Flash and Dazzle by Lou Aronica

Flash and Dazzle by Lou Aronica

Author:Lou Aronica [Aronica, Lou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC019000, FICTION / Literary, FIC000000, FICTION / General, FIC043000, FICTION / Coming of Age
Publisher: Story Plant, The
Published: 2013-05-17T00:00:00+00:00


The chapter about

facing more reality

than I was prepared for

Thursday night, Keane and I met at the bar in the Millennium Hotel for a drink. This would be an exercise in restraint for me. Since the last time I’d seen him, enormous things had happened. However, only some of it—the part he already knew—was open for discussion tonight. Keane had made it abundantly clear during our first lunch that he believed that whatever went on in one’s personal life was not a factor in one’s professional life and that letting the former impinge on the latter—even if only to the degree of mentioning it to a potential colleague—was a sign of weakness. Therefore, nothing that had gone on since Monday morning was an available topic. Not if I had any interest in remaining in the running for the job with K&C.

“Prince has a hell of a house, doesn’t he?” Keane said as he sat down and ordered a Skyy vodka on the rocks.

“It’s amazing,” I said, glad that we had leapt into the safest of all topics. He didn’t even bother with such inane preliminaries as asking me how I was doing.

“He loves that thing like it’s another child. I swear he has separation problems on Monday mornings.” He looked across the room. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it in the couple of minutes we’d been together. It seemed as though he was trying to spot someone he knew or to perhaps be noticed himself. He looked back in my direction. “So Curt said he thought your weekend went well.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I thought it went very well.”

“It’s good that the two of you enjoyed yourselves. If you can’t get along with Prince, there really wouldn’t be any point in continuing this conversation.”

I nodded, unsure how to respond to that, and got a break when our drinks came. I’d ordered a cranberry juice and seltzer, even though I wasn’t going back to the office.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Rich. You’ve emerged as somewhat of a frontrunner here. We’ve had a number of excellent conversations with other candidates, but Curt has sort of latched onto you. He tends to do that kind of thing, which means it’s incumbent on me to not only retain the clearer head but also to make sure we aren’t kidding ourselves.”

I took a sip of my drink. “So you’re the bad cop.”

“Let’s say I’m the rational cop.”

“I can appreciate that,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure that I could. I mean, in a field like advertising, what was really so wrong with the idea of going with your gut? However, my opinions were irrelevant—at least if I wanted to keep my hat in the ring with K&C. It was clear to me that, while the job might involve daily contact with Curt Prince, Noel Keane was the gatekeeper. The entire firm was his operation, and one didn’t become part of that operation without his approval.

Over the course of the next



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