Accidentally in Love // z.m

Twenty Six

So today's the big day. I'm going to confront Rick about all this drama and see what he has to say for himself. I was running through how I was going to bring it up with him in my mind as I ate my toast for breakfast, pacing the lounge room as Morning Sunrise was on TV in the background of my thoughts. So I'm going to go down to menswear and ask him for a word. No actually, I'll get Rachel to call him to my office and me and India can talk to him in private. Ok then we will just attack. Ok maybe subtle attacks, like a cobra, pouncing at him every few minutes. My phone began ringing and I quickly scoffed down the rest of my toast before answering.

"Heeey," I dragged with a smile on my face.

"Good morning, love." He said back as smooth as ever. 

"What are you guys doing today?" I asked as I prepared a bowl of breakfast for Pooka. By prepared I mean I pored some of his dog food out of a box and into the bowl. Fancy. 

"Not much. Just the usual pre-gig stuff. Are you able to come to tonights show?" 

"If everything goes well at work then yes." 

"Ok good luck with Rick, don't say anything stupid." He chuckled.

"Hey, I run the place ok, I can say what I want." I snapped sarcastically. "Anyways, I should get going or I'll be late." 

"Why does it matter if you're late when you run the place?" Damn he's good.

"It matters because mind yo fuckin' business lil boy." He burst into laughter at my words (which by the way came from something he tweeted Harry a while back for correcting his typo). 

"Ok, I'll let you go then. Love you."

"Love you too, adios!" I was a few minutes late now and quickly rushed to get ready for work, throwing on a simple, cute Chloe dress with nude pumps. I pulled my hair into a high ponytail before grabbing my make up bag, handbag and phone and rushing out the door. I pulled my watch out of my hand bag and roughly strapped it on as the elevator descended down to the lobby. Roderick (the door man) saw me rush out of the elevator and wisely opened the door early enough for me to pass through without needing to slow down. "Thanks Rod!" I called as I turned into the carpark and unlocked my car. I pulled out into the busy London traffic and at every stop light tried to apply some make up. I had to be on time today because we had an early meeting to prepare for the model casting and finalize our Autumn/Winter designs and Grace was going to be hella pissed if I was late. I had also become a pro at putting my make up on in the car now that'd I've been doing it almost every day on my way to work. I actually made it to the meeting early with my winged eyeliner on point and my skin looking flawless. 

"Sahara, you're early for once." Grace said as she organised the sheets in front of her at the head of the confrence table.

"What are you talking about Grace, I'm always early." I said like it was the truth and she laughed.

"You're only early when there's food involved." She smirked, nodding her head to the plate of muffins which I sat directly in front of.

"Hey to be fair, I had no idea the muffins would be here." I picked up a spinach and feta one and teared off a small piece. 

"That's because you have a natural instinct for these things." 

"I probably do." I shrugged just as India entered and took a seat next to me. Slowly more and more people arrived and I'd almost forgotten about the looming Rick-Business until the devil himself walked in. He was all smiley in his shirt and suit pants and I couldn't help but eye him off from the other side of the table. "Sahara stop you're so obvious." India whispered just as Rick noticed and gave me a confused look. Hell yeah you're confused because bitch I figured you out. Grace cleared her throat before commencing the meeting but I couldn't help but feel a little heated at the fact that Rick sat oppisite me so innocently like he hadn't tried to forge my signature and steal the company's money. He didn't participate much in the conference unless he was asked a question and I was entirely suspicious of everything he said. When Grace asked him if there were any problems with retrieving the material for some of the mens wear pieces he said 'not yet, everything's going according to plan." LITTLE DO YOU KNOW I'VE FIGURED OUT YA LIL PLAN AND I'M ABOUT TO BUST YO ASS FOR IT MOTHER FUCKER. And when Grace confirmed the funds the mens department allegidely required for the upcoming season he said, "yep, that's right." IS IT THOUGH? IS IT RIGHT FOR YOU TO STEAL FROM YOUR OWN COMPANY YOU INCOMPETENT TWAT? I scoffed at ever utterance he made and India had to pull me aside mid-meeting and tell me to get my shit together. She was right, I will give him a piece of my mind after this meeting was over. Grace can't find out until we'd sorted all this nonsense. After another 30 minutes the meeting ended and Rick seemed awfully keen to get out of the conference room. I ordered Rachel to get me and India a coffee on my way into our office and I caught her roll her eyes but obediently rise from behind her desk and head to Starbucks. One of the things I missed about Australia was Gloria Jeans. It's a coffee shop found in literally every shopping center and is way more popular in Melbourne than Starbucks is, however it's nowhere to be found in London. Well I haven't found it yet at least. I'm extremely picky with my coffee and refuse to try any new stores, so I'm sticking to Starbucks until I get sick of it. I sent out a few emails to cooporations and companies whilst I waited for our coffees to arrive and once they had I suddenly felt the nerves kick in for the task ahead; it was time to call Rick in. I didn't know if I was making a big deal about all this but confronting him felt like I was a police officer interogating a criminal. I think what scared me the most was if I found out I was right, and he had actually stolen from the company. I was scared to find out all of this was actually much greater than we'd suspected and we'd been robbed more than we knew or he'd taken over a lot more of the company out of hands without us even knowng. It would all be my fault and I would have single handedly ruined the label because I'd falled for him. I mean, I get depressed when I find out I've been scammed by an ebay seller who'd sold me a crappy phone case which looked nothing like the picture, so if these theories in my mind regarding Ricks scammery are correct, I'll probably end up in therapy. India looked at me worridly from her desk across the room and I tried to look ready for this but I so wasn't. I was still mad, but now that the time had come, a part of me didn't want to confront him incase it ended up being the end for Dutchery. Maybe it's better to be ignorant?