Clara's mood had seemingly improved after that downer of a birthday. Her website has had a recent upswing in readership. Her enthusiastic four-star review for a movie about a giant cockroach and a giant rat duking it out in the middle of a city, creating ruckus and swathes of destruction left right and center, should've grabbed the attention of the producer of the lousily produced flick so much that it ended up on all the promotional material for it. She was surprised at herself when she had posted it as she didn't know she had it in her to enjoy what she considered dumb. She had considered taking it down out of embarrassment but she was glad that she did not resent posting it.
Hindsight is twenty-twenty.
Her new found relative popularity did come at the cost of a section of her readership turning on her for being a "shill for the studio". One person exclaimed "It's not like this shitty movie can afford to pay off the reviewers. At least sell yourself well". Another one said "I thought the website was about art not f-art. You see what I did there?". There were other complaints too. "I can't believe they ruined my childhood again" said a devastated fan further lamenting "Turning Rattie's iconic white fur patch to brown... Seriously?"
On top of everything was the ever–present "I'm first" comment with a lot of likes. One passionate fan had gone out of her way to defend the review, going on a rant about how movie watching is subjective and a movie doesn't need to be pretentious to be good. That was posted under every negative comment for the review. She wondered whether even Mike would be able to shield her like that. "Whatever. As long it gets me clicks" she thought. Business as usual.
She did partly owe this to Mike. And her mind went back to her date with him on the birthday. They had gone to the bookstore where he had gifted her a collector's edition of her favorite novel series. They had dressed up for the occasion – in their fanciest – as they ordered the second cake for the day at the restaurant. Everything went downhill soon after as her plan to get into a one-to-one talk with him regarding their relationship failed yet again. "We're like friends" was the usual refrain and she had enough of it. Every day she spent with him felt so right and yet it was strangely incomplete. "Another time" she thought. It was best to not push it.
Content with the day's work she had sat on her couch in front of her TV.
This was an event to not miss. Every news outlet was going to milk it dry. The self-made tech tycoon was the talk of the town. His sudden but calculated rise to stardom was watched with interest across the city. He had transformed a company with stagnant or decreasing product sales into a thriving hub of innovation. Magnus Motors did owe a lot to its poster-boy CEO.
The unveiling of the company's new launch was a big deal. The company's flagship vehicle – Magnus M20 – was transitioning into a fully-electric SUV. The company had an extensive social media campaign with one of the initiatives being an invitation to aspiring engineers as well as college students to attend the event and interact with their idol.
The press meet was about to begin in a couple of minutes. Clara was excited. The men arrived in suits. Press and the students had arrived and were eager to catch every word.
Bill, the CEO, started the presentation. "The company's focus is not only on creating great utility vehicles in the present. We already have an established customer base with high levels of satisfaction and the company's commitment towards excellence is validated by it. We have realized that it is time to think bigger. Fossil fuels have been prime drivers of air and water pollution for decades. As the threat of climate change looms large, we at Magnus have taken it upon ourselves to be the change that we wish to see and that is by transitioning our highest selling consumer vehicle into an EV."
He added, "We will also be investing heavily into a charge station infrastructure adding to a few hundred we already have. The company has a positive outlook towards investment into solar cells to assess its viability in commercial vehicles of the future."
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