Page 4 of Her Christmas Monsters

I grit my teeth in an attempt to keep my frustration at bay.

Uninspired?

Has he not seen the sketches? The holiday displays in his malls were voted the best in the country last year, and that was my hard work and designs that got them there. But he has the nerve to call these uninspired.

“Our flagship mall needs some work though,” Fynn says, and flips back to the page with the sketches.

The words are like a punch to the gut, and I rock back in my seat.

“Needs some work?” I ask, unable to keep the incredulous note from my tone any longer. He did not just say what I think he did, right?

“You heard me correctly, Ms Wright,” he growls, clearly not taking kindly to being questioned. Well that makes two of us. “This is the largest city in the country, and people travel from across the globe to see our holiday displays. We need something different, something unique, that no one else would think to have.”

“The flagship mall has the largest, most extravagant display of them all,” I argue, and reach across the desk to point it out as though he somehow missed it. “It has an ice castle that nearly reaches the top of the vaulted glass ceiling. It’s so big that it will be able to be seen from anywhere in the mall.”

“In the day and age where everyone is shopping online, we need something new to draw customers in,” he says, scowling down at my hand as though its mere proximity is an offense. “Your market research is good, but it isn’t enough. We need to create an experience that brings people in. Something that creates a buzz.”

A buzz?

“A buzz? That sounds like abuzzwordfrom the mouth of someone who doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about,” I snap and snatch my hand back. My chest tightens the moment the words slip from my lips. That was definitely supposed to stay in my head.

It’s out there now though, so I might as well embrace it.

“You really think I got to where I am today not understanding anything about how my business runs?” Fynn hisses, leaning back in his chair to eye me incredulously. I swear I catch a flash of razor-sharp teeth but they’re gone so quickly, I’m sure I must’ve imagined it.

“I don’t know anything about you,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “All I know is you’ve brought me into your office two weeks before displays are supposed to be set up nationwide, and now you’re telling me that my work is uninspired and I need to completely rework the design for our main mall.”

I stand from the chair abruptly, not caring about the screech it makes as the legs scrape along the floor.

“That itself shows me that you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. These designs are made and approved months in advance in order to secure the right materials. There’s no way I can just change it two weeks before setup.”

“You can and you will, Ms Wright,” he says sternly, standing to match me. He places his hands on the desk, uncaring of the creases he makes in my designs, and leans across the table. “Have you somehow forgotten who I am, and who holds your fate in their hands?”

“I can’t—”

“You do this and the promotion is yours, Ms Wright,” he says, cutting me off. “I need someone in the role who is going to bring something new to the table. We need creativity to spark some life into this dying form of business. Every year we’re recording less and less traffic as more consumers are turning to purchasing everything online. Creating a unique shopping experience is the only way shopping centers will survive.”

“What do you suggest then?” I grind out, wishing I could just storm out of this office and never look back. I might just have to start putting feelers out for a new job sooner than I’d promised Ethan.

“If I had the answer I wouldn’t be paying you, now would I?” he quips back snidely and sits back down in the large leather office chair with a triumphant gleam in his silver eyes.

I wish I could reach across the desk and shake some sense into him. But he isn’t thinking logically. No, he’s thinking like a CEO with too much money who thinks the world should just bow at his feet. I’m already having a hard time getting materials delivered that I ordered months ago. It’s going to be nearly impossible to not only design something new but then source everything to make it happen.

“You have two days, Ms Wright,” Fynn says, snapping me from my racing thoughts. “Two days to give me your new idea or I’ll find someone who can make it happen, and the promotion will be theirs.”

“Understood.” I fist my hands at my sides, pull in a deep breath, and nod stiffly.

He presses the intercom on his phone. “Julie, please escort Ms Wright out,” he says. And just like that, he turns back to his computer screen, angrily typing away at his keyboard like I’m not even there.

“I can escort myself out,” I grumble under my breath and turn on my heel, but by the time I stomp to the door, Julie is right there, opening it with a smug smirk on her face.

“Two days,” Fynn echoes from behind me like he needed one parting shot to my bruised ego before I stomped through the glass doors.

Not bothering to pause, I stride back down the hallway and towards the elevators. There’s no way I’ll give him the satisfaction of seeing how much he was able to get under my skin. Julie’s heels click faintly behind me like they think I need a babysitter to find my way back.

I guess it’s a good thing the CEO likes to keep to himself. He might be attractive, and assertive in a way that might have made me imagine him pressing me against the wall more times than I’d care to admit, but he’s also a pompous prick who has no idea how the world really works.

Now I have two days to come up with an idea for Christmas that is original yet will appeal to the masses, while still organizing the materials and setup for the other stores.

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