Chapter 108 Who Could Have Known He Was a Spammer?
The panic attack at the fashion show was a disappointment. Emily had been secretly hoping she was over them. But now she knew a good technique to overcome them, thanks to Teddy. She also knew Ruby was still around in the fashion world.
Ruby had not shown her cards yet, but Emily was sure there was some kind of trouble on its way.
She hated to wait passively and respond to Ruby’s next provocation. On her way home from work one day, she decided on impulse to stop by Ruby’s shop. Byron was driving her home from work as he often did these days, still considering the Josh threat level to be high.
“Let’s stop here a moment,” she said, “I want to drop in on Ruby.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Byron asked.
“No, that’s okay. Could you wait in the café?”
“Are you sure?” he asked, parking the car expertly on the same block where Ruby’s notorious boutique was located.
“Yeah, Ruby is not that scary, honestly,” Emily said. She had dealt with far worse. Although Ruby had posed a threat to her once, she didn’t seem so dangerous after the showdown with Josh.
“Wait!” Byron said as she was about to leave the car. “Don’t underestimate her. Remember how devious she can be.”
“I won’t,” Emily replied. “Don’t worry.”
“Call for backup if you need it,” he said, giving her a wink.
When Emily entered the familiar shop, the memories came flooding back. It was almost thrilling because the battle for supremacy with Ruby had been quite eventful and almost fun in its own way.
Ruby hadn’t seen her yet. She was in the back of the store, telling off a cashier.
Emily looked around at some of the clothes. Ruby’s style was not bad. If she spent half the energy on design that she did on plotting and cutting down other people, she might have had a chance at attracting more customers. As thing stood now, Emily’s products were sold all over the world, while Ruby still had nothing more than this little store. If that made her happy, that would have been fine, but Emily had a feeling Ruby was much more ambitious.
“Well, well,” Ruby said, spotting her, “Come to have a look at my designs?”
“Actually,” Emily replied, “they’re not bad. Some of these pieces have potential.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Ruby said suspiciously. “But why are you really here, Emily?”
“I saw you at Fashion Week. Thought I’d stop by and say hello.”
“We’re not friends or anything,” Ruby said flatly, “If you think I’ve forgiven you for setting me up, you’re mistaken.”
“I only set you up because I knew you were going to try to sabotage me!” Emily said. “So I’m not going to apologize. However, I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every time you’re near. That’s why I have a proposal. Why don’t you join my company as a subsidiary?”
“You’re joking?” Ruby said.
“No. I think you have talent, and I’d rather have you on my team than working against me. I’m going to be perfectly straight with you, Ruby. I think I know why you were always out to get me: you were jealous of my ideas. But maybe if you stopped envying other people’s designs, you’d have more faith in your own creativity.”
Ruby’s big eyes looked disparaging. “Spare me the sermon.”
“Just think about it.”
Emily left the boutique and walked a few storefronts down to the café where Byron was waiting. He looked so handsome sitting there smiling at something in his phone.
“Did you have a good time catching up with Ruby?” he asked.
Emily shook her head. “Let’s just say some people are capable of change, but some are not.”
“You can say that again,” he replied wearily.
“Why?”
“I just got about a million messages from Teddy.”
“I hope he’s okay?” Emily asked.
“He’s never been better,” Byron said, “because he has nothing better to do than send me funny memes and videos of kittens and goats behaving badly.”
Emily laughed out loud, even though Byron didn’t seem to be in a very humorous mood. “Isn’t it funny when older people discover the internet?” she said.
“Not very. How would you like me to forward to you all the junk that he sends?”
“No, please don’t,” Emily said, giggling, “though I wouldn’t mind a curated selection of the funniest cute animal videos.”
Byron finally cracked a smile. “Would you like that with your breakfast in bed, Miss?”
“Actually, I would,” she replied, “We haven’t done breakfast in bed in ages.”
“You’re right,” he said playfully, “Rescuing my companies from financial ruin has made me remiss in my duties. Not that that’s any excuse.”
“Indeed not,” Emily said, “I expect breakfast in bed to be resumed immediately.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Your companies must be somewhat back to their normal sprawling enormousness?” she inquired.
“Yeah, towering over the world of business like the huge edifices of grandeur,” Byron replied, “Or at least, they’re very close to being as grand as before.”
“I’m glad to hear it. And now your father is back in your life, you must be happy, even if he is spamming you with memes.”
“I told you about when my parents divorced,” Byron said pensively, “how my father tried to see us again, but my mom wanted nothing to do with him. I told you about this, how scary it was for me, because he was drunk and knocking at our door, acting completely insane. But now I realize he was acting out of love. He loved us so much, and he still does. He just doesn’t always express it with perfect grace.”
Emily was touched by what he said. At last, Byron had come to terms with his father. She hoped he wouldn’t be too forlorn when Teddy had to go back to California.
