Mythe: A Fairy Tale (2 page)

A moment later, Richard heard new voices from the direction of the reception area, as well as the girl’s voice again.

“Hey guys, they’re already in the conference room. Go on back. Do you want anything to drink?”

Richard heard their negative responses, then the sound of approaching footsteps. 

“Good,” Curt remarked as two people walked into the room. “That’s everyone then. David, Jen, I’m sure you know who Richard and Joshua Raines are. Gentlemen, this is Jennifer Allen, our special events director.”

Richard and Josh both stood when the newcomers entered the room. Richard extended his hand toward the slender, strawberry blonde woman, who shook it firmly.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Allen,” Richard greeted her.

“Please, call me Jen,” she replied with a smile, shaking Josh’s hand as well.

“And this is David Ellis, our senior graphic designer,” Curt introduced. The young man flashed them both a friendly smile.

“Hi! It’s nice to meet you,” David said. He shook Josh’s hand and then Richard’s before taking the seat across from Josh with his back toward the windows. Richard and Josh waited for Jennifer to seat herself in the chair between David and Curt before retaking their seats.

“We’ve called in the A-team for you. I know that’s why you came to us. I think they’ll be able to accomplish everything you need and more,” Curt assured Richard and Josh.

The girl slid back into the room, carefully balancing a pitcher of ice water and a tray of glasses. Richard stood, stepping forward to help her, but Josh was faster. He quickly relieved her of the pitcher, returning her grateful smile with a broad grin of his own. She placed the tray on the table and proceeded to distribute glasses quickly around. Then she retrieved the pitcher from Josh and moved around the table filling them all.

“Thanks, Manda,” Curt acknowledged. “Now let’s get started.”

Richard expected her to leave then, but after pouring herself a glass of water, Manda seated herself in a chair at the very end of the table, directly opposite from Curt, with empty chairs between herself and both David and Josh, as if separating herself from the rest of the group. She took a sip of the water, then sat the glass on the table and retrieved a small leather-bound notebook from the chair beside her and pulled a pencil from its center. Apparently she was going to sit in on the meeting and take notes.

“Richard,” Curt addressed him, interrupting his speculation, “why don’t you fill everyone in on what you want to accomplish and then we’ll talk about how we can help you with it.”

“Thanks, Curt,” Richard responded. “It’s no secret that Josh and I have been blessed with more than our fair share of good fortune. We’re very grateful and we’d like to share some of that, so we’ve decided to create a charitable foundation to benefit a variety of organizations that are close to our hearts. We’ve done some volunteer work for a guide dog training organization and we really admire what they do. We’d like to facilitate their work, as well as the work of other service animal organizations. We’re at a very preliminary phase at this point. We’ve discussed it with our lawyers and our business manager, and laid the initial groundwork. Now we’re looking for an identity for this foundation, and some ideas to help us launch it with real impact, which is what brings us to you.” Richard smiled around the room. “I’ve been hearing a lot about the Aronson ‘Dream Team’ over the last couple of years, and if you’re half as good as your reputation, I’m sure we’ve come to the right place.”

“So, Richard and Joshua are bringing us in on the ground floor,” Curt explained to his team, “which is exciting! You’ll collaborate with them to come up with a complete identity package—name, logo, tagline, launch events,
media and fundraising strategies, the works. We want to leverage all of our resources for this. You three, as the core team, will be working closely with Richard and Joshua, but feel free to pull in anyone else you think you need.”

Richard glanced at the girl, Manda, in surprise.
You three
Curt had said. So
she
was a part of the almost legendary Aronson creative team? He watched her scribbling furiously in her small notebook, deep in thought. She was barely more than a child! She looked up then and, noticing his attention, she blushed and smiled.

“I’m sorry,” Richard interrupted, stopping Curt before he could continue, “but I don’t believe we’ve been introduced to the third member of your team.”

“Who? Manda?” Curt asked, startled. “I’m sorry. When you came in with her I assumed she’d introduced herself.” Manda’s blush deepened.

“Gentlemen,” Curt went on, beckoning to the girl, “I’d like you to meet Amanda Jensen, our creative director for special projects.”

Richard and Josh stood up as Manda approached, Josh quickly grasping her hand in greeting.

“It’s certainly a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Jensen,” he enthused with a boyish grin. She returned an embarrassed but friendly smile.

“You can call me Manda,” she corrected, extracting her hand when Josh failed to release it and offering it to Richard. She was still blushing.

“It’s a pleasure, Manda,” Richard said, shaking the proffered hand.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I knew who you were and it just never occurred to me to introduce myself.”

David laughed and she shot a quick glare in his direction. From her expression, Richard half expected her to stick her tongue out at him as well. It would certainly be in keeping with her apparent youth, if not her title. Creative director! Richard struggled to realign his thinking to accommodate this new information. His assumptions had been completely wrong. She was no intern or assistant. Far from it. It was difficult to reconcile the young girl in front of him with the responsibilities of such a role. She couldn’t have been out of high school for more than a couple of years, much less have the experience necessary to attain a position of authority on such a renowned team.

“Well, now that everyone is acquainted,” Curt interjected, refocusing the group, “we’ll see if we can’t come up with a timeline for this project.”

Manda, Richard, and Josh all returned to their chairs, and everyone but Manda spent the next hour working out a plan to accomplish all of the steps necessary to successfully reach the brothers’ goal. Manda sat at the distant end of the table, studying all of them, absorbing the conversation, and jotting in her notebook frequently. Jennifer was central to the conversation and Richard was impressed by her grasp of the logistics required for such an undertaking, as well as by her brisk, organized approach. As the group began to discuss timetables and deadlines, David contributed more, offering advice about how long certain stages in the creative process should take. His comments were insightful and assured. So far, Richard was very impressed with two of the three members of the Aronson team. Manda, however, was a mystery, sitting silently through the meeting while David and Jen did all of the talking. She seemed to be an anomaly in this dynamic group. It wasn’t until David and Jennifer began discussing a timeframe for naming and logo creation that Manda spoke up.

“No, guys. We’ll need more time than that.” She was frowning in concentration and staring unfocused at a point above Richard’s head. “The name will be easier I think, but the logo might be hard. It has to be perfect, because that’s what everyone will key into. I’ll want to allow at least another week for that, just to be safe, and we’ll need to meet with Richard and Joshua a few times to get a feel for what they like and who they are.” She nodded thoughtfully to herself and then her eyes focused and dropped to Richard. “Will that be okay? Will you be available? I think it’s important to reflect you two in this, so ideally you should be involved in the creative process.”

“I agree,” Richard approved with an encouraging smile. She’d been very decisive in her initial statement but had become more tentative when addressing him directly, as if afraid of offending them. “Josh and I would like to be
involved in this every step of the way. We want to be very hands-on. We have a few prior commitments, but for the most part we’ve set aside the next several months to devote to this.”

Jennifer spoke up then. “Well, if Manda thinks this stage needs more time, we’d better get on it right away. We can’t get started on a lot of the other things until we’ve got this nailed down.”

“When are you guys available to discuss it?” David asked. “The sooner the better.”

“We leave for New York in the morning and then we won’t be available again for ten days,” Richard told him regretfully.

“That’ll slow us down,” David sighed. “It would be nice to just sit down with you for a while so we could get a feel for what direction you’d like to go.”

“Well, we’re free tonight,” Josh offered eagerly. Richard was sure his brother’s enthusiasm had more to do with Manda’s company than it did with the actual project at hand. He suppressed an indulgent smile.

“That’d be perfect,” Manda enthused, fully engaged for the first time that Richard had seen. “Then we can get started right away!”

“Works for me,” David agreed, and Richard nodded his willingness as well.

“Good!” Curt said with a nod. “You four can brainstorm tonight and then Manda and David can get a jump on some identity concepts. Now…” and the conversation turned back to a more general discussion about timelines, arranging future meetings, and other business concerns. Manda’s animation quickly faded.

It was almost five o’clock when the meeting finally wound down and Curt stood to shake hands with Richard and Josh.

“I think we’re off to a good start,” he assured Richard, “and I’m leaving you in good hands.”

He and Jennifer left them then, after a brief admonition from Jennifer not to work too late.

“I know how you get, Manda, and Richard and Joshua have a plane to catch in the morning.”

“No worries!” Manda nodded and waved as Jennifer and Curt disappeared down the hall. Then she stood and stretched. “Well, that’s enough of the dry, business stuff. I was starting to slip into a coma.” She was suddenly much more relaxed and confident. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hungry! Shall we order in some dinner before we get started?”

David stretched too, leaning back in his chair. “That sounds good. I’m starving.”

Josh groaned and copied David, arching back in his chair and stretching his arms over his head. “I’m in. What sounds good?”

“You know what I like,” Richard told his brother. “You guys figure it out while I let Mikey know what’s going on. Is there somewhere I can go to make a call?”

“Sure. You can use the small conference room,” Manda advised him. “It’s right there.” She indicated an open door just across from the room they occupied. He could see the end of a sofa and coffee table through the doorway.

“Thanks.”

Richard closed the door behind himself and pressed the speed dial number on his cell phone. He quickly filled their manager in on their plan for the evening and advised him of a few last minute details that would need to be attended to before they flew out in the morning. After hanging up, he returned to the larger conference room to find David and Josh alone.

“We decided on pizza,” Josh filled him in. “Keeping it simple.”

“Manda went to get some soft drinks to have with it,” David supplied.

Richard reclaimed his seat at the table and leaned back in the chair, taking advantage of the opportunity to relax for a moment. He liked David. The young designer was open and direct, seemingly unfazed by Richard and Josh’s notoriety. Richard had begun to wonder about David’s role on the team. He was very intelligent and articulate, and much more outgoing than Manda. How much of the success of Aronson’s team was his doing?

“How long have you been with Aronson?” Richard asked, looking for clues to the puzzle.

“Three years,” David replied. “They recruited me right out of college. Manda asked if she could have me, and whatever Manda wants, Manda gets.” He grinned fondly. His tone was unexpected, given his words, with none of the jealousy or bitterness that Richard would expect to accompany such a statement. And, unless Manda had already been with Aronson when she was seventeen, he had obviously underestimated her age.

“Is that a fact?” Richard chuckled.

“Is what a fact?” Manda asked, breezing back into the room with her hands full of soda cans.

“Is it a fact that you are a spoiled, overindulged brat,” David retorted earnestly.

“Oh, that! Yes, that’s completely true,” she confirmed, just as seriously. Then, without warning, her hand flashed out and launched one of the soda cans at David. Without flinching, he caught it in two hands, popped the top, and took a drink, completely unruffled. She smiled appreciatively. “I’m glad to see your reflexes are still in top form.”

“Remind me never to make you mad,” Richard laughed, startled by her sudden and unexpected move. This was a completely different person than the quiet, reserved girl in the meeting.

Josh collapsed back into his chair, shaking with mirth. “Especially when she’s holding a projectile!”

“Oh, I only throw things at David. It keeps him on his toes. Besides, I didn’t throw it hard, and he knows I love him.” She grinned impishly, but there was a hint of pink in her cheeks. David, who’d been trying to keep a straight face, gave in and guffawed.