My Simple Single Life

1

"Cynthia Adewale? "

I pulled out from my thoughts, turning to the direction my name was called.
"Yes, that's me? " I replied to the middle aged woman in the very ugly green dress, sitting at the receptionist stand.

"You're up. " She said and withdrew her attention to vigorously typing on her laptop.

'Well, this is it, Cynthia. ' I told myself as I stood up from the reception chair. 'It doesn't matter if the last five interviews were flops. This is all that matters. And you will show them how good you are. "

Taking a deep breath to shake off all the nerves that had me in knots, I approached the glass door where every other applicants had walked in and out from. The portfolio I held, swung to my movement which my heels announced with every step.

And that is why I'll be forever grateful to the genius who invented heels. I was a five seven but that didn't stop me from using them. It's click-click sound was soothing music to my ears. Somehow, it gave me courage to walk through that door and not feel intimidated by the three human beings sitted, whose scrutinizing gaze were supposed to give me goosebumps.

Considering that those three people were the Gale brothers.

And who are the Gale brothers? You're probably thinking. Well, these three brothers, AY, short for Ayuba, AU, short for Audu and Ali short for, well, Ali, were born into a family of beggars. Their parents were literally almajiris who begged on the streets for their daily needs and wore rags since that was all they could afford.

Somehow, these three brothers knew how to wear their rags well. They did not define their destiny by the family they had found themselves in. Without going to a formal school and instead learning local tailoring, these three worked their way into becoming a power to be reckoned with in the country's fashion industry.

Their very own brand, Gigi, earned 2.3 million dollars each year. With numbers that high, who wouldn't tag them as an inspiration to upcoming designers like me?

Sitting on the lone chair that sat in the middle of the room, a few feet away from the table they sat on, I introduced myself.

"So what do you have for us, Cynthia?" Ali, the calmest and I've always thought, the hottest of the three, asked. He had the darkest eyes and wore a black dansiki native that soothed the light color of his skin.

"Well, I am a fashion designer and illustrator...." I began to say.

"We know you are. Everyone who applied for the job is." AY interrupted. "We just want you to tell us what special thing you have....like an idea, a new idea, that assuming we hired you, would be a breath of fresh air to us. "

I paused, pursing my lips in thought. New idea, I wasn't expecting that. Deciding instead to bring my drawing book from the portfolio, I opened the page of my latest genius illustration and held it up so they could see.

"This. This is a new idea. " I said with a beaming smile. "I got the inspiration to sketch it in a dream so I termed it heaven. You get it? Dream. From heaven. Heaven. "

The brothers exchanged looks with faces that read the emotion disappointing. I closed up the draw book quickly.

"Yeah, I understand if that wasn't impressive considering that you three are the almighty Grey brothers but... "

AY interrupted. "Nobody said that wasn't great? "

I took in his words and my heart did a little jump in excitement. "Really? "

He nodded. "That was an excellent fashion illustration. It's just that what we want are ideas that would have us do things differently for once. There's a term for it, yes, innovation. That is what we want. "