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I smiled sadly, hearing the excitement in her voice. “Thank you, Nasrin. I will call you later.”
The call ended, leaving me alone to think and wonder if Khalid was acting strange and ignoring me because of the call we had that night. Was he angry that I left and punishing me by ignoring me? No, Khalid can act moody, but he wasn’t immature enough to do that.
Then what was it? I wanted to know what bothered him.
* * *
“So why didyou decide to be a perfumer?” The interviewer asked, soft light falling over my skin, making me feel warm.
I hummed, thinking over her question. With a small smile, I said, “When we dress up to go out, the last thing we apply is a perfume that defines us. Whether we want to appear delicate, manly, fresh or sweet. The perfume we choose to wear defines us. If it’s a formal meeting, we will wear something light yet rich. If it’s a date, we will wear something heady or musky.
For me, as a blind person, I can define someone by the tone of their voice, the scent they are wearing. I attach scents to people and the idea of creating new scents for others and how I wanted people to see me, just based on how I smell, seemed very exciting so… here I am.”
“That’s a lovely answer, Valeria. Tell us something about your new launch.”
“The new fragrances ofDelicate Deware my representation of basic every day perfume keeping everyone in mind.” I continued, picking up the bottle with one bump on the side and telling her about the distinct notes and who would wear it.
Ever since I had the meeting where I told the employees that I couldn’t smell, they had been extremely supportive towards me. I had thought that they would want to appoint a new CEO, but instead, they had been working harder.
“You must have heard how beautiful you are, Valeria and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but we saw a few pictures of you with Khalid Al Latif, Prince of Azmia,” the interviewer said, almost gushing as if we were two close friends. “You two looked so good walking together to his art gallery.”
I bit my lip when she continued. As a Prince, Khalid had the power, money and connections to erase the videos some of the people had taken when he fought with those three men when we had walked out of the art gallery. They had never surfaced the internet and didn’t harm his reputation. It was hard to believe that we had met two months ago.
“I am sorry, can we please not talk about that at the moment?” I asked the interviewer, interrupting her.
She smoothly transitioned to another question, and as soon as the interview was finished, I had to take a few pictures with a few male and female models for the campaign. I was glad that the photographer guided me where to stand, where to look and smile, so it was over within a couple of hours.
After changing back to my clothes, I askedSiriif I had any new calls and got disappointed when she listed no texts, calls or voicemails from Khalid.
It’s okay, I have to wait two more weeks, and then I can visit Azmia and confront him about it.
Just two more weeks.