LoveBird

Chapter Four

As if the drive to work wasn't always eventful, Olivia decided to send my sister a message saying we had a company wide meeting this morning and she needed to be there early. I know we live atleast thirty minutes away from the office, and how my sister got there in ten I will never forget. Alana slams the car into park in the closest parking spot she can find when we enter the parking deck. 

"Come on Zosime Out! OUT! We got to GOOOO!" Shes yelling at me as she gets her bags from the back seat, slinging them across the back of my head as she gets out.

"Ow b***h you just hit me with your bags." I'm rubbing the back of my head feeling woosy as I get out of the car. Between the motion sickness and getting knocked out with her laptop case I think I should of stayed in bed today. The car is beeping beside me letting me know she locked it as she begins to run into the office leaving me in the parking lot to catch up. I go through the doors to see barely anyone is in the office. Its 7:45 what was so important to risk our lives to get here early. I slowly make my way up the stairs heading to the little coffee we have. I find Basil and Rose already sitting there enjoying a cup.

"Goodmorning guys." I call out to them as I walk blindly from the aching headache I have to the coffee machine to pour me a cup. "Damn girl you don't look good whats going on?" Rose asks me as she gets up to come around the counter pushing me to take a seat. I rub my head as I pull out some aspirin  from my purse and swallow it quickly to maybe get some relief from this migraine. 

"I have a headache, my sister drove like a maniac for this meeting and she almost knocked me out with her laptop." I say letting my head rest on my hands. "Looks like we are all here early, we both got a call from Olivia this morning about the meeting and how it was urgent that we be here early."Basil says giving me a glass of water to help with the aspirin. 

"Whats so important about Asher anyways why is everyone bending around backwards for this man?"I ask both of them, it makes no since to me for someone who hold just as much power as Eric get so much special treatment. Basil and Rose then decided to tell me why he was so great.

"Besides Asher being Mr. Redmont's eldest son, he is supposed to inherit the entire company. He was also apart of a World Famous band he traveled all over the world with them after college, his fan base is huge."

Basil interrupts Rose, "But I heard that he dropped the band all of a sudden to pick up his photography, so he traveled the world, traveling through jungles and deserts taking photos of everything he seen. He was inducted into the league of world reknowned photographers just last year. I have you seen the man he looks like he could wrestle a lion or a bear and win."

Maybe it was due to my migraine or all the loss sleep but at that moment I was feeling really grouchy and could not help what came out of my mouth.

"So your telling me that our knew boss is none other than tarzan, who spends his free time in the jungle wrestling with wild animals. How can someone like this run the company, and whats going to happen to us? Are we going to have to go into the jungle with him?" My mouth just kept going saying anything I could of think of that could insult a boss I had never met. Basil and Rose kept making faces at me trying to get me to stop my spill but I wasn't even paying them no mind. Until I felt like someone was behind me, a presence that was hard to ignore and made both my friend's faces go pale. 

"He is behind me isn't he?" I ask them and they both nod their head simultaneously. I gulp honestly if I was going to be fired this might be the suckiest way anyone could go. I slowly turn around and look into my bosses face and besides being scared for my life I couldn't deny the fact that this man was absolutely handsome. His wild hair framed his face falling to his shoulders. You would think he was brown headed but the light blonde streaks that were scattered through his hair made you think otherwise. His face was chiselled with a strong nose and high cheek bones, his strong jaw was covered in a beard that matched his hair. His hard brown eyes that had flashes of amber in them almost as if you could see strands of wheat waving in the wind were beautiful, but those hard eyes were staring at me and I felt my body stuck in place scared to breath. His full lips form a smirk looking at me with amusement and I think at that point I could of been struck dead and been okay. 

"Whats your name?" He asks me, his deep voice was hypnotizing. I need to pull it together he just asked me a question, caught me talking bad about him and I have been sitting here checking him out. 

"It's Zosime." I say quietly, he's so close to me now, our faces only a few inches away. I'm sure he can hear me just fine from here. That smirk returns to his face, maybe he noticed I was checking him out, I can feel my cheeks grow red from him being so close. 

"Zosime we have a meeting in five minutes, I except you to be there with all of your... ideas." With that he pushes away from the stool I am sitting on and walks away, his broad back the only thing in view. For a acting CEO he is dressed in casual clothes, like jeans and a knitted V-neck shirt that hangs loose allow his muscles to be hugged nicely and visible. I turn back toward Basil and Rose whose faces are pale white as if they have seen a ghost. 

"Am I getting fired?"I say, looking at both of their faces I can see that might be the only option for me at this point. "Maybe not, but its looking like it. Lets just go to your last meeting Zosime." Basil says, we start to walk to the bottom floor, I loop my arm through his for support and for him to show me the way.

"I can't believe you said that Zosime, could you not see the signals Rose and I were trying to give you?" He says looking at me with worry, I can't help but laugh.

 "It'll be alright and atleast he heard me I'm sure everyone else is thinking the same thing." He just shakes his head at me, apparently not everyone shares my nonchalant attitude around here. 

We head down stairs to the open floor, it has a big conference table it with chairs stacked everywhere. To the left of the head of the table my sister and Olivia are sitting and Basil and I decide to sit behind them. Rose goes to the other side joining the rest of the copywriters from her department. Everyone is chatting about the party from last night when I remember the events I look at Basil. I get close to him enough where I can whisper to him and my sister won't be able to hear. 

"I have a secret to tell you." He looks up at me suddenly his eyes grow really wide. Basil always has a goofy expression on his face but this one is different. "Oh no you can not tell me a secret, I'm not good with them." He looks at me again and I smile at him. "Okay its not a secret its more like a event that happened last night." He looks at me again almost with intacipation like he himself has a secret. "Okay, okay tell me." So I get really close to him to make sure no one can hear me. 

"I was in a part of the art exhibit and a stranger came up and kissed me. I don't know who he was but he meant to kiss someone else but he kissed me instead." I said it really quickly not wanting anyone else to hear. Basil turned to me really quickly, "You kissed someone!" He almost yelled it I quickly put my hand over his mouth to shut him up. My sister turned around looking at us curiously. I got real close to Basil, "If my sister heard that I will kill you."

Before he could say anything else Asher started to walk down the stairs with his brother. Let me tell you every woman in the room seemed to stair at him with awe and want. I took the oppurtunity to look at Basil and threaten him again. "I wonder if he is going to fire me?" I whispered to him, watching Olivia in front of fixing her hair and straightening her outfit. Could the woman be more obvious. Asher made his way to the head of the table and he didn't even give her a glance. I honestly felt bad for the woman. He looked through the crowd and then he found me. When his eyes met mind he sent me the same look he did when he caught me talking about him and then turned his glance else like a dismissal. "I am definitely getting fired." I whisper to Basil. He just patted my hand almost to reassure.

Asher then began to speak his voice stopping any side conversations that were still going on. "Friends I'll start off with saying thank you for all of the warm welcomes I have received since returning to the company, its great to hear all the good things you all say about me, even those who have not had the chance to work with me have something to say." If I could become any smaller in my seat I would turn into an ant. I felt myself sink as far down in my seat as my body would let me. 

"I wish I had good news to bring today guys but I don't. Our projects are not up to date and were not producing like we used to. Also due to the lack of revenue its making our reputation falter. We have to step up our game you guys. My father hired each and every one of you because he saw how you could benefit Redmont. I plan on taking on new projects and us branching out and broadening our horizons. With more revenue it will benefit you the employees more and the company more. Now I want us to go over the cases you have all been working on over the past six months and we will see how we can improve them and what we can take on."

After that speech everyone seemed to start throwing ideas at him, telling the information they had. When he gave them praise it would change the workplace into a tranquil space but when he didn't like something people were almost in tears. Its not that he was angry or yelled at anyone, people were just so afraid to disappoint this man. 

"Asher I think we should start working on the new makeup line for OliveBranch corporations. They have organic products that would appeal to a large audience, its a great opportunity for the company and it would also give us alot of attention from the media." Olivia had finally found her a way to get his attention, he took the documents from her placing the advertisements on the table. He continued to study the documents, and he seemed to come up with a decision. 

"This is a good campaign we can follow, friends you can all go but members of the creative department you can all stay and we can look at the pictures together." With that everyone started to get up leaving everyone in the creative department to gather around the table and study the pictures and documents. Trying to stay away from Olivia I went around on the other side of the table. Letting Basil sit in the chair between me and Asher to keep some distance from the person I embarrassed myself infront of. I could feel his eyes on me from the head of the table and I looked with a glance to see him staring at me. Feeling like a rat in a lions den I decided to focus on the work in front of me instead of being bothered by the man caveman close to me. 

I grabbed one of the advertisements that OliveBranch had sent for their campaign. The pictures were beautiful in aspect but the color formation was wrong. As if the artist that created it could not find a good medium so they through a bunch of colors and textures together to try and appease the viewer. I continued to look at each of the pictures studying them and coming up with a way to make them more appealing.

"I want to hear each of your opinions on the advertisements, what do you think could make each of them better." He asked us. Olivia did not hesitate with voicing her opinion on the pictures.

"The pictures are beautiful for the advertisement but I could of not think of a better way to express a cosmetic than with these bright vibrant colors. The Reds and Greens give such a dominant color pattern on the page." She gave her answer boldly as if no one could prove her wrong. Asher leaned back in his chair listening to each person give their statement to him and finally when everyone had given their opinion it was now left up to me. 

"Zosime what do you think of the pictures presented here? Do you think they would grab our audiences attention with their beauty or would this be something a woman would discard as something to gauty?" 

Almost as if he had read my mind. That was exactly what I thought when I looked at the pictures in front of me. I grabbed the document they had been looking at and basing their opinions off of. The colors were beautiful but it seems as if they were thrown together in attempt to create something.

Taking a sip from my water I started to give my spill. "I think the pictures have a beautiful aspect but it could of been put together better." All eyes turned to me at that statement, maybe it was with amusement that I had had a different opinion then them. 

"Okay elaborate on that, what do you think would make this presentation better." He asked me sitting up in his chair almost as if he was interested in what I had to say next. 

"I think that the picture is a mess of beautiful colors thrown together trying to create a suitable presentation. There is not a focusable medium in the presentation. It has so many different textures in it that its hard to keep track. The color is mixed up with darks and lights that its hard to understand. If we focus on one color pallet that is suitable for the season instead of focusing on spring and summer colors for a campaign that would lauch in the fall it would make it more suitable for the consumer eyes." With that everyones eyes were on me, and people started to agree with me.

"That does make since." and "I agree." Was heard from all around the table. I looked over at Olivia and if her eyes could burn things I would be on fire. 

Asher cleared his throat from the head of the table, "I agree with you Zosime, I believe that the presentation was missing something and you were able to find the idea I was looking for. You can come with me to the printing house to pick out new colors for the project." He started to collect the documents at the table, putting them all back into the folder. "Thats the end of the meeting guys." Everyone started to get up at his dismissal grabbing their belongings and heading upstairs. I started to go with Basil when Asher stopped me. "We will be leaving in fifteen minutes I expect you to have your things ready and outside by then." His tall body towered over mine making me feel again like a mouse stuck in a lions cage. He was a big man atleast 6'4 and covered in nothing but pure muscle. His shirt stretched over his muscles, making it them visible when he moved.

"Why do I have to go I just started, you could take Olivia or someone else with you to the printing shop." I said, honestly I was trying to avoid going. No need for me to embarrass myself infront of him anymore. "You came up with the idea, so you are going, I will see you in fifteen minutes outside." With that he dismissed me to grab my things.

How did I end up in this situation I should of just agreed with everyone else.