FirecrackerStuart Twombly X Reader

Chapter 7

"Guys listen, we've always done things the same way, yellow pages, flyers, San Jose Mercury news." the owner told us but the men weren't giving up, their marketing skills had them prepared. "We're all creatures of habit, sal. We like what we know, no question." Billy started with all of us crowded around him waiting. "But do you know what the scariest thing in life is? The thing in life that frightens us the most? Change" I smiled to myself knowing all too well that Billy was right.

It didn't take long at all to grab Sal and his son's attention, Billy and Nick were never really great at the academic part like the rest of us but wow were their people skills good. The other interns began showing the men their computerised statistics and I watched as the owners became more and more considerate of the deal in hand.

"Sal, I can't blame you for being a little afraid," despite the fear building up in my stomach, I started talking, letting go of Stuart's warm hand as I moved closer to the counter. "These two knuckleheads over here were scared for a while, grinding around with their heads down and just like the rest of us they've fallen on their asses more than a time or two"

"Alright firecracker, where are you going with this?" Nick asked, using the nickname I had grown to like. "Hush, woman speaking here hun." I told him, my hand outstretched over his mouth, making the whole group including the clients laugh. "But I promise you something, you stop and lift your head up...there's lots of great possibilities out there." I finished making Sal smile at me and I finally let Nick speak again. "New customers, new franchise and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's waiting at the click of a button." I snuck backwards again, until an arm snaked around my waist.

Chocolatey eyes met mine, a warm feeling filled me up as I noticed his adoring smile. Billy went to speak again, breaking us out of our trance. "Everybody's searching for something."

"They're searching for you, we just wanna help them find you."

We rushed through the building, hoping it wouldn't be too late for us to perform our big entrance. Yo-yo sent up our entrance music and thanks to an idea from Nick and Billy, he hacked the screen displaying our victory video as we hurried in, pizza in hand. "What's going on?" Chetty asked through the microphone as we handed out boxes and threw pizza into the crowd of excited interns.

I danced down the middle with the rest of my team, as I passed the front row where sat my douche bag of a cousin out of nowhere he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down to him. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" his harsh voice hissed, catching a few members of my team's attention. I simply dug my nails into his arm releasing my trapped wrist, and answered. "What does it look like? I'm winning bitch."

"That's enough!" Chetty yelled, finally gaining control of the room again. "Lovely theatrics but the jig is up, It's too late. Rules are rules right Chetty?" Graham's over smug face asked, scanning our group at the front as we glared at him.

"Yes, rules are rules." a victorious smile spread across the boy's face before Chetty began speaking again. "And the rules state that every team has the right until the announcement is made to turn in their sales." We silently cheered amongst our team before turning back to hear what the man in charge had to say. "So, in spite of your lack of punctuality which is astounding, I have no choice but to accept this submission and to recalculate."

"Go ahead and recalculate. One sale to a small family pizza joint won't make a difference anyway." My arm shot out in front of me to block him as Twombly took an anger filled step in his direction. The brunette frowned at my action but was quickly distracted when Chetty spoke up again. "It does seem that Mr. Hawtrey is correct again."

"Boom."

"...The sales from one shop, on the last challenge are not enough to put you in the lead." Mr Chetty started again, the hope we had dying down at his words. We all exchanged disheartened glances as we turned to walk away.