[𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄]

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
❦
𝐌𝐀𝐄𝐕𝐄
"Ugh, I can't wait for this day to be over," I whined to Sloane, my coworker.
"Tell me about it," she agreed. "Is it just me, or was that lady one of the most high-maintenance clients we've worked with yet?" She put a hand on her hip as she sipped her iced caramel macchiato.
"No, it's not just you; she was a character in the dressing room," I grumbled as I sat down at the table in the middle of the break room.
Sloane and I worked as assistant stylists at one of the most well-known business magazines in New York City, The Modern Mode. I got the job at the beginning of the summer and have been working here for a few months. I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Fashion Marketing and wanted to push my boundaries.
That was easier said than done when you were from a small town in Northern Virginia like me. After finishing my one-year internship at a boutique in my hometown, I was a twenty-four-year-old woman with a big-city dream.
Being a bit naïve to the hustle and bustle of it all, living in one of the biggest cities in the world was an adjustment. Thankfully, my older brother, Truett, also lived in the city, the Wall Street area, to be exact. He'd graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance a couple of years before me and always dreamt of being a stockbroker.
I felt bad for my mom, though; she was widowed and lived at home with our two cats. It was our childhood home, and after my dad passed from cancer caught too late in my senior year of high school, she couldn't seem to let go of the house. I didn't blame her; we'd made way too many memories there as a family.
I loved my mom to pieces; she'd been there for me through anything and everything, but I wanted to make sure she was happy, too. I understood if she didn't want to move on from Dad. Thankfully, she had a good group of friends and neighbors around her back home.
I was thankful to have a pretty awesome boss, Nadine, who was a French-American gal who became the CEO and owner of The Modern Mode about five years ago. The company was started by a rich business buff several years ago, but he'd retired, and Nadine just happened to be a very accomplished stylist in New York and Paris.
Sloane and I were her top girls, but we also had a few junior stylists as well. François was Nadine's go-to French photographer who did most of our photos for the magazine. They went way back from their days in Paris together before they came over to New York to expand their portfolios.
Thankfully, I only lived five blocks from The Modern Mode, also in the Chelsea District, so I didn't mind taking a nice stroll to work. I lived in a pretty nice apartment complex by myself that had all of the amenities and such. Sloane already had a roommate since she'd moved from Texas at the beginning of the year after landing the job.