Chapter 149 - Warm Welcome

At the entrance of the building Rachel and Sam met June, Jessica's assistant.

She was dressed in a pink shirt, tucked in a black pencil skirt, her hair was tied in a ponytail and she was looking extremely professional.

She wished Rachel and Sam but looked in confusion at Frank as they informed them that only two people would be visiting them, understanding the confusion, Rachel explained, "He is my bodyguard"

"Oh" June nodded in understanding, these are all powerful people so it was obvious for them to have bodyguards around them.

The other five bodyguards were waiting outside, they knew the security at The Carlson Company was already top notch so it was enough for Frank to accompany Rachel. They were busy making security arrangements according to Rachel's schedule. 

June guided the three people into the office, the atmosphere was light and airy, with clean lines and colorful details, making it look like a great place to work from. 

Rachel could see that this office provided space for every employee for them to be creative. The meeting rooms were all decorated in light and lively colours, the space was open and every room varied in size depending on its use, but they all had one thing in common, the vibe of the office provided a happy and comfortable working environment to boost morale and product development. Somewhere, seeing all of this Rachel could understand why Jessica was at some other level and this successful, her vision was way ahead than any one of them she knew of.

Rachel and Sam were led to Jessica's office which was on the top floor. 

June knocked on the door, "Come in." Jessica's pleasant voice rang in.

June opened the door for Rachel and Sam, Rachel entered first followed by Sam, Frank decided to stay outside.

Jessica walked towards her, she was wearing white pencil skirt and a Blue shirt, she was wearing light makeup but she looked extremely beautiful, for a moment Rachel couldn't take her eyes off Jessica, her beauty was out of this world.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Richardson." Jessica extended her right hand towards Rachel for a handshake.

Hearing her words Rachel came back to her senses and professionally shook hands with her.

Jessica then walked into her office with Rachel and their assistants were following them, "Welcome to Milan, hope your journey was comfortable" she then pointed at the two chairs opposite her and asked Rachel and Sam to make themselves comfortable.

They took their seats and June sat on the couch on the other side of the room and started taking notes.

"Thank you for your warm welcome Ms. Carlson, it is my pleasure meeting you. The journey to Milan was indeed comfortable." Rachel too answered her.

Both the women didn't even smile at one another but one can sense there was no adversary between the two, this was how the two were in general. 

Rachel then formally Introduced herself and Sam.

"You don't need an introduction Ms. Richardson, I know you very well." Jessica commented after Rachel formally introduced herself.

Rachel couldn't help but think about her conversation with Daniel the night before where he told her he was on a call with Jessica, although she knew of their relationship, she still felt a bit uncomfortable hearing Jessica's words.

Sensing her discomfort, Jessica added, "After shortlisting the proposals and meeting people who made these proposals, I had my assistant research about the people involved in it, only after verifying that people I would be working with are ethical, only then I scheduled a meeting. Hope Ms. Richardson doesn't mind me doing a professional background study on her." Jessica explained herself because just like Daniel she too doesn't like having misunderstandings, therefore she focused on the word professional background check.

"Oh, that's absolutely fine Ms. Carlson, I am really impressed with the way you conduct your business, there is nothing wrong in knowing people in advance before you proceed to work with them."

"I am glad Ms. Richardson is understanding." 

Rachel just nodded her head in agreement.

After offering some water, the two women finally came on the main topic of discussion.

"I saw your work Ms. Richardson and I must say I was pretty impressed by your business plan"

"I am glad Ms. Carlson liked it."

"Yeah, I can see your finances are practical and not over the top, also I researched your cosmetics brand and I am really impressed how well it is received in London."

"That is the reason I liked your idea of mixing fashion with cosmetics." Rachel added.

Then the two discussed more about the project in detail, Sam too discussed a few stuff and answered Jessica's few questions.

After they discussed the project details, Rachel too asked some of the questions she had in her mind, "So what will be the future course of action, if we move to the next round, I mean if we move further in this proposal then how do you plan to execute the project if we crack the deal?" 

"The next round I would want you to submit another short proposal, the details would be mailed you in case we move further. At the end, if you get the deal there are some things that would take place, first of all I will visit your factory to see if it is meeting my expectations or not. Secondly, I am planning to shift to London so it would be convenient for us to work and I also can visit the factory anytime. Thirdly, I'll go through the list of people who would be working on this project from your team and my team, if I don't feel anyone is meeting my expectations then I would not let that employee of yours work on this project and you too would be free to do the same with mine. Since I'm moving to London we will have meetings every two weeks to check the progress, of course all of this would happen if you indeed crack this deal."

Rachel nodded her head as her main concern was already answered by Jessica, she too wanted to know how will they be coordinating with her being in London and Jessica in Italy, if Jessica would have asked her to move to Italy then she was planning to give up on this project as she was already worried seeing her grandpa's reaction when she was visiting Italy for a day or two but she was really glad Jessica herself was planning to move to London. Rachel's second concern was the employees who would be working on this project, but when Jessica told her the decision would be done by both the parties, she was relieved, she thought it would be difficult to deal with Jessica with the kind of reputation she had but things were turning out to be smooth.

She was really impressed how fair and thoughtful Jessica is.

"Anything else you want to ask Ms. Richardson?"

"If Ms. Carlson is comfortable in sharing, may I know who am I competing with for this proposal, it would help me in case we move further?"

Jessica was impressed by her straight forwardness, many businessmen were always curious who they were competing with but they never asked the concerned person directly, they rather used their contacts to find out this kind of information but Rachel directly asked her instead.

"If I would choose not to answer then would Ms. Richardson, use her contacts to get the information?"

"In that case, I would just respect your decision and let it be, I just wanted to know so that I can prepare accordingly, it helps in better preparation if I am aware of what I am competing with." 

Rachel clearly explained her stance and Jessica could see she was not lying and if Jessica really agreed to not disclose the other competitors then Rachel would definitely not use her contacts, Jessica is a good judge of people and she gets an idea about a person's nature in the first meeting itself, so she decided to answer Rachel's question. 

"Honestly Ms. Richardson, I have shortlisted three proposals till now. I have already met our first client, Mr. AY yesterday, you are the second one I am meeting, tomorrow I am going to meet Mr. JK. Since they are your competitors, I am pretty sure you already know them."

"Yes I do, thanks for this information Ms. Richardson, it would help me better to prepare for the next proposal in case there is a need to."

"No problem."

"Is there anything Ms. Carlson would like to share?"

"Yes, there is something important I want to make clear, before we move forward. One of my main concerns when I collaborate with some other business is that I won't compromise with the quality of the product especially when my brand name is associated with it. Also ethics and integrity play a very important role for me, it is also important that the people I deal with are high on integrity."