The CEO and Her Driver

Chapter 36

Laliana was a wizard. A wonderful magical wizard. By being in her presence, my entire story had changed in a matter of hours. My image had transformed overnight. Pictures of us together had consumed the internet. Showcasing us as best friends. Images of us laughing together as we left my office, eating pizza together on the lifeguard tower, splashing our toes in the ocean waves. We were suddenly a duo of girl power that was sparking headlines about female empowerment. The hashtags #Alliana and #SeasonGirls had taken Twitter by storm, trending for hours, and pushing all my bad press off the first page of 'Allie Winters' Google searches.

The same gossip columns that had been trashing me for days were suddenly applauding me for being a beacon of female friendship. It was stupidly dense. Irritating in how quickly they changed their story to accommodate a trend. I hate them all.

And my popularity only grew when the images of my clothing photoshoot with Tate, showcasing our new fashion line finally went public as I walked into work the next morning. I spotted an uptick in business as I entered the building. Employees running around, organizing first-day orders. Even though the numbers weren't in for our next set of sales yet, it made me proud knowing we were doing well.

Dillan, one of the members of my sales team, came rushing at me like a fire had broken out behind him. "ALLIE!" He gasped, screeching to a halt at my side.

"Hello, Dillain. Why do you look more terrified than usual this morning?"

When I didn't stop walking, he scrambled after me, falling into step with me. Dillain ran his thin, lanky fingers through his thick ginger locks, shoving his glasses up his nose, back into place. "Well... good news mostly, I promise. Just complicated news really. Everything is technically fine. I just... well it's a bit much—"

"Dillain, jump to the actual news part," I said, walking into my office with a spring in my step.

"Right! Well, our sales numbers are the highest they have ever been for launch day, which is great but..."

I dropped my purse on my desk, allowing myself a smile. Take that Laurence! Who's only worth 10 thousand dollars now?!? You and your ugly socks, that's who!

My phone chimed, and I checked the screen while I waited for Dillain to collect his wits.

LALIANA: Reason #1 of the You Should Date Tate List: If you two get married, we'd be cousins in law! That's a thing right?!?

I hid a blush, and typed out a quick response.

ME: Pretty sure that is in fact NOT a thing.

Her response was instant.

LALIANA: Let's make it a thing! #ALLIANA #SEASONGIRLS

ME: I'm going to ignore you now.

LALIANA: FINE! I'll leave you alone until tomorrow when I drop my next reason. BYEEEE!

I hid a smile, clearing my throat as I tucked my phone back into my pocket.

"But?" I pressed, looking back up at Dillain who seemed to be sweating. I needed to know what the catch to the good sales news actually was. Nothing seemed to just be good these days.

"But the orders are more than we can handle. And well, it's going to break our servers, and we don't have enough manpower to fill all the orders..."

I glanced out my office door and for the first time registered the level of chaos as my employees sprinted around, trying to keep up. Oh crap. Yay... but oh crap.