by Dawn Tamayo
Victoria pulled her eyes away from the river view and hesitated for a moment expecting to see Jake in a suit like yesterday, but once again he had surprised her - instead of a smart business suit he was dressed casually in a pair of light coloured chinos and a green shirt open at his neck, no tie.
“Mr Cumberland, thank you very much for sparing me a few minutes of your time.” Victoria finally found her voice and stood up extending her hand in greeting.
“Call me Jake.” He said as he closed the distance between them and shook her hand reminding himself how warm, soft and inviting it was, just like yesterday.
“Okay then, thank you Jake.” She took her seat again as he sat down on the sofa across from her with just a small coffee table between them. “I hope you don’t mind but I bought you a little gift. I hope you like it.” Victoria picked up the paper shopping bag from the floor and put it on the coffee table pushing it across towards Jake.
Jake looked at Victoria and took the expensive looking paper bag. He liked this, he was always given plenty of presents from strangers but he was much more excited about this one.
“You make me feel bad. I don’t have a present for you.” He joked as he took out the large bottle from inside the bag. “Oh my, this is a nice present. Thank you.” Jake turned the large bottle in his hands and read the label – Havana Club Maximo Extra.
“I hear it’s a good one, and I remembered you said you like dark rum.”
“How thoughtful, that’s very kind of you. This is, in fact, one of my favourite rums, have you ever tried it?”
Victoria smiled and shook her head. No, not at over a thousand pounds a bottle she had not tried it – something with that price tag did not go on her weekly shopping list!
“I suggest we give it a try then.” Jake said standing up and walking to the cabinet by the window taking out two glasses. “Are you going to join us Andrea?” He asked his personal assistant who was now closing her laptop and pulling her bag out of the big desk drawer.
“No thanks Jake. I’m finished now so I’m off for the night. Don’t forget you have the press conference at ten o’clock in the morning, and I booked the table you requested for lunch tomorrow.”
“Thanks. Have a good night.” Jake said as Andrea walked out the door and he turned his attention back to Victoria. “So it’s just the two of us then.”
Victoria looked up in dismay, no she couldn’t be drinking rum with Jake - for one thing it was only just after six o’clock in the evening, and secondly she needed to keep a clear head to try and persuade him to let Ben Churchill’s company do a marketing pitch for his business.
“No I couldn’t possibly, but thank you anyway.”
“Oh yes you can, if you want to that is. I will put a splash more coke in yours for you. Regular or diet?” Jake said obviously not about to take “no” for an answer.
Victoria sighed, the sound of her boss’s words rang through her head, “do anything you have to”. One little drink wouldn’t hurt and she could sip it slowly as she talked. “Okay, diet please.”
Jake smiled and opened his new bottle of rum, courtesy of Victoria, and poured two rum and cokes dropping a large ice cube into each glass. He walked back over to his chair, handed Victoria a glass and said “Cheers. Salud.”
“Cheers.” Victoria clinked his glass and took a sip letting the warm sweet liquid slide down her throat - wow that was strong.
“Nice. Very nice, thank you.” Jake said raising his glass to hers one more time and then downed the remaining liquid putting his empty glass down on the table. He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees and looked serious now. “So, I have been in business for long enough to know that someone doesn’t come knocking at my door with a gift without wanting something. So since you already said this is about business, what can I do for you Victoria?”
Victoria put her glass down on the table and looked at him seriously. “Jake. I could dress this up for you but I don’t think you really want that. I think you like people to get straight to the point so here it is.”
Jake nodded, he had been wondering all day what brought Victoria here if it wasn’t the idea of a very expensive dinner which she had already made perfectly clear was not going to happen.
“My boss is Ben Churchill of Churchill, Turnbull & French Media Solutions. He wants your marketing and advertising business for the UK and he has sent me here to get it.”
“Oh well that certainly is straight to the point.” Jake said sitting back in his chair. He hadn’t known what to expect but he hadn’t expected this. Jake looked at his watch, he had a date later tonight but he was hungry and to be honest he wasn’t that bothered if he went on the date or not. “I’m hungry, I suggest we discuss this over dinner then.”
“Jake I thought I …”
He interrupted her quickly. There were very few times Jake accepted “no” as an answer, but in his book when a lady said “no”, then she meant “no”. “Don’t worry Victoria, it’s purely business and nothing else. I won’t get you into trouble with your fiancé.”
Victoria blushed nodding, she wished she hadn’t jumped to the wrong conclusion and wondered what Jake must be thinking.
Jake thought for a moment, he suspected another round of photographs of him and Victoria, this time alone together, might prove to make things difficult for her with her lucky fiancé. Even though he didn’t care what people thought, and he certainly didn’t mind anyone putting him and Victoria together as a couple, he didn’t want to make things difficult for her. That wasn’t fair, not as far as he was concerned.
“Hmm, well we can always order room service?” Jake’s blue eyes sparkled teasingly as he thought how he would love to lock himself away for a night in his suite with Victoria, some food, their bottle of rum and the huge bed just through that doorway.
“Jake!” Victoria laughed despite trying not to, she could see he was teasing her and she was desperately trying to keep this strictly professional.
“Okay, okay. We eat out then.” He said standing up waiting for her to join him. “Victoria, it’s been a long day, I’ve been in meetings for most of it and I am hungry, so we either talk about it over dinner or not at all. Personally I choose the first option.”
Victoria took stock for a minute, this wasn’t how she had planned it – but then again nothing had gone how she planned it today! She thought she would only have five minutes maximum with Jake and in that time she was just going to arrange for her boss to present a marketing pitch. After that all further dealings with Jake would be handed over to Ben Churchill since she would only be allowed to work on an account of that size if her boss authorised it but she certainly wouldn’t be the lead-person. Victoria hadn’t planned on being roped into going out for dinner with Jake, but she didn’t want to lose this opportunity either, knowing that timing was everything. Ben Churchill was expecting her to deliver! Victoria had been told to get this account at all costs and one expensive dinner was definitely the least he would expect her to do.
““You really don’t take no for an answer do you?” She stood up laughing.
“Not very often. No, not if I can help it.” He smiled wickedly at her. “Okay, so where are we going?”
“Where do you want to go?” Victoria asked as she walked towards the door.
Jake watched as Victoria walked in front of him noting the gentle sway of her hips and he knew exactly where he wanted to go right now, but he kept his mouth firmly closed and just smiled.
Victoria turned around when he didn’t answer and saw a look in his eyes that made her cheeks burn red and her stomach somersault. Flustered for a moment she stumbled on. “Do you have a restaurant in mind, or do you want to eat downstairs?”
“Not downstairs, I’ve eaten here enough recently, let’s go somewhere else. You choose, take me somewhere I haven’t been.”
“What type of food do you want to eat?” Victoria wasn’t sure where you should take a multi-millionaire for dinner. There were lots of fant
astic and expensive restaurants in London, but where to start?
Jake shrugged.
‘Okay let’s go for something different’, Victoria thought, “Chinese?”
“Now that sounds good.” Jake smiled as his stomach gave a growl.
“Then let’s go to Trader Vic’s. It’s not far from here, just at the end of Park Lane in the Hilton Hotel.”
“Sounds perfect, now hurry because I’m hungry.” Jake said closing the door behind them as they headed to the lift.
Jake ordered a selection of all the starters for them to try and Victoria ordering a selection of the main dishes. As dishes of spicy prawns, sauce covered barbeque ribs and marinated beef skewers in ginger-sate sauce were put on the table they both reached for the spicy prawns first. Popping a prawn into his mouth Jake listened as Victoria started to talk business.
“So I know you have a great marketing team already, and probably have about a hundred other companies vying for your business here in the UK, but Churchill Turnbull & French Media Solutions are a fantastic award winning company and we can do a lot to assist, or even take over fully from your marketing and advertising team for your UK market. We will…….”
“Wait.” Jake interrupted seeing Victoria hadn’t touched the food she had put on her plate, obviously intent on giving him her marketing pitch. “If I agree to meet with your boss tomorrow and hear what he has to say then will you drop the sales pitch and eat some food?”
Victoria smiled, “Yes. But only if you agree to give his sales pitch serious consideration.”
“Vicky, I don’t waste my time. He can have half an hour to pitch and I will listen and consider it. Then we can take it from there. Okay?”
Victoria’s smile widened and she sighed with relief. Surely whatever happened now wasn’t down to her - Ben Churchill had his introduction and a half hour to get Jake’s business, so hopefully her job would be safe.
“What time would you like, I’ll phone Mr Churchill now and set it up.”
“You call him Mr Churchill?” Jake said as he indicated for Victoria to eat.
She dutifully took a mouthful of food and then answered, “Yes, he’s quite old fashioned in that respect. The partners and senior account managers get to call him Ben, but I’m not at that level yet .”
“The guy in my mail room calls me Jake.”
“Yes well that’s you, and that’s very American. We are in London, and as forward thinking and ground-breaking as advertising and media are, I’m afraid the ones at the top of the food chain are still sticklers for old fashioned respect. So Mr Churchill it is for me.”
“Just because someone calls me Mr Cumberland it doesn’t mean they respect me. I get my respect for what I do and the money I put in their pockets when they work for me. I expect a good job done and in return I treat my people well.” Jake said seriously thinking this Ben Churchill sounded like a bit of an ass.
Victoria smiled as she took out her phone, she could see what Jake was getting at and she agreed with him totally, not that she was going to say that because she needed to keep Jake thinking Ben Churchill was a great guy if she had any hope of them securing his company’s business.
“Good evening Mr Churchill, I’m sorry to disturb you but I am in a meeting with Jake Cumberland at the moment.” Jake listened as Victoria talked to her boss, “The thing is that the only opening Jake has is tomorrow afternoon for half an hour.” Jake could hear the man on the other end of the phone saying something and he indicated for Victoria to hand him her phone. She hesitated but put it in Jake’s waiting hand anyway.
Jake interrupted the sound of the man’s voice on the other end of the phone. He had dealt with jumped-up pompous people all his life and he could tell one when he heard one.
“Ben, Ben Churchill isn’t it? You don’t mind me calling you Ben do you? You can call me Jake.”
Victoria nearly laughed aloud when she looked at the expression on Jake’s face as he talked to Ben Churchill, it was thoroughly cheeky and totally in control.
“The thing is Ben, I’m flying back on Thursday morning so I’m very busy…… Yes I’m sure you do appreciate that and I know I am not giving you much time to get a pitch together ……. So the only timeslot I have is tomorrow afternoon at two thirty directly after my lunch meeting. I’ll swing by your office and we can get half an hour together and you can tell me what your company can offer us. Is that good for you?” Jake smiled wickedly at Victoria. She put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from spluttering out her wine with laughter – it was nice to hear Ben Churchill being on the receiving end for once.
“Great. Nice to talk to you Ben.” Jake said pronouncing the man’s name deliberately as he winked at Victoria, “See you tomorrow.” And with that he hung up the phone and handed it back to her.
“Now that’s sorted can we get on with having a nice dinner Vicky?”
That was the second time he had called her that. No one had called her Vicky since she was at school. “It’s Victoria. No one calls me Vicky.”
“Well I think Vicky suits you.” Jake quite liked being the only one to call her that. “So, since we are off the work clock and unless you object……?”
Victoria shook her head quickly. Jake could call her anything he wanted just as long as she got his account, after all that was why she was here. Just then Victoria realised she hadn’t called Mark to tell him she was going to be late home - it would be sod’s law tonight would be the rare time Mark made it home at a decent time, and this time it would be her who was working late, not that it really felt like work sitting across the table from Jake eating delicious food. Quickly she tapped a message into her phone and pressed the send button, and then she put it away in her bag just in time for the main course to be served.
Victoria enjoyed the selection of the ginger lobster, spicy noodles with Chinese vegetables and flambéed beef in a sweet spicy cream sauce as she listened to Jake talk about Miami and how much he loved it.
“Have you ever been to Miami?” Jake paused to ask. Even if Victoria had been to Miami he knew it was different going on a holiday to actually living and working in Miami, and seeing the real places and meeting the real Miami people, not holidaymakers.
“Yes a couple of times. Once when I was young with my family and then about ten years ago, but I bet a lot has changed since then.”
Jake nodded, it certainly had changed, and all for the better.
“So I guess the party never really stops for you does it?” She asked picturing Jake’s description of the latest marketing event his PR team held on a one hundred and forty foot yacht on the Miami coastline.
“Some call it partying, some call it working. But to me they somehow seem to cross over and that’s what I like. I couldn’t be like my father and sit in a glass office from eight in the morning to seven o’clock at night, Monday to Friday. I would rather take my work outside and do it anytime, even if it means I do have to make some sacrifices.
“Ooh it sounds like such a hard life. I’m sure the sacrifices are worth it, whatever they are.” Victoria joked imagining the hardship of women draping themselves over Jake as people dropped presents at his feet just to get his attention and served him ice cold drinks at his command.
Jake looked serious for a moment and then the familiar sparkle returned to his eyes and he smiled his devilish grin again, “I guess it could be worse. Next week we release our new line in Vodka from one of our smaller companies so I’ll be drinking a lot of that at just about every opportunity.”
“Oh no, how difficult!” Victoria pulled a playfully dramatic sad face.
“I’ll send you a bottle and you can have a drink and think of me.”
“I’ll turn the central heating up high to get the ambiance just right as I toast you.” Victoria played along.
Jake laughed, “And then we’re launching a new music and video app for the android market, so I guess I’ll need to be seen using that and no doubt partying with it in an open top car or boat.”
“Ugh it just gets worse! How can you possibly stand it?” She said gently slamming her hand down on the table in mock despair.
Jake laughed, he liked her sense of humour.
As dessert arrived the conversation swapped across to Victoria. As she sipped the remainder of her wine, having declined a dessert, she watched as Jake ate heartily at his chocolate pudding.
“You enjoy your food.” Victoria thought but actually managed to say out loud. She blushed when she realised she had said it.
“Yes I do, but I’ll be sorry tomorrow morning when I will drag my sorry arse out of bed at six thirty to hit the hotel gym to work it off.”
“You like the gym huh?” It was more of a rhetorical question - she could see Jake worked out a lot by his sculptured biceps which pushed against his shirt sleeves and the broadness of his chest.
Jake smiled. He was glad she noticed, but somehow the conversation had moved around to him again and he didn’t want that, he wanted to hear more about Victoria. “Don’t try to deflect me. Tell me more about you.”
Victoria thought for a moment, what was she supposed to say when someone asked a question like that? How much information did they really want to know – she was sure he didn’t want to know that she loved to sing at the top of her voice to blaring loud music in the car! Or that she hated really expensive chocolates but would give just about anything for a bar of Dairy Milk or a Twix. “Well I’ve been working in marketing for about eight years.”