The albatross journey

16 - One month

Sanem

The following months were hectic but also extremely exciting and stimulating. I worked night and day to develop the idea that almost immediately began to buzz in my mind. The perfume we are to promote is an exotic and sensual feminine essence characterised by warm, spicy and enveloping olfactory notes.

Deren and the team immediately loved what I was proposing to them, we plunged into the work enthusiastic and convinced that the idea could be a winner and regular meetings with HXC Cosmetic only confirmed this. The company has repeatedly said that they see the perfume as a product for women, but imagined it to attract the lust of men and that's what we're going to focus on.

I think Hakan has also picked up on this element that seems to be emerging more and more, week after week, and I imagine he is basing his proposal on this factor.

At each meeting we found ourselves sitting in the same seats and there is now an almost camaraderie between us, I don't feel he is an antagonist, perhaps because of his light-hearted and ironic way of approaching work. We stopped several times to talk after the meetings in the cafeteria on the ground floor of the building to comment on the topics and laugh at the sometimes absurd questions posed by the teams of the other competing agencies.

We were very careful to preserve the secrecy of the idea we were working on, but at the same time I found it stimulating to talk to him about the creative techniques each of us uses in our own agency, we came to realise that we work in a very similar way and we drew interesting ideas from each other. At the end of the second month of work, when it was the fourth time we had met at HXC Cosmetic, he asked me out to dinner.

I was taken aback, I wasn't expecting such a proposal, I am so focused on work that I had only looked at the time we had spent together as a function of the goal towards which I am completely projected.

I looked at him in that moment with a different eye, until now he was for me a prepared professional from whom I could certainly learn, an ironic man who clearly shows that he never takes himself seriously.

I realised that he was an extremely charming and successful man, an elegant and self-confident businessman, and I was flattered by his interest, which somehow soothed my wounded soul at having been cast aside and forgotten as something insignificant.

I accepted on impulse deciding to put myself to the test, I want to feel alive and, why not, desirable in the eyes of such a charismatic man, but not right away, now my mind is too busy with work and the enormous challenge I decided to accept.

I suggested that we make a dinner date the night before the competition ends, by which time the design proposals will have been delivered to HXC Cosmetic, but we still won't know who the winner is.

He looked at me with that sly smile I've come to know since we met two months ago - will I have to wait another month? You know how to make want you Sanem Aydin, alright, so be it then, let's wait until we finish our work -

I'm glad he agreed, right now I can't think of anything but work but the idea of having a date makes me selfishly feel good, makes me feel like a woman again, makes me feel like someone worth waiting for.

I'm learning so much from Deren and all the guys in the team, I'm enjoying the world of advertising more and more, it's becoming more and more my thing and I'll be sad to leave it when my contract expires, but that's okay, it's good.

I have no idea what the future holds, I may decide to spend the experience I have gained on other agencies or I may return to what I have always dreamed of. I have received e-mails from two different publishers who have expressed interest in my manuscript and asked me to send them the whole novel for a more accurate evaluation. If one of them were to agree to publish it, I would once again find myself revolutionising my existence and making important choices for myself and my future. We'll see, but for now my focus must be solely and exclusively on the competition and my work as creative director.