Illusions

3. mind

Roman's POV

"Sir, I have high hopes for this meeting with the publicist," Natalie says as I'm walking out of my office, "make sure to keep an open mind!"

"You got it, Natalie."

She nods and we part ways. 

I make my way to the lobby and James already has my car in the front, and he seems disappointed.

Probably because Natalie isn't here.

"James, you can at least act excited to see me."

He plasters a smile onto his face.

"So good to see you, sir," he says, throwing me the keys, "I changed it to your seat setting, don't worry."

"Appreciate it."

I walk to my car and put the directions in, it's 30 minutes away. 

I only play music during longer drives, so I click through my library and play After Hours, the only album I can listen to without skips. 

It takes me 40 minutes to arrive because of traffic, but I'm still early because Natalie insisted on good impressions. 

She and Edward should not have contact with each other.

I take in the building and walk in, immediately greeted by a receptionist.

"Hi, sir," she smiles, looking up from her computer, "how can I help you?"

I open my phone and check my email for information about the publicist.

"I'm here to see Juliana Santucci."

She clicks through her computer for a couple of seconds.

"Mr. Roman Sokolov?"

I nod.

"Head right up to the seventh floor," she smiles, not seeming to stop since she saw me, "she's ready for you, sir."

I nod again and go to the elevator, clicking the '7' button.

As soon as the doors open to the floor, I'm greeted by a woman.

I'm assuming this is her.

"Mr. Roman Sokolov?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She smiles. 

This must be a thing here.

"Follow me."

I follow her to her office and she gestures for me to sit down on one of the chairs opposite her.

"My name is Juliana Satucci," she says, holding a hand out for me to shake, "I should've introduced myself earlier, I apologize."

I nod and shake her hand.

"I appreciate you making time to meet me on such short notice."

"Of course," she smiles, "now, your secretary gave me the overview, but would you mind explaining your situation."

She leans down and gets water out of her mini fridge.

I'll have to ask Natalie to get me one of those.

"Sure, so I was recently told that I don't have much of a public persona," I accept the water bottle she hands me, with her agency's logo on it, "and I looked into it, and my company hasn't had many new clients in the past year. Now we need to figure out how to change that because we have a substantial marketing budget and our current clients aren't leaving."