––– liz gillies, 28, female, she/her // in SOUTH BEACH, you’ll find STEVIE GIBBONS WILLIAMS who’s lived there for THREE WEEKS and they spend their days working as OWNER OF SUNSET COVE. They’ve been described as AFTERNOON SUN, A MORNING SPIN CLASS, AND AN OPEN WINDOW AT NIGHT by the people that know them. Which makes sense when you consider that they can be RESOURCEFUL + AMBITIOUS but also INSECURE + BOSSY.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: alcohol, drugs
When Stevie was born to George and Rachel Williams she was named Steven. Her father was too stubborn to admit that he had a daughter. According to him, the world had wronged him and he had been given a daughter by mistake. That mentality destroyed the Williams marriage. Rachel couldn’t stand all the side comments about their child not being what he wanted. George was only concerned with the empire that he had to run. The hotel business was not an easy legacy to come by and George Williams was handed down the business from his father. He only wanted to pass it down to his son instead. Stevie never knew her mother. The woman bailed on the marriage and raising her child a mere six months after she was born. After that, the only Williams child was left to nannies, butlers, the kitchen staff and being raised by her father - someone else that didn’t want her either.
The resentment toward Stevie lessened as she grew older - only because Stevie wanted to do anything in her power to please her father. The man made it clear that he didn’t think that Stevie was the right person to run the family business in the future, though at the time she was only six years old. For the first few years of Stevie’s life, the only look she can remember on her father’s face is pure disappointment. Disappointment that she wasn’t the child he had always dreamed of. Stevie heard him talking about it often. Though she was still so young, he had already begun making plans to hand his business down to another a decade and few years down the road. Where Stevie could have been done with her father and his lack of love for her, Stevie did the exact opposite. Her father’s approval was an ambitious goal for a young child but it was one that she was dedicated to working on. A goal that she would achieve, eventually.
Living in Los Angeles most of her childhood and adult life, she had few and fleeting friendships. Los Angeles was for people of stardom and once it took off, those people left. Even Avery Harrington, a person she thought she would be able to count on for her entire life, betrayed her in the end. The two had met during the brief time he was attending school before his own acting career took off. The only child took quickly to Avery, finding comfort in someone that she didn’t have to impress. Everyone knew the Williams name and wanted something from the young girl. Avery was one of the few people that didn’t want anything from her. It didn’t take long for their friendship to flourish. When her father found another reason to be disapproving to an action she took, she found herself sneaking on to set to spend time with Avery between his shoots. Helping him with homework and spending late nights and early mornings on the phone, Stevie thought she had a friend for life. And then, that friendship turned into something a little bit more. Their relationship came on so slowly that at first, Stevie hadn’t even realized how much that she liked Avery. A lot more than a friend. Childhood friends to teenage lovers - Stevie was head over heels and the family legacy was often the last thing on her mind.
Why did she need her father’s approval when she was a teenage girl head over heels for an up and coming actor? It was short lived. Avery’s popularity long surpassed what she could have ever dreamed for him at such a young age and his wealth began to mirror her own families income. The boy she was in love with was stepping out on his own and Stevie did all that she could to support him. Young and naive is what she would call herself now. When she was putting all her energy into Avery, she could have been working towards getting the family business handed down to her. Instead, Avery took over her life. Until he didn’t. Walking away from Avery was the hardest decision Stevie had to make at that age. The boy she had fallen in love with was no longer that person. When he began hanging out with supermodels and was caught stumbling out of cabs after nights of drinking, Stevie put on a smile. Her father chided her - telling her this was not the type of man that would sit well with the Williams name. Her father kept telling her that Avery would ruin their name if she continued on with him.
At first, Stevie only ignored her father’s warnings. He had never looked out for her best interest before - at least not that she had been aware of. Why would he start now? She stuck around Avery, doing her best to keep him out of the tabloids and practically spending all her energy on him. At the end of the day, the young adult went home exhausted. Her grades were intact, something she had never let slip but her social life had ceased to exist when all she could focus on was Avery. She waited in limos and slept, did her homework, did anything to make sure that he could have his fun and even at times, she joined in. The drinking, the lights, the cameras, it was all fun and games. That was, until Avery began to dive into a lot more than alcohol. She had been there for him while his father broke his heart, the boy she loved desperately wanting a relationship with him. Stevie knew she had done the same with her own father time and time again.
Stevie had lost track of how many times that she had walked in on Avery high but there was one day when she decided that she had enough. She was only eighteen when she decided to walk away from Avery and his issues. Graduating high school and not having a direction to go was an eye opener for her. She had spent countless nights babying his behaviors and one day she just broke. She didn’t know who he was anymore and he was certainly not the person that she fell in love with. It was shortly after that Stevie went across the country to New York. She had to get as far away from Avery as possible if she wanted to get her life back on track. In the midst of everything going on with Avery, her father had remarried a young and thriving twenty-seven year old. If Stevie wanted to save any sort of sanity she had left, she had to go on her own. A jet ride to New York had her secured in a new apartment and starting at business school at NYU Stern School of Business with a flash of money from her father.
New York was cliche and life changing for Stevie. With Avery, her father and his new wife on the other side of the country, Stevie dove into her studies. It was time she started to focus on getting the family business before her greedy step-mother could snag what was rightfully hers. The woman, despite getting into college on her father’s name, worked hard to graduate valedictorian of her class. Four years of school, few friendships and nearly flying under the radar, Stevie felt like a new woman. Her return to Los Angeles at twenty-two years old was one her father had not expected. She came back to their beloved home that spanned acres to get what was rightfully hers. Each step she took to her father’s office was a loud beat in her heart as she flung the doors open to demand that he give her shares of the hotel. It was before she could get the words out that he beat her to the punch. Her father was giving her a piece of the hotel, allowing her to take her rightful place in the family business. One that she had earned - his words, not her own. Not that Stevie didn’t believe she earned it but the approval from her father was all that she needed to take off to the next step.
Taking names and stomping on those that got in her way, Stevie integrated herself into the family business quickly rising to COO under her father. It was a fast track career, with many thanks to her own father for that, but Stevie proved herself time and time again. At only twenty-four years old, she was COO of William Enterprises, managing hotels that spanned the United States and beginning to make way into other countries. For four years, Stevie did just that. She traveled, stayed up late, wooed her way into people’s hearts and their land. She took their money and placed hotels in various locations across the world. Her father was more than impressed with her - though, her step mother tried again and again to get Stevie to fail. The brunette had always been one step ahead.
After making her mark, Stevie flew to Miami to open up her newest installment. She had been finishing up travels when she decided to that Miami would be a semi-permanent home. Four years of blood, sweat and tears had her wanting to take a public step back. Stevie remained COO of William Enterprises but would only be managing the location in Miami and helping when need be. It wasn’t that Stevie wanted to settle down - but she had worked for what she wanted and she wanted to focus on building her own empire, though still far away from Los Angeles. With only a few weeks into her arrival in Miami - Stevie has only just begun making her mark in the Sunshine State.
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