If she didn’t get this grant money, she would not be beaten. She would find another way to develop her men’s line and get it out into the world.
“You can do this,” she said again, silencing the alarm, which had signaled she had ten minutes before Frank Renlund and his assistant, Benjamin, would arrive.
She went back into the perfumery and tossed her notecards into the garbage. She put her top five samples of colognes on the far table, where she distilled scents into oils. She was ready.
Good thing, too, because she’d only taken one more breath before the sound of tires crunching over gravel met her ears. She quickly put on her jacket and made sure every layer of fabric lay in precisely the right spot.
Then she went outside, painting a perfect smile on her face. Spur had said that her smile could light up the whole state, and she’d never gotten such a great compliment from a man before.
A man wearing a dark suit had already emerged from the driver’s seat of the car, and he stood at the back door of a shiny, black Towncar. They exchanged a glance, and Olli assumed him to be Benjamin.
He opened the door, and another man straightened. He also wore a suit that couldn’t get any blacker. Frank Renlund stood taller than Benjamin, and while he had a pair of broad shoulders, he was very thin.
He buttoned his jacket and smiled at Benjamin, who came toward her first.
“You must be Olivia,” the man said, and Olli recognized his voice from the phone calls she’d had with him.
“Yes,” Olli said, just as smoothly. “You can call me Olli.” She shook Benjamin’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here, Benjamin.” She turned her attention to Frank. “Welcome to Fluency, Mister Renlund.”
“Happy to be here,” Mr. Renlund said. “You can call me Frank.”
“All right.” Olli looked between the two men. “Should we go in?”
“Yes, please,” Frank said.
Olli turned, but Benjamin slipped between her and the door and opened it. She smiled at him. “Thank you.” She entered the perfumery, the jittery feeling in her chest subsiding now that the introductions were over. “Here we are.” She stepped out of the way to make room for the others and surveyed the space.
“I develop all my scents here,” she said, her voice falling easily into that tone she’d used as a tour guide. That was all this was. A tour of Fluency.
“At that far table there.” She indicated the far table on the right. “Each quarter, I develop three new scents for my candle subscription box members. They get the brand-new, exclusive scent every month, and that scented candle is available for that month only. The bestsellers make a reappearance at some point in the future, so I never waste stock, and I get an idea of what my customers like.”
She stepped over to the table where she’d set her future scents. “After I make the scents, I create the products at the second station. I’ve been making perfume for over a decade, and candles for five years. I’m expanding to men’s scents in the very near future.” She picked up the first candle, which she’d named Return to Childhood.
Olli faced the two men and held out the teal, peach, and pink swirled candle. “You can take a sniff and let me know what you think.”
Frank held her eye for an extra moment, a small, knowing smile on his face, before he bent to smell the candle. “Mm,” he said. “Smells like my cold cereal as a boy.”
Olli grinned at him. “Did you actually eat cold cereal, Mister Renlund?” She turned to Benjamin. He took a sniff of it, the hard look he wore on his face never slipping.
“It smells like sugar,” he said.
“Warm sugar,” Olli corrected. “My signature tutti fruity scent is a big winner with my customers, and that’s the top note in this candle. Sugar is the middle layer, and I did a milk honey base to bring back that nostalgia of cold cereal.”
She turned the label toward Mr. Renlund. “I name each scent for what it represents.” This one, she’d put Saturday Morning Cartoons, Dessert for Dinner, and Wasting Time.
He grinned wider. “It’s great,” he said, glancing around. “I know what you do, Olli. All of this was in your application, and since it was well-organized and documented, you caught my eye.”
“These things got you to the top,” Benjamin asked. “We really just like to come meet the applicants.”
Olli looked from Mr. Renlund to Benjamin, seeing her presentation slip away from her. “All right,” he said, swallowing. “What would you like to know?” She glanced at her cologne samples and back to Benjamin. His smile had disappeared while Frank’s had stayed hitched in place.
“I thought your boyfriend was going to be here,” Benjamin said, his eyes a cool blue that matched his voice.
Olli’s first inclination was to lie. Tell them that something had come up for Spur. He’d told her that animals were unpredictable, and there could be any number of excuses that would keep him from being there with her.
She pushed against that, because she did want to be honest in her business, and she believed in her ability to run this company the way she always had.
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said, her voice strong but about to crack. She swallowed and breathed in deeply. “I built this business with eight scents, building different combinations in my kitchen. I designed the labels for the first three years, and I printed them at my local copy store. Every month was a struggle, but the business grew.”