Trust in Advertising by Victoria Michaels Read Free Book Online

touch screen of the copier, trying to retrieve the PowerPoint. “This might take me a few minutes.” Lexi scrolled through the help screens and reached for the instruction manual.
    “That’s fine. Would you mind if I ran back upstairs? I have my presentation materials spread out in the lounge, and all I need is for someone to set a coffee mug on my storyboards.”
    “I’ll be fine,” Lexi said with a smile. “How many copies do you need me to make of everything?”
    “Lexi, you’re a lifesaver,” the woman mumbled as she scribbled out a long list.
    “I’m sorry, I’ve met so many people this week—I forgot your name.” Lexi looked down at the floor as her cheeks blazed crimson with embarrassment.
    “It’s fine, dear. It has been a while. I’m Mrs. Dee, nice to see you again.”
    She held out her hand, and Lexi quickly shook it and smiled, happy to finally have a face to go with the voice on her answering machine.
    “Nice to meet you, too. Give me a few minutes to get this figured out, and I’ll bring up the copies when I’m done.”
    “I can’t thank you enough, dear. I’ll be upstairs organizing the rest of the presentation so I don’t make a fool of myself tonight. Thank you.” Mrs. Dee dashed out the door. A hint of her perfume lingered in the air as Lexi began the intricate task of outsmarting the copy machine.
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    Victoria Michaels
    Soon, Lexi was victorious in her battle with the large piece of office equipment, and pages began flying into the printing rack. When the whirl of the gears slowed, Lexi grabbed the first crisp stack of papers and began looking through the presentation out of curiosity. It was an ad campaign for a new shoe line that had a great deal of buzz on the west coast because of the famous celebrity who designed the sneakers. When Lexi hit the third page, she found a spelling error.
    “What the heck?” She went back and began pouring over each page of the presentation, thoroughly examining each word of the text, and found not only spelling errors, but switched slides that gave the presentation an awkward flow.
    Lexi glared down at the papers, biting her lower lip as she struggled with what to do next. Should I go fix it myself or tell her first? She’s pressed for time … Without another thought, Lexi jogged down to her desk, slid the flash drive into her computer, and began editing the misspelled words in the presentation. As she typed, she cradled the phone on her shoulder and dialed the extension for the lounge.
    “Yes?” A stressed tone cut through Mrs. Dee’s voice.
    “Sorry to bother you. It’s Lexi.”
    “Oh God, the copier isn’t working.” Her rising voice reflected her panic.
    “No, I got that to work, but there’s another problem.”
    “Kill me now. What is it?”
    Lexi heard papers shuffling on the other end of the phone. “Well, there are spelling errors, one in the brand name that’s particularly obvious.” Mrs. Dee cursed softly. “And then some of these slides are jumbled.” Lexi immediately froze. She’d never asked who actually made up the presentation. If it was Mrs.
    Dee, then she’d basically just told her that she thought her presentation was terrible. Lexi tried damage control. “But then again, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’ll just fix the errors and leave the prese—”
    “That idiot!” Mrs. Dee snarled. “Lexi, dear, please fix the presentation however you think it flows best. I have a phone call I need to make to the person that dumped this pile of crap in my lap.” The line went dead.
    Get to work, big mouth , Lexi told herself as she quickly spell checked the remaining slides, and then shifted some others around to what she thought would make the presentation flow better from the client’s perspective. With only minutes to spare, she ran back to the supply room, printed out copies of the slides, and collated them into presentation bundles. She also printed out a condensed version of the entire slideshow