Wall Street Seduction

Chapter 5: The Party

Chapter 5: The Party

"Parties are a cruel kind of fun"

-Caryl Churchill-

***

    The door was slammed open with a loud thud, Scarlett turned around to see a grinning face of her best friend Cassandra "Cassie" Johnson. It was clear that she was ready for the party, her blonde hair was styled in a big, voluminous braid bun. She had her emerald green cocktail dress on, her makeup was red carpet ready, she rocked a bold red lipstick that night, which brought out the light in her pale blue eyes. White gold necklace with teardrop diamond pendant dangled around her neck. On one of her hand, she had her silver clutch tightly wrapped around her fingers. On her feet was the latest silver creation of Jimmy Choo. Overall, she was looking stunning.

     Scarlett on the other hand had just finished taking a bath, she still had a white towel wrapped around her wet out of the shower hair, along with her navy blue satin bath robe wrapped around her body. She had just taken a seat to do her makeup when Cassie entered her room without notice. It was a bad habit of hers which was hard to get rid of, to a point where Scarlett gave up on room privacy. At that point in their friendship, her apartment was pretty much open for her.

     "Seriously? I arrived here fifteen minutes ago, and I thought you managed to do something in between those fifteen minutes" She spoke with a hint of sarcasm. Scarlett shrugged it off, she opened up her primer bottle and started prepping her skin. Tapping the product on her skin to minimize her pores. Cassie was not planning on just standing there watching her glam up so she stepped in and made herself comfortable on Scarlett's bed. She stared at her friend who was blending in her foundation.

    "That shade is a little bit too light on you" she stated.

    "Yeah, it's my pale winter shade, I ran out of my usual shade, but we can easily fix it with contour and bronzer" Scarlett replied. Being in the industry for nearly her whole life, she was familiar with how makeup worked, which was why she always had something on her sleeve to fix a bad mismatched makeup look.

    On her vanity desk, Scarlett had the collection of the makeup which she designed and created herself, she was very proud of each product. Her brand had been carried in major high end and luxury retailers in the US and Canada, and that night, the company was holding a party to gain more investors in order to expand the brand internationally without the need of selling them to a parent company, simply because Scarlett wanted to have full control of her brand. She had observed her competitors in the industry who had sold their brand to a parent company and in return been releasing so much stuff to fill in the demand which caused some backlash from their customers. It was the last thing she wanted for her own.

    "I cannot wait for tonight, this would be our largest party yet, we have even invited some brand influencers and famous makeup artists for marketing sake. It's going to be great" Scarlett could not agree more. It was going to be their largest party yet, during the five years of her brand journey, they had never held a party like that one, it made her excited and nervous at the same time.

    "Oh, by the way, I invited my brother, and he said he is bringing his friend along with him, he is not on the invitation list, but he seems like a good potential investor, the name is Carter Roman, he is a self-made multi-millionaire, heck, he might even be a billionaire, I heard he has over five hundred million dollars in his Swiss bank account, excluding the undocumented assets he has on other places" she said with a smug on her face.

    Carter Roman? She had never heard of his name before, there were quite a collection of millionaires in New York alone, it was impossible for her to know all of them, but maybe he was one of those private businessmen, nonetheless, all she cared about that night was finding great investors, if he was a good potential like Cassie mentioned, he was more than welcome to her place.

    After thirty minutes of doing her makeup, she finished it up by drying her hair with a blower, while Cassandra lent a hand to style her hair since they needed to save time if they did not want to be late as the host to the party. Scarlett ended up wearing a black long backless cocktail dress with golden lining around the waist. Her chest area was slightly exposed in a V shape. She looked absolutely classy and elegant, an impression she wanted others to get from her, Scarlett over lined her lips a bit before applying a salmon pink nude lipstick with a little bit of gloss on top, which made her lips looked plump and juicy. Her eyes were enhanced with smoky brown eye shadow.  A classic black Louboutin heels decorated her feet. The red sole made her appearance even more striking. It was technically impossible for anyone to ignore her presence. She would definitely stand out that night.

    They left Scarlett's apartment at exactly 5P.M by car. The party was held at The Plaza New York. They had made the reservation several months before to save the date. It was an auspicious date that day, Scarlett was a bit superstitious from her Chinese side, but none of her colleagues seemed to be against it.

    When they arrived, Ryan and several more of the executive members of the company was already there. They had ensured that everything from the table to the music were perfectly arranged. The butlers had stood on their positions. It was not just about the big picture, they paid attention to the tiniest details, such as the flowers used to decorate the room, the air was filled with a rich and clean tuberose scent. On the kitchen, the chefs had prepared an extravagant amount of dishes for the guests. The hotel service had been great in arranging everything. Her team had also previously made a request to the concierge to prepare 100 bottles of 50 ml bottles of niche perfumes for complementary souvenir which the guest could take when they arrive, beautifully placed in a wooden gift box with satin lining inside for additional details. All that was left was to wait for the guests to arrive.

    Scarlett wandered around the room to greet the early guests, one of them being none other than her one and only mentor. Oliver Goswell. The man was the first one to approach her with excitement.

    "Scarlett, you look absolutely beautiful tonight" The man was her first investor and the person who had helped her throughout the beginning of her business journey. He was present earlier than what she had expected. The man had definitely gained some weight, at fifty-two, he was starting to have a beer belly, although he never drank any for he was allergic to them. He was starting to turn slightly bald as well, but his moustache remained the same.

    She gave him a polite handshake, delighted to be graced by his presence, he appeared to come along with his wife and children who were seated comfortably in the front table. She acknowledged their presence with a polite smile before they returned to their own business.

    "How are you feeling?" He asked.

     "Hopeful and confident" there was glee in her tone. Oliver was so proud of her. He met her for the first time in a restaurant in downtown New York, she was twenty-one back then, young and ambitious, she approached Oliver and asked him right away to become her mentor. At first he was doubtful of her, she was so young and he was unsure if she could keep up, but he decided to give it a shot and taught her everything he knew. Within three years, she managed to start her own company, he guided her throughout the first three years of her business journey, on her fourth year, she was able to stand on her own two feet. Everything she had then, she owed to him. Had he rejected to help her, perhaps she would not be as successful as she was, or she would just find another mentor who might not have the same vision as she did. Which would result in a different outcome of life.

    "I know you can do this, I have always believed in you" He praised her. Scarlett smiled sheepishly. They parted ways as she still had to greet the other guests.

     The guests started to arrive one by one, some of them came from Europe, some from East and South East Asia, there were also a few guests from UAE, mostly from Dubai. Her team had made sure they had a diverse amount of influential, wealthy and powerful people to expand the knowledge regarding her brand across the world. The company would pay for their stay for the night, it was not that big of a deal in comparison to what they would get in return.

     As a great host, she made her way to greet each individual guests, some of them were pleasant people, others were a bit more difficult. Since she had the ability to read people, she already had a guess of who would become their next investors before the party even formally started just by talking to them. Still, she treated them all with the same amount of respect. It was important for her to create a network amongst these people, it was one thing she  learned on her path toward success.

    Right at 6.30 P.M, the party started, the MC started the event by the usual formality, it was mostly greetings and a few words of thank you, nothing special. There were some musical performance which lasted for around ten minutes to entertain the guest, followed by a few tittle-tattle before it was finally time for Scarlett to deliver her short speech on the stage. Her name was eventually called, she had prepared herself for the moment. She stood up, flashing a smile to the guests before coming forward.

     When she was walking, she did not realize that a pair of eyes had followed her with a lustful intent. Scarlett's future was set. Soon she was to meet the man who would become a huge part of her life. She simply did not know it yet.