<completed>Promise (Juliantina)

42

The next day, Ashleigh went over to discuss the sketches, on her way to Val's villa, she saw a blonde hair girl stepping out of the car. She couldn't take her eyes off the blonde hair girl and she thought to herself if only this girl is living in this neighbourhood, she will totally ask her out but she have never seen this girl in her entire life.

As she slows her pace towards Val's villa to check the girl out, she notices the girl seems to be making her way towards Val's villa. Suddenly a thought came to her mind, it's that the one the girls have been talking about and wanting her to matchmake her with. Chloe saw Ashleigh in front of her and she quickens her pace to catch up with Ashleigh and introduces herself.

"Hey there! You must be Ashleigh?"

"Errr hi, do I know you?"

"I heard so much about you, Ashleigh. I'm Chloe, friend of Val and Jul. I heard from Val that she hire you to model for their clothing line?"

"Yes! Oh right Chloe indeed! Welcome aboard to this new partnership!"

"Yes, they made the right choice to ask you model for them. Wow, I must say you are really breath-taking..."

"See something you like?" Ashleigh smirked at Chloe who was blushing away. The two rang the doorbell and waited for someone to come and get the door for them. "Let's move on from the past and I hope we can have a beautiful friendship despite all the awful drama, shall we?"

"Of course, we are gonna be working together quite often. I'm sure we need to get on the right foot at the start if not Val and Jul will be the one suffering. I'm entirely with you, don't worry. The past is past and let's just focus on the present."

"Thank you, Chloe!"

Val opened up the door and saw them smiling at each other. She cleared her throat to get their attention, the two looked at her, "so I guess by the looks, you guys have gone way past the introduction?"

Chloe punched Val's arm and made her way in. "She's cute and bubbly."

"I know, but please don't break her heart if you intend to pursue her. She has a special place in my heart and I want the best for her."

"Of course, you have my words!"

"Come on, let's go in and you can give me some feedbacks on my sketches."

The four all sat down and browsed through all the sketches that both Val and Jul had done throughout their college years. Since Ashleigh is a model, she knows pretty much everything in the fashion industry and she was practically leading the discussion among them.

"I need to know your targeted audience for your clothing line, have you came up with a brand name, and have you gotten in touch with the potential investors?"

"My intention is to launch a series of affordable workout outfit and casual businesswear in androgynous style. As for the targeted audience, maybe consumers between the age of 16-35 and of all sizes, I already filled in my dad about my plan so he decided to invest into the business and as for the location-wise, i'm still thinking over it maybe you can help me with it since you live here."

"I think it's a great idea for the androgynous style, maybe you can do a step further to promote your brand. You can donate part of the sales proceeds to some of the LGBT+ organisations to raise awareness and we can think about the location later. We need to decide on the sketches first and then start sourcing for sewing partners."

"I was thinking ojos del océano as the brand name."

"Sorry Jul, not everyone here understand spanish. What does that means?"

"Oh I'm sorry! It means ocean eyes. I think it's a beautiful name and it represents Val's eye color too. Val has been the pillar in my life so I think it's reasonable for the brand name to do with Val."

"Aww Jul, that's so sweet of you. So guys, do you have any objections with ojos del océano?"

"Of course not, it's love declaration. How can we have objection against it..."

The four continue to discuss for the next few hours and it's almost time for dinner. Val ordered take-out and they continue to eat while going through the sketches. Finally, they have decided on six sketches and start to work on the final sketch before they send it out to have it made. They decided to fly Lupe in and set up a sewing studio for her, when Jul and Val sat down to facetime Lupe, she was loss for words, she couldn't be more happier for the two of them especially Jul. Her dream has finally came true and mostly have to thank Val and her dad for his investment.

They wanted Lupe to join in as a partner in their business, Lupe just have to contribute in sewing and foresee the sewing studio, they intend to seek universities to extend their studio to offer internship so the students get a chance to have hands-on experience, at the same time, it can help them save costs as they are not sure whether they can make profits within that year.

Léon has made a promise to pump capital into the business for the first three years but both Val and Jul think it's too much, Léon made it too easy for them to run a business as they won't face any financial difficulty which doesn't seem realistic so they asked for a year of capital investment and in return they will give 20% profit to Léon within the second year.

Léon is a businessman so he took care of the boutique location for the girls, with Jul and Val as the main designers for ojos del océano, Ashleigh to be the face for ojos del océano, Lupe to be the head seamstress, Chloe to oversee the boutique and Sarah, their mutual classmate to handle all the social media platforms for ojos del océano. Val couldn't be more proud of her team, she can finally fulfil both her and Jul's dream of opening a boutique and having their own clothing line. Now her next goal will be to showcase their works at Milan to honour her mom's last wish.

After a week of discussion, they decided on a date to open the boutique which is set a month after their graduation, by then the girls have already graduated and they can devote their time entirely to the business.