Best Friend

Champagne

It had been a week since Camila had met with Giselle for the first time — and thus, a week since Shawn's callback. Shawn had yet to hear back from the casting directors but Camila had, in fact, heard back from Giselle. In fact, she was currently waiting at a coffee shop in the city with her iPad in hand for her potential new client...or boss. She still wasn't quite sure what that relationship would look like. 

She unlocked her iPad and scrolled through the test pages that Giselle had asked her to put together, quadruple-checking that they were absolutely perfect and up to her own personal standards...not that she could change it now even if she wanted to.

"Camila!" the high-pitched voice called from behind. Camila looked over her shoulder and smiled, standing to greet the woman she had been emailing back and forth with for the past couple of weeks. 

"Giselle! It's so great to see you again."

"Please, call me Gigi. And it's so great to see you as well!" They exchanged a friendly hug before Giselle — Gigi — took a seat across from Camila. 

Gigi was beautiful. Her hair was platinum blonde, almost white — a daring color choice considering her fair skin tone. She made it work, though. Her face was spattered with freckles and her eyes were an icy blue. She wore heavy and eccentric eye makeup — but not because she felt she needed to. Camila could tell by the way she carried herself that she didn't wear makeup as a mask, she wore it as a form of self-expression.

Not only did Camila feel drawn to Gigi as a person, she felt drawn to the job as well. It was a magazine; a small one, but one with a devoted and fast-growing group of readers. Gigi's goal with the magazine, aptly titled Valiant Magazine, was to empower women by giving them the encouragement they needed to be their truest and most authentic self. Words from their first meeting had stuck out to Camila throughout the week as she crafted these test pieces for Gigi to review: bringing women together, that's the goal.

"Did you finish the test pieces?" Gigi asked as if on cue. 

"I did!" Camila unlocked her iPad and opened the spreads that she had created. The blonde had given her a list of desires and things she wanted to see in the test run — the rest was up to Camila. She took a deep, calming breath as she slid the iPad across the small table for Gigi to review. It was hard to read her reaction as she scrolled through the test pages that Camila had created for her. Her lips were pursed together and her brows were knit in thought. It was a solid two minutes before Gigi finally spoke up again. 

"These are incredible, Camila...really." The blonde set the iPad back down onto the table, taking a sip of the green tea she had ordered for herself. "Honestly, it feels like I've finally found the missing puzzle piece. I've been trying to figure out what was needed to bring Valiant Magazine to the next level and it feels like you're it."

"Me?" Camila was shocked, genuinely. She had never really felt like anyone's missing piece before. "Wow, thank you Giselle — I mean, Gigi." Camila smiled shyly — a smile that was quickly reciprocated by the woman sitting across from her. 

"You're good at what you do. And I'm incredibly excited to work with you going forward. That is, if you're still interested...?"

"Oh my god, yes — of course!"

"Okay, good!" Gigi chuckled. "I'll have all of the paperwork and stuff sent to your email later today so you can read through it and get it all filled out. Until then, tell me about yourself. Outside of work stuff — tell me about Camila as a person."

"Oh," Camila was a bit taken back by her request. "Well, I'm originally from upstate. I moved to the city after high school."

"By yourself?"