Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Mixing Business with Pleasure, Again!


Last Sunday, Mr Designer and I planned to buka puasa together. Now that he has no car, we have to meet during decent hours as he would not be able to send me home. LOL! However, typical of him – always 2 hours behind – I wasn't surprised when he called at 5pm to move our outing to 9pm instead. He also changed the venue to KL Sentral, instead of Ampang, which is actually convenient for me, safer. But why change the time too? To make matters worse, the last train last night was at 11.25pm, instead of the usual 12.30am. The advertisement on the way was refreshing though. The theme was 'Art for Everyone' and the train was made up to look like an art gallery, inside and outside.

So, we met at Starbucks. Somehow, the evening seemed dull. Probably, I was tired, or he was tired. The sparks weren't there. I didn't realise that him meeting me somewhere rather than fetching me at home and then decide where to go was going to make a big difference.

Initially, I told myself not to talk about work. I was going back to my home town the next day, I mean Raya spirit is in the air. I just wanted to enjoy his company. However, after a brief 30 minutes, I couldn't help it, there were several critical things for him to present right after Raya. Realising the urgency, he also jumped and suggested calling his business partner. I was disappointed... but I nodded. I guess my head was telling me to agree, it was critical. But I suggested that the partner come later, not immediately, he missed the fact.

He arrived around 11.30pm and took us to KFC Pusat Bandar Damansara. Mr Designer and I were there once, for an early morning snack. We sat at the non-smoking section where the power point was. Well, I knew it was the right thing to do, to asked his partner to join us. We addressed quite a number of important jobs. That was for my company alone.

After that, we discussed their other clients, the one where they asked me to do freelance copywriting. Except that I could offer much more than that. We discussed the strategies and communications channels there and then. I gave his partner my re-branding presentation template, the one I prepared for my recruitment presentation – the one that got me my current job – asked him to insert what he could first .

We talked about Mr Designer's ex-boss cum my ex-friend cum his partner ex-business partner. Apparently, the incidence at KFC Sunway Pyramid on Thursday night only lasted for less than 5 minutes. Mr Designer said he didn't even sit down. He just stood there with his hands on his waist. He said his ex-boss' husband was stupid to remain seated; when dealing with people you hardly know, you should stand up so you can duck if you get hit. Oh! I didn't know that. His partner said her husband should have played a more diplomatic role ie try to talk to Mr Designer and find out what went wrong. For someone who would soon represent our country abroad, he behaved in an immature manner. They only banked in 1/8 of his second month's salary to get the flattened file codes. He ignored it and didn't hope to get more.

Finally, his partner sent me home at 5am and then dropped Mr Designer off at Bangsar, his friend would fetch him there. We planned to meet again next Sunday to finalise the designs as I have to present to 'No 1' on Monday. I tried to hint to his partner not to join us but I didn't think he get it. In fact, I sort of directly mentioned our relationship to him a few times, but apparently, he didn't seem to register that either. It could be that he pretended not to or he didn't think I would be interested in that guy. Hey, looking from the mere surface, that guy is so soft-spoken and I am more like a warrior. Who would have guess? I could see from the very beginning that he is gutsy, but I didn't expect his temper and violence ways (when mistreated) though. I asked Mr Designer to be open and tell the guy when I'm not present, it'll be a lot easier if he knew about us.

However, my heart didn't agree with my head's decision of inviting his partner that night. I guess during this whole week, our 3 outings were work-related. I felt like we didn't meet at all. Probably, I was sort of jealous that he shared a lot of personal stuff with his partner too. I also didn't like hearing his latest development from the guy before he could tell me himself. Like where he got the money to pay for his car booking fee from – they just got the payment for their first job. He did tell me he'd get it before Raya though.

(continued from 'Oursmarting the Quack', to be continued in 'Conquering the Sky')

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