The Dating Plan(37)

“Zoe and I recommended a rebrand,” Mia whispered as Brad connected his laptop to the projector. “We wanted to move away from the peach packaging to something more edgy.”

“Peach.” Josh chuckled. “There’s some subliminal advertising right there.”

Mia groaned. “Do you think about anything other than sex?”

“I like peaches.” Josh smiled. “I also like bananas. Does that make me a bad person?”

“Shh. He’s going to start.”

Brad held up a box of Rapture tampons and the chatter in the room died down. “You have great products here. These pads have the best adhesion and longevity in the market . . .”

“We’re off to a bad start if he doesn’t know the difference between tampons and pads,” Mia murmured. “I definitely don’t want tampons with maximum adhesion.”

Brad clicked to a picture of Organicare’s products on a store shelf. “To gain traction from the younger end of the market we need to bring your packaging into the new millennium. The question is . . .” Brad raised his voice. “What do women want at that time of the month?” He clapped his hands together. “We have the answer.”

“Oh yes, please,” Daisy muttered. “Mansplain to us what we want at that time of the month.”

“We’ve done some preliminary market research,” Brad said. “Women want to feel excited about pulling out a box of menstrual products each month, something to distract them from the unpleasant side effects.” He clicked to a slide of a woman standing on a beach with a huge smile on her face and a box of pads in her hand.

Unpleasant side effects. Daisy choked back a snort.

“This is our vision.” Brad’s next slide featured a woman with long blond hair, dressed only in a piece of pink chiffon, straddling an unsaddled white horse with a pink horn attached to its head. Ribbons fluttering from its mane, the horse galloped through a field of flowers toward a rainbow in a purple sky.

Is he serious? Mia mouthed.

Brad cleared his throat. “What we’ve come up with is an image, a feeling. It encapsulates the pleasure of having a product that makes a woman feel confident and secure. We’ll take a ten-minute break so you can have a good look at the handouts, and then we’ll move on to the new logos and website redesign.”

“I wouldn’t feel secure dressed in a shredded tissue and riding bareback on a horse that’s about to jump over a cliff,” Mia said as Brad handed out the design packages. “And is she on her period or in heaven? I think he’s confused that they’re the same thing.”

“It’s a unicorn.” Zoe snorted a laugh. “Or did you think that long thick cylinder on his head was something else? Maybe it’s subliminal advertising.”

“This is ridiculous.” Mia slumped in her chair. “What about the women of color? Or plus-size women? And what about teenagers and young women? Market research shows they don’t buy in to the idea of menstruation as taboo. They talk about it. They own it. They aren’t ashamed. They need real facts and real products.”

“You need to say something,” Daisy urged Mia. “You and Zoe are going to be a big part of the redesign and no one knows the products and the market like you.”

Mia shook her head. “We can’t afford to rock the boat. Tyler wasn’t interested in our ideas before; he certainly won’t be interested now. He’s still talking about making staff cuts. I don’t want to give him an excuse to let me go.”

Daisy glanced up at Brad and Tyler, busy distributing the handouts. What was Liam thinking sending in this guy? Organicare was supposed to be a forward-thinking company that would make a difference in women’s lives.

“I could talk to Liam,” she offered.

“Yes!” Mia’s face brightened. “I forgot you knew him. Definitely talk to him. See what he can do.”

Tyler offered them each a design package featuring additional pictures of nymphlike women and their unicorns. “I haven’t had a chance to say congratulations on your engagement,” he said to Daisy. “You and Liam . . .”

Oh my God. Daisy froze, her heart pounding so hard she thought she’d break a rib. She’d forgotten Liam was going to tell Tyler about their engagement.

“Wait. What?” Josh scowled. “You’re engaged to Liam Murphy and you didn’t tell me? You said he used to be your brother’s best friend. You said you weren’t close.”

Daisy’s pulse kicked up a notch. She wasn’t good on the fly. “We were . . .”

“On a break?” Mia offered.

Daisy shot her a grateful look. “Yes. On a break. A long break. Very long. Years. And then we bumped into each other and it just happened.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Tyler said. “You saved us. I was at the end of my rope. Total despair.”

“I didn’t really do anything . . .”

“No need to be shy. Liam told me everything. How you begged him to step in, cooked him his favorite dinner so he would listen to the pitch . . .” He pressed a fist to his lips, overcome with emotion. “That story about spilling the wine was classic. Classic!” He patted her shoulder. “We’ll talk later. I have to finish handing these out so Brad can get on with the presentation.”