“Shopping malls?”
“Yes.”
“Are you aware that shopping malls are a dying breed?”
“Absolutely.”
She tilts her head. The smirk she’s wearing turns warm and curious but is short-lived, and she quickly snaps back to the decisive hard-pressed CEO mask.
“I should be investing my time, money, and grand opening to a dying concept… why?”
“Because it’s not actually dying.”
“Explain,” Alexa says, tapping her perfectly painted nails on the desk in front of her.
“The idea of physically going to malls may be dying, but the idea of having all your favorite stores in one place isn’t. Shopping isn’t just in person anymore. It’s online. We have plans to open our mall both physically, and virtually, which gives us an edge on the others.”
Alexa leans back in her chair, and I have to fight the urge to let my eyes wander down her body, unlike my hands the other night.
“Hmm.”
She’s considering it.
“We have a significant online market of our own, and the idea of virtual malls have been brought up to us on occasion. It’s one we’ve never put much thought into because quite frankly, it seems likewe’rebringing more to the table with that. What else do you have to offer?”
“Aside from our mall being virtualandin-person, we’ve already signed on a number of other name brands. Supreme. Rolex. Balenciaga. I’m well aware that your intentions are to bring Rose Jewelry to a wider market, and we won’t only have exclusive name brands. We’ve signed on indie designers, and we have a healthy rotation of pop-up shops and exhibits. We’ve got a portion of the mall for shows. Each store and designer can donate to and get a share of the profits. You’re not just sharing with your own clientele, you’re now sharing it with designers all around the world and their audiences. This is going to be a truly one-of-a-kind experience.”
I’m met with silence.
She’s staring me in the eyes with her gorgeous and intense daggers, making my heart race, but lucky I’ve been around people like this my whole life and even though my heart is beating hard, there’s no way she can tell.
“What exactly does your company have that the others don’t?”
She raises her eyebrow, cocking it at me. She’s begging me to cock it back, to play her game.
“Me,” I say.