The job was for almost no pay and involved thousands of dollars?worth of flowers. I slogged through it the same way I抣l strap on my mud boots today, too.
揟hey were having a hard time competing with the bigger chain shops. Most of their previous campaigns focused on the flowers themselves. After studying competitors?ads, I realized they focused more on the experience. So I asked the florist, 慦hy buy my bouquet from you instead of the place down the street??She said, 慖t will be every bit as beautiful at half the price.?慦hy do I care??At this point, she looked at me like I was dumb and told me, 慪ou抣l save money. Obviously.?But again, 慦hy do I care??She came back with, 慏uh! You can use that money to fly to Hawaii with your new husband!?And that抯 what I went with. She gave me the perfect concept, unwittingly. A smiling couple leaving for their honeymoon with the bride still clutching her bouquet. The flowers were almost an afterthought when sentimentality makes brides buy flowers.?I pause, stretching my hands on the table. 揅opywriting is all about emotion. We all like to think we make decisions based on logic, but really, most people let their hearts do the deciding.?
My eyes unintentionally fall on Satan. He抯 fit for the fallen angel part today with that navy-blue suit stretched over his mile-wide shoulders, a brown tie tucked neatly into his suit that抯 barely a shade off from his dark, piercing eyes.
What emotional connection does Lucifer have to his cinnamon rolls? I wonder.
I remember how he just offered me one for the ego stroke.
Does he get off on power play involving pastries? Is this how he buys loyalties and seals business deals?
I almost laugh at the absurdity, but it would make a twisted kind of sense.
Careful. You have one chance to pull this out. Act normal, a voice whispers in the back of my head.
揥hat made you go into copywriting??Anna asks.
揅opywriting梬ell, actually writing in general梙as been my jam since I was eight years old.?I smile. 揑 started a lemonade stand in my front yard. My first banner was pretty boring and it said something like Lemonade fifty cents. The first two hours, people kept walking past. When I went inside for lunch, I made a new banner. Beat the heat with ice cold lemonade!!! I remember using three exclamations at the end. I made ten dollars and we ran out of lemonade before sunset. That抯 when I realized that the words you use matter. Sometimes a whole lot.?
揝mart thinking, especially for a kid. What抯 your biggest achievement??Lucy asks.
揥hen I was in high school, I won the Young National Poet抯 award棓
Lucifer snorts. So loudly I stop mid-sentence, my eyes whipping to him.
揥ith a name like Poe, it must be in your blood,?he growls.
Very funny, prick. You抮e such a funny man you抳e made the whole room quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
揧ou抮e not a copywriter, are you??I glare back at him, hoping if I act fearless long enough, then maybe I抣l actually feel brave sooner or later.
He glares at me. 揑抦 the CEO.?
Holy yikes.
I almost choke. This maniac runs the entire company?
I had him pegged as some high-level project manager, a midwit with a God complex inflated to Jupiter.
But it looks like he owns his own corporate kingdom to help justify the mania.
Just peachy.
Somehow, this keeps getting better.
揥ell, marketing copy has to be original梱ou can抰 just swipe it from somebody else,?I explain.
Anna snickers.
揧eah??Lucifer asks. 揑抦 not sure what you抮e implying, Miss Poe.?
揙h, nothing. Just that I抦 confident you抮e better with big decisions than with words. We hope, anyway, am I right??I shrug, winking at the other women in the room. 揧ou抮e a little late with the Poe jokes, by the way. The guy who came in second place in that poetry contest swore that it was rigged for me because I抦 very, very distantly related to the Poe. Nah, dude, sorry. He just lost. I told him to his face to get over it and he didn抰 like that. Some boys are just sore losers when they don抰 get their way and never take the hint.?
Burns?eyes become brush fires.
Ida notices his death stare and looks back at him, until he notices her and straightens up, leaning back in his seat with a shoulder roll and flex of his arms.
God. It抯 almost obscene how he moves.
I hate that he抯 chiseled梠ne more ridiculous thing that makes him a perfect fit for the royal title I kindly bestowed on him梐nd he probably uses his good looks to push people around.
揥ell, congratulations. That抯 a real accomplishment for someone so young,?Ida says.
I nod. 揟hanks. It came with a scholarship in the arts at a public university of my choice. All of my professors agreed I could sling words well enough, and since I started with a lemonade stand, copywriting just made sense.?
揧ou can write copy anywhere,?Burns grumbles. 揥hy here? Why Haughty But Nice out of dozens of other companies in this city that would be thrilled to have you??
Ugh.
Now that I know he runs the place, I抦 not sure I want to work here. But I do like holding my own in this interview.
Just suffer through the next hour. Get out of here. Let the chips fall where they may.
揥ell, Haughty But Nice sells an upscale product without being over the top. It抯 the kind of style I appreciate,?I say. 揑 also love that it was started by a busy mom, and the marketing you抳e been putting out lately has been pretty eye-catching. You produce innovative copy. I抦 a creative at heart more than anything else. I抣l be an asset here, but I抣l learn a lot along the way, I抦 sure. A challenge keeps things interesting.?
The women smile, impressed with my generous, easygoing answer.
Ogreman frowns, of course.
Obviously because he knows I nailed it.
Nothing I said was kissing up or untrue. It was all genuine梐t least, it was when I first walked in here with answers to questions like that drafted in my mind.
揥e asked about the florist project because it抯 the closest to what you抣l be doing here,?he says coldly. 揥e抮e preparing a major launch for a brand-new line of luxury wedding attire, and our current copywriters already have dedicated projects. We need fresh blood. Think you can handle that??
Weddings?
My whole body stiffens.
I detest them.
They抮e sentimental fluff designed to keep a sixty-billion-dollar sham industry alive. Plus, there抯 always a risk your personal investment becomes a catastrophic loss when the groom runs off with his secretary梠r you know, a bandmate條eaving you with nothing but your tears.
My face must give me away.
揗iss Poe? Is wedding content going to be a problem??he asks, snapping his fingers to draw me out of my trance. 揝urely, being a Poe doesn抰 mean you抮e stuck writing about dreary dungeons and atrocious maniacs, right??
I keep my face stern and meet his eyes.
揑 like writing about the beating hearts of the men I bury under my floorboards only occasionally.?I cock my head while the women around us snicker. 揑t抯 no problem at all. I can write about anything as the depth of my portfolio shows.?
揤ery original, Poe,?he throws back.
揘ot even close. I抳e been collecting bad Poe jokes for twenty-four years. Unless you抳e been writing them that long, you don抰 have one I haven抰 heard.?
揝orry, but I have to ask... Do you guys know each other??Anna looks at me.
Oh, crap. Did I come on too strong?
I stop and stare like I抦 caught in the headlights.
揥e抳e met,?the suit answers for me. 揑t抯 becoming a regular occurrence in the morning coffee line. If I抎 known it was her, I could have saved us a lot of trouble,?he adds under his breath.
揟rouble??Ida asks.
I smile at her even though I抦 breaking inside.
If this is how it抯 going down, I抎 might as well get the last word in.
揌e means that this whole interview is just a formality, right? He抯 already made up his mind,?I venture.