AD-versaries

by Ainsworth, Jake

  “We just need to strategize. We need a plan.”

  Victoria was overwhelmed, but she was grateful that Sarah was there. She had no idea where to start, in truth, neither did Sarah, but together they would be able to figure something out. She couldn’t do it without Sarah.

  7

  The next day, Neville stopped by Starbucks on his way into the office. He didn’t normally like chain coffee shop espressos, preferring instead the espresso bar adjacent to the reception desk at PMZ. But for some reason, something different sounded good this morning. Besides, it was sometimes good to get out of the office to do something thinking. His meeting with Niroki was the next day and he wanted to make sure that everything was in order. If he had a typical presentation, then it should be no problem to sign Niroki. But typical wasn’t good enough for this account. Everything had to be perfect.

  He saw her the second he walked in the door. She was as radiant as she was the other night at O’Shea’s. She must wake up looking that beautiful. She didn’t wear much make-up, but she didn’t need it. Her olive complexion seemed to glow in the softness of the fluorescent lighting. She was last in line, so Neville to his spot right behind her.

  She smiled cordially as he came up behind her. Although she recognized him as well, she was playing it coyly. The jury was still out as to whether he was anything more than a well-dressed ego.

  Neville was sure that she recognized him. What was he supposed to do next? He had never had any apprehension when approaching women before, but she had a way of disarming him, even from a distance. He felt helpless and unprepared, feelings that didn’t sit well with him. It was time to take charge. He mustered up the courage and tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Um. Excuse me. But did I see you at O’Shea’s the other night?”

  “Uh, yeah. I think I remember you. Your back must have been sore the next day after all of those pats on the back.”

  He was a little embarrassed by her first impression of him, but he stuck out his hand anyway.

  “I’m Neville Pearson.”

  She took his hand.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  She shook his hand firmly and then turned back around to study the menu board. Neville was more than a little perplexed by her actions. More determined now than before, he tapped her on the shoulder again.

  “I…Uh, I didn’t get your name.”

  “Uh-huh. I know.”

  She turned around again. Starting to get a little frustrated, Neville again poked her shoulder.

  “Excuse me, miss, but did I do something to offend you?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Then why are you treating me like I’m the friend from high school who wasn’t actually a friend and has now shown up all these years later with the sole mission of annoying you?”

  “You’re pretty good with words Mr. Pearson.”

  “Please, call me Neville.”

  “We’ll see.”

  She turned again, this time to order from the cashier. Before she could say the size she wanted, Neville interrupted.

  “Excuse me, I just need two seconds,” he said to the cashier. Then to Victoria: “I don’t get it. Why are you being so rude to me? I’m just trying to have a conversation.”

  “Really, Mr. Pearson? Is that all you want? I know your type, so wrapped up in what you’ve got going on that you couldn’t possibly have the time to get to know me. I’m sorry Mr. Pearson, but I don’t have time for people like you. I have no desire to get my heart broken or to be led on. So, if you will excuse me.”

  She turned back around, leaving Neville stunned in place. She finished ordering and went to the side counter to await her drink. He shook of his embarrassment and followed her, failing to order his own drink.

  “Have dinner with me tonight.”

  “Excuse me, but I don’t think you heard me correctly….”

  “Just give me a chance.”

  The look she gave him said that she was willing to indulge him for the amount of time it would take for her drink to arrive. He needed to act quickly.

  “Look, I don’t know how you were hurt in the past, but there’s no reason to write off the future.”

  “Are you saying that you’re my future?”

  “No. But I am saying that it’s not fair to judge me when you haven’t even gotten to know me. I might be something really special. Maybe I could make you happy. But you’ll never know because you’re willing to write me off without even giving me a chance.”

  “You’re very compelling, Mr. Pearson.”

  “Then have dinner with me tonight.”

  Her caramel macchiato came. She took it and headed for the door. She opened it but stopped in the threshold.

  “Ok, Mr. Pearson. I’ll meet you at Luigi’s on 52nd at eight. Do you know the place?”

  “Yes, I do.” He could barely contain his smile, and as she turned to leave he found himself doing a little happy dance.

  “Mr. Pearson?” He was embarrassed that she had seen his happy dance and turned red-faced to look at her. She said, “Make sure you bring your wallet. You’re paying.”

  She walked out the door and Neville resumed his happy dance. He couldn’t believe it. The woman that had rendered him speechless (a feat that few could boast) had agreed to have dinner with him. A passing thought ran through his mind that he didn’t even know her name. She could stand him up and he would have no idea where to find her.

  He grabbed the next coffee that came up and headed for the door, determined that he would show up at Luigi’s and that she would be there waiting for him. What he couldn’t decide was if this was confidence, or just him trying to convince himself.

  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.”