Work Text:
Nuch has never felt more like a diva than she does when Eugene, the freelance ad designer her firm hired, comes in with a spiced pumpkin latte. “Hello, Khun Nuch. I need some more photos of you today. Um, they were all out of that disgusting foreign dessert you like so much.”
Biting back a laugh, there’s some relief mixed in.
Even with the latte and the almost nervous way Eugene often interacts with her, Eugene’s customary bluntness is always in play.
“You didn’t need to bring me anything, but thank you.”
“You stayed late again last night. We’ll need to do makeup. Not that you don’t look great even tired! It’s just- huh.”
Tilting her head, Eugene’s dark, almost sparkling eyes study her. “Maybe that would work. People do want to know the lawyers fighting for them will work hard. We can figure out that for later, though. For now, since I couldn’t get you that Spanish-”
“Portuguese,” she automatically corrects.
“Dessert, I’d be happy to buy you lunch today. We, uh, need to do an outdoor shoot.”
Repressing a sigh, she listens to her own tone closely. “Eugene-”
“I know these shoots are tiring, but I promise, this ad campaign will help your firm, Khun Nuch.”
Her belief lawyers shouldn’t be about TV commercials and annoying internet ads was easy to hold onto as a law student, but the reality is, firms specialising in pro bono work don’t get enough governmental assistance to stay afloat. Unless they have a rich donor pouring money in, and, she’ll probably never work for a firm which does, they have to rely on the occasional client able and willing to pay them, and to get said clients- well, they’ve tried everything else. Hopefully, this idea of an ad campaign will work.
Based on the studies she’s read, she doesn’t doubt it will, but if not, thankfully, hiring Eugene won’t have lost them too much money.
She just wishes Eugene would make it work with a lot less her.
Whether it’s because she’s trans, because Eugene doesn’t want any of the conventionally attractive women here as the main focus, or because, Eugene somehow knows she was the one who pushed for Eugene to be hired in the first place, Eugene singled in on her the first day Eugene came into the firm.
Khun New and P’Sea were chosen for the TV and radio ads respectively, and that makes sense. The newest hire, who she constantly has to stop herself from addressing as ‘nong’, Mai, is doing weekly Q&As on some social media site instead of the firm’s website for reasons she does not understand and declined Eugene’s offer to explain.
She used to help her parents navigate the internet, and now, she’s truly starting to understand how they must have felt.
“When do we do the outdoor shoot?”