“What kind of work are you planning to do here?” I asked.
I did take note that the building was far too big for it to act as Ace’s personal office and that meant that soon he wouldn’t be working alone.
“Creative and impactful things,” he replied with a confident smile.
“Such as?” I prompted him to explain further.
“Something similar to Project Alpha but without the other non-impactful and just for the money type of work. No more making advertisements purely for the sake of selling toothpaste...” Ace replied with a small chuckle.
Project Alpha…
“But don’t all the commercials we make for philanthropic funds and organizations free work? As in, we don’t get paid for those or even if we do then, not so much…” I pointed out.
“You’re right but that doesn’t mean that we cannot find sponsors to pay for both the production of the campaigns and the advertisement of it,” Ace replied.
“I see…” I murmured.
I was finally starting to see what Ace had in mind. Now that I thought back on it, I could recall that there were times when Ace would ask me about what kind of work that I truly wanted to do. If I had to be honest, I truly enjoyed Project Alpha because of the impact that the commercial produced could change people’s lives, thinking, and make some kind of impacting change to the society and world that we live in. Of course, something like that wasn’t at all achievable for commercial work that focused on monetizing a certain product or service.
“Decorating this place until it is ready for opening will take a little more time but hopefully not too long,” he explained.
“What do you plan to do until then? Are you going to start recruiting people to join your new company?” I asked.
“I’m already doing that right now,” Ace replied before smiling sweetly my way.
I wasn’t sure if I understood him correctly but the way that he was staring at me told me that my suspicions might be right.
“Me? Are you trying to recruit me?” I asked as I pointed my index finger at myself.
“That’s right. I did take you all the way out to see this new office even though it’s not even completed yet. What do you think, Rina?” he asked before showing me a brilliant smile.
I wondered for a moment if anyone could truly turn Ace down when he smiled like that. His smile made me feel warm and giddy inside like my core had slowly melted. It was such a pleasant feeling that went straight to my heart and my head; however, I didn’t fail to realize that my career was on the line.
“You want me to work here with you?” I asked because I was still finding it hard to believe what I was hearing.
“That’s right. I thought I’d made it clear enough. Rina, if you’re interested, it would be great if you could consider quitting your job at the company and moving to work with me here,” Ace said slowly and clearly.
He wants me to come here and work with him…
My first reaction was to agree with his proposal right away. However, I clamped my mouth shut before I would jump in and make a commitment without properly thinking things through. The way it felt so natural for me to agree with him scared me. That didn’t mean that it was going to be the wrong choice but since it was such a big deal that would dictate the direction of my future, I wanted to spend enough time thinking about it and weighing out the options.
“You don’t have to give me an answer now. I just want you to think about it. After all, it’s better to have some options available to you. You don’t need to be stuck at the company forever,” Ace told me calmly.
“Right. Thank you for inviting me. I can see that you’re working hard to recruit people. I’ll seriously think about it and let you know,” I replied.
“That’s good enough for me. I really miss working with you but if you decide not to join me, I can completely understand that. I’ll have to make do with the fact that we’re living together now,” Ace said before grinning at me.
He surely knew how to apply pressure in his own subtle way. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t interested and I was certain that it wasn’t just the prospect of working with Ace that drew me in. The possibility that I could work on commercials with high impact really got to me. After all, the reason I wanted to get into this career was to make impactful commercials that could change society or people for the better. Lately after the merger of the company, the work that had been pouring in was nothing but common commercials for the sake of pushing sales.
Although they still allowed me to exercise my creative muscles, I had to admit that they lacked appeal sometimes due to the lack of impact. That didn’t mean that I wasn’t enjoying my job and wanted to career change. It seemed like I truly needed to consider this properly before making my decision.
…
Since the newly built office building couldn’t offer us any dinner, we ended up going to one of my favorite local restaurants in the area instead. By that time, the place was no longer crowded, and we managed to have the place almost to ourselves. Spending time out of the city had its benefits for sure. For one, no one really recognized Ace or paid any attention to him. The odds that we were going to run into the paparazzies were also extremely low. I felt so at ease and that made me realize that I might have been on edge without knowing it every time that we went out together in the city.
“Should we drop by to say hi to your mother? It is kind of late…” Ace asked.
--To be continued…
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