Here was Juliette, with her lovely new house, two girls and Luke, playing a violin for herself because she had no energy and was too tired for the opportunity to style for one of the most prestigious brands in the world because her daughter had had an accident.
Juliette picked up the mop bucket, poured a couple of capfuls of Dettol into the water and started to vigorously mop Maggie’s bedroom floor.
She thought about Lottie and how she’d handled her own trauma and made a decision. She would suck it up and get herself on to Lellery in the morning.
Chapter 32
‘Hi, Victoria. It’s Juliette Sparkles here.’
‘Hello, Juliette. How are you? I was only thinking of you a few days ago! Hope everything is okay? How is your daughter now?’
‘Thank you. I’m glad to say that she’s definitely on the mend.’
‘That’s so good to hear. It all sounded really horrible. Terrible, in fact.’
‘Yes, it was. I don’t want to go through that again, but she’s doing a lot better than the surgeon expected, so we’re all very happy with that.’
‘That’s really good news. I was going to get in touch actually this week. I had something to speak to you about.’
Juliette sighed. She thought this was going to happen. She had taken her finger off the pulse with A Christmas Sparkle and the Lellery opportunity. These people didn’t mess around. They wanted commitment and dedication, not a one-woman company with no staff. They’d obviously had a change of mind and her stock had not sold well.
‘The sales have been really healthy for your concession. So, we’d like to offer you to do an exclusive range with us,’ Victoria said and Juliette could almost feel her smiling down the phone. Juliette nearly dropped the phone.
‘Oh wow! I wasn’t expecting that! I thought you were going to say the opposite. Thank you so much.’
‘You’re welcome. What were you expecting, then?’
‘I guess with the accident having taken over my life, and me not being able to commit much, well, I thought you would be backing out of it.’
‘On the contrary. As you know, we love small, exclusive brands. Plus, from my point of view, I am always quietly cheering on the sidelines for mums in small business. Yes, so as I said, we’d love to move on further. That’s if you are agreeable, obviously.’
Agreeable, Juliette thought. Blimey, if it wasn’t for her tiredness, she would have been just about dancing all around the room.
‘We’ve not brainstormed it fully as we weren’t sure what your circumstances would be. We were thinking of a limited-edition bauble with the Sparkle branding together with the Lellery name on the bottom possibly, and the date on the front.’
Juliette had to pinch herself. The Sparkle brand? Is that what she was calling it now? She tried to remain calm and keep a steady note in her voice, ‘Okay. That’s fabulous Victoria. I do like the sound of that. Thank you so much.’ Breathe and calm.
‘We’ve a few different ideas including a bauble box set as the sales of the bauble you designed have been the biggest - the one you showed me when we first met, if you remember? That’s where this idea for the collaboration came from. Obviously, the sales from the past month are not a true projection taking the time of year into consideration, but we think it would be a winner.’
Juliette smiled to herself as Victoria launched into sales and profit and loss speak. Her Sparkle Up Your Christmas range had been a huge gamble a few years ago when her customer base via her website had really started to solidify. She’d found a very small supplier who made exclusive glass baubles and she’d spent all of her profits one year on a run of them. She’d carefully transferred her name onto them and that was her, what Victoria from Lellery was calling, branded line. And not only were they referring to Juliette’s lines, but here was Lellery interested in them. Interested in Sparkle Up Your Christmas.
It had all stemmed from Where the Heck is Pretty Beach? too. If it hadn’t been for Lucian, Lellery would most probably never even have heard of her or her little shop.
Juliette continued with the call and Victoria put a meeting date in their diaries for Juliette to come into the store and further work on timelines, and when Juliette pressed end on the call she had to admit that this was one, very much brighter, spot on the horizon. And there was something in the very back of her mind Juliette had been thinking about which would make that spot even brighter.
Chapter 33
Juliette got out of the shower, dried herself off, and put on a clean pair of pyjamas. Things were looking up since she’d had the conversation with Victoria. She’d got a bit of her energy back after the call and though she was still feeling lethargic and not doing much other than work she’d felt a bit better.
She combed through her damp hair and looked down at the pink vintage side table piled with lots of her lovely perfumed body lotions and layered herself in her favourite lime and basil lotion and smiled as the gorgeous scent hit her nostrils.
Juliette examined her face looking back at her in the mirror and thought that it was nice to have the whole house to herself in peace. Luke had gone to see his brother and was staying there overnight, and Maggie was at Jeremy’s. Even Bella, who she’d been video-calling every night to see how she was getting on, had messaged her to say she was going to a friend’s place and so she’d speak to Juliette in the morning. So, Juliette was free to veg out in front of the television however
