Side Effects

Chapter 9

Minister Prateung held up the little four pack of sample pills, studying them with a raised eyebrow before sliding them into his pocket. "I can't believe there is some cobra heart in this. You'll do well in selling it, though it does seem like you're preying on some unfounded beliefs."

He was absolutely right, and I was sure that was what was intended. "I'm not disagreeing with you. But look at it this way, would you rather your citizens get bit trying to capture a live cobra to eat the heart, or take one of those pills?"

The minister sighed and nodded. "You're right, I just don't like it. The suggestive ads are going to be even worse."

Oh man, I could see it now. Male enhancement ads in the states were bad enough, I could only imagine a spitting cobra in someone's pants in a commercial over here. I was already embarrassed at the thought that I might have played a part in that. "I'll try to keep the spitting cobras to a minimum," I promised.

"Perhaps instead of the spitting cobras, we could make an ad with a woman cobra tamer? Wouldn't 'tame the cobra' be a good tag line over here?" Alaya interjected. "I know in America, men feel like they have to perform for their women, so perhaps an ad like that might be a little less suggestive while getting the point across."

The minister was nodding before she even finished. "Marvelous! That is an excellent idea. I can see why Kian here finally brought an assistant!"

I absolutely loved that too! "I can promise you that I'll suggest that to the advertising folks. If anything, I can let them know that any import deals are contingent with the ads not being too suggestive." I turned to look at my assistant, who was sitting there with a smile on her face. "Thank you for the idea Alaya, I think that will work for all the parties involved."

The smile on her face was worth it, and I knew that she'd remember her first meeting as a success.

"Excellent!" The minister was beaming at us now. "I'm glad you came, Kian. It's been too long. Unfortunately, I'll have to pass on dinner tonight. As much as I'd like to go, I think I'm going to go home to my wife and try out one of these samples!"

I couldn't help but chuckle, while Alaya blushed. Yes, it was a very TMI comment, but one thing I liked about Minister Prateung was that he was happily married, and not hitting on everything in a skirt, like some of the other people I had to have meetings with. I'd lost count of the number of times I had to 'entertain' a minister, only for him to head off with a random woman. To each their own I suppose.

"Of course, Minister, I hope they live up to their reputation!"

We made our way out of the ministry building, with an unexpectedly free night. The day had gone extremely well, and I was in no hurry to end it. "Is there anything you'd like to do tonight? We should celebrate your brilliant idea."

Alaya looked over at me in shock. "You really liked that? I thought you were just saying that for his benefit!"

"No! I really did. I think those performance enhancing drugs are used exactly as you explained, and they could make a fun campaign without it being as problematic as the Minister feared." I could see the smile on her face, but she kept looking at the ground as though she was afraid to let me see it. "You're allowed to be proud Alaya, you had a great meeting. Making a favorable impression of Minister Prateung is a better start than I would have expected for your first meeting. You really impressed him, and if you ever saw him again, that would give you a leg up."

"What should we do now then?" she asked as we headed down to the ground floor in the elevator.

"Celebrate!" I told her. "We were going to go out anyway, so let's do it. Do a search for the top restaurants here in the city, and we'll go to whichever one you pick, okay?"