Page 37 of Strictly Business

“I’m good too, and hopefully, I am about to be better. You have the campaign information for me, yes?” he says.

“Yes,” I reply. “We have the full rebrand and all of the new branding elements plus a full marketing campaign to roll out with the new brand and generate excitement and drive sales.”

“Perfect,” Mr Bellisario says. “There is only one problem. I know we initially agreed that I would come to your offices for the briefing and what not, as I was meant to be in America over the next few days, but something has come up and I can’t leave the business right now. And I don’t want to put off the rebrand. I’m really hoping you can make this work for me.”

“Oh, that’s not a problem Mr Bellisario. We can do the presentation via a video call,” I say.

“No, no,” he replies. “This is too important to do on a call. I need to see this stuff in person. I realize it’s a big ask, but would you be willing to come to our headquarters in Rome, Wyatt? Your expenses would of course be reimbursed.”

I think for a minute. Normally I would say no to such a request. Flying to another continent just to give a presentation with no guarantee of them signing on as a client seemed crazy. But if we got the Bellisario contract, it would push the business up a league and we were already in the big leagues. It would be business suicide to say no because I knew off the top of my head that I could think of at least five other marketing agencies who would be on the next flight if I said no to the request, and while I genuinely didn’t believe they were as good as us, they weren’t so bad that I could see Mr Bellisario saying no to them all when they had done his bidding and we hadn’t.

“Of course, we can come to you. That won’t be a problem,” I say.

“Great. I have the full morning free on the sixteenth. Is that ok or will it be too soon?” Mr Bellisario says.

I don’t want to keep him waiting. If I’m going to go to him, I might as well go tomorrow as any other time. If we fly tomorrow, we can be in Rome for around nine pm local time, just enough time to grab dinner, go over the presentation one last time and get some sleep and be ready for the morning meeting. We can fly back on the evening of the sixteenth.

“Assuming I can get a flight, that’s great,” I say. “If you don’t hear from me, I will see you at ten am on the sixteenth at your offices. If there is a problem with the flights and I can’t get there for that date, I will let you know.”

“Thank you, Wyatt. See you soon,” Mr Bellisario says, and the line goes dead.

Seconds later, Ruth is on the line again.

“Is there anything else you need?” she asks me.

I think for a moment and make a spur of the moment decision, but I feel like it’s the right one.

“Yes. Can you find Serena and ask her to come to my office please?” I ask.

“Yes, no problem,” Ruth says and then the line goes dead for a second time, and this time, it stays dead.

I don’t have long to wait before there’s a light tap on my office door and I call out to come in. The door opens and Serena steps in. She says hi and smiles at me, and I smile back at her.

“Ruth said you wanted to see me,” she says.

I nod and beckon her in further.

“Yes. Come on in. Close the door,” I say.

I watch as Serena closes the door and comes and sits down opposite me.

“So, I have just gotten off the phone with Roberto Bellisario about the rebrand work we have done for him,” I start.

“Does he like it?” Serena says.

“I don’t know yet,” I say. “He was meant to be in the country this week, but he said something came up and he couldn’t get away. He doesn’t want to do this over a call so I said I would go to him.”

“What in Italy?” Serena asks.

“Yes,” I say, nodding my head. “And I would like you to join me.”

I’m expecting her to be happy about this, maybe even a bit excited, but instead, she frowns, surprising me.

“What is it?” I ask. “I thought you’d be happy at the idea.”

“I am,” she says quickly. “Only …”

She stops there and I sigh.

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