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“I can sew straighter in my sleep and I know you can too because I have seen you do better. I wouldn’t have hired you if I didn’t think you couldn’t do better. I’ll excuse the mistakes as an oversight due to the amount of stress that everyone is going through because of the deadline.”

“I don’t want to see a mistake like this on the finished product. I gave everyone the liberty of picking the outfits they wanted to sew and you chose this one. If you can’t do it then now would be a good time to say it.”

I gave them a full minute to back out if they wanted to. I won’t fire them for it and they know that. I usually pick the best out of all my seamstresses to work on events like this. During the working months, they have a raise because they’re doing a lot more work than the others.

If they back out now, they wouldn’t get the raise that they should and they would go back to working on the normal clothes that we make for the stores. The only problem is that for the next event, they would have to work twice as hard because I will not pick someone who would easily back out.

They both stayed quiet so I continued, “If there’s a mistake like this on the final product, it would be best for you if you just handed in a letter of resignation. Are we clear?”

“Yes Adira,” they said simultaneously and I gave them a warm smile.

“That’s all for today.”

Everyone scurried back to their work tables and both girls instantly went to fixing what I had pointed out.

I noticed Nathan and the other guy watching me with various looks that I didn’t care to discern. I left everyone to their business and got to the door of my office when Marissa stopped me.

“Hannah gave me her sketch to give to you earlier. It’s on your table.”

As Marissa spoke, I started to wonder why she didn’t give it to me herself, but then I realized that she probably didn’t want to seem like an overachiever to her coworkers downstairs.

“Do you think I’ll like it?” I asked instead.

Marissa hesitated before speaking, “It’s great actually it’s just different. I think she has a lot of potential.” Translation: I think her work is great but I don’t know if you will too.

“I’ll look into it and get it back to you.”

She nodded and turned to enter her office but paused last minute to stare at something or rather someone behind me. “Hi Nathan, ”

Nathan responded with a curt greeting of his own and Marissa hurried into her office. I don’t know how I didn’t realize that Nathan was following me.

I ignored him and made my way to my desk where I started answering emails. Most of them were from sponsors from the show. They like being kept in the loop of everything happening. I was shocked to see one from the owner of the fashion show.

She wanted to know how the preparation for the show was going. I knew there was a catch to the email and I wasn’t surprised to see that at the end she asked how I was managing the most recent scandal. She assured me that it won’t affect my place at her show and I let out a relieved sigh.

I assured her that I was fine, and it would be handled appropriately in due time.

As I hit send, Nathan cleared his throat in front of me. I realized he had sat opposite me and I shut my laptop slowly and faced him.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked and I shrugged. I’m never ready, but I’ll handle whatever question he asks me. “Why did you stop outside the stations? You weren’t on a call or anything, you just waited there.”

“I was calming myself down before speaking to them. I was already in a bad mood and the last thing I needed is to misdirect my anger and upset a worker.” I explained, “A sad or mad worker equals a terrible product.”

“So you do that to avoid being rude to them. I don’t think it works considering they’re scared of you.”

“I believe in tough love Mr. Cowe. I give them the tough criticism that they’re afraid to give themselves.

If it means they don’t like me then that’s fine.

I don’t maltreat my workers or insult them.

I give criticism based on their work and never on them as people.

I can’t control people’s reaction to me and I’m not interested in trying. ”

“But you can help them change it.”

I laughed at that, “You of all people know that you can never change people’s perception of you. It’s a pointless and exhausting endeavor. I would rather invest my energy in better things like my business and my upcoming show.”

Trying to change people’s ideologies of you is wasteful and time consuming.

Humans make assumptions before you even open their mouth.

No matter how nice you are to someone, or how mean you are to them; they will think whatever they want about you.

They will hate you if they want to or like you if they want to. There is nothing you can do about it.

He moved on to safer questions from there and asked about the preparation for the show and how different it was from other shows I had attended in the past.

I was more than excited to talk about it. As I spoke, I realized that this was one of the few times I have ever been able to freely rant about work. I love my family and friends but work is the last thing I would want to rant to them about.

They would listen to me, no doubt, but they wouldn’t understand half of what I was saying.

I’m not sure if Nathan understands but he is nodding and listening like he does.

My mum and dad would bombard me with questions so much that I would spend more times answering their questions than actually ranting.

Olivia on the other hand has the attention span of a goldfish.

We would probably start talking and then she would remember something funny, I would want to hear that thing and then we would probably change the subject ten different times before we even remember that we were talking about work.

Although when push comes to shove they try their best to listen to me.

Nathan ended the interview a bit early today. A part of me was curious as to why but I didn’t voice it out. He turned off the camera but didn’t make a move to leave.

“I’ve been thinking,” he began and I let out a dramatic gasp.

“I didn’t know you did that.”

He scoffed and ignored my taunt, “Why don’t you have a bodyguard?”

“You sound like Olivia,” I held back an eye roll, “A bodyguard attracts a lot of unwanted attention.”

“You attract attention Adira,” it wasn’t a compliment; it was a fact, “A bodyguard would ensure that you’re safe. You probably wouldn’t have flour bombed if you had one.”

“That’s debatable.”

“You should think about it. I know a friend who has the best guards.”

“Okay,” I sighed, “I’ll think about it.”

We both knew I wouldn’t but he seemed content with the answer because he gave me a curt nod and left. As soon as he left, I took out my phone to check if there was any response from Joseph- none.