The next morning, before leaving for school, Juniper turned on herputer, scanned the jewelry design sketches she had drawn the day before, and sent them to the J-Five studio.
A secondter, the director called, his voice ecstatic. "Boss, these designs are absolutely incredible! They''re going to be bestsellers when we release them. You must have put in so much time and effort. Thank you, thank you!"
"It did take a bit longer than usual," Juniper said, her voicezy. "It should have taken half an hour, but it ended up taking a full hour."
If she hadn''t been just killing time, it probably wouldn''t have even taken that long.
On the other end of the line, the director suddenly fell silent. Had he heard that right? The boss was saying these top-tier designs took her only an hour to create? How were other design studios and jewelry designers supposed topete? There was no one on her level.
"Now that you have something to make money with, don''t bother me for a while," Juniper said, deliberately lowering her voice as she walked downstairs.
Usually, bosses were the ones hounding their employees to make money. But in her case... it was theplete opposite. Her employees were constantly on her case to make money. She wasn''t even sure who the real boss was anymore.
"So fast?" the director hesitated for a second, then chuckled nervously. "Boss, since you''re so quick, could you maybe draw a few more?"
"What?" Juniper stopped in her tracks, her brow furrowing deeply.
"Look, boss," the director pressed on, undeterred, "if you can draw four designs in half an hour, that''s eight in an hour. In a 24-hour day, that''s 192 designs. In a month, that''s 5,760!" His excitement grew with each word, the sound of a calctor tapping away audible over the phone. "And if we sell each design as a product for at least six figures, let me see... tens, hundreds, thousands, dad, grandpa, great-grandpa..."
Holy cow, that''s a lot of money. He couldn''t even say the number.
"Boss, boss..." His voice cracked with excitement,pletely lost in his dream of getting rich.
"Yes, that is a lot," Juniper replied calmly, "but I''m not going to do it."
"Why not, boss?" The director''s excitement instantly deted.
"Figure it out yourself," Juniper''s voice turned icy. "If you can''t figure it out by ten o''clock, you can step down from your position as director."
"Boss..." The director was terrified and tried to argue, but the line had already gone dead.
He was screwed. The boss always meant what she said and never showed any mercy. If he couldn''t figure it out, he would definitely be dealt with. So, why wouldn''t she want to design more jewelry and make more money?
Meanwhile, Juniper hung up the phone, stuffed it in her pocket, and rubbed her temples, annoyed.
J-Five was a high-end, private
custom jewelry studio. It had always been about quality over quantity. If it were purely for profit, with her skills, she could churn out eighty designs a day, let alone eight. What was the
if
Paint of calling it rare and high en anyone ould easily buy it? What she wanted was for every piece from J-Five to be a ssic,parable to any major brand. Brand value would always be her top priority.
Juniper was a bitte because she had been scanning the design sketches and hadn''t had time for breakfast. To make sure she didn''t miss the exam, Shanley had packed her food to eat in the car bread, milk, and a box of fresh cherries.
"Eat slowly, there''s still time," Shanley said, watching the girl take small sips of milk, his eyes full of tenderness.
"Have some fruit." After she finished the bread and milk, Shanley opened the box
and held a cherry to Juniper''s lips. "The cherries you wanted."
Juniper looked down and saw the box of fresh red cherries, slightly surprised. She had only mentioned it once in passing to Dana. And in just two days, Shanley had managed to get them for her if she remembered correctly, cherries were out of season here.