Today Begins

"RoseMagic ranks second in the Perfumery Market?! How is that even possible, Williams?!" Esmeralda spun her chair around, the phone she was scrolling through some moments ago still in her tight grip. Her questioning gaze was on the man in a grey suit who stood some distance away by the other side of her white desk.

He was quite lean, had short brown hair and a slightly boyish face.

"We just launched The Sensation last week and you..." She stood up, tapping her red long polished nails against the desk really quickly, "...told me that we would be holding our position as the first customers' choice for a while."

There was silence in the large air-conditioned office. Behind Esmeralda, was a wall built entirely of thick glass. One could look down and see the busy road of the city from up here or up at the sunny sky.

"Well?" Esmeralda arched a questioning eyebrow at him before moving away from her chair, and standing in front of her desk.

She was quite curvy and had chubby cheeks and short black bouncy hair. She wore a white long sleeved shirt, with the first two black buttons undone, tucked in a black knee-length pencil skirt. She had on a light make-up highlighting her small red lips, beautifully craved eyebrows and her black eyelashes.

"Well, Miss Brights..." Williams began, his voice a bit shaky. He took in a deep breath to steady his breathing.

"Go on." She drawled, rolling her eyes in frustration.

"Well, you see, Miss Brights." He rubbed his hand against each other nervously and stepped forward, his eyes glancing up and down. "SpellBind just launched another perfume yesterday and it..." He looked up at her finally "...really knocked us down the ranks."

Williams felt that what he said was a bit of an exaggeration though. They were only knocked down to second place, yet he knew that to his boss, that was a major set back.

Anything that wasn't first place was way down the ranks.

Esmeralda clenched her fists by her sides slowly before she turned away and sat by her chair in anger. "Romeo Castillo." She muttered under her breath.

Romeo Castillo was the owner of SpellBind. He was also a highly flirty man that never seemed to run out of relationship scandals. Rumours had it that he was a really handsome man-- rumours and those pletiful pictures of him that constantly flew all over the place.

Esmeralda had seen quite a number herself and despite the glaring rivalry that existed between their companies, she couldn't help but admit that he was quite a catch.

But he was an enemy that constantly kept pulling the competitive daggers against her company and she hated him for that. Why couldn't he just accept second place in peace and stop pulling all these fast moves on her?!

Esmeralda pushed back in her chair, her hand rubbing against her creased forehead.

"Should I--" Williams started to say, his voice steady now.

"Buy that new perfume they launched as soon as possible, Williams. Double our advertising too. Just do anything, we have to top that rank again."

"Yes, Miss Brights." With that he left.

After some moments, her phone rang and she picked it up.

"Dora!" Her voice filled with excitement and a wide smile broke on her lips, before guilt washed over her face. "I'm sorry I didn't call this morning as promised. I just had to run down to the office--"

"I can't take it anymore." A muffled female voice said through the phone, it sounded like she was crying.

"Dora?" Esmeralda furrowed her eyebrows with worry and she sat up in her chair. "What happened?"

"Well, I thought this trip was going to help me but no."

"Dora, calm down." Esmeralda forced a smile, trying to sound as optimistic as possible. "You will be fine, just give yourself time."

"Well, I ran into him today!"

"What?!" Esmeralda flew up from her seat and started pacing around the office while Dora spoke on and on about what had happened.

Dora had been in a relationship with Joseph for over two years. It was pretty strong and everyone had thought they would get married, then out of no where, he broke up with her.

That was two weeks ago.

Seeing the bad position the break up had put her, Esmeralda had suggested her going on a trip to somewhere far from here so that she could give herself sometime to take it all in.

What she could never had predicted was that Joseph would decide to go to La Dreamz too. He wasn't even the travelling type!

"...he is everywhere I turn, I'm tired." She sighed in frustration over the phone. "Just come and get me at he airport in three hours. I'm coming home."

Esmeralda's mind rushed to all the appointments she had set up for that time and she immediately felt stuck. She rubbed her hands against her creased forehead, deliberating on if she should send Williams to get her instead. That would be a tough one on Dora though. She would be needing her friend at that time, not just anyone

Esmeralda took in a deep breath then nodded sullenly. "Alright, I will come and get you. Be strong for me alright." She chuckled lightly at the end.

"Thank you."

Although, Esmeralda couldn't see her, she was sure that Dora had smiled.

She hung up after that and Esmeralda settled back in her chair. She pushed her head back a little and shut her eyes before her phone dinged, alerting her of a new message.

It was her dad. He had sent her an e-book titled "Why I should get married."

Esmeralda chuckled a little, now this was getting ridiculous.

Her parents had been trying to hint her all dinner, last night, about her getting married. She had acted absolutely oblivious during all their acts and now, they were taking bolder moves.

For a while, she just sat there, staring at the ceiling and wondering why today was starting to look super stressful.

She got down to work and time passed by quickly. It wasn't after two hours that she finally thought of informing Williams to push back all her appointments for the next three hours. She didn't even need to place the call though because just at that moment, the door flung open.

"...but you don't have an appointment!" Williams voice sipped into the room from distance away. So it wasn't Williams who had opened the door then.

Esmeralda shut her eyes tightly before taking a deep breath to control the anger that was already boiling through her veins.

Who was this person filled with pompous audacity!

Her eyes flew towards the door to see a woman in a long blue gown walking in and her frown deepened.

"Oh, never mind that, Mr. Williams." The woman's giggled softly.

Hearing her voice, Esmeralda's face twisted slightly in confusion.

Williams hadn't listened to the woman and had followed her in, adamantly pressing that she had no appointment to see the boss.

The woman finally turned and Esmeralda stood up, the confused look on her face deepening fast. Williams immediately turned to her and started explaining but she cut him off. Her eyes were on the slim, tall and fair skinned woman that had successfully made it into the room.

"Dora?" She gasped in surprise.