The sun was beginning to come up to reveal the beautiful cityscape as Courtney poured her third cup of coffee. She spent the night in the office to finish the Jackson family’s project, the largest account her company had landed since opening last year. Richard Jackson,the grandson of the late real estate mogul Steve Jackson, has taken over the estate since his father passed away. He has been groomed since grade school to take over the family business, so he brings his son to every meeting to make sure the family tradition continues.
They have an apartment building down the street from Courtney’s company that was recently renovated and needed a designer to bring life back to the building. Promotions have started to go up around town about the grand re-opening of the apartment complex to draw in more interested tenants. The design has to make them feel welcomed and people need to be able to see themselves living there with their families.
As Courtney added the finishing touches to her presentation; her assistant Tiffany calls into her office. “Good morning Courtney! Mr. Jackson is here, should I send him back?” Smiling from the boost of energy from Tiffany’s tone, Courtney replied,” Good Morning! Yes, please do. Thank you.”
Tiffany walked Richard and his 6 year old son down to the office at the end of the narrow hall behind her desk. Courtney was sitting behind a large table that faced a television screen mounted to the wall. A large window behind her showed off the impressive 15th floor corner office city view. Luckily, the sky was clear and Richard could see his apartment building from the office when he walked in.
“Welcome guys!” Courtney said as she stood up to greet Richard and his son. She waved to Tiffany to let her know she would take them from there. She pulled the two chairs facing her on the other side of the table back for them to sit down. She walked around to the other side and directed their attention to the view of the apartment building.
“We’re just days away from the Manors grand opening and I want to walk you through the design virtually to make sure everything is the way you want it.” Courtney sat down across from them and turned towards the TV with her virtual design displayed. As she moved throughout the space virtually, Richard’s son commented a few times regarding things he didn’t like. He didn’t like the color on the walls, the pictures used, the color of the hardwood floors, and the shape of the light fixtures. Coming from a 6 year old, Courtney brushed off the comments and kept going through the design.
“So Richard, how are you feeling? Are you happy with the design?” Courtney asked confidently. “We can’t open with the place looking like this. I’m sorry but Sean has a lot of concerns around the design choices here that need to be changed. I’d like you to make the changes that he suggested. How long do you think it will take?” Richard said. Courtney didn’t take notes from Sean’s feedback because she wasn’t taking him seriously. A feeling of panic came over her as she realized she was losing this account. She can’t afford to change everything and be able to pay her staff for the additional time.
Courtney’s phone vibrated on the table, “One moment guys, I need to take this.” She walked out of the office and towards the front desk. Her husband was on the other end of the phone, “Hey, where were you last night?” Realizing she never called home to let him know she wasn’t going home yesterday, Courtney took a deep breath and said calmly, “I was at work babe, sorry I forgot to call.” Annoyed by her nonchalant tone he said,”I thought something happened to you last night! Here we go again, you don’t care about anyone but yourself. I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?”
“ Forget it, you don’t care anyway. I’m going to stay at a hotel,call me when you have some time on your schedule to talk about our marriage.”
“But Mike, I…” the phone hung up before she could think of a response.
Tiffany heard the whole thing but pretended to not notice Courtney’s red face when she approached the front desk lobby to grab a tissue. Courtney fixed her perfectly tailored black suit jacket, wiped imaginary lint off of her skirt, then walked back into her office to finish her meeting.
Sean was complaining about being hungry and Richard was finishing up his notes for Courtney to review. “Sorry about that guys, now where were we?” Richard looked up from his notes and slightly smiled, “I’ve got to get this boy something to eat, here’s the notes for you to review. Let me know if you can make the updates by the end of today. That’ll give me enough time to consider alternatives if needed based on your feedback.” Courtney glanced at the long list and said,” Absolutely, I’ll be in touch. Enjoy your lunch guys!”
Courtney fell into her office couch as soon as she heard the front door close behind them in the lobby. Tiffany came in the room and sat next to her with a basket of fruit snacks from the front lobby. She handed Courtney a bag of snacks as she opened one for herself. “Was it that bad Courtney?”
She nodded, “Girl…” the phone rang and they both rolled their eyes. Tiffany got up to answer the call, “ Court Design, how can I help you?” she grabbed a notebook because Courtney wasn’t in any condition to speak right now. The caller hung up with Tiffany after providing their information.
“Who was that Tiffany?”
“Your son’s high school attendance office again, they said he missed his morning classes today. Probably another mistake but he’s going to need a letter to excuse the absence to avoid violating the limit of allowed days out of school.”
Courtney sighed as she remembered that he needed a ride from her that morning because his car was broken. Since she didn’t go home, she forgot all about it. Looking through her phone, there were missed texts from him asking for a ride to school today that she missed. Her complete focus was on the Jackson account that she more than likely will lose today. She texted her son back a quick sorry note. He gave her a one word response,”sure.” Like he always does when he’s not interested in hearing her excuses.
“That reminds me, I have to go pick up Emma from daycare today. Do you need anything else before I go?”
“Aww baby Emma, give her a hug for me. I’ll see you tomorrow Tiff.”
Tiffany gave her a hug and left the office.
Courtney sat at her desk to prepare for the disappointing call she needed to make about not being able to make the adjustments for the Jackson estate. The long list of updates left behind were impossible, most of them would take her team months to complete. She’s already slightly over budget for this project, additional time and work work would take her company under.
As she turned her chair to look out the window behind her, a drawer stopped her chair from turning around all the way. The right bottom drawer under her desk was slightly open with paper hanging out of it. She opened the drawer to throw out the clutter. Sitting on top was the a old flier from her grand opening last year. The flier read,”We’re Open For Business! Let Court Design Make Your Space Home.”
