My entire plot progress is: four glasses of wine have been tasted at 4,398 words

I have now spent 4,398 words setting the scene. My main character has a name! Serena Lovejoy! Job title: Special Project Coordinator at Elysian Couture, a fashion conglomerate made up of many well known, high-end fashion brands. While I would love to, I can't post all 4,000+ words that I wrote today. You will find below select excerpts for your enjoyment.

Here, Serena Lovejoy (main character) and Evelyn Darkwood (supporting) are meeting at a wine bar to discuss Serena's proposal to change Evelyn's life. 

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“Same old, same old,” I say as the bartender rolls up to us.

I am taken aback for a moment as I realize that the bartender actually did roll up to us. I subtly peer over the bar to see how he accomplished this, seeing carefully rolled, grey wash boot cut jeans exposing two inches of ankle over top of vintage, blindingly white Sketchers with wheels. His shirt is the same shade of white, with the neck and sleeves trimmed with black, and black lettering in what appears to be Comic Sans font: Free Men’s Ankles Support Group (TM). Completing the look were a pair of large, thick rimmed black glasses a sweeping medium-length brown haircut evocative of Justin Bieber in the “Baby” era, a name tag and a square button with the picture of a small child.

I look at his name tag, Colm (pronounced: “Comb,” with some extra “L” in it) Reaume (pronounced: Ray-ome) He/Him, Chief Somelier HUFF vineyards, Professional Fromagier. It was a rather large name tag, as I’m sure you can imagine. Beside this 5”x3” name tag was a small square button, with an adorable, jean-jacket-clad toddler, brown hair in ringlet curls, on a yellow honeycomb background, captioned “HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE”. Colm certainly cut a memorable figure.

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Here, some additional delightful background on Colm Reaume, who was supposed to be a very minor character. I like him so much he will probably come along for the ride. Link to the New York Times Fashion article (pay wall) that inspired the "Free Men's Ankles Support Group (TM)".

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As Colm pours the second glass in our flight, a Pinot Gris with a cool mineral scent and notes of apricot, pear, mandarin peel and a clay-salt finish, we learn that despite the adversity of the bullying he faced because of his name, Colm has been able to thrive and find joy as an adult. He carries many job titles: sommelier, Professional Fromagier, and founder of the Free Men’s Ankles Support Group (TM). This last job started out as more of a passion project. In his early twenties, he started to experiment more with fashion. One particularly warm summer, in a nod to the hot weather, he decided to dabble in higher hemlines to cool off, while respecting the rather strict company dress code. It was then that he learned men’s exposed ankles, sometimes referred to as mankles, have long been a source of fashion strife. 

When he did wear trousers at the office that fateful summer, he wore them rolled to perfection two inches above his ankle. He was mercilessly mocked. “Where is the flood?” his coworkers and even passers-by on the street would ask. “Heading to a Huckleberry Finn Revival tryout?”, they would sneer. On particularly rankled co-worker, Lauren Sams, would pen a blog entitled “Is It Ever OK for Men to Flash Their Ankles in the Office?”

Heedless of the derision of others, Colm plowed ahead, making his own dress code for what has been dubbed “the new male cleavage”. Now, when a guy struts around showing off that strip of skin, he has rules to live by. Pants should never go above the ankle bone; anything above that tends to make legs appear shorter. No exposed statement socks; bare skin only. Be mindful of fit; too-tight pants evoke “dad pant”, a separate style category. The wider the leg, the longer the pants need to be. Conversely, the shorter the leg, the narrower.

A safe haven for like-minded, ankle-baring men from the mockery of unwashed masses was the raison-d’etre for the Free Men’s Ankles Support Group (TM).