One Night With Mr Braxton

Steele shoes sales were dropping, and fast!

Mrs Steele was bat-shit crazy; after their emergency meeting the week before, she concluded to suppress the Soul-Shoes, a decision that wasn’t one of her best. They’d gone ahead to create a scandal, calling the quality of their Soul-Shoes poor and outrightly dangerous.

For some days, they were satisfied with the results until things suddenly took a turn for the worse. A popular shoe blog hopped on the news and took out time to highlight the difference between the brands quality of budget-friendly shoes. Things didn’t end well when their recent collections were tested live alongside one of the Soul Shoes products.

What was supposed to bring the end of Soul-Shoes ended up bringing them a higher level of publicity. In retrospect, Steele-Shoes ended up as the laughing stock and received backlash from the general public. Being a huge company, their first reaction was to release a press statement, condemning the blog and pushing the narrative of a small brand trying to get popular at their expense.

Things calmed for a bit, as people aired their opinions, the entire topic became very controversial, trending on the number one spots, with hot takes, and people going out of their way to support the brand they trusted.

Along the line, review videos trended and people from the public started buying shoes from both of the brands in order to drop their two cents on the matter- that was when things got ugly for the Steele Shoes.

Honest reviews from the people gained momentum and each review was worse than the last. It got to a point when old complaints on the internet got dug out, terrible experiences of the local Steele customers, narrating how their poorly made shoes resulted in horrid experiences; the least being amputation.

Steele shoes struggled to keep things in order but the scandal only grew by the day, including the amount of hate directed towards them. Thus, the epic fall of their shoe sales. No one wanted to be associated with them and the prestige they’d built in decades was dragged through the mud on a daily basis.

So much that they couldn’t do anything but watch it happen while applying damage control.

Mrs Steele was in her home office, pacing angrily while she awaited the arrival of her daughter. These days, all she did was stay with that damned boyfriend of hers, adding zero value to the company or her life. That would end today, she would make sure of that.

The company’s head office was temporarily closed due to the angry citizens who counted it all joy to vandalize the property and harass workers in a bid to air their grievances. Three successive knocks and Talia stormed into her mother’s office.

” I’m here.” She announced in a clipped voice.

Mrs. Steele couldn’t be bothered by her daughter’s rudeness, ” Sit.”

They both took their seats, Talia shooting daggers with her eyes, while her mother regained the poise of one in charge.

” I see you are still sulking about my reluctance to let you disgrace yourself with a new collection.” She began, ” This is business, we have no time or money to play around or test things out, Talia. It’s either a hit or miss. You should be ashamed of yourself; that wench’s designs are the salvation of the career I gave you.”

Her words were cutting and heartless, good thing Talia was used to it. It’s been her new normal since the disappearance of that wench. ” Tell me something I don’t know, mother.”

Mrs Steele was caught by surprise at her daughter’s nonchalance, she bit her lips and cursed the heavens for giving her such a waste of space. It was going to end though, If she couldn’t put herself to use, then it was her responsibility to do it for her.

” The Company’s going through stormy waters right now, I need you to shift the public’s attention, do something to distract them from the mess that we are in. You are a Steele, and it’s only right you pull your weight on averting this crisis,”

This trick was getting old. Talia felt tired and itched to get back to doing what her mother colourfully described to be wasting space.

” Get to the point, what do you want?” She cuts in, sporting a less than pleased expression.

Her mother struggled to retain her composure, everything seemed to be seeking her wrath these days.

” I need a wedding.” She stated, ” A big one. Seeing your growing relationship fanatics, it’s only fitting we give them a show, don’t you think?”

Talia knew it wasn’t a suggestion, It was an order. Her icy orbs warned her of the implications of refuting her orders and she swallowed the colourful string of words that threatened to escape her. She got up instead, their meeting was done anyways,

” Don’t keep me waiting!” She called at her retreating figure, ” I have very little patience.” She added in warning.

Of course she did, Talia knew how best her mother excelled in controlling her life so she wasn’t the least bit surprised at her warning. She left the house, thinking of the best way to make her demands come through without looking like a love-sick puppy.

Believe it or not, she had her pride to maintain.

******

Emma finally hit her one month mark!

Yes, she was officially one month in the marriage and she couldn’t be happier. Don’t get it twisted, her marriage wasn’t the leading cause of her happiness for obvious reasons but as you can already tell, it wasn’t a downer either.

The leading cause of her happiness was the growth of her baby- Soul Shoes. The past few weeks had been a roller coaster of emotions, daunting ups and downs, and finally a much deserved miracle. A miracle in the sense that Soul-Shoes had somehow managed to claim the hearts of the public within the shortest possible time.

Ever since its release into the grassroots, things took a different turn, and like a spectator, she watched her baby defeat the enemy in the most organic and natural way possible. The results were uncountable; They had a standard customer base, the online community was pumping and the sales were off the charts.

Never did she expect such a dramatic turn of events!

Now, the business had a long list of pre-orders, everyone wanting to cop a feel of their shoes. This was both good news and bad news at the realization that Chara’s father could only handle a certain amount of productivity, in order to retain the quality of the shoes.

She may have heard gossip of his very traditional ways of handling things and how he was coping with the new employees added to his unit but all was fair in the game of love. Everything was going smoothly, the capable hands of Chara didn’t diminish, instead, it grew in capacity, efficiently substituting as the best CEO one could have asked for.

On her own front, she kept the creative oil burning and did her duties as Asher’s wife. Her official reveal and introduction to the world has been scheduled and the days leading up to it were grueling. She almost had no time to herself between preparing, Soul-Shoes, and her craft. Her life seemed chaotic in a beautiful way.

Time passed and it was time for her ultimate reveal. The Braxton family was no small feat as reporters and press outlets swarmed the area, trying to get a glimpse and peek of the dignitaries which were to attend the event of her reveal. The couple were seated in a limo that conveyed them to the venue of the event.

” Remember, there’s no one more important than us tonight.” Asher took her hand into his, patting it as though straightening the creases of her nerves.

Her hand shook at the thought of being exposed once again to the world, she couldn’t even hide it. These days, Asher made locking hands a natural habit. It didn’t cease to cause a skip in her heart though. There was something so natural about being with Asher.

As opposed to the popular opinion of him, her husband proved to be a gentleman. Although they butted heads time and time again, she knew he only wanted the best for her and over time learned to accept certain things as a part of how he took responsibility.

They arrived in front of the house, going through a mob of camera’s and flashlights. This was her world, it would be in a few seconds anyway. Dressed by the best fashion team known to man, she was ready to walk the walk beside her husband.

Before the door opened, Asher enquired her readiness with his eyes. She swallowed, then nodded with firm lips. The door flew open and everything went loud, flashes blinding.

” Don’t cower, we’re equals.” He muttered very close to her ear and they began their journey into the house, held by her husband and ready to be reintroduced to the world!