Page 8 of First Impressions (Passion and Perseverance #1)
Chapter Six
Beth walked into the office Monday morning energized and eager to hear what had happened with the DeBourgh account.
She had dreamt all night about the gala and her confrontation with Mr. Intolerable.
Except in her dreamt version, he hadn’t let go of her arm, but had led her up to his penthouse where her dress and virginity were subsequently ruined.
That dream ensured that she hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep, and having to wake up from that and acknowledge the reality of how the situation actually transpired had put Beth in a sour mood.
So, as she walked right into her boss, Phil Gardiner’s, office, she said a silent prayer that he was about to give her an account with which she could completely engross her mind.
“Beth! Good morning. How was the gala?” asked Phil with a warm smile on his face.
Phil Gardiner and his wife were good friends of Beth’s family; he may have even been distantly related on her mom’s side, but she could never quite remember how.
Phil, while still keeping it professional, managed to treat Beth more like a daughter than just another employee.
He had given Beth a job when she was done with her masters and she had been determined not to take it for granted because of their friendship.
Throwing herself into the work, with many nights anxiously spent without sleep, Beth managed to blow them away with what she was capable of in the first six months of her employ.
Her success had quickly gotten her promoted within the company to one of the senior publicists working with only their top, most valuable clients.
“Pretty much the same as it is every year, although some new faces livened up the party. Anyway, what’s going on with the DeBourgh account? Do we have it? Where do we stand?” Beth quickly directed the conversation where she needed it to be right now.
“Ah, yes. We have the account but it’s on a trial basis for the next three months to make sure they are happy with our work.
They just finished with their big Mother’s Day campaign and are now beginning to focus on their summer promotions.
They’ve moved into the city for the next month or so and then are spending the rest of the summer at their house in the Hamptons.
While they are here, Mrs. DeBourgh obviously wants to meet you and have you assess some potential press opportunities in the city.
Then, once they are back in the Hamptons, she wants you out there for possibly up to a week for some events. ”
“Great! When am I meeting with her?”
“How did I know that after this weekend you would be itching for some new work?” Phil chuckled at her enthusiasm. “ I’ve scheduled you a lunch meeting with her today at noon at the Waldorf.”
“Great! Ok, let me go catch up on their file and then I’ll head over there,” Beth said as she took the DeBourgh folder from Phil and left his office, heading down the hall towards her own.
She spent the next few hours going over their recent PR for the last 3 years – both business and personal stories.
DeBourgh Diamonds had been around for over one hundred years.
Aside from a few questionable pieces on their supply being fueled by blood diamonds, a majority of their business press had been positive - mostly comprised of pieces about their history and charitable ventures.
Their personal PR was a little scarcer. The only stories in that time frame were initially about the death of the late Mr. DeBourgh, followed by several more pieces on Mrs. DeBourgh’s daughter, Anne, and her speculative relationship with one William Darcy.
Could she not escape this man?
Like Mr. Intolerable, there hadn’t been much in the news about Anne DeBourgh.
She had gone to school out of the country and when she graduated from Oxford, she returned home and began working for her father.
She was strikingly beautiful, with pristine white skin, pale blond hair and ice blue eyes.
From all the photos, she looked like she was a royal bitch.
Beth hoped that wasn’t jealousy talking but seriously, hardly any image had her smiling in it, and the ones that did looked like she was either faking it or like she really didn’t feel well.
Being that both families were very powerful, wealthy and owned companies that had been around for many decades, the story surrounding their suspected relationship gathered some traction for a while.
It seemed that the Darcy and the DeBourgh families were very close and the potential for a marriage between the two excited the press almost as much as it excited Mrs. DeBourgh, who had alluded to a “joint venture” between the two firms.
After several public appearances together at corporate functions for both his and her families’ companies, the couple split.
There was no comment at the time from either of their reps confirming a break-up or even confirming a previously existing relationship.
However, a few months later, when questioned at a Harry Winston event about her relationship with Mr. Darcy, Anne broke down in tears and retreated behind the security line, unable to answer the question.
Even though she knew she should be focused on their business PR, since that was going to be the focus of her work for them, Beth found herself inexplicably sidetracked on Darcy and Anne’s previous relationship for the last hour before leaving the office.
She realized she was becoming borderline obsessed with finding out if they had actually been dating and why they broke up when she resorted to reading the tabloids for more information - even though she knew that they rarely ever gave correct or verifiable facts.
At the end of that hour, she admitted frustratingly that she hadn’t learned much.
From all the photos that she had seen, it was pretty obvious that they had been in a relationship even though no rep would confirm it, but as to what had happened, she had no clue.
She had read several statements that Mrs. DeBourgh made about the match though they seemed to imply her confident expectation of a marriage between the two.
Beth wondered if Darcy would come up in their lunch meeting as she walked out of her office and grabbed an Uber.
Wouldn’t that be her luck.