The Miami Millionaire by Dawn Tamayo Page B

There were lots of fantastic and expensive restaurants in London, but where to start?
    Jake shrugged.
    ‘Okay let’s go for something different’ , Victoria thought, “Chinese?”
    “Now that sounds good.”  Jake smiled as his stomach gave a growl.
    “Then let’s go to Trader Vic’s.  It’s not far from here, just at the end of Park Lane in the Hilton Hotel.”
    “Sounds perfect, now hurry because I’m hungry.”  Jake said closing the door behind them as they headed to the lift.
     
    Jake ordered a selection of all the starters for them to try and Victoria ordering a selection of the main dishes.  As dishes of spicy prawns, sauce covered barbeque ribs and marinated beef skewers in ginger-sate sauce were put on the table they both reached for the spicy prawns first.  Popping a prawn into his mouth Jake listened as Victoria started to talk business.
    “So I know you have a great marketing team already, and probably have about a hundred other companies vying for your business here in the UK, but Churchill Turnbull & French Media Solutions are a fantastic award winning company and we can do a lot to assist, or even take over fully from your marketing and advertising team for your UK market.  We will…….”
    “Wait.”  Jake interrupted seeing Victoria hadn’t touched the food she had put on her plate, obviously intent on giving him her marketing pitch.  “If I agree to meet with your boss tomorrow and hear what he has to say then will you drop the sales pitch and eat some food?”
    Victoria smiled, “Yes.  But only if you agree to give his sales pitch serious consideration.”
    “Vicky, I don’t waste my time.  He can have half an hour to pitch and I will listen and consider it.  Then we can take it from there.  Okay?”
    Victoria’s smile widened and she sighed with relief.  Surely whatever happened now wasn’t down to her - Ben Churchill had his introduction and a half hour to get Jake’s business, so hopefully her job would be safe. 
    “What time would you like, I’ll phone Mr Churchill now and set it up.”
    “You call him Mr Churchill?”  Jake said as he indicated for Victoria to eat.
    She dutifully took a mouthful of food and then answered, “Yes, he’s quite old fashioned in that respect.  The partners and senior account managers get to call him Ben, but I’m not at that level yet .”
    “The guy in my mail room calls me Jake.”
    “Yes well that’s you, and that’s very American.  We are in London, and as forward thinking and ground-breaking as advertising and media are, I’m afraid the ones at the top of the food chain are still sticklers for old fashioned respect.  So Mr Churchill it is for me.”
    “Just because someone calls me Mr Cumberland it doesn’t mean they respect me.  I get my respect for what I do and the money I put in their pockets when they work for me.  I expect a good job done and in return I treat my people well.”  Jake said seriously thinking this Ben Churchill sounded like a bit of an ass.
    Victoria smiled as she took out her phone, she could see what Jake was getting at and she agreed with him totally, not that she was going to say that because she needed to keep Jake thinking Ben Churchill was a great guy if she had any hope of them securing his company’s business.
     
    “Good evening Mr Churchill, I’m sorry to disturb you but I am in a meeting with Jake Cumberland at the moment.”  Jake listened as Victoria talked to her boss, “The thing is that the only opening Jake has is tomorrow afternoon for half an hour.”  Jake could hear the man on the other end of the phone saying something and he indicated for Victoria to hand him her phone.  She hesitated but put it in Jake’s waiting hand anyway.
     
    Jake interrupted the sound of the man’s voice on the other end of the phone.  He had dealt with jumped-up pompous people all his life and he could tell one when he heard one. 
    “Ben, Ben Churchill isn’t it?  You don’t