Plushness

Jean-Francois expected an overweight, dimply, middle-aged woman to arrive at the meeting, in spite of everything he heard about the Middle East Director of his company who he never met-- Nada.

Her flight was delayed and was arriving late, and he was getting annoyed that he has to reshuffle his schedule, but he used his time to sum up the day’s work with his assistant, Frederick.

The door opened and he was taken aback for a second, quickly collecting himself as he stood to greet her. She introduced herself as if she knew that his expectations were far from the figure that had just walked in to the meeting room.

She spoke and he listened carefully, convinced from her first breath that her proposal would be a success. At the end of the meeting, his assistant tactfully asked the overseas guest to join them for lunch, as if reading his manager’s mind. But she declined.

She stood up to leave, the day was over for her, and she had other meetings to attend to. Jean-Francois asked his assistant what he thought of Nada’s proposal, and in his mind he wanted to ask ‘do you think she’s available?’ but he held his thought back as the assistant was obviously in awe as well.

The next day, looking as if she had tried hard to subdue her femininity but with out much success, she met with the I.T. team to brief them on the new product she had proposed to Jean-Francois. He did not need to be there, but he felt that his staff would feel the proposal sanctioned if his support was visible. Not to his surprise, by the time he entered the meeting room, the team had already grasped and accepted the new product.

He tried to decide whether it was her charisma, her looks, or her intelligence that had been so convincing, but he couldn’t. He was intrigued. She was raised and educated in the West, and her dark hair, musky scent, and foreign accent ignited his interest and curiosity. He wondered why she had refused to have lunch with them, and he also admired her confidence in turning down a lunch invitation with a partner. What was she like? He would try to know more about her in their next meeting. He has to arrange for that.