem for herself and her mum.

Blessed with a wide range of skills and abilities and being a ginger-haired girl, she was seen as different, but she was a girl who had always been confident in her looks, so no amount of bullying was a challenge for her or would make her feel less, very intelligent. She was top of her class through most of her school years, she has always been one to watch out for.

Her interests in fashion, style, and the creative arts stemmed from her childhood and the times she spent her holidays with her grandmother, who was an artist.

Leaving New Oaktown had been the best decision she had made for herself after finding out on the night of prom that her boyfriend and her best friend had been seeing each other behind her back. It had shattered her heart and she had avoided everyone for days after what had happened.

She had always thought of leaving New Oaktown, but not immediately after high school. She had wanted to get a degree before that but finding out she was being taken for an i***t by two of the people she trusted the most that night had been all the motivation she needed to leave town after graduation.

“Good morning, Ms. Fields.” Mr. Holt greeted. “Looking good.”

“Good morning, Mr. Holt. Thank you,” Then she continued, saying “you don’t look bad yourself.”

“Right? Thank you” he said, smiling as he adjusted his well-ironed uniform and then added with a thumbs up and a wink, “break a leg in there, today.”

Hopefully, not literally, she mused as she waved to him, then continued towards the elevator, also waving to the receptionist, Marcie, as she walked into the elevator.

“Morning Marcie.”

“Good morning Ms. Fields. Good luck.”

“Thank you.”

As the elevator doors closed, she closed her eyes and said a little prayer as her life from the moment she had caught her best friend and her boyfriend together till now flashed before her eyes.

She had made a decision that was best for her without taking any other person’s opinion -except her mum- for the first time in a while, she had gotten so used to making decisions and always putting other people’s expectations first.

The elevator stopped. She had gotten to the 3rd floor, adjusting her sage green and lavender checkered sweater vest and deconstructed lavender and purple wide-leg denim pants. She admired her outfit in the mirrors there in the elevator. As the elevator door opens, she takes a deep breath and walks out of the elevator onto the 3rd floor towards the conference room.

Ginger had taken proper care to pick out her outfit for today, even though she knew she was not going to be retained as a permanent staff member, she was going to make an impression. Whatever the outcome was going to be, she knew that she was going to be okay.

She noticed the big clock and her friend Lucille, who was also another intern, as she entered the conference room. It was 8:32 am. The interview was for 9:00 am. Lucille was already there. She was always on time.

******

“Heyyy.” Ginger said, walking around the table to hug Lucille, who was already standing up with her arms wide open.

“Hey Ging, loooovveeee your outfit and I am coming for that checkered vest,” she said, hugging her before sitting down on a chair and tapping the one beside hers.

“Uhm, no stealing of my clothes, thank you!” She said, giving her a knowing look as she sat on the chair Lucille had tapped.

Lucille then continues. “I chose these seats here because we get to see everyone who comes in and what they wear. Let’s Fashion police the s**t out of everyone with the time we have”

“Aren’t you just the drama?” she said, feigning surprise.

“Couldn’t be! Am I?” she replied with her best-horrified side look face, making her laugh.

Lucille and Ginger had bonded on the first day they met. Ginger had felt a bit out of place when work started but Lucille had made it so easy to transition into this new phase of her life.

She is an attractive lady who was born in France and brought up all around Europe, the only daughter of oil tycoon, Reginald Guy. She had shown an interest in and a unique talent in fashion at an early age and that made her father put her through education in fashion from then.

The 21-year-old IT girl knew a lot of the ropes in the fashion/design industry and she showed this to Ginger.

She was a really good fashion intern and if any intern was going to get retained, Ginger felt like it had to be Lucille. She was an even better friend who had helped her get a steady footing in Sun City and she knew that whatever happened she was always going to be appreciative of Lucille.

“Anyway, have you heard any details about the interview?”

“No, I haven’t, but something tells me you do.” The smile on Lucille’s face told Ginger that she knew, she always knew work gossip. “You sly, come on spill it.”

“Well, you remember Mr. hot CEO?”

Ginger nodded, unable to speak for a few seconds. Mr. Hot CEO was the name they had given their billionaire boss, Adrien Texture, immediately an image of him naked and in bed with her came to her head,

“Well, I heard he might be coming around today…”

“What?!,” Ginger screamed out before closing her mouth with both of her hands, making Lucille look at her with a confused look.

“Shhhh, shhh, shh.” she interrupted, chiding Ginger for interrupting her, “…are you interested in this intel, Ging?”

“Yes I am. go on...” Ginger said, her voice slightly muffled as she continued holding her mouth closed.

“I am not sure of the reason he is coming, it might be for the interview or a different reason, but I heard about it so I’m just giving you a heads up.”

Then Ginger nodded and removed the hands that were covering her mouth, she looked pale and Lucille noticed because she asked,

“Ging, are you okay?” Lucille asked looking really concerned

“No, not really I’m not.” Ginger said, then looking around she moved her chair closer to Lucille’s seat and added in a low tone, “See something happened on the night of our send-off party.”

“Go on,” Lucille said bending so she could hear Ginger clearly.

“I had a one night stand.” Ginger said,

“You?!” Lucille chuckled and even hit her with her shoulder then added, “That is good news, Ging. So you finally cleared the cobwebs down there. Wow!”

Lucille stopped smiling when she noticed that her friend did not look amused, she still looked off.

“Hope you used protection.”

“Yes, I did, and I even took the morning after pill just in case but that’s not the problem.” Ginger said

“Then what is the problem?”

“It was with Adrien Texture.” Ginger said with her voice lower than earlier on.

“What?!” Lucille almost screamed then looking around she used a low tone and said with the biggest smile ever, “I can not believe you did not tell me this earlier.”

“This is why I did not tell you earlier, I knew you were going to make a big deal out of it.”

“And rightly so.” Lucille said, then she paused and added, “Wow! That is nice, Ging.”

“No, it is not nice. I just want the interview to be done and leave this building without coming in contact with him.”

“We have so much to talk about, Ging.”

“No, we do not,” Ginger said,

But Lucille stubbornly said, “Yes we do.”

Even though Ginger did not want to talk about her one-night stand with Adrien Texture she just had to come to a compromise with her friend.

“I will tell you about it. After we are done with the whole interview but you have to promise that you will not mention it again this morning and you won’t be weird about it.”

“You are the one who is being weird but yeah I promise.”

“Thank you.” Ginger said rolling her eyes.

“You are welcome, my dear friend,” Lucille said as she wiggled her eyebrows at Ginger and kept a mischievous smile on her face.

Ginger sighed, it was about to be a long day.