The Marigold Wilts As the Daisies Blooms

Chapter 1

~Vegas POV~

"Aw shit, here we go again," I thought. These old geezers are pitching against our new products with some lame marketing strategies. We're doing pretty well already and our new product launch is nearby. But they're suddenly going against everything.Oh, by the way, I'm Vegas Theerapanyakul, CEO and founder of Daewrueng perfumery, DP for short. I started off with a small science experiment in college and scholarship after scholarship I ended up here, a Thirty-year-old with a luxury perfume brand and a couple of startups. Of course, my wealth is not just from the perfumes, I also invest hard in stocks. (Profits from that help when sales are down for us.)Since I started there were only a few people who stayed for so long, Pete my secretary, Ken, one of my partners, and Big an investor. We're not one big friend group but all of us love what we do and have a good rapport. I barely see Ken and Big because they started multiple ventures together and now have settled elsewhere. Right now we've employed quite a lot of people and business is going well, so we're starting a new line of gender-neutral scents. One of my biggest dreams. Unfortunately in the company, there are a lot of issues around it. "How will men and women like the same scent? It doesn't make any sense!" One of the older accountants said. "Times are changing and so are preferences, the market research said so!" Erica one of our top marketing managers said. 

"How is our CEO okay with this? Real men don't use flowery fruity shit!"

'When the CEO is fruity I don't think this phases him' I thought. To be honest, one of the reasons why I came up with this is because of my gender. I'm gender fluid and I've always seen people mock me and others for liking fruity or floral scents. When I started out I started with floral scents but marketed it for women because I was scared. But now it's high time I work on my dream project and make an impact.

"The news will mock our brand!"

Some other aunty said. Why did I employ such close-minded idiots? "Then let them mock! We have made enough and more investments into this project, we absolutely cannot take any more changes!" Pete screamed at them. I've never seen him lose his cool like that, I guess the stress must have made him snap. I placed my hand on his shoulder to calm him down, everyone was going crazy these past two weeks, and they needed a break. "Everyone! Today we go for a team dinner at the Hum bar!" 'woohoo' all of them cheered. As their leader, I needed some way to unite them and I know for fact alcohol would be the right choice. "Pete reserve the bar please." "Yes sir, what time?" "8 to 12" "oh..." "got any problems?" "No sir! Give me two minutes!" He said promptly and went to his desk. Righttt Pete has a kid. He would have to go home soon, damn it. I walked to our office and heard him whisper "Chay please I need you to stay over. Please, I'll pay you over time. I have an important team dinner, I cannot miss" the boy on the phone was pretty calm but a woman screamed into the phone, "Chay has college tomorrow! Pete just tell your idiot boss that you can't go and come home. You've overworked yourself way too much, just come!" "His idiot boss speaking, don't worry I'll send Pete right over by 8 pm, he won't be joining us, thank you for taking care of him," I said and hung up the phone for him. Pete frowned and said, " sir why would you do that, it's a team dinner And I'm part of the team." "You look like you'll collapse any time, what good is a team without its star player?" "Sir but.." "Your family is also your team, you need to be with your son and it's ok!" "I have a daughter too! " Erica yelled, " your daughter is 18 Erica I think she can handle herself!" I said back. I patted Pete's back and told him to leave for the day. "I'll manage the rest of the meetings." He looked like he wanted to stay really bad but ultimately I pushed him out and he left on his Vespa. I pay him more than that right? He can afford a decent Benz with the money I give him. I guess that kid of his eats that up.

I went back to the meeting and we all went to the bar afterward.