AD-versaries (4 page)

8

            The elation from the morning’s encounter with his mystery woman carried over into Neville’s work day.  He found himself day dreaming and having a hard time focusing.  It had been years since he had felt happiness like that, and he didn’t want to let it go.  Although, he did find his own lack of concentration to be disconcerting.  He didn’t even know this woman’s name, yet she was having a profound impact on his life already.  Was this a good thing?  He couldn’t afford to let anything distract him from the task at hand: securing the advertising contract for Niroki Industries.

            Luckily, he had Sammy there to help keep him focused.  Sammy had been working as hard as anybody on this proposal.  It was like he took a personal interest in it.  Most likely he believed that his role in winning over Niroki Industries would secure him a promotion with a hefty raise.  Neville knew about Sammy’s ambitions and used that to make sure things got done.  There is almost nothing that Sammy wouldn’t do if he knew it would win them an account; such was his dedication to personal advancement. 

            “Hey.  You paying attention over there?”

            Neville was of course not paying attention.  He hadn’t been able to think of much other than his dinner that night with the mystery woman and whether or not she would show up.  He even had his suit picked out and ready to go.  There was nothing else in recent memory that incited excitement like his upcoming date. 

            “Yeah.  I’m here.”

            “You need to focus, man.”

            “I am focused.  Don’t worry so much.  I got this.”

            “You’d better.  Because I just found out that there’s competition for this account.”

            “What? Who?”

            “Some guy named Vic.”        

            “Vic?  Do we know him?  What agency does he work for?”

            “All Things Advertising.  Cheesy, I know.  It’s some mom-and-pop agency.  No big name clients, no major contracts to speak of.  Honestly, looking at their client list, I’m surprised they can even keep their doors open.”

            “Where do you get all of this information from?”

            “I have sources.”

            Neville wondered if he should probe any further.  He didn’t exactly want to be a party to some illegal snooping activities.  But, in the end, his curiosity got the best of him.  So Sammy spilled it, telling Neville all about this cute blond he had ‘conveniently’ met that morning.  She happened to work for Niroki as an administrative assistant.  After a little smoozing with the girl, whatever her name was, he was able to find out that Niroki only accepted appointments from two agencies: PMZ and All Things Advertising.  She couldn’t remember the time of the other appointment, but she said that he was already leaning towards PMZ because it is a bigger company with a wider reach. 

            Neville listened intently, trying to decide if either Sammy or the unnamed secretary had broken any laws with all of that loose-lipped disclosure.  Satisfied that it was all probably legit, Neville considered all that he had heard. 

            “What about the client list from the other agency?  Where did you get that?”

            “Believe it or not, those idiots have that posted right on their website.  Which, by the way, looks like it was designed by somebody with the tech-savviness of Fred Flinstone.”

            Having lost accounts before due to overconfidence, Neville tried to reign in his enthusiasm.  But given the circumstances, it seemed like a slam dunk.

            “I don’t think we have anything to worry about, Sammy.  If Niroki has already done a preliminary screening and chosen us from who knows how many suitors, then I think we have it in the bag.  There’s no way a Podunk company like that can match up to what we have to offer.  When Niroki sees my proposal tomorrow, he’ll have no choice but to go with us.”

            “I don’t know, man.  You know how those little companies can be.  They lie, cheat, and have indiscriminate affairs with people just to get ahead.  You can’t rely on just your charm to get you through.  I think we need to dig a little deeper into this agency and try to find a week spot.  We need to exploit their weaknesses.”

            “I don’t know.  Sometimes I think you get a little carried away with this espionage stuff.  Let’s just get our presentation down and leave the rest up to raw talent.  My talent.”

            Neville smiled as he remembered the fact that he was the greatest adman of his time.  He took comfort in it really.  But Sammy wasn’t buying it.  There was always something about that man that made him trust no one, including himself.  He always felt like he needed to get the upper-hand, using unscrupulous means if necessary.

            “You’re gonna have to trust me on this one, Neville.  We need to pull out all the stops here.”

            “Let’s try my way first.  If the appointment tomorrow doesn’t go well, then we can handle things your way…As long as your way is legal of course.”

9

Neville always felt confident when he wore his Versace two-button silk gray suit.  It made him feel more masculine and took his charisma to the next level.  Not that he needed the boost in confidence, but a little extra never hurt anyone.  Besides, tonight was the night that he got to swoon the girl of his dreams.

            He had no idea why he was so convinced that she was the girl for him.  There was just something about here that made him feel different than he had ever felt before.  Even without knowing her name, she made him feel stronger, more capable.  She made him a better man and they weren’t even in a relationship yet.  He could just imagine how great they could be together. 

            He was well-known at Luigi’s but his mystery date had beaten him there.  She had not told anyone that she was there to meet Neville, so they weren’t going to be dining at his personal table that night.  Luigi’s was so posh that, even though he had a standing reservation, he still needed to call ahead to make sure the table was available.  On this night it wasn’t. 

            Unable to say with whom he was meeting, Neville instead opted to walk around the room and try to find his date.  The room was filled with the aromas of chicken parmesan, olive pesto, and freshly baked bread.  The carpet was soft, the music was low, the mood was perfect for romance.  He spotted his date a couple of tables away.  She was waving him over.  He took her hand and gently kissed it, then sat himself down. 

            “I don’t believe we’ve met.  My name is Neville Pearson.  And yours is?”

            “Fair enough, Mr. Pearson.  Victoria.  Victoria Gaccion.”

            “What a beautiful name.  Italian?”

            “Sicilian.”

            From there on, the conversation was delightful.  Starting with small talk, the conversation evolved to deeper matters of the heart.  Victoria apologized for her harsh words earlier that morning and disclosed to Neville her disheartening history with men in the business world.  In her experience, most cared more about themselves and their next deal than anything else.  She had been stood up on numerous occasions, and generally loathed the entire idea of dating another business type.

            “Well, if you ask me, those guys were idiots for not treating you better.”

            “Really, Mr. Pearson?”  Even though he told her to call him Neville, she still insisted on using a more formal title.  She considered herself ‘old-fashioned’ that way.  “And how would you treat a lady differently?”

            “For starters, I would let her know how special she was, every day.  I would give her breakfast in bed and make her hot coffee in the morning.  I would never let a thing like work get in the way of plans that we might have made.  And I would probably rub her feet every night when I got home.”

            Victoria laughed.  Not just a little giggle, but a deep laugh filled with true amusement.

            “I don’t know what to say to that.  You sound like a leading man from a movie.  Not like a New York adman.”

            “You know what I do?”

            “I’m not stupid.  A random man asks me out on a date in a coffee shop, I’m definitely going to Google him and see what comes up.”

            “And what came up?”

            “Oh, you know.  The boring stuff that I thought I’d see.  Mr. Neville Pearson, Advertising Executive for PMZ.  Salesman of the year for the Manhattan market three years in a row.  I was quite impressed at your charitable donations to the Children’s Hospital.  It seems as though you are quite the philanthropist.”

            “I try to give back when I can.  As flattering as it is to have to cyber-stalk me, I feel at a bit of a disadvantage since I just found out your name an hour ago.”

            “I’m surprised that you don’t have little minions on payroll, taping this entire conversation and running checks to back up my stories.”

            “Oh, I do.  I just gave them the night off.”

            They laughed together.  Then she asked, “What would you like to know?”

            “Well since you know what I do for a living, maybe we could start there.”

            “Fair enough.  I work for an ad agency as well.”

            “Ooo…I’m dining with the competition.”  She smiled at his lightheartedness.

            “I wouldn’t exactly call us competition.  My company is pretty small.  I don’t think that we would even go after the same clients.”

            “No?  Why not?”

            “I haven’t been in the game too long.  But I do love it.  It’s so much fun to be able to help people out, watch their businesses grow thanks to my efforts.”

            “You must have something going on.  How else could you keep doing what you do?”

            She seemed hesitant to continue, but she had really starting liking Neville in the last couple of hours and she thought she could take a chance and let someone in. 

            “As a matter of fact, I actually have a meeting in a couple of days with a big-name client.  I’m incredibly nervous about it since I’ve never dealt with anything on this scale before.”

            “What kind of campaign is it?  Maybe I can give you some pointers.”

            Her face brightened, accentuating her beauty. 

            “That would be great!  Ok.  It’s a company called Niroki Industries.  Have you heard of them?”

            Neville almost spit his water at her.  He couldn’t believe his ears.  She was vying for the Niroki account too?  Sammy hadn’t said anything about a third company in the mix.  Surely he would have called with that kind of information.  It was only supposed to be him and some guy named….

            “Your friends don’t call you Vic by chance, do they?”

            “Yes, how did you know?”

            “And your little firm, is it All Things Advertising?”

            Victoria looked a little concerned.  “You do have minions outside, don’t you?”

            He didn’t know how to break the news to her.  He didn’t want the evening to end, but she would definitely find out at some point, especially if they both had meetings with Niroki the next day.  He decided that honest was the best path to take.

            “I…Um.”

            “Are you ok?”

            “I’m also supposed to be meeting with Niroki.”  He hated saying it and the surprised look on her face only made it worse.  “I’m your competition.”

            “Oh.”  Her voice was soft now and Neville could tell the disappointment on her face.  She expected him to call this whole thing off in favor of the account.  She knew that he would do whatever it took to get the account, even to the point of breaking her heart.  He couldn’t let things end that way.  He had found someone that made him whole with no effort at all, just by being in the same room with him.  He had to do something.

            “Hey, listen.  I don’t want this to ruin anything.  I’m having a great time and I don’t want to lose whatever it is we’ve started here tonight.  So what if we just let our jobs be our jobs.  We both do the best we can for the account and in the end, we’re happy for each other, no matter who gets it.  What do you think?”

            She couldn’t believe her ears.  Had she actually found a decent person?  Could he possibly be the one person that she never really believed existed?  She didn’t know, but she was willing to take the chance.

            “That sounds great.”

            The rest of the night could not have been scripted more perfectly.  After sharing a delectable tiramisu, Neville walked her to her car.  He was more than a little surprised when she leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss.  Her lips were soft and warm.  But she conveyed more than puppy-love with her gesture, she showed him that she would let him in.  Gone was the aloofness of the morning and the guarded behavior from the beginning of dinner.  She was letting him know that she was giving him a chance.  Giving them a chance.

The rest of the weekend read like a fairytale.  But not the scary part where things went terribly wrong for a while, but more like the first half of a romantic story.  The two were practically inseparable.  Neville surprised Victoria the following morning by knocking on her door at 7 a.m.  He had remembered her favorite drink from the coffee shop a couple of days ago and thought that it would go nicely with a couple of bagels and gourmet cream cheese from his favorite breakfast place down on 32
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. 

Victoria could not have been happier to see him.  She invited him in and they enjoyed breakfast half as much as they enjoyed the company of each other.  Following breakfast, Neville allowed Victoria to get dressed before he whisked her away for the day he had planned. 

A carriage ride through Central Park seemed almost cliché to him, but once he had learned that Victoria had never even been into the park, he relished the time, spouting out tidbits of history and interesting facts as the passed certain areas.  Victoria wasn’t from New York and she wondered at the majesty of the park.  Although she had seen the park from a distance, it never did justice to the actually place.  The rolling green hills seemed more at place in a children’s book about a far away and magical kingdom rather than in the middle of the metropolis. 

After informing Neville that she had never seen any of the sites in New York, there was no stopping the man.  He was determined that they should see as much as possible in the short span of the day.  There first stop was little more than a detour for the carriage driver.  He let them off around the side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The inside of the majestic building was more impressive than anything she had previously seen.  She marveled at the history that she was walking through, gawked at the masterpieces created by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Di Vinci.  The next stop was lunch in Battery Park.  The hot dog and pretzel stands were an iconic part of the Big Apple that everyone simple must indulge in.  The pair took their street food and sat on a bench that overlooked the Hudson.  From there, the Statue of Liberty stood in all of its glory.  And off to the right of Lady Liberty was Ellis Island. 

The just simply wasn’t the time to go everywhere, so they boarded the Staten Island Ferry and enjoyed the relaxing ride over to St. George.  There was a little-known restaurant over there that Neville was just dying to take her to. 

With bellies full and hearts even fuller, they ended the night with the return ferry ride back to Manhattan and a cab ride uptown to Victoria’s apartment.  A tender kiss closed the evening and Neville left her to relive every wonderful moment of the day. 

Sunday was very different than Saturday.  Instead of a jaunt around the city, they stayed in Victoria’s apartment all day, watching television, eating take-out Chinese food, sharing life stories, and falling deeper in love.

Neville had never known that such a level of comfort was possible with another person, especially a woman.  There was no pretense on their day of laziness.  Victoria hadn’t even bothered to get dressed.  Instead, she bummed around the apartment in sweat pants and an Ohio State Buckeyes t-shirt.  Yet Neville couldn’t have imagined her looking any more beautiful than she did at that moment.