The Billionaire & The Barfly (Coming Home) (28 page)

She didn
’t want to leave the city but rent was due in two weeks. If they paid it, they wouldn’t have light or even much for groceries. She wasn’t sure how it would work job wise either, but with no other options, she knew she needed to look. While she was in town, she would stop and talk to her parents about moving back into the attic. Again. Maybe they would let her borrow the cash it would cost for a moving truck. She would never take money from Henry, but her parents were another story.

I
’ll look. Need to prep the parents for the attic invasion anyway.

Want me to meet you there?

Up to you.

Part of her wanted him there but another wanted to do it on her own. But every time she went to answer one way or the other, she thought of a reason not to. So instead, she would let him pick. She was pretty sure she knew his answer before he even sent it.

See you in an hour.

~*~

Aubrey drove the familiar rode from the city into the country and into the little town she never managed to really get away from. Was she meant for small town life? Was this the universes way of telling her to stop fighting it? It wasn
’t that bad, she had just always envisioned the city as this glamorous place to live and work. But that was the thing. Living in the city without a job wasn’t glamorous. It was scary and damn near impossible.

She drove through town and saw the little clothing shop that Henry had told her about on her first visit to his house
, the one that she was supposed to get new clothes from but never did. If they were new, maybe they needed a cashier. It would beat the gas costs of driving to and from the city every day. She made it work before, but with a lower paying job and actual bills, she wasn’t really sure the city was the best place to work if she took the place Henry had found for her.

The store front was similar to all the other little shops on the street
, made of brick with big glass windows and a hanging sign in front of the door. Aubrey could picture it with mannequins in the windows and colorful signs. It could really be eye catching with the right changes.

She climbed out of the car and walked in, the bell ringing as the door opened and closed behind her. The clothes were cute
, and fresh, and could work for teenagers and twenty-somethings, alike. The owner had it split up into day wear and business wear, and Aubrey found herself wishing she had extra cash to blow. Why hadn’t she heard about this place before?

“
Welcome! If you need any help just let me know.”

“
Hi!” Aubrey said with excitement. “This is some really great stuff you have here.”

“
Thanks, I design it all myself.”

“
You’re Leena, right? I think we went to school together.”

“
Yup, that’s me. And you’re Aubrey.”

“
I am, and I am moving back to the area.” Aubrey gave Leena the resume she had brought in with her. “I would like to apply for a position if you are hiring.”

“
I wish I could help you. But I barely have enough to keep the doors open. I work the store on my own.”

Aubrey sighed. Of course she couldn
’t. Small town girl in a small town shop. Too bad her designs were so good. If Aubrey could get a hold of her marketing, she could seriously take her places. Then she perked up. She could help her with marketing!

“
Leena, have you thought about marketing at all?”

“
I don’t have the funds to really do too much. I mean, I posted in the local paper and sent a notice to the paper in the city, but it didn’t do much.”

“
What if I came up with a marketing plan for you that didn’t break the bank but brought in a ton of new customers? Would you consider hiring me then? I could help run the store so you could have days off, and I could be in charge of marketing and taking your name and clothing to the big time.”

“
Like a trial? You would do the marketing plan for free, and if it worked, then I hire you?”

“
Right. Give me a week. I need a job and you need help. You know that means I will work my butt off for you.”

Aubrey waited in silence while Leena thought over her offer. She was already envisioning an online campaign and setting up a website for sales and a fashion show at the high school. So many ideas were swimming through her head! She was getting excited.

“Okay. One week.”

“
Thank you. You won’t regret it!”

Aubrey left the store and practically raced over to Henry
’s street. He was standing outside a tiny little blue house with a large front yard and a fenced in back yard. It had white shutters and a white door, and it looked like a little fairy tale.

Aubrey had seen the house before. It had been there for as long as she could remember. But it always had someone living in it. She had always loved the way it looked and was surprised to see it was the house up for rent.

“This one? I have always loved this one!”

“
Yes, this one. The family that was here before moved away, not sure why. But whatever the reason, it’s good, right? You want to look inside? The property manager is waiting inside for you. Ben is already in there looking around.”

“
You brought Ben? But I thought he was on shift all day?”

“
Eh, it’s a Saturday, and I already told him if he wanted to make up the hours, he could work tomorrow in the copy room since the coffee cart is closed. Plus, not many people are in the office, and he should see it too. Maybe convince Mackenna to help out.”

“
Let’s not talk about Mackenna. Come on, let’s go in.”

The house was small but perfect. There were actually three bedrooms. The master had a jetted tub that Mackenna was drooling over and the third bedroom was small but perfect for a baby
’s room. The backyard had fully grown fruit trees and plenty of space. The price tag per month was what really sealed the deal. It was half the cost of her apartment.

She just needed to kill the marketing plan and get that job.

Chapter Twenty

Aubrey was never
happier for a month to month lease in her life. When they first got the apartment it was the one drawback because that meant they could up the rent at any time. But right then, it was their saving grace. Without it, she could have had to pay serious fines for leaving after only two months.

Two months. Her
‘success’ had lasted all of two months. But it didn’t matter. She had the perfect marketing plan made out for Leena. She had already found models who work in trade, she found a web developer at the University in the city to create a web page as long as they got to use it for their senior project, and an entire years worth of projected numbers ready and waiting. At least this time she wasn’t competing against anyone but herself for the job.

The last box was loaded into the tiny moving truck they rented
, and Aubrey climbed into her car. Henry was taking Ben to the new house to start unloading, and she was going to Leena. With one last look in her rear view mirror at the apartment building, she took off.

The music was blasting through the radio
, and Aubrey sang along at the top of her lungs, letting herself feel the music and let go of the stress that had been holding her so tight she almost couldn’t breathe. She just knew that this was going to be her turning point. She was never all that interested in video games, but she loved the marketing side. She was good at coming up with ways to appeal to the masses in new and unique ways, even when she didn’t get the product. Clothing she got. Especially, Leena’s line. The clothing that Leena was able to come up with made her job easy.

Aubrey parked the car in front of the little shop and went in with a stack of files and folders. Each folder was a different strategy, but they all worked together. The bell rang as the door opened
, and Leena came out of the back room with a big smile on her face.

“
You came!”

“
Of course I did. I told you I was going to create a marketing plan for you, and I did. And most of it won’t cost you a dime.”

“
Most of it?” Leena asked skeptically, leading Aubrey over to a counter near the back wall. She was expecting the comment. Leena had already mentioned being cash strapped, so Aubrey came up with the least expensive options but even those had some costs involved.

“
Yes, most of it. So here’s my plan. First, we get you a website and do a social media blitz. The costs here are minimal. A yearly fee for your domain, and a small monthly fee for your hosting. Or, you could pay for a year or two of hosting up front to get a discount.”

“
But who is going to design it? I have no skills in that stuff. My design skills are purely fabric based.”

“
That’s the best part. I contacted the University in the city. There is a senior who needs a project for her to be able to graduate. Her major is graphic design for web development. As long as she can put your page in her portfolio, leave a link to her business page on your page, and use the statistics that start coming in for your page in her final presentation in ten months, she will design it free of charge.”

“
That’s great, Aubrey! What else?” Aubrey could see a fire in her eyes that she hadn’t seen before. She was getting excited and that made Aubrey smile. She went on to explain how she wanted to do a fashion show at the high schools around the area, charging for tickets, but donating the money right back to the school. She showed Leena the projected sales to come from the website and the added traffic to the store from the local schools and the tax benefits of the donations. If everything went according to plan, Leena’s shop should actually make money by the years end.

“
I guess I need you to pick out an outfit or two. If you’re going to be working here, you need to be wearing my line. I can start you and pay you as a cashier to begin with. Once the sales come in, we can change your pay.”

Aubrey smiled at Leena so big her cheeks hurt.
“Thank you.”

“
If this works, I need to thank you.”

Aubrey looked around for a bit before choosing a few items and insisting on paying for them. Leena gave her a discount and told Aubrey not to fight it. Employees got discounts at plenty of places
, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. The women said goodbye and made plans for Aubrey to begin working the following Monday.

She couldn
’t stop smiling the whole way home.

~*~

Pulling up to the blue house felt like a dream. Ben and Henry were working together to unload the moving truck. Her parents were standing in the yard, looking around the house and smiling. And for a brief second, Aubrey pictured this being her life forever. And that thought didn’t scare her.

Aubrey climbed out of the car and went to her parents. She had called them after deciding to take the house. It had been too long since they spoke
, and she knew that ignoring the problem wasn’t going to make it go away. She apologized for being a brat and for not trusting their judgment on Mackenna. She explained what had been happening and asked for their advice. They told her to stick to her guns, and if Mackenna didn’t do what she promised, not to let her move into the blue house with them.

And she did. Mackenna went back to her parents and begged them to let her come home. Apparently
, they had been trying to contact her for a while to ask her to return home but she had been ignoring them, hurt over their reaction to the baby.

“
Hey, what do you think?” she asked her father. He looked over to Henry then back to her.

“
I think you made a good choice.” His sly smile told her he wasn’t talking about the house. As much as the thought scared her before, she was beginning to see that she didn’t really have much choice as to how close Henry got. She tried to push him away and he wouldn’t let her. She tried to stay away and her heart hurt so much that she had to run right back to him.

“
I think so, too.” She hugged her father and then her mother. Aubrey walked through the gate into the back yard. Maybe one day her little niece would have a cousin to play with back there. Aubrey went to the tree and saw the little buds that would turn to apples in a few short months. She smiled thinking of picking apples with little kids.

Arms wrapped around her waist and warm breath tickled her ear. She sighed and leaned back into Henry
’s body, trusting him to support her.

“
How’d it go?” he asked then kissed the spot right behind her ear. A shiver went through her body and she turned in his arms to look him in the eyes.

“
I got it. She loved my ideas.”

“
I knew she would.”