LIZZIE’S WORLD: Trouble has just begun

“Fatma, why didn’t you make it earlier?”

Louise and I have just finished our meeting with Brian and Brenda from her ad agency and I am a little miffed that she wasn’t able to make it to officially welcome Louise to the department, and maybe get to know her away from their personal drama.

“Do you want me to reply as your friend or as your contractor?” she asks wryly.

“I just want the truth,” I say.

“Well… I’ve had to delegate a lot of work this year, we have so many new clients on board,” she offers.

“None of them pays you what we do. I expect better treatment than for you to send me a flashy young intern to take care of my account,” I huff.

“Flashy young intern?” She laughs. “If you’re talking about Brian, I can assure you that he is very good at his job. He will make sure all your needs are met. And for some reason, our older female clients seem to love him.” “Are you calling me an old female client?” I am really not amused by this inference.

“No, absolutely not,” Fatma says. “I am saying that THEY like him, and you know how difficult a market that can be. It says something about his ability to handle difficult briefs.”

DISTRACTED

“Are you saying my briefs are difficult to execute?” I drum my fingers on my table as I lean back in my chair, feeling utterly exasperated.

Fatma sighs. “Look, I know you’re upset-,”

“You think?” I roll my eyes.

“-but trust me. You’re in good hands,” she says, just as there is a knock on my door, which opens to reveal Julius, who walks in and sits himself down without my prompting.

“I have to go,” I tell her. “We’ll talk about this later, ok?” And then I hang up and turn my attention to Julius.

“Ehe? I’m ready for some good news so please make it exceptionally nice,” I tell him pointedly.

Julius laughs. “Well, I’m not sure what to say except I want to schedule the interviews for factory manager for next week on Monday if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure,” I shrug. I open my mouth to add a few more thoughts but I am now interrupted by the ping of a chat message entering my phone. I don’t recognise the number, and all I can see on the home screen is the words: “Hey beautiful lady…”

“That’s fine,” I say to Julius absently as I pick up the phone, running the number through my mental Rolodex, hoping for some memory to be ignited. It’s not a UK number so I know it’s not Chris – who I have been hoping to hear from, except that my email pleas to him to please make it clear to me what’s happening have gone unanswered.

TROUBLE

“You seem busy,” Julius says as he stands up. “I’ll send you an email about Monday then.”

“Right,” I nod as I swipe on the message to open it so I can access the chat window and look at the profile picture of the person who sent it. Another message comes through while I am doing that.

“It was such a pleasure finally meeting you today. I am really looking forward to working closely with you on your projects.”

“Who is this?” I text back.

“Oh, it’s Brian,” comes the reply, along with a smiling-face emoji. “Sorry, I thought you had my number.”

“Hmm,” I mutter to myself as I bite my lip and contemplate my next course of action.

“Anyway, beautiful lady, I just want to say that it was an absolute pleasure seeing your face today. Congrats on the new job!”

This conversation feels too friendly to be professional. “Young man, I think you need to address me with some respect,” I text back. “My name is not ‘beautiful lady’, it’s Miss Lundi to you.”

He sends back a laughing emoji. “Oooh, I see you’re going to be a challenge,” he writes. “I love challenges. See you when I next see you, Miss Lundi.” And then signs off with a kissy-face emoji.

I can’t believe a thing I have read; clearly, when I figured this young man was going to be trouble, I had no idea just how much trouble he was intent on causing.