Chapter 45: The Collaboration Meeting
Cassandra’s POV
+15 BONUS
We reviewed the presentation details on the way to the meeting. We were feeling pretty confident. It was a great proposal. It benefited both our companies and we believed in our idea.
At Jordyn’s office, a receptionist led us directly into the boardroom Jordyn and the company’s project director were already waiting for us. My stomach did a weird flip flop when I saw Jordyn It was weird. We’d once shared a bed and now we were just business associates.
I realized it would take some time getting used to.
“Ladies,” Jordyn said, nodding at us. He introduced us to the project director and then gave Stella the floor. I sat in my chair, pencil perched above a notepad, just like an assistant would sit
Jordyn still didn’t know my real identity and I wasn’t ready to reveal it yet. So for all intents and purposes, I wasn’t Stella’s partner in this meeting. I was just her personal assistant.
Stella went through the proposal. She explained our concept of a clothing line with ‘The Power of Women‘ theme. Jordyn’s company would provide us with a venu and all associated costs for our fashion show. In return, Jordyn’s company would have exclusive rights to sell our clothing online.
She finished and passed over the materials for Jordyn and his project manager to look over.
my
Jordyn carefully reviewed the package. He asked several questions about what we needed from the venue. Stella answered them. Once or twice, I almost spoke up. But Stella shot me a look, reminding me to keep my mouth shut unless I wanted to raise suspicion.
Stella was great. She answered all his questions with confidence. But then Jordyn started asking questions about the design–side of the project.
“Walk me through the clothing line,” Jordyn said. “How many skews do you foresee this line having? As in, how many actual pieces of clothing? And what did you project the cost to consumer will be?”
“Well…” Stella said, rearranging the sheets of paper in front of her
Shit. She was trying to stall. She didn’t know the answer to those questions. The design–side of things was my area of expertise. “It’s hard to say,” she stammered.
“Ball park,” Jordyn replied.
“Um…”
“Around thirty pieces, give or take,” I quickly replied. “There will be several base pieces and the rest will be separate pieces that each customer can choose, according to her own personal preference. As for cost to consumer, we want it to be affordable, but not cheap. We’ll be using high–end fabric, so that will increase the price. Women love designer clothing because it looks and feels expensive. We don’t want to price ourselves out of the market for the average woman. But we’re not some low end department store, either.”
Everyone fell silent.
Stella looked at me, incredulous. So did Jordyn.
“Thank you for that knowledgeable response,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “You certainly seem to know a lot about design.”
ng second
I could see his curiosity was piqued. But I’d had no choice. Stella couldn’t answer the questions and we really needed to impress Jordyn and his project manager. They’d be investing a lot of money into this fashion show. We didn’t want the thoughts about working with us.
“Our lead designer is away,” I blurted out. “On a…personal matter. But she briefed me before she left.”
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Chapter 45. The Collaboration Meeting:
+15 BONUS
“Yes,” Stella nodded. “She had to go away suddenly. But Cassande here, she has, uh, an aptitude for design. So I suggested she step in and handle the design–related questions in this meeting.”
“I see,” Jordyn said. I had no idea what he was thinking. Was he on to me? Had I blown my fake identity as a personal assistant. Well, you did a very good job,” he finally replied, breaking out into smile.
Phew.
He bought our last minute excuse. For a moment, I’d been seriously concerned that he’d see right through it. It wasn’t commonplace to ask an assistant to step in like this. And it was even more unusual for an assistant to know as much as I did about fashion design, even if she was briefed.
Thankfully, though, Jordyn didn’t know what he didn’t know. And in this case, he knew absolutely nothing about fashion so he wasn’t suspicious about how much I knew.
“Well, everything looks good on our end,” he said, putting down the package. “I guess the next thing is to decide on a date for the fashion show.”
Stella, Jordyn, and the project manager tossed around potential dates while I sat quietly. They decided on a date three months
from now.
“That will give you enough time to put the word out for designers. You still want this to be a competition, right?” he asked.
“That’s right,” Stella confirmed. Our idea was to create the base pieces ourselves and then to ask up and coming young designers to showcase their own designs for potential ‘extra pieces.‘ We’d pick a winning design during the fashion show.
They wrapped up the meeting and shook hands. But I’d watched Jordyn through the whole meeting and something was gnawing
at me.
“Mr. Smith,” I said, addressing Jordyn the only I had since the divorce. He flinched at the formality. “May I have a word with you? In private?”
Stella looked at me, confused. I flashed her a smile to let her know it was okay.
I needed to talk to Jordyn alone. The image of Ellie kissing that man, the executive from Sterling Silver, on her front step that day had plagued me. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
And now, seeing Jordyn here today….
I no longer loved him, but I still cared about him. A little, anyway. I decided he had the right to know what I’d seen.
“What is it?” Jordyn asked, perplexed.
“There’s something I need to bring to your attention,” I told him, clearing my throat. “Something…personal.‘
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