"White Linen"
Having successfully completed the recruitment course Bella had been set up in her own apartment. She had opted for an apartment in the centre of the city due to the nature of her cover work and her natural preference for the concrete jungle. She sat in the middle of her floor surrounded by papers and scraps of material. Her cover occupation had been as the head of a fashion house and she had been thrown in the deep end. Their spring collection was due to go on the catwalk in two weeks. She'd been here a week and the previous head of the joint had known so little that she had had about six weeks of work to do in half the time. Luckily when it came to the models, they were professional and some of her designers even knew what they were supposed to be doing. She sifted through the papers until she found her schedule, marked off what she had done and highlighted what needed to be done within the mornings work. Her apartment hadn't been furnished yet, work hadn't given her the time, she had had enough time to order a bed on her first day and then thrown herself into work. White walls, pale blue carpet, big windows, large kitchen, lots of room, very little money had been spared on this place, when she first arrived she had fallen in love with it immediately and she very much looked forward to decorating it. Staring at the piece of paper she realised that she had to go into the house today, she had managed to work from home for the last couple of days but now it was time to go in. Time to meet the employees. Time to fix some of the problems that had arisen. Bella went and showered, she preferred to remain in her pyjamas if she could, they were comfortable and practical, but not suitable for the outdoors. She picked out a very blue dress and a black hat to go with it, spent ten to fifteen minutes on her makeup, she never had understood why it had taken so long for most females to put makeup on. Through on her clothes, grabbed her purse and left the apartment, no need to dawdle. The house was a wreck, so busy and it took some time to get anyone to show her where her office was. Once there she settled down and relaxed looking around, open office, thin glass door, old name on it. Shrugging she moved her thoughts to other things. Some of the designers had needed to take their work back to the drawing board and at this late stage it worried her that the finished product would look rushed. She moved over to the rack of clothes she had had delivered here yesterday and sorted through them. They were satisfactory…they should be she designed and made them herself. She opened the door and called in her assistant. "I want the models and designers in my office in an hour and can you get out major sponsor on the phone for me." The meek young girl nodded and scribbled away on her piece of paper, her thin wire glasses did nothing to make her big eyes any less owl like and Bella wonder just how long the girl had worked here. The sponsor had been helpful and almost happy to be talking to someone who knew what they were doing. The designers were showing up and the models were milling around outside her office. She moved across the room and opened the door. "Come in" The artistic types looked self assured, confident that they were good at what they did. The models look hopeful that they weren't about to be fired. "Ok here's the deal. Too many of the designs had to go back to stage one, we do not have time for this, the show is in two weeks and I have a tonne of work to do until then if I can smoothe this out fast I will sleep easier. So, will the models please take an item off the rack each and put it on in the changing rooms, and will the designers please listen to me because I know you will not like this." The models moved obediently off to change into the items. "These are my personal designs, I will not be doing this every show but I am new and this place was run badly before I got here. If I am to sort everything out soon I need some of the pressure taken off and to do that I need to know that the show can go on without me. These designs are completely original and if you wish to take credit for them I don't care, bicker amongst yourself who takes what. On second thoughts no do not, bickering is bad. All the other designs proposed for the show are approved and in the sewing rooms now. The venue is secure, and there will be a dress rehearsal in a week. I have meetings with sponsors and media folk until the show date so if you need to reach me leave a message with my receptionist and I will check in every day. If anything goes contrary to plan contact me, I need to know." At this point the girls emerges and showed off what they wore, all were acceptable, on of the designers made a suggestion, Bella thought it over and agreed. "Ok girls thank you." The girls left again. "One other thing before you leave. I will be needing a section of the next show for my designs and in addition I know this house has a reputation for womens clothing, however it is ludicrous to limit our sales to one target group especially when the name is known so well. People start working on mens and childrens fashions. But anyway that is future notion to be considered and nothing more until this show is over. I have to leave again and I doubt I'll be here often but always contactable ok." A few question were sent her way which she answered easily, and then she flew out the door. On her way to do something much more pleasurable…go furniture shopping. The show was pulled off with very little in the way of glitches. One of the models got sick, a roll of material didn't arrive when it should and Bella was forced to go to the local sewing shop and buy something in replace and one of the machine blew up taking the item with it and the workers hands, which of course started a whole workers comp thing and sick leave bassines etcetera. But the show was successful the critics raved about the new style under the new owner and sale increased by fifteen percent within the first week after the showing. Bella had pulled the house together and made it run smoothly. Most of the people there seemed to like her and no one was scared to call her in the case of an emergency. All was well. Her apartment was now furnished and the cupboards filled. She could settle into the everyday life of a fashion house owners life…until… Return