Backstreet Boy

|Chapter 31: Business Meeting|

Isabella

"I've set up a business meeting," said Father. "On Friday. Some business people are interested in your designs and would like you to pitch your designs to them on Friday. I'll take you there on the way to the pier construction site, okay?"

"Thanks, Father."

"Have you got everything prepared? Are you equipped?"

Nodding, I gesticulated to the mass of portfolios on the other side of my room, taking up a vast majority of floor space I had acquired from excessive tidying this week due to an alarming peak of boredom. However, with Mother seemingly impressed, I had optimistically hoped that it would heighten my chances of being let out without the unwarranted interrogations and her having to check up on me if Lizzie hadn't come to our front door or something.

So consequentially, that resulted in enduring a week devoid of seeing Jason. Of course, we had texted and I explained the situation to him in the end. He seemed only animated that I was defying Mother, but also concerned knowing there would be a large repercussion at the end of the road that neither of us could evade if it occurred.

Jason: Just as long as you're not giving up on us

Isabella: Definitely not

Jason: Good because Sabrina came round the other day and I told her about us. She went ballistic, but in the end she left. I would just be weary of her, if I were you

Isabella: Definitely noted

The fact that Sabrina had shown up on the scene again vexed me. She wanted Jason and that was more than evident. Perhaps I didn't trust Jason a hundred percent, but I did trust him enough to hope and expect he wouldn't succumb to the temptation of perilous black hair and sexy scarlet lips. Oh, and not to forget to declare the bad girl demeanour which Jason had always desired and been in love with.

But with today being Friday, it inevitably meant that it was time for the pitch of my creations. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Trepidation was gushing through my veins and intoxicating me, keeping me under this spell and in a trance. Father had taken me to the business meeting on the way to his original destination which was the construction site of the pier.

The pier was making progress. They had landmarked it all down through the water and the measurements. Now they were adding the wooden planks and making it supportive. Father was dictating what everyone was doing and virtually controlling them. Although, yes, he had been appointed site manager of the pier, but the dominance and authority had already gone straight to his head.

After being dropped off and signed in inside the threshold of the building, they directed me where to go. Having had to have lugged all of my portfolios around, Father stuck around for a little longer and decided to aid me. It was only when I got upstairs and into the room did he put my portfolios down, greet everyone and then depart. Now I was left in the lurch and I was even more nervous than previously.

"Good morning, everyone," I said. "And thank you for agreeing to meet."

All the females were smiling politely at me, but the males were a little harder to read. Some had monotonous expressions on their faces as I began to explain everything in my portfolios as I handed others out for them to scope through whilst I spoke. The men were a little more interested in the unique selling point to which would make them more purchasable by consumers rather than other designer clothes. Normally I could read people to see what they'd be like, but these men were just ever-growing enigmas.

"I feel as though I've put my own touch on these clothes," I declared, thinking carefully about how to word my final verdict. "I've tried to make them comfortable yet casual and something young adults, specifically, would be interested in wearing. Also, I am a young adult as I'm eighteen so I know exactly what different styles are in season right now and how to evolve and amend my own clothing line to suit the requirements of what young females want out of their look. I've also tried to combine a lot of different styles so I'm not just sticking to one precise thing and instead I'm expanding and targeting more females; even though this could increase cost of production, it could also increase profit, too."