Sparks Fly (An Aleheather Story/AU)

Chapter 3

"WHAT?!" Heather was fuming. She had just found out that Dakota Milton would no longer be signing on with Illuminate as brand ambassador. This deal was meant to be one of the most exciting things lined up for their business.

"Heather, I'm sorry," Lindsay stammered, her voice trembling. "She backed out of the deal, and..." Lindsay stared down at the floor, like a child who feared being scolded by their parents.

Heather took a deep breath to refrain herself from yelling again. "Do we know why?"

Lindsay was now twirling the ends of her hair, something she did when she was nervous. "Ummm, not exactly, but..."

"Lindsay. Spit it out," Heather demanded.

"At the networking event on Tuesday, I um, told, Ale-jundro that we were planning on -"

"Wait, you mean Alejandro Burromuerto? You told the Chief Operating Officer of J&B Co that we were going to sign on Dakota? What were you thinking? What is wrong with you?" Heather yelled, unable to contain her frustration.

"Heather, I'm really sorry," Lindsay's eyes were tearing up as she apologised again. "I was with Alegundro and he was complimenting me and telling me how good I would be at my job, and then I ended up blurting it out to him. It was an accident!"

Heather gritted her teeth. Oh he's good. Too good. She wasn't surprised - that manipulative jerk might as well have the word 'player' written all over his forehead.

But that didn't also mean she was no longer mad at Lindsay. She closed her eyes and thought of all the times Lindsay had messed up - each time Heather had forgiven her and told her that she would be given another chance, but this was perhaps the time Lindsay had screwed up the most.

"Heather?" Lindsay's voice was barely a soft whimper, scared at what Heather would say or do next.

Heather opened her eyes and took another deep breath before the words came out of her mouth. "Lindsay, you're fired," she said calmly.

"No! Heather! Please, I -"

"This isn't going to work. And it's not just this time you've messed up - I need to be confident that my secretary is someone who won't drop the ball."

Lindsay ran out of Heather's office in tears, her hands covering her face. Heather rubbed her temples and sighed.

Just then, Nathan walked in, a concerned look on his face.

"Hey, I just saw Lindsay and she looked pretty upset. Did you, uh, fire her?" Nathan raised a brow.

"She messed up the deal with Dakota Milton," Heather grumbled.

"If I'm being honest, I'm surprised you didn't fire her earlier," Nathan admitted.

"Yeah," Heather muttered. "So anyway, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"So there were two things actually," Nathan hesitated. "But first things first." He handed Heather an envelope with a card inside. Heather opened the envelope and read out the title on the card. "Chris McLean's Young Business Leaders Development Program. What is this? This sounds so lame."

Nathan let out a small chuckle. "Chris McLean is a talk show host and entrepreneur," he began. "Every year he runs a 3 day program for young business leaders. You stay at a 5 star hotel for the duration, all expenses paid for. This year's program will be in Edmonton and it's in 3 weeks time. The event is invite-only and this year Illuminate was selected."

Heather rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm not interested."

"I think you should go, Heather." Nathan's face was soft. "Just think of it like a mini holiday. Besides, Chris McLean is well connected in the industry, and this could be good PR for Illuminate. Just trust me on this, ok?"

Heather sighed. "Alright, fine. A holiday doesn't sound so bad right now."

Nathan smiled and placed a hand on Heather's shoulder. Heather noticed and took a slight step back. "So what was the other thing you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh, um, actually it's not that important, I'll tell you when you get back from the Chris McLean program," Nathan replied quickly, a slight nervous and embarrassed look on his face.

Heather raised her eyebrows. "Ok then".

A sudden knock on the door interrupted their conversation. "Come in," Heather nodded.

It was Cody, another employee at Illuminate. "Heather, the final mock samples for our upcoming jewellery collection are now ready for your review."

"I'll be on my way," Heather quickly grabbed her notebook and laptop and made her way out of her office.

Nathan stood silent in the room. His eyes trailed over to a photo frame on Heather's desk - it was an image of Heather at their college graduation. He picked it up and stared at the image closely, as if to study it and then slowly put it back down, a focused and determined look on his face.

***

"Papá, you wanted to see me?" Alejandro walked inside his father's office, shutting the door gently behind him. José was already standing inside near the windows, a smirk on his face. Alejandro wanted to growl at seeing José with that look on his face but did his best to ignore him.

"Yes, take a seat," Javier gestured towards one of the chairs in his office.

As Alejandro sat down, Javier handed him a card. "This is the invite to the annual Chris McLean Young Business Leaders Development Program. I'd like you to attend on behalf of our company. You know what to do, sí?"

Alejandro couldn't believe that he was being chosen to attend instead of José. "Yes of course, I won't let you down," he responded confidently.

"Good," Javier said. He paused for a moment, and then continued. "One other piece of news - we've signed on Dakota Milton as our next brand ambassador. A media release will be going out later this afternoon."

Alejandro froze. He couldn't believe his ears. "Wait, when did this happen? How come I wasn't consulted on this?"

"Just this morning," Javier grumbled in response, annoyed that Alejandro was asking questions. "It's not a big deal, José and the PR team took care of it."

"José? But I was the one who told you about this news! I should've known and been consulted about this!"

"Well, it's obviously because I'm smarter and more trustworthy than you," José sneered, the smirk on his face bigger than ever.

Alejandro clenched his fists. "You piece of -"

"Enough!" Javier snapped. "You both are acting childish. You two share the same blood and both of you are important to the company. Why can't you just learn to get along?" He glanced at his watch and grumbled. "I'm going to be late for a meeting, I'll see you both at home tonight." Javier left and slammed his office door after him.

"You know, Al, Father only picked you for that Chris McLean development program because obviously you have zero skills and need to develop some. I'm not the one who's not fit to be Chief Operating Officer," José taunted.

Alejandro felt the anger burning in his chest, and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. That's not true, he told himself. José's only saying that to provoke you.

"José, just shut up," Alejandro growled.

José ignored him - he felt a giant wave of satisfaction at seeing Alejandro's face light up with frustration. In fact, it was...addictive. He continued on: "...oh, and when the time comes, Papá will be handing down the CEO position to me. You're worthless, Al."

That was the last straw for Alejandro. He bawled his fists in fury. "This isn't over, José. We'll see who gets the last laugh." Alejandro angrily stormed out and made his way back to his own office. It is on, he thought. Now, he was more determined than ever to show both José and his father that he would be a much more worthy candidate to lead J&B Co.