Page 35 of If We Were Young

The man in the suit stared at me expectantly.

I pushed through the blank space in my head, through the void of words that didn’t want to come to the surface.

This was my job. This was my safe zone and I had nothing to be scared of.

“The name Supersavers needs to go.”

“No.”

“But Supersavers sounds like a budget chain, and there are already too many of those on the high street now.”

“But Supersavers was there first.” His stare frosted until it became snow-ridden, the black of his pupils almost blending with the midnight blue, his nostrils flared.

“Is your shop as cheap at the ones now available? Are you offering the same range of goods they do?” They weren’t. I’d done my research personally and on foot. His lips crimped together. “Unfortunately, I think you need to consider the issue that you’ve budgeted yourself out of the market and there are few ways to dig yourself out without a complete name change. Not if you want to keep your shops open.”

I didn’t spend all last night face down on my bed. Once I’d put dinner on the table, I’d worked late into the evening on what I would say today. We’d pitched on a company rebrand, not on the principle of saving a company and thousands of jobs.

I wished I hadn’t pitched.

I wished they hadn’t chosen us.

Why had he? He must have seen my name?

“I don’t see how we can change it without looking desperate.”

“You are desperate, I believe.”

Carling’s eyebrows rose. “But if we change it then it will undermine our position even more.”

“What position are you undermining?” I slid a pile of paperwork towards him. “I’ve seen the figures; your market share is down to three percent. I don’t know how you aren’t bankrupt already.”

His arms folded, and I took a moment to consider how impossibly wide they seemed. Not fat. No. Built. I could visualise the curve of muscle under the cotton of his shirt. What it might feel like to run my hands along.

“Ronnie. Ronnie.” Fred called my name louder. “Can I propose, as chief designer.” He flashed me a smile, and I flickered one back before turning back into the chilled depths of Carling’s stare. “That I mock-up how we could abbreviate the name. Maybe there is a way to keep the name without keeping it.”

Bollocks, why didn’t I think of it?

“So use initials or something like that?”

“If we turn it into a nickname, then there’s a chance it won’t look as calculated as a complete name change.”

“Like St Michaels became Marks and Spencer’s which is now called Marks and Sparks?”

Fred nodded and I could have kissed him. I didn’t, but I could have. “Sparks is largely street talk, but yes.”

I turned a barely hopeful gaze to the brooding Matthew Carling. “Is this worth exploring? We’ve only got a very short amount of time.”

“I’m aware of the time constraints.” His face flickered with annoyance and honestly, it was all I could do not to punch the air with joy that the project would only last two weeks.

Who’d have thought I’d ever feel that way?

“Excellent.” I stared between them both and sucked on my teeth. The atmosphere soured with more toxic air than a landfill. “Well, Mr Carling?”

He tutted, loudly. “Matthew. Please.”

“Matthew.” Somehow, I twisted it until it rang with the bitterness of unsweetened lemonade. “Shall we reconvene tomorrow morning? I think Fred and I need to spend some time bouncing ideas.”

Fred, who seemed to not be feeling the tension, lounged back in his chair like a lord of the palace. “You know me, Boss Lady, I love to bounce ideas with you.”