It Had To Be You

Jess took a deep breath, and flicked to the last slide on her PowerPoint presentation, “and I really do believe that this is the most effective use of roof space like this, actually, as you can see from the documents in front of you, this is not the first project like this that I’ve undertaken, and my other clients were more than happy.” She smiled at the room of directors, “thank you for listening.”

Michael Webster stood and shook her hand, “thank you Miss Summers that was a refreshingly uplifting presentation.”

She smiled, relief at the success in the afternoon taking her to a place a million miles from the nervous place she’d woken in that morning. This was the accumulation of a lot of hard work and desire, she’d spent a month perfecting the designs for this pitch, a potential new client. These men, this company had plans  to convert an old warehouse into apartments and wanted pretty, hassle free rooftop gardens that would increase the living space, and so the price. And this could be the first of five or six similar projects.

This was the perfect contract for her landscape business and could well push her business from small successful landscape design to the big time. This was a huge contemporary refurbishment company, part of a huge group of companies, all involved in different aspects of renovation, design, rebuilding.

The boardroom was full of company directors, and she had felt stifled in her sharply cut suit. With every movement the stiff fabric felt restrictive. Jess was as likely to wear a business suit by choice as she was the three inch heels that crippled her feet. She spent all her time in work jeans, dirty vests and steel toe-capped boots. But as out of place she felt physically, she was never more confident than when she was explaining her ideas. She knew that the people gathered had become infected with her enthusiasm, and hopefully this was a successful morning.

Smiling, she left the room, and strolled out into the fresh winter day and dug her phone out of her bag.

            “How did it go?” Evelyn her best friend screeched down the phone.

     “Good I think!” Jess was unusually confident after the successful presentation, and stepping out into the sunny but cold afternoon she had a bounce in her step.

She heard her friend ‘whoop’ in an animated way, “so you’re ok for supper tonight?”

            “I’ll be at yours by half seven!”

“Is this really necessary?” Jess watched Evelyn dragging clothes from her wardrobe, hang them in front of her friend then with a shake of the head, toss them over her shoulder, then nose dive back into the floor to ceiling closet rammed full of clothing.

“Tomorrow is an important evening darling, there will be SO many eligible men there, come on, you need to glam things up.”

Jess huffed, regretting agreeing to go anywhere with her friend, but then she looked down at her worn jeans, fitted football t-shirt and holey socks. Maybe Evelyn was right, she had never been that bothered by how she looked; never felt that her appearance was that important. But Evelyn her polar opposite wouldn’t answer the door without wearing her full make up.

            “Eve, come on!”

Evelyn turned to her hands on hips, “YOU may find your one and only drab trouser suit smart, but we’re talking the crème de la crème here Jess. There are rumours of Hollywood stars, royalty.....I may have to buy you something new!”

Evelyn drifted off into her own little world as she obviously thought of possible solutions.

            “Earth to Eve, Earth to Eve! Since when have Hollywood stars been interested in the Garland Architecture International Presentation dinner? Eve, are you listening?”