Business Affair

CHAPTER 1

*beeep beeep beeep beeep beeep*

Ugh.

The sound of my daily annoying alarm meaning another day of work. But can't complain since I'm used to it. And this California sun is always up before I am.

The routine is simple. 5:30 am waking up and praying before doing some cardio and weightlifting. Hopping in the shower right after and making some breakfast. This time, a fruit smoothie and crepes drizzled with chocolate and strawberries. I'm definitely a foodie.

I know what you're thinking. Why don't I eat something regular like scrambled eggs or pancakes? But I'm not packing all that flour in me even though I did have crepes. But I make sure to watch my intake cause I didn't achieve this figure for nothing without counting my calories.

Once I finish up my breakfast, I make my way back to my closet, trying to figure out what to wear today. As I'm doing so, I get a Facetime call from my business partner and friend, Nyomi.

"Kumusta ang aking paboritong tao ngayon?"
Translation: How is my favorite person doing today?"

"As much as you keep speaking Tagalog to me, I'm not responding to you in it."

"I'll never understand why you don't just try to at least. You hurt my heart, you know Desi." I roll my eyes and laugh at her response. "I've been trying to teach you for the past 9 years."

"Really? Well sorry to say that you won't get a word of Tagalog from me after that embarrassing encounter with your family during that one summer vacation." She rolls her eyes and sighs.

"Bitch, after all this time will you give that up already? My family still loves you, you know." Long story short, the summer before me and Nyomi's sophomore year of college, her family invited me to the Philippines to spend time with them for a month and let's just say my butchered responses in Tagalog to her relatives made me look like fucking maniac.

"Oh I know! I'm the most lovable person they have ever met. You come in a good second." I bat my eyelashes and she rolls her eyes and chuckles.

"Anyways girl, what's taking you so long? Aren't you supposed to be dressed already Ms. CEO?"

"Can't go wrong with being a little bit fashionably late. And besides, I'm the boss so who's really going to fire me if they know I come late once in a while?"

I am the CEO of my clothing and fashion line company, Noelle. Simple for it to be named after my middle name but it just fits right. It sounds alluring and expensive, which is what my brand gives off. My vision is to showcase creative arts through my clothing and make various statements when making them based on the designs I create.

Creating my business was definitely not easy and I've had this idea to create a fashion line since before I started college. Meeting Nyomi my freshman year and us sharing our love for fashion really saved me a lot throughout college and we both worked on this company together.

We've been at it since we graduated college 6 years ago and we're still continuing to thrive. My expertise in making clothing and art designs and her expertise in design marketing seemed like an odd match to others but it worked well for the both of us. She may be the co-founder of this company but she was way more than that to me, she was like another sister.

"You do realize I'm almost outside your house right?"

"Ladera Heights is not that far girl and I know you're taking your sweet time as well in your own house."

"No I'm not," she fusses.

"Then why did you turn your camera off and I hear Love is Blind in the background?" I knew she was lying since she doesn't like to admit when she's binge watching certain shows, especially Love is Blind.