….
1 Month Later - March 4th, 2010.
.
"Maggie, do you think I am not pretty?" Gwendolyn tilted her phone, examining her refle like it held the ao life itself.
"...." Maggie stared at her, fak, her expression screaming - what is wrong with you?"e on, just say it!" Gwendolyn whined, her voice dipping into a childish pitch.
Maggie sighed. She wasn't in the mood fwendolyn's theatrics today.
Instead of indulging her, she decided to steer the versation elsewhere. "Before I ahat, we talk about how you keep calling Regal 'junior' or 'dear junior'?"
Gwendolyn blinked, fused. "Huh? What is wrong with that?"
"It's spreading rumors." Maggie replied, her toter-of-fact.
"Rumors? What kind of rumors?" Gwendolyn leaned frowned, her curiosity piqued.
Maggie set the file down, log eyes with her. "I overheard some staff gossiping. Apparently, they think you both shared some history ba college. They are assuming Regal dumped you."
"What?! Are you kidding me?" Gwendolyn shot up from her chair so fast it nearly tipped over.
Her voice was loud enough to rattle the office.
Before Maggie could reply, the door creaked open. A junior employee stepped in, holding a stack of papers. His face froze mid-sentence.
"Boss, I need you to–!"
"D-DUMPED! By Regal?!" Gwendolyn's outburst echoed through the room, her voice practically rattling the office walls.
The puy hesitated, his survival instincts kig in. "Uh, I will e back ter."
He mumbled something and carefully backed out, shutting the door as if trying to trap the chaos inside.
Gwendolyn barely noticed.
She ag across the room, her arms filing as she worked through this supposed sdal.
"Why would ahink that? Just because I called him 'junior'? Seriously?" She spun on her heel, gring at Maggie. "Who in their right mind would dump me?!"
"...apparently it was enough." Maggie said slowly, trying to i some logito the chaos.
"It doesn't make sense!" Gwendolyn threw her arms up. "Even if it was enough. Shouldn't it be the other way around? I would be the one dumping him! Not that I am saying I would actually do it… Or maybe I would. I don't know!"
Maggie raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Gwendolyn… Did I hear that right?"
Gwendolyn slumped bato her chair and shot Maggie a gre. "Yeah, you did. So what of it?"
Maggie deadpanned.
"Nothing." But her tone was the verbal equivalent of a shrug.
"Ugh. Do you think Regal's heard about this gossip too?" Gwendolyn groaned, gring at her phone as if it were somehow responsible for all this.
Maggie didn't even bother responding this time.
The sileretched betweehid awkward, until Gwendolyn broke it with a sudden burst of determination.
"But, Maggie…. I am pretty, right?"
Maggie groaned. "You are exhausting, Gwen."
…..
Meanwhile, Regal had just ehe office, his casual outfit giving him an air of effortless charm.
By now, he was familiar enough with the staff to exge quiods and greetings as he walked through.
Passing by a pair of employees chattihe break area, one of them was the same person who just a sed ago interrupted Gwendolyn.
Regal couldn't help but overhear the hushed versation as he passed by.
"Wait, so it's true? Our boss really got dumped down by him?" one whispered, his voice tinged with disbelief.
"Yeah, dude. For real." the other replied, nodding.
"But I also heard something else - that Regal dropped out of college because of her."
Hearing his name, Regal paused for the briefest of moments, his stride faltering as the words registered.
What the hell?He didn't turn around, though.
Instead, he kept walking, maintaining an air of indifference, even as his mind raced. The absurdity of the rumor was enough to throw him off, but as he approached the Everleaf CEO's office, ohought took hold -
Did Gwendolyhese rumors too?
Huh, she didn't, right? He wondered as he stooped in for her office.
….
Ba Gwendolyn's office.
After their little exge, Gwendolyn and Maggie focused oasks, slipping effortlessly into their roles as CEO and assistant.
The office fell into a steady rhythm of typing that filled the air, apanied by the occasional shuffle of papers.
Knock–! Knock!
The sound interrupted their flow.
Gwendolyn g the door, then straightened in her chair.
"e in." She called out, her voice calm but authoritative.
The door swung open, revealing Regal.
His gaze swept over the room before settling on Gwendolyn, who unsciously adjusted her posture, as if caught off guard.
"Hello, you twal said casually, striding in and dropping into a chair across from her desk.
"Hellal. I assume you are here for your check?" Gwendolyn asked, sliding an envelope across the desk.
"Yeah." He replied, walking over to the chair.
It had beely a month since his debut book hit the shelves, and today he had been called to collect his first paycheck from his royalties.
To call the book successful was an uatement.
The sales had been climbing steadily, with demand only increasing with time.
Thirty days sis release, the book had bee a hit, a very huge o that.
In the first week, it sold 19,500 copies - a figure that already exceeded Everleaf's marketing projes.
Then something remarkable happened.
Readers began finishing the book, and word-of-mouth started to spread. At first, it was a few enthusiastic reviews from niche bloodreads influencers, and early adopters.
They praised the book's imaginative world-building and its retable, multi-dimensional characters. What began as whispers turned into a roar.
By the sed week, sales didn't just climb, they soared.
From 19,500, they surged to nearly 100,000 copies.
A fourfold increase.
By now, for many, this was already the dream, pral had hit the jackpot.
Yet, only Everleaf Press's inner circle khe real game wasn't the first 100,000 copies.
The tract Regal iated had been unventional. While his royalty rate was cut from 12% to 3% for the first 100,000 copies, a standard deal most debut authors would take without question - he had taken a risk.
A massive gamble.
He iated a 20% royalty rate for every copy sold beyond that initial milestone.
It was a bold move, one many sidered a long shot.
By week two, the gamble started paying off.
The book gaira with mainstream media.
A glowiure in The New York Times propelled its reputation further.
Retail giants like Barnes & Noble pced bulk orders, ting its status as a must-read.
Then came week three.
That's whehing ged.
Sales doubled almost ht, rocketing to 200,000 copies.
The momentum became unstoppable, an avano one could predict.
By the end of the month, the final tally was - 201,709 copies sold.
And Regal's cut?
A staggering 396,870.94.
Nearly 400,000.
As Regal g the check, Gwendolyn leaned ba her chair, her tone casual. "I didn't ask before, but… what are you pnning to do with the money?"
Regal's eyes flicked up to meet hers, his expression sharpening with purpose. "I am going to make a movie."
For a moment, silence hung in the air, thid disbelieving.
Gwendolyn's posure cracked, her face paling slightly as the implications of his words sank in.
Beside her, Maggie froze mid-motion, her wide eyes fixed al as though he had just suggested they build a time mae.
The check, which Regal was just about to pick up, his fingers mere inches away, slid back across the desk as Gwendolyn pced her hand firmly on it. Her eyes narrowed.
"Hold on." She said, leaning forward. "Are you seriously telling me your first thought is that? A movie?"
"Do I look like I am joking?" He tered, leaning back with a faint smile. "The whole reason I wrote the book was to fund the movie."
Both women stared at him, stunned.
Gwendolyn blirying to process what she had just heard.
Maggie, however, was quicker to recover. "Wait… so you are not pnning to keep writing? Like, at all?"
"I never said that." Regal replied calmly. "I enjoy writing, but the goal was always filmmaking. The book was just the first step."
Gwendolyn exged a look with Maggie, her mind rag.
For all the success Regal had achieved with his debut, she hadn't anticipated this.
Gwendolyn exhaled sharply, ping the bridge of her nose. "Let me get this straight. You spent months writing a book, debuted it, marketed it, hit a level of success most authors only dream of, and now you are just... what? Switg irely?"
"Not switg." Regal corrected, his tone calm but resolute. "Expanding."
Gwendolyn crossed her arms, clearly unvinced. "And do you even have a script? A team? What about funds?"
Regal nodded. "I have got the script. The team will e. As for the funds… this check will do."
.
….
[To be tinued…]
★─────??★??─────★
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