Second Chance - Jane Green [52]
It was Anna’s idea of heaven, and Paul, who mostly thought of himself as an urban creature, was happy doing what made Anna happy. Plus even he had to admit that the plans were remarkable, and they would end up with an idyllic getaway. Anna made sure to include a study for Paul – all the way at the top of the barn, up a hidden staircase, the cupola would open into his office, flooding it with light. ‘If you can’t write the great British novel here,’ Phil joked when he showed the plans for the office to a breathless Paul and Anna, ‘I don’t know where you can.’
Now, over a year later, they can hardly bear to think about it. People assume that Paul and Anna are rolling in it, they assume that Anna makes a fortune; but the truth is that although the company is thriving, Anna only takes out a salary. And what used to be a comfortable salary has been eaten up by buying the barn, followed by back-to-back IVF treatments.
White Barn Fields is jokingly referred to by everyone they know, themselves included, as the Money Pit. Except it doesn’t feel quite so funny any more, not since finding out they weren’t getting pregnant and they weren’t going to take no for an answer.
Anna’s stubbornness is something Paul has loved about her from day one. So tough she is referred to by her father as a ball-breaker. Said lovingly, of course. She knows exactly what she wants and how she is going to get it, and nobody ever says no to Anna. She is charming and down-to-earth and persuasive, and she somehow always manages to get her own way.
She cannot understand why having children hasn’t come to her as easily as everything else in her life. She will tell the various journalists who interview her about Fashionista that she is stunned by its success, but in truth she is not stunned. It is exactly what she expected to happen. Too many fashion websites had fallen by the wayside because they didn’t keep their stock on site, had to ship it from afar, running the risk of delivery being far later than their instant-gratification-obsessed customers would accept. And then when the clothing did arrive, it was badly packaged in ugly plastic envelopes or badly wrapped in wrapping paper.
Anna designed shocking-pink boxes, layers of delicate orange tissue paper carefully enfolding the purchases, all tied up with animal-print velvet ribbon. The boxes and the ribbon are a fortune, but worth it. They are always voted best packaging on the Internet, and the boxes are so beautiful her clients regularly write to her to say they can’t throw them away. Many is the time Anna has opened an interiors magazine to see someone’s dressing-room shelves piled with Fashionista boxes in assorted shapes and sizes.
And shipping is twenty-four hours. No matter where in the world you are, if you order an item on a business day, you will have it the next. Customer service is everything in Anna’s book. It is one of the reasons she loves having an Internet company – she is fed up with going into trendy boutiques and having young, imperious sales assistants ignore her as they chat on the the phone, only perking up when she hands over her credit card and they realize who she is.
So the fact that fashionista.uk.net is now the third most successful Internet company in the UK is no surprise to Anna whatsoever, although she would never admit that in public. The truth is that Anna has always felt blessed, always felt that her guardian angels were looking after her. Where others see adversity and hardship, Anna has only ever seen a challenge that she will inevitably overcome. She always believes the glass is half full, even when everyone else is convinced it is empty, and because she has always believed her life is charmed, her life