The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era [BL]

391 THE LITTLE WOES OF GLEN COOK

GLEN COOK – the current president of EMMA had been having a headache for a few days now. And the source of it all would be coming to his office any time now. Yes, it was that rookie actor, Astrid Townsend.

Because of that child, the heads of different departments, as well as some of members of the board, had been arguing about him being the ambassador of their upcoming perfume line. Because of the arguments, some of the board members even thought of inserting their own people to be the ambassador. Their mentality was probably, ‘if a newcomer can do it, then why not this person instead?’.

It caused Glen a great headache just making sure that he could stop any hocus pocus that might happen. Frankly speaking, he normally wouldn’t bother with things like that. But since Lord Cassius told him directly that he should make sure that none of those things would happen, he had no choice but to intervene.

The sad part was, a VP still managed to fumble things up by instructing some people to mess with Astrid Townsend’s screen test. Unluckily for that VP, Lord Cassius happened to visit the shoot and so his little machinations did not work.

But since that VP had been very loyal to EMMA and only acted that way because he truly thought that disqualifying Astrid was for the good of the company, he did not receive that big of a punishment. Still, the subsequent things that followed only brought headache to Glen.

Because of the VP’s scheme, Lord Cassius became even more determined to stop others from intervening with this selection. Of course, that job fell heavily on him.

After the screen test was done, the different department heads, some board members, as well as him, had to convene in a meeting to discuss whether Astrid Townsend passed or not. Shockingly enough, well, maybe not really, Lord Cassius also attended. So, those who planned to give a negative vote regardless of Astrid’s performance could no longer do what they planned.

And so, the process of deciding whether the newcomer deserved to be the new face of EMMA turned into a very peaceful discussion. At the end, everyone agreed for Astrid Townsend to be the endorser of EMMA’s new perfume line.

Of course, that’s not only because Lord Cassius was there with them. In fact, his presence there only served as a buffer to prevent the other people in the meeting to argue senselessly with each other. The true reason why they all agreed at the end was because of Astrid himself.

.....

The photos that were shown to them during the meeting made all of them speechless. They couldn’t even believe that the one they were looking at was indeed a newcomer. From the way he posed to the angles he used, every image was like the one they envisioned for this perfume line.

No matter how reluctant some of them were, they couldn’t argue with the facts that Astrid embodied the image of the new perfume line perfectly. He did so well that it left all of them speechless. Anyone who would try to say anything negative would only look like a fool.

That’s why, at the end, they all came to unanimous decision – that Astrid Townsend would be the endorser of the new perfume line. Although everyone agreed to that, there were still some who couldn’t accept that and therefore put up conditions under the guise of concern for the company.

These conditions seemed to be unfair to Astrid who passed this screen test with flying colors. But majority of the people in the meeting agreed to it.

Glen thought that Lord Cassius would definitely disagree, but miraculously enough, the other didn’t. He wasn’t sure if that was just him being overly confident with Astrid’s ‘star factor’ or if the other already had a plan to negate that. In any case, it didn’t really matter to Glen so he just let everything be.

At that moment, a virtual screen appeared in front of him, telling him that the people he’s waiting for finally arrived. He pressed a button on his desk and the door of his office opened. Then, two people walked inside one after the other.

The first one was a woman with short hair and sharp impression. She was followed by a teenager with black hair and a pair of dark obsidian eyes. The way those eyes tilted upwards at the end gave him a bit of an exotic feel.

Even though Glen had seen Astrid Townsend’s pictures, seeing him in reality still surprised him. If they only went by looks, the other was definitely more than deserving to be the face of EMMA. But the problem was, even though he had the face and presence, he didn’t have enough power to his name.

A newcomer that wasn’t even on the [Star List]. Any way one looked, this deal could only be considered as one-sided. EMMA could give infinite benefits to the other, what could the other give them? Right now, there was definitely none.

Glen truly wondered just what kind of relationship this kid had with Lord Cassius to be given this once in a lifetime opportunity.

He shook his head. That’s not really important right now. Since they had already decided to sign a contract with Astrid, they could only go through with it.

“Good afternoon,” greeted the woman. “This is Ellis Payne, Astrid’s agent. Thank you for inviting us here.”

“Welcome. Please, do sit down,” he said as he stoop up and gestured for the two to sit on the area of the office that was reserved to entertain guests.

The two sat down on one of the couches. Glen walked around his desk to sit opposite the two. “Can I offer you any drinks?”

“Coffee would be great,” Ellis Payne said.

“Tea for me, please,” Astrid said with a gentle smile.

Glen nodded and called for his secretary to bring drinks and snacks to the office. After the drinks and snacks arrived, the discussion about the contract finally started.