Sam and Colby: The Asylum

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"Oh, no no no. We love our media influencers to have their own lives, their own passions, their own things beyond the brand. It makes them seem more real to the clientele, gives them depth as a person. The position as an influencer would encourage the idea of frequent travel to be documented by both photo and video and occasional photoshoots. YouTube stars tend to live by that lifestyle, anyway.

"Of course, you would be provided financial compensation for any travels you take, providing that you take pictures and post them with Chanel influence or product in said pictures and posts. You will also frequently receive free Chanel products that we would like you to incorporate into your promotions.

"To start out, I believe we can manage a baseline of $800 per brand promotion post with a commission of $2 for every one thousand likes. For example, should you post a picture holding a bottle of Number 5 and you get 50 thousand likes, that is $100,800 per post. However, that is a very shaky estimate, considering you have upwards of 1.2 million Instagram followers and 800 thousand Twitter followers.

"For the time being, I would like to only monetize Instagram posts to build up your personal brand. Of course, you are both allowed and encouraged to post some personal photos amongst any promotions for the brand. On top of that, we will allow endorsements from other companies given that you do not in any way specifically promote any lines of fragrance that are not the Chanel brand. As I'm sure you're aware, our fragrance line is responsible for a significant portion of our income and profits. Do you have any questions?" he said. Holy fuck. That was a lot.

"Oh, actually, I have a question for you. Your injury. I am not going to pry as it is none of my concern, but I will ask you once. Was any of it inflicted by any individual in any sort of intentional manner? I am not implying anything or suggesting specific accusations. You may have picked a street fight for all I know. I would just like to know if what happened was intentional in any way," Alain said.

            "Oh, no, absolutely not. One of the people I was filming with accidentally kicked a brick at my face when he was trying to pull me up from falling out of a second story window," I explained. He raised his eyebrows. Clearly, this man didn't even dream of doing risky or dangerous things. But I had a feeling that he respected me for it.

            "Well, I might just have to watch this video collection," he said. "Now, any questions?"

            "No, sir, I don't believe so," I said. He held out his hand for me to shake.

            "Phenomenal, Miss Atkins. You are hereby relieved from your position as branch manager and promoted to a freelance Chanel social media influencer," he said. I shook his hand back. Holy fuck.

            "Now, Chanel's head lawyer Ms. Dockins will be here shortly to discuss fine details and go over various new contracts with you. I must be heading down to Napa Valley for a horse race. It was wonderful to make your acquaintance, Miss Atkins, and I know you will be doing big things for this brand in the future," Alain said, standing up. I stood up with him and walked with him to the front door, where he shook my hand one more time before heading out.

            I walked back to the office, shut the door, and clapped a hand over my mouth before letting out a short scream. I had walked into work today expecting to argue with some prissy woman who never liked me in the first place that would disrespect me even more after the cancel Colby scandal.

            Instead, I had talked to the billionaire owner of Chanel and been offered whatever job I'd wanted, and would get to walk out of that store as an Instagram influencer with all-expense paid vacations lined up for me and free Chanel products appearing at my door every so often. Not only did that mean I would be making an insane amount of money, it meant work would never get in the way of joining the guys for Sam and Colby series trips. Hell, I could probably bring them with me on some of my vacations just for vlogging. Wait, could I become a vlogger, too? I totally could, given these new opportunities. Holy shit.

            The lawyer came in a little later and we spent four tedious hours combing through paperwork and electronic files and incredibly boring documents, but we finished soon enough and she said I was free to go. I said goodbye to my now ex-coworkers and walked back out to my car, shaking with excitement.

            I sped on my way to Colby's place. Like, a lot. I would have definitely gotten pulled over if a cop had seen me. Luckily, none did, and I was repeatedly pushing the elevator button to go up to Colby's floor less than 20 minutes later.

            I ran down his hallway in my six inch heels, not caring that I could very well fall over and break my ankles. I had a feeling that he didn't usually lock his door, so I barreled down the hallway and straight through the door, only stopping for the half a second it took for my turn the knob. I went flying in and stopped to catch my balance by leaning against the couch and looked up to see Colby.

            A very confused Colby at that, standing there in boxers and nothing else, leaning against the counter eating a bowl of cereal, his hand with the spoon in it frozen in the air from being startled.