Chapter Text
You know that moment when you do a little little thing that’s unusual for you and suddenly you realize you have a crush on somebody? Yeah, that sinking, rushing feeling in your gut?
See, there’s different kinds of people here. Somebody might just think “alright, I don’t know what this means yet, but I’ll roll with it” … and then there is Lando. The moment he became aware of the fact, that he was in love with sweet, quiet Oscar Piastri, was the moment he lost it. And not in a way of completely crashing out and sobbing in a corner while eating a tub of that good French vanilla ice cream, no.
In that way of feeling unstable as it is and the thought of your brain suddenly having this chemical reaction to seeing someone’s dimples and crazy fluffy swoop of hair? No thank you, that is NOT what he needs right now. But we are not at that part, yet.
It’s not like there is a big back story of his that he cannot love again EVER or similar; to be fair he never has had any big experience of love or somebody liking him. It has just never happened, and he is fine with that.
At least that is what he tells himself.
He is a mere 25 years old. And yes, he already had the big “no one will ever love me” freakout about two years prior. But then, in a drunken session of social media scrolling where his tiredness fought with his need to fuel his depression with even more sad posts, he saw a video that talked about the FRIENDS characters only being about 26 years in the first season – so he gave himself about an hour more to sulk and then thought he needs to stop the whining. His parents did not work their asses off just for him to cry because he didn’t have a human live in pet to cuddle and cook with.
It actually was as simple as that in that moment.
He was just done with university back then and started at the firm he had an internship with while studying. He had done his bachelors in in marketing – he did not know what to do after finishing school and thought “better than nothing”. He did always have a fascination with the topic of reaching people with words and specially design.
The choice was between marketing and business. And… as smart as his grandma tells him he is, that was just a little too much maths and Excel columns. Mostly Excel – like, in theory that application makes sense, but when he tries to use it it’s like it has a little script in its code that says “make sense for everybody but Lando and when he already is frustrated with something not working, make sure you paste his copied text in a wrong column – twice”.
And as much as he preferred his job now over that – he knows it will not be his job forever. Or maybe it will be, but for now something is just… missing. He’s convinced the thing missing is his job. Yes, definitely. What else would it be.
As of today, his days look pretty much the same lately. Wake up, stare at the ceiling after his alarm rings, crawl out of bed, brush teeth, maybe eat something (he won’t, not enough time because the ceiling staring took too long), get dressed, grab his backpack (he forgets half of the things he needs) and then leave for the bus. 20-minute ride if he is lucky, 40 minutes when he’s already late – you know how it is.
And he is fine with that; it’s just what adult life is… right?
Today is the same as every day, something just must be difficult. Today it’s not about who is going to annoy him in the office, but more who’s not in the office.
Elisabeth, good old Betty from front desk management and just the girl that does it all at work, called in sick.
You see, Lando came to this firm as a little intern. Knew close to nothing, still had that stubborn acne and those very interesting glasses that would just always slip off his face. As often with interns, you let them do the little things, the things you don’t have time for (or just don’t feel like doing).
But in his case he had Betty; she took him under his wing and showed him the little nooks and crannies of the office, what to do and not to do and most importantly, made sure he was able to sit in some important meetings that actually helped him get an idea of what his job could be. She often sat in on a lot of the meetings as an important management role there that always has an overview of everything.
Often she just randomly had those “important appointments” and just could not go to meetings, so she sent Lando as her substitute and with that gave him the chance of just listening in – which he, realistically, would not have gotten otherwise.
In one of the meetings back then there was a lot of noise over the huge round table in the meeting room, because Carlos and Lance – the heads of marketing – were disagreeing over an issue. Problem was, they didn’t yet know what exactly it was. Lando thought it was rather obvious and to be quite frank he also thought it was a little sad, that a team of marketing professionals does not have a solution to it.
Lance was pinching the bridge of his nose. “This client is on our ass about this. We are telling people we are marketing pros and cannot figure out why their sales are down 27 per cent.”
Carlos on the contrary was more engaged with a little crazed look in his eyes. “Let us please, please go through it again. Website traffic?” “High.” “Social media engagement?” “Also high.”
Lando never said anything, it’s not his place and not his job. He is privileged to even be present in meetings; he has not yet had the desire to bust his behind out of that room – so he always just watched. But today just felt like one of those team building exercises that went wrong.
Carlos went on, “We increased the spending on ads – some more of that without corresponding sales and they’ll want us to pay for that. So, no more of that. We already changed the headline three times, no changes. Usually a good way to go, but blaming the algorithm, also not the way to go – it’s working, just not in our favour.”
Lance interjects “As I already told you...” – “...if you say brand colours one more time, I will – excuse the unprofessional remark people – slaughter you.” Carlos finishes.
“Perhaps let’s think about the font? An exclamation point in the headline?” Lance continued.
“Be so – and I mean SO – for real, Lance.” The look Carlos gave him said more than enough.
The room turned quiet. No one said a thing. No movement. Everybody looked ready for lunch, or the day to end… at 9:21 am.
Lando looked up from Betty’s to-do-list of the day and what he needed to do still and took a breath. He partly wanted to take his shot, but mostly just wanted this weird silence to end.
He cleared his throat and started “…could I, uh, well. I think I see where there’s room for improvement.”
“Lando, right?”, “Carlos why bother, he’s an intern, what does he know?” – Lance Stroll, who himself is only in any position anywhere on this planet because his father literally is owner of a tech company for data evaluations, helpfully says.
“I say this with the most basic respect I can muster up for you Lance, even the mop in the supply closet could probably help me more than you right now, so let me talk to the boy, por favor. Lando, please – let us know what you think, you’re majoring in marketing, right?”
Not going to lie, Lando was surprised that a) his name apparently existed on Carlos’ radar and b) he knew what he was doing. He probably watched too many prime-time dramas on tv where the intern was treated like dirt, so again he will accept and roll with this.
“Right, yes, exactly. Uh, well – if I got this right the client basically is selling a productivity app? Charts, to do lists, minimum work?” “Exactly.”
Lando continues: “Well, you are working with the slogan “The ultimate tool to unlock your best self.” – that is so damn vague and generic, this could work for basically anything. Customers probably see this or a similar slogan at least ten times a day. No wonder no one looks twice at it. Your ads promise life optimization, your landing page suggests clarity and power, and the product promises one thing overall: it automatically organizes chaotic email inboxes for corporate managers. But… it does not say that anywhere. Up until now you are selling a crazy transformation of life when in reality your target group just wants fewer emails at 8:46 pm. “
The whole room stares at him. This is probably (VERY likely) the most he said since he arrived three weeks ago. He has never been a person that likes attention, more preferring to keep to himself. Suddenly he feels this overwhelming insecurity. Has he overstepped? Has he said something wro-
„Okay, okay… so the key issue is-“ Lance now asks, maybe because he bought a degree or because he did not listen, yet again.
Lando spoke up again very quietly „We’re not losing customers. We’re confusing them. “
„…and? “– ugh, dear god. Can someone give him a coloring book so everybody else can work.
„That means you do not have a traffic problem; you have a clarity issue. Just be straight up with them. “ Lando continues more confident.
Carlos, now leaned back and slightly more relaxed, asks with an intrigued face „What would you suggest we use as a slogan? “
Lando is sure this is his chance and hell at the same time. He gestures to one of the whiteboard markers, Carlos gives a slight nod.
He walks up to the board and writes ‘Get Your Inbox to Zero in 10 Minutes a Day.’ – he then adds “Built for corporate managers drowning in email.”.
He turns around and looks back at the hand full of people who are still very quiet. “We’re marketing ambition. They’re buying relief.”
Looking at the back of the room, he now sees that Betty must have come in within the past few minutes. She looks at him with a gleam in her eyes, a smile on her face and gives him a subtle thumbs up.
One other girl of the group, Rebecca, lets out a quiet „Oh.“
Carlos also has a smile on his face now and continues „That’s right, oh. So simple and yet so effective – not flashy, just obvious, which makes it powerful. Thank you, Lando. “
The tension in the room became less by the minute and Lando felt amazing. His heart was racing, but he did something, he solved something and was recognized for once. Maybe he should do that more often… maybe not.
After said day Carlos questioned Lando if he would be willing to sit in with meetings more regularly. “I think you could make an impact here; I would love to have been the one to have recognized your talent first.” He had said with a smile.
Of course he said yes; he participated more and more – eventually he had to go back to full time studying, but came around the firm a few hours a week to help out. It came to no one’s – but Lances – surprise, when he was offered the full time job even before graduation.
Because he still was shown the ropes all around the office by Betty before that day, he kind of acts as a replacement Betty when she calls in suddenly.
Well, today is one of these days. He receives the text on his way to work.
Sick, nt gonna be in 2day
not much 2 do
gardener new
in car rn, hve a good day soz x
Good god. He will have to figure half of that out at work.
The bus doors open and he steps out into a puddle, perfect. He feels like this is going to be such a special day already. Rain, extra workload and no breakfast to start the day (yes, yes… that was his fault, but he is not above complaining one too many times).
He gets out his key card and enters the office building. Pretty basic, blank corridors and sad looking walls. They do not have cubicles but are more living that open office lifestyle that voluntarily (or not) lets you be part of everybody’s life and you are part of theirs. It’s fabulous.
He loads of his bag and hangs up his drenched coat. He does not own winter coats or waterproof clothing. Who needs that. He calls this his 4-season-coat. If thought of next to the Hotel Four Seasons, you could imagine it as quite fancy, it’s not of course – but imagine.
When he gets to Betty’s desk, he sees that true to her word, there should not be that much work today. It’s Thursday, so the workload that accumulated over the weekend was already worked off and now there are just some basic upkeeping tasks. Ugh, this damn Excel-Sheet again. His main job of course still is priority, but seeing as there are no meetings set for today, he could be able to have a quiet day playing Betty’s replacement. What did she say who was new today? Right, gardener. They are in a city building that’s built close to a river – so they have a cute strip of green between the building and the river that needs to be kept tidy. Their previous gardener Alex had to retire a few weeks ago and ever since then the green has been in urgent need up maintaining, he did not realize how difficult it is to find a gardener in the city.
No matter how much he followed Betty around, he is not sure that human resources tasks are part of his skillset. Well, they are for today. He just got the notification from the door man that the new hire was downstairs in the lobby.
He grabbed his key card and went on his way. With good old Alex in mind he exited the elevator. He should have, maybe, looked at the information of the new guy. He has no idea what his name is or what he looks li-
“Good morning, I’m Oscar… your new gardener?” said the man with a smile that gave Lando an disarming swoop to the stomach.
“Oh.” – he said, dumbly. Not following with anything else… Still not following with anything else.
That man did so not look like Alex, or even close. That man should be in Vogue. And he is still holding his hand out for a handshake. Oh god.
“Hi! It is so nice to meet you Oscar – I’m Lando. You very likely talked to Elisabeth, she fell ill today, so I will give you the tour. We are so happy to have you with us.”
“I also am happy to have gotten this position – it is good to meet you.” – okay. No man of very many words, but that is fine, he’s been there.
“Let’s get to the elevator – I will let you meet everybody and then show you the outside in the back.” – Lando starts walking towards the elevator, feels the quiet presence beside him and risks another look at him through the reflecting doors of the still closed elevator.
Oh.