[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
“Miss McIntosh?” The woman standing behind the desk looked around the room for the young woman. Alex stood up with a large smile on her face and made her way to the woman. “Mr. Reynolds will see you now.” She muttered emotionlessly. Alex coughed softly to clear the smile from her face. Obviously, they weren’t as thrilled to see her as she was to see them. The woman lead Alex through a door in the center of the building and the older man stood to greet her.

“Hi Mr. Reynolds, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” Alex smiled politely and sat down in her regular spot in front of her desk. The old man smiled and sighed, reluctant to accept the girl’s invitation to view her newest project. Alex had been in his office more than once, and to be frank, he was tired of dealing with the young girl’s work that just wasn’t up to par with the rest of his company.

“Nice to see you again, too, Miss McIntosh. Now what do you have for me today?” He glanced nervously at the clock on the wall. 9:45. If things were going too badly he had made a meeting for 10:20 so he could easily pull out of an awkward situation.

“Well, Mr. Reynolds, I had this spark of an idea last night before I was going to bed--”

“Now Miss McIntosh, we talked about this last time you were in my office,” Mr. Reynolds sighed and folded his hands in front of him atop his desk. His stern look made the young girl shudder. “You know you should always let an idea marinate instead of jump from your brain to the computer. And even if you were to type it up, you should always wait a few days to see if the idea would settle or not.”

“I understand, Mr. Reynolds, but you see, it was just perfect,” Alex sighed breathlessly and smiled at the idea of her story. “It’s something you’ve never seen before. It’s brand new.”

“Have you presented it to your lawyer? Has it been copyrighted?” He frowned and shook his head. He practically knew Alex on a personal level since she was in his office so frequently. He felt bad for the girl. She was always just wanting to get published. He understood what a big deal it was, but she wasn’t very bright the way she went about the situation.

“Well, I haven’t actually produced any hardcopy at all. There’s no…story yet, sir,” she tried to explain. His look was questioning but curious. “You see,” Alex began to explain. “I sort of came up with this idea…” That always was Alex. She could never firmly say whether or not she believed in her stories (or in herself). It was always “sorta, kinda”. She needed to feel that belief. “Basically, I would go out on the street or in a club somewhere and find a guy that I believed to be superficial, or someone that didn’t know how to treat a woman right. Instead of the innocent, naïve woman getting hurt in the end, I would turn the tables and be the one to drop him at the end. I would create it into this huge love affair of how secretly women can be just as bad as men.” She finished with a sigh.

“So basically, you’re telling me that you want to turn this into How to Lose A Guy In Ten Days?” He frowned. “Alex, the idea is intriguing but I’d have to get permission from the movie company, the producers, the writers and the cast to create a novel like this. And frankly, I don’t have that kind of time or money,” he sighed.

“No! It wouldn’t be like that at all,” Alex shook her head. “I would create the novel as I went along and the novel would be merit. It wouldn’t be a bunch of columns from a tabloid thrown together. There is no time frame on this, Mr. Reynolds. I would take it day by day and see how it goes.” She explained.

Mr. Reynolds breathed heavily and glanced around the room full of plaques dedicated to novels that had won incredible awards. Novels that he had published. “This could turn out to be a complete flop.” He thought to himself, only instead of in his head, he accidentally muttered the words out loud.

Alex smirked. “Or, it could be a complete masterpiece.” He shook his head, still unsure of the idea. “Please, Mr. Reynolds. Just give me a chance. Follow me on this one. Allow me to go home, find the new subject and work on it. I will bring you hardcopies whenever you need them.”

He sighed once more. “Miss McIntosh, I’ve never heard of anything like this…”

“Which is why you should allow me to try. This could be huge, Mr. Reynolds. Please,” she practically begged. This was as close Alex had ever gotten to getting a positive remark out of this man concerning something she was working on. She was on the edge of her seat as he outreached his arm to her.

“Alright, you have a deal,” he muttered. She sucked in her squeal of excitement and shook his hand rapidly. “But I want to see a hardcopy no later than Friday, understood? And I want a call tomorrow morning informing me that you’ve started this little master plan of your’s. And if at any point I feel like dropping you--”

“You are free to drop me flat on my face, Mr. Reynolds,” Alex smiled happily, finishing his sentence. He smiled for the first time as she stood up quickly from her seat.

“I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow morning,” he smiled as she went towards the door.

“I’ll call! And thank you so much Mr. Reynolds. I won’t let you down,” she smiled brightly and walked towards the hall to exit and make her way to find a taxi.

“I can’t believe he loved the idea!” Alex exclaimed into her cell phone as she hailed a cab. “I mean, you yourself even said you didn’t think it would work.”

“I know I said that Allie, and I’m sorry,” Kerstin sighed. “But you really do have to stick with it if you want it to work out the way you do. I mean, think about it. You’re always coming up with these awesome ideas, but honey…you never stick with them.”

“I know, I know,” Alex quickly answered as she climbed into the taxi cab. “But Kerst, this is serious! He truly accepted the idea and I am so excited!”

“I can tell,” Kerstin laughed. “How about we go out to celebrate? Go to lunch or something and then hit up a club?”

“Sounds amazing,” Alex smiled, even though she was never one to go out. If only she could see Kerstin’s reaction. Maybe Alex was taking this seriously, or more seriously than she thought, at least. Alex was never one to go out…ever. Maybe out for lunch every once and a while, but she rarely went clubbing with Kerstin and her other friends. It just wasn’t…Alex.

“Okay, I’ll see you back at the apartment?” Kerstin asked.

“Yep, I should be there within fifteen minutes,” Alex nodded. They said their goodbyes and hung up. Alex smiled as she glanced out the window. She really was going to change. She knew she could pull this off.