Prologue
“Cutie Pie? I’m sure the name you used on your resume was Remy.”
Sven was rubbing that spot between his eyes that Remy was fast learning meant that he was feeling stressed. His hand hovered by the screen, but he quickly dropped it as soon as he realized what he was doing. Can’t touch a man thousands of miles away, especially when he signs my paycheck.
“I was trying to be more relatable.” Remy sat up as straight as he could. It wasn’t easy showing he could be a respectable and efficient personal assistant when he was only five foot four… in heels.
“Think about it,” he added quickly. “Bucket List Buddies is designed to appeal specifically to lonely people. Maybe they struggle with social skills and it’s possible they may even suffer from some fear or affliction that prevents them from getting out into the world and joining in the huge number of fun events we’ve got planned this year. It’s vitally important that any barriers to them answering the advert have been removed before they pick up the phone. Don’t you see?”
It was really important to Remy that his absent boss understood where he was coming from. He’d only been in his new job for three months. The closest he’d come to his boss, Sven Booker, was via video screen. In one way, that was a relief. Remy’s whole body went into shivers every time he heard Sven’s deep, rumbling voice. The man was enigmatic and totally hunky, although Remy managed to stop himself from mentioning that in the interview, thank goodness.
“I appreciate your attempts at making this company more relatable to our target audience. That is an excellent idea,” Sven said slowly in that tone that told Remy he wouldn’t like the ‘but’ that was coming.
“But I think our new advertisement should showcase more of the positives attending one of our events can bring to their lives. One of the secrets of successful marketing is to let the viewer know what benefits we can provide for their situation specifically.”
Remy bit his tongue as he tapped his notepad with his pencil. It would not do his job security any good if he told his boss it was him that had the wrong idea. “I’d be happy to adjust the advertising copy. Can I suggest we run both this advert plus another one outlining the positive bullet points that Bucket List Buddies provides for our wonderful clientele, more in keeping with the marketing strategies you’re suggesting?
“I have read that running tests on marketing strategies are an effective way of determining what works best dependent on the target audience. I can run the data at the end of the month if you’d like to see it, and we can discuss it again then.”
Thank goodness that guy I watch on my For You page is intelligent in marketing as well as cute. Remy added a smile to show how agreeable he was being.
It must’ve worked because Sven smiled back, and Remy felt his non-existent ovaries ovulating, or whatever it was they did. He just knew he wanted to have that man’s babies.
“I think that’s an excellent idea, and I appreciate you taking the promotion of our fledging company so seriously. Have there been any sales for the first event?” Remy watched as Sven consulted something on his desk. “Dance classes, I believe. That was one of your ideas as well, wasn’t it? Has there been much interest in it?”
“It’s sold out,” Remy said proudly. “We are running the event one night a week, for six weeks, with a maximum of forty participants per night. We didn’t want any of the evenings to be overwhelming to anyone. All the booking slots are completely full, and yes, I ensured that the ‘sponsored by the Bucket List Buddies’ was on all of the promotional material. And”—he added because he was learning what was important to his boss—“I have made sure to include all the names of the participants on our regular email list, so they get advised of future events.”
Sven might know about business, but in his suits, which probably cost more than Remy made in a year, he clearly didn’t know about regular people. Remy was regular people, he shopped with coupons, the same as everyone else he knew. “Will you be attending our first event?” He crossed his fingers under his desk. Please… please… please.
“You’ve done very well, and I appreciate all your hard work.” Sven was already shaking his head. “Unfortunately, I have to travel for family matters, but I’m looking forward to participating in a future event. In the meantime, if you could send the second version of your advertising copy to my email, then I can check that over. And please use your real name on both test adverts, if you wouldn’t mind. I’ll talk to you in two weeks.”
The screen went black before Remy had a chance to say goodbye. That was normal. “I could be called Cutie Pie if I wanted to be.” He heaved a sigh. Clearly, Sven didn’t think that moniker fit him, which was a shame.
“I could rock your world, big guy.” He shot his finger at the black screen and then opened his notebook to a clean page. “Positive bullet points,” he muttered to himself. “You could get laid?” He wrote that down and then quickly scribbled it out. If Sven didn’t approve of Cutie Pie, then he wasn’t likely to think any sexual references in advertisements were a good idea, either.