Binding Agreement- Book 1 of the Tipton Dynasty

What If I Screw This Up?

"Do you have to be in here for me to change?" I asked Damon.

He smirked seductively, "Yes. It's not like I haven't seen every inch of your body before."

I sighed and began to undress. Thankfully his windows couldn't be looked into. He watched me intently as I slid on the dress. "What do you mean this is a meeting for me?" I asked.

"I've bought out a retail space for a store. You're meeting to go over details of your clothing brand." He explained as he watched me dress.

"What do you mean? I didn't even finish my internship." I responded as I buttoned up the blazer.

"Take your hair down." He instructed. I took my bun out letting my blonde hair flow as he continued to speak. "It doesn't matter. The internship is so you can get a position at one of those other companies. This is different, this is for your own store."

"You don't even know if I'm any good let alone capable of running a store." I spoke. He was going on a whim that people would like my designs.

"Yes I do. I instructed Rose and the others to be on the lookout for your sketches. It was easy considering you left your book open by your laptop. I've had them blown up for you to go over today. They're good Kaydence, that's why I'm giving you a chance." He explained.

"I don't know if I can do this. I'm not prepared, I don't even have a name for a brand." I was beyond nervous at this point. He ambushed me with this and I had no idea what I was doing.

Damon came to me and caressed my cheek with his hand. "Where's your confidence, Love? You can do this. I wouldn't set this up if I didn't think you were capable of handling this."

I nodded. He was right, I needed to swallow my nerves and be confident. As an intern I had seen many meetings. This would probably be to talk about where the clothing would be put together and when we hoped to launch. For trying to open a store we would probably go over details on things that needed to be done to the space.

"Why did you do this?" I asked.

"Because I want my future wife to have something of her own. I may be able to provide everything you'll ever need, but would you really be happy to never have something of your own?" His eyes looked into mine.

I was getting antsy being in the house all day. Yes it was nice to be taken care of but he was right again. I wanted something of my own. It had been my dream to be a designer of my own brand, but I didn't think I would get the chance after everything with my mom.

"Let's go." Damon held the door open for me to exit the office.

I waited for him to shut the door as I walked out and then we made our way to the conference room. I could feel my nerves try to rise again but quickly pushed it away. Now was not the time to feel self conscious. We walked into the room and there was a table with about ten professionally dressed people waiting for us to enter. Damon took a seat at the head of the table and kept his eyes on me.

"Hello." I smiled looking towards the rest of the people seated in front of me. "I'm Kaydence Bush, it's nice to meet you all."

They nodded and waved a little bit. Then a woman with shoulder length red hair spoke up. "Kaydence, we noticed you didn't have a name for your brand yet. When will that be established?"

"She'll have it figured out by the end of the week." Damon answered.

"Yes. This all kind of happened unexpectedly." I began to explain. "But I can assure a name will be figured out by Friday at the latest."

The woman nodded as if she had been satisfied with my answer.

"What makes your brand different from the others?" A man with blonde hair in a comb over asked. "Mr. Tipton showed us the designs and they are very good, but what makes you stand out?"

I could feel my nerves again, I wasn't sure how to answer this. All I could do was say the first thing that came to my mind. "My passion for creating. I know that's a cliché answer you've probably been told many times. My life hasn't been the best, from just basic heartbreaks as a teen to almost losing my mother. The thing that's gotten me through is drawing these designs you see, creating is my outlet. And I continued to create even when I had given up the designer idea while taking care of my mother. I think at the back of my mind the brand has always been here. I want this brand to be an inspiration to people that you can hit rock bottom and still come out on top."

The man nodded and the meeting proceeded. I would make the sketches and then there was a local warehouse that would set up production in. I was given the task to take a look at the space for the store and decided how I wanted the set up. Once decided Damon would have a crew come in and make it exactly how I wanted. We're aiming to have the store open in about three months.

The meeting ended and I followed Damon back to his office. I still had questions for him about this. He sat down at his desk and I sat in front of him. "It wasn't fair to ambush me you know." I finally spoke.

"If I had told you I bought a store for you to run you would get in your head and think of all that could go wrong. You've done that enough lately." He responded.

"I don't know exactly how to run a store Damon, I only know design. What If I screw this up?" I asked.

"Love, I want you to focus more on the designing and managing a few employees. The more business side I'll handle here at Tipton Enterprises with a small team until you're ready to take it on. I didn't want you to take on more than you could handle." He explained.

I nodded. "Thank you."

Damon's phone on his desk rang. He answered it on speaker. "Mr. Tipton, Mr. Moore is here to see you." Damon's secretary spoke.

"Let him in." Damon responded as he rolled his eyes.

After getting the okay Justin entered the office. The only evidence of him being beat up now was a black eye he had. "Well, well, should've expected you to be here." Justin scoffed as he looked at me.

"What do you want Justin?" Damon asked coldly.

Justin gave a devilish smirk, "I just want to talk."