Summoned Again?

Over the next two weeks, Nat and I worked our asses off. She had arranged things with the advertising agency and we needed at least ten thousand pendants prepared. For a start. The campaign, as per my initial request, was going to go right into the international market and not start with the local or even the national market. Plus, all the options we had just made the damn things so much more appealing than just offering the pendants as what they initially were.

Having the unofficial support of the President of the United States made it even more appealing. He was one of the leaders of the free world and he was wearing the product, quite openly and blatantly. Of course, we couldn't name him or show his entire face, and we added a disclaimer stating that he wasn't involved or endorsed us... and it didn't matter. Men wanted one because he was wearing it and women wanted it because his wife was wearing one.

It was the best underhanded sales tactic ever perpetrated on the world. We used public footage and interlaced it into the commercial, then had a model who had been asked to stay up all night and be groggy, put the pendant on while on camera. She woke up instantly and it showed. She said her lines, like it was drinking a fresh cup of coffee and lasted for up to ten hours.

The best part? The advertising agency used their top model for such a high profile ad campaign. Her name was Angela Marie Davidson and Nat nearly had a heart attack as she came face to face with someone she never thought she would ever meet again.

“Angel!” Nat exclaimed when she saw Angel on the set getting her hair brushed.

“Hello?” Angel said, as if it was a question, and looked at Nat with surprise because only her close friends called her Angel.

“Don't mind her, she's probably just a huge fan.” The hairdresser said in dismissal.

I had to step in after that comment. “Excuse me.” I said, my voice a bit stern, and the woman looked taken aback. “That's Natalie Sampson. She designed the product and hand painted most of the designs and artwork on all the options.” I explained. “You shouldn't be so quick to dismiss people.”

The woman looked shocked at my rebuke and then her eyes darted to the beautifully painted pendant that Angel wore. She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed at her mistake, because she now knew that she had messed up.

“That's enough, sir. She learned her lesson.” Angel said. “Or are you going to fire her for her mistake?”

“If she didn't have to face the important person that she insulted during the next two days, she wouldn't learn the lesson properly.” I said and the hairdresser made a slight whine sound.

“She can apologize.” Angel said and nodded to her.

“Miss, I'm sorry. I only wanted to keep you from annoying Mrs. Davidson.”

“Excuse me?” I said sternly again and the woman winced.

“She apologized.” Angel said.

“That wasn't an apology, it was another dismissal.” I said. “She said she was sorry that it didn't work.”

Angel glared at me and then she sighed, too. “Kim, go to my dressing room.”

“But... I was just...”

“Go, before you keep embarrassing me and yourself.”

Kim opened her mouth to respond, then she closed it and walked away.

Angel looked at me. “I'm sorry about that. Sometimes Kim is a bit too protective of me and...”

“She learned how to avoid actually apologizing from you, didn't she?” I asked and Angel's face flashed anger again. “Neither of you are actually apologizing for the insult. You're still apologizing that it happened and didn't work.”

“What's going on?” The manager of the ad agency asked as she came over to us.

“My business partner wanted to meet the model showing off her artwork.” I said and then explained exactly what had happened. Angel's face went completely red as she heard me speak, because it really sounded much worse when told that way.

“Well, I can see that it's true.” The manager said as she looked at Angel's face. “I've told you several times to be respectful to everyone, even if they are eager fans.”

“I'm not!” Nat exclaimed. “I was just...”

The manager held a hand up to stop any further comment. “I'm sorry if I implied that was you, Miss Sampson. I meant you were included in the everyone part, as is our rich and very forgiving boss.”

“We've already shot too much to get someone else in here to replace her.” I said and both she and Angel let out relieved sighs.

“Angela, you need to apologize properly. Don't mealy-mouth the words and actually apologize.” The manager said. “I'll have a word with Kim and have her apologize as well.”

Angel took a deep breath and let it out. “Miss Sampson, I'm sorry if we dismissed you as unimportant. It was a mistake and it won't happen again.”

Nat's face was red this time. “It's okay. Really.”

I assumed Nat was a little embarrassed because their first meeting wasn't going at all like it was supposed to. “Now give her a hug and talk about what Natalie actually wanted to talk to you about.”

Angel gave me a squinted look, then she glanced at her manager. The woman nodded and Angel had no choice but to hug. She was reluctant, we could all clearly see that, and she stepped close and bent over slightly to give Nat a hug anyway. As soon as her arms went around the smaller woman, she took in a sharp breath and then her grip tightened as she ducked her head down to rest it on Nat's shoulder.

Nat's arms went around her and held her just as tightly and tears came to her eyes. No one spoke as they saw the shared moment between them. The lighting crew, the sound crew, the gofers, the set and props crew, and everyone else stared at the two women they knew had never met before, because both of them were crying from just a simple hug.

Angel lifted her head and stood up to her full height and didn't let Nat go. “I... I don't know why...”

“It's okay.” Nat said and held a hand out to me. I gave her several tissues and she quickly and expertly dabbed at Angel's face without ruining her make-up. “I feel the same way.”

Angel nodded as she took several breaths and then she slowly let Nat go. She took a step back and her hand went to her heart. “I can still feel it.”

“Me, too.” Nat said and dabbed at her own eyes.

“What... what did you want to talk about?” Angel asked.

“I think we need to change your pendant to one that suits your hair.” Nat said and both Angel and the manager looked surprised. “Damon, get me the display.”

I walked over to the set piece and brought it back.

“I was busy before and didn't get a chance to see what it looked like on you, until Damon told me to stop working and to actually look at what was going on around me.” Nat said and picked through the different hand painted pendants. “Here, I think this one will suit you better.”

Both the manager and Angel had to agree, because when Angel put it on, the little painting seemed to be highlighted by Angel's mass of golden wavy hair and not overwhelmed by it.

“Miss Sampson, you seem to have a talent for that.” The manager said.

“I wouldn't have put her in charge of hiring you and taking care of everything involving how the product looks if she didn't.” I said.

“She picked my firm?” The manager gasped. “It wasn't you?”

I shook my head. “I don't have a lick of common sense for color palettes or whatever else Natalie uses. As soon as I brought her on board, I handed it all over to her and let her handle it all.” I said and then fake coughed. “Ahem. I mean, I rewarded her hard work by giving her more responsibility.”

Angel covered her mouth to stop her laugh and Nat whacked my shoulder with her hand.

“So, all those questions I asked you about how you wanted things to look...”

“...it all went right over my head and I texted Nat about it.” I freely admitted.

“That's why you were on your phone all the time? I thought you were conduction important business or something.” The manager said.

“I was conducting important business.” I said. “Now that you've finally met the aesthetic brains behind this whole thing, I'll let you talk directly from now on.”

I beat a hasty retreat to make them laugh and that was how Nat started her renewed friendship with Angel and how the advertising agency became a much more proactive participant in the campaign... and what a campaign it was. I spared no expense in buying commercial time on every television network in the world, at prime time in each country of course, and soon everyone knew what we offered.

For the low price of $99.99, you too could have ten hours of uninterrupted Clarity every day. It was not recommended to buy more than one pendant, because they didn't work in conjunction. If you needed to stay up longer, it also wasn't recommended, because when the charge ran out, you could potentially fall unconscious and sleep for the time your body needed to recover.

We sold all ten thousand that Nat and I had prepared in less than an hour.

I was glad that we had set a two week shipping schedule, so we could make more pendants as we shipped out the first set of orders. People easily figured out how to get more than one pendant, even with the one per person restriction. I had thought about restricting it to one per address, then changed my mind, because that stopped multiple family members from buying them.

Thanks to Angel's accurate portrayal, every single person that saw the commercial believed it. That she was a gorgeous supermodel and the pendant she wore matched her perfectly, was just extra incentive for people to buy. Not surprisingly, our divide of heat transfer art and hand painted pendants was spot on the money, because only about 20% of the customers wanted to bother sending us personal pictures.

The pendants were a huge hit and it became the new trending thing. Knock-offs appeared almost immediately and then were immediately quashed. Not by my corporation, either. It was the customers.

Our claim that the feeling was instantaneous, with visual proof of normal people experiencing it because Angel did not count as a normal person by any stretch of the imagination, caused the backlash to be both immediate and brutal. There were no competitors and we had the sole lock on the market.

Everyone wanted one, too. A lot of them didn't care about the actual ability of the pendant, either. Buying such a high quality pendant and necklace for only a hundred dollars made a lot of people happy.

I eventually got word that a few people... and by a few, I mean thousands... tried to sell it for the gold content. It surprised me that someone took so long to figure that out, because it would net them a significant amount of money if it was accepted... and none of them were.

The pawn shops and even the less than reputable people knew all about how much the thing was selling for. If they wanted it for the gold, they could buy it themselves for only a hundred bucks. They offered to buy them for sixty bucks and no more, because even if they resold them for less than the real price, they would still make money.

The suckers that took that deal were out their money and the pendant, because the buyers kept the pendants for later. They knew they were worth more intact and they also knew that people would want two or more, especially doctors and commercial pilots. They knew someone would be by looking for them eventually, to maintain their clear mind for longer than ten hours. In the age of twelve and sixteen hour days, ten hours was not nearly enough time.

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