Chapter 28 : Jennifer

"Oh God it's such a long day. I just can't wait to lay my back on my bed!" I said to Daniel as we were both walking side by side from his office to the elevator.

"My stomach has been singing since the first meeting. Poor him..." responded Daniel, patting his tummy.

We had spent all day meeting with one after another sponsors to present the next advertisement concept for Hey. It took us all day and even though finger foods and refreshments were often served, we would normally forget to consume them as the meeting were quite intense and fast paced.

"Talking about advertisement, it reminded me about an article that I wrote for my high school's website back then about the downside of it. I remember writing about the negative influence of advertisement, and its bad impacts to the world."

"And now look who's working with a company who profits mostly from the advertisement?" Daniel laughed at that story.

"Yup. How ironic, isn't it?" I replied.

"Marina, I just can't stand it any longer. Can we go for an early dinner now?"

"All right then let's go. Where at?"

"Asia Café shall we?"

"Good choice. It's been a while since the last time I dined in there."

"Great, let's go!" hungry Daniel just couldn't wait any longer.

When we reached there, the advertisement topic was still on the table, besides all the delicious food we were enjoying. But this time the discussion leaned towards the criteria of the advertisement that would make it to Hey.

"You know Daniel, I never knew it that you hold such a strong principle and stand towards every single advertisement that will be featured in our magazine."

"Now you know."

I nodded.

"This is not the first time someone telling me about it. Many have come to me telling me how surprised they were when they see me standing firm to my own principles. I wonder why. That shows just how much they thought that I would just settle with just about anything as long as the advertisement pages are filled. No way!"

"Maybe because your eyes always reflect the dollar sign?"

"What? Are you saying I'm an avaricious person?" that stopped him and he looked at me with round, big eyes. He clearly never saw that coming from me. But he burst into laughter after that because he thought it's funny and that I was the first person telling him that.

"Well I'm glad you're laughing now because you know I was joking right...So Daniel, tell me now,  why are you setting up such principles or standards or whatever it is you call it for those ads?

"Advertisement is just the agent of information dissemination. That is its task, and the only task that I want for Hey. They do create an illusion, but the reality is that we are never going to be like the models in the ads after we used the same product. And that is something that I want to avoid happening to our reader. I don't want them to be caught in an illusion or have this wrong idea about anything advertised, and blame us later for delivering wrong message when things were not working up to their expectations. And certainly I don't want them to think that we are feeding them with all the things they don't need at the very first place," explained Daniel extensively.

"But let's say one day a reporter asks the same thing to you. What is going to be your answer? Because I don't think what you just said is 'cool' to some people, the cynics especially?"

"Well in that case, I would just be cliché and brief about it. I will say that it is my own social responsibility to all Hey readers."

"And I can't imagine your face when saying that to them" I added and laugh.

"But trust me, nobody is going to ask anything about it. Nobody cares about the advertisement these days. Let alone to analyse them to that extent," Daniel said confidently.

"Oh yeah, talking about advertisement, have you heard anything about the "Czech Dream?"

"I have. That is a must-watch if you are interested in advertisement. I can't feel bad enough for everyone used for the 'test'."

"We used to recreate the scenes from that film in one of our high school classes. The teacher asked us to reimagine what we would do if we were in those clients shoes."

"So what had you done?"

"I took a water bottle and pretended calling the police."

"You made a fake report that you've been scammed?" Daniel made a guess.

"Yeah..." I nodded.

"Hmmm..."

"Why? Do you think it's not that creative?"

"Well it was. At least you went different way with others. But had I been your teacher, I would not be impressed," Daniel said in all honesty.

"All right. What about you? What would you do?"

"Mmm just like you did, I would grab the water bottle and pretend it's a phone. But I would not call the police."

"So who are you going to call?"

"I will call the firefighter."

"That's sounds weird. What a firefighter going to do about it?"

"I will tell them, 'Please hurry up here! These people's anger are on fire!'" Daniel reacted the character like he's going for an Oscar.

"Are you serious! Now that sounds boasting! I'm sure all the boys would make you their laughing stocks for the whole year after that. Such a clown.."

"They probably would. But only for awhile. Because after that this clown would turn into a Santa, receiving letters non stop from all the girls, admiring my creativity..."

"Oh please Daniel! That makes me sick!" I made the gagging sound.

Daniel laughed out loud at my respond and wanted to say something. But he was stopped by the ring of my phone. I looked at the phone, and quickly answered the call, as it was from someone I knew.

"Hello Sandy!"

"Hi Marina."

"How are you doing girl?" I asked.

"I'm good, Marina. Guess what, I just gave birth to a baby yesterday."

"You did? Oh my God! Congratulations Sandy! A boy or a girl?"

"It's a girl and I named her as per your suggestion the other day"

"Oh really? I'm so thrilled! I never thought your husband would agree with the name."

"Oh Nash loved the name. I'm lucky he was not being fussy about it at all. It's just the baby is all his now hahaha. I don't even get a chance to hold her!"

"I mean...just give him a chance. This is the first one and you have been carrying her for nine months. Now it's his turn. I just hope he would still be the same when the baby starts to move around." I laughed.

"So when are you going to visit me?"

"Soon! I promise I'll be there soonest as I can"

"All right I'll be waiting for you. I'll call you back some times okay."

"Sure. Take care all right. Say hello to Nash and the baby for me please."

We ended the call and I switched my attention back to Daniel.

"Who was that? Sounds like a joyful conversation" asked Daniel.

"My friend. She just delivered a baby girl yesterday."

"I see." Daniel nodded. "Hmm...so if you don't mind me asking, how many such news have you been receiving this year?"

"Huh?" I did not get what he meant by that.

"I mean, how many of your girl friends have gave birth this year?"

"Oh...this is the...sixth actually." I replied after a bit of mind math.

"Sixth? Wow not bad...So... Doesn't that make you worried at all?"

"Hmm...never at all so far. Should I?"

"Most of the women I met would get pretty anxious when they turned a year older  and still haven't found a soulmate. And some would get worried sick that they still don't have a baby at certain age."

"Well it did cross to my mind from time to time I won't lie to you about it. But I believe it's all in the hand of God. My time will come, when it comes. And until that happens, I will just focus on myself. Bettering myself and my life and try to build a solid career, before I switch my focus on something else."

"But when?? Don't you have a specific plan for it?" Daniel seemed like he's trying to dig more info from me.

"Okay..I'll give it three to five years to come. But you'll never know. It might happen next year. Who knows right?"

"Do you already have a candidate father for the future kids?"

"Well...I do have a few names to reach that target" I said in laughter. Somehow it sounded like I was just going to use a surrogate father.

"A few? Hmm not bad..." Daniel nodded, with a smile on his face.

"Oh by the way, your friend's baby just now...is it a girl or a boy?"

"A girl"

"Got a name already? I have some real good suggestions for it, if not."

"She already has a name. The one that I suggested. It's Jennifer."

"Jennifer..." he said that name softly. From that I knew he loved the name.

"Yes. Jennifer. Isn't it beautiful?"

"It is. But why 'Jennifer'?"

"I don't know. I've been loving that name since forever. It's very feminine, very graceful. Every Jennifer that I know of are very elegant and charming."

"For example?"

"For instance Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston...lots more!"

"Are you saying someone's name will make her beautiful?"

"Hmm you know sometimes you can be really really cute. That's NOT what I meant Mister Daniel. Name definitely won't change or has an effect on someone's appearance. It's just that I love it so much. It's a name that sounds beautiful on the ears and the lips. And it's just happened that so many beautiful public figures has that name. So it gives positive vibes to me."

"All right all right. I get it" replied him. But his eyes were like seeing through everything in front of him. Obviously something was bothering his head.

"What's up? Are you okay?"

Daniel gave me a smile. A bittersweet one.

"You know Marina..."

"What is it?"

"Jennifer is also the name of my ex girlfriend."

"Oh really?" I was sure my face was showing all sorts of excitement when he opened up about this thing. Because he never told me anything about his love story. My heart was swelling, to hear about this different, more sensitive side of him.

"Yeah no kidding," he replied slowly.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He did not answer me. He called the waiter instead and I thought he was going to pay the bill- which also meant NO to my last question.

"Do you mind if I drink, Marina?" asked Daniel.

"No I'm fine" I replied. But deep in my heart I was actually not very comfortable with it. But what option did I have? And who was I to stop him to?

Daniel smiled. He went for it and ordered a big glass of cold beer. He started to tell me about Jennifer, about his relationship with that girl, about how much he admired her, about her charisma...her skin tone...her language capability...and so many more.

Being a good listener I was, I tried to listen to every single words he brought onto the table. It seemed like he has gone head over heels with that girl. Based on his descriptions, I tried to imagine how this Jennifer looked like and suddenly I could feel a heap of jealousy seeped into my bones. 'Who is this Jennifer girl? How great is she that an alpha male like Daniel would be so crazy over her?' I asked myself.

When Daniel told me the part where they both finally broken up, I could see it in his eyes just how shattered he was, and how he actually was still not over it. He told me he had so much dreams and hopes for that relationship, but they were vanished just like that.

"I thought it was a true love! But..." he's getting more emotional.

"If she wants to get back to you and start it all over again, would you accept her back?"

Daniel did not speak a word. He chugged the beer in front of him, which was a refill I could not remember just for how many times now.

"You know Marina..." he continued. My question just now left unanswered. But this time he was smiling.

"What is it, Daniel?"

He did not answer me right away. But instead he just stared at me deeply and that made me a little bit uncomfortable.

"You and Jennifer have very much the same charisma. Your attitude, your voice, the way you carry yourself, the way you communicate with people. All of that remind me of Jennifer so much. That's why I was all over the moon when you said yes to work at Hey. You have made me missed her less," said Daniel.

"Are you being serious?" I reacted to that as if he was just kidding me up. I tried the best I could to smile but deep inside what he told me just now really surprised me. But knowing that he was drunk, I put aside everything that was in my head at that moment.

"Daniel, I think you should stop drinking."

"No...no...I'm okay..."

I looked at him and let him be in his drunken world for a hot minute, while I was thinking about the escape plan. He was mumbling not only about Jennifer, but also about his bad friends. Then, he continued telling me about a lion that he watched on Animal Planet before the subject changed again to a visit by a UFO at his Puncak Alam Villa that he used to lived in.

Now I was not sure whether it was really a UFO or just an Astro parabola, but it was that moment that I knew I should not just leave him there, like that. Before he got worse and started to attract more attention from the others, I better took this matter into my hand immediately.

To be quite honest, I got a little bit nervous when he started to compare me with Jennifer at the first place. Things could be much worse had he seen me as Jennifer, not Marina anymore. Nobody knew what might happen later.

Suddenly, I remembered about his sister, Sarah being in Kuala Lumpur that time. I called her and told her everything and she promised me to come as soon as possible. She sounded so worried in the phone but I managed to calm her down by telling her that I would look after him until she's here.

"Oh Danny. How could it be this way?" said Sarah when she saw her brother was deep in another world. "What happened Marina? It's been awhile since the last time I saw him like this."

"He drank so much. He was all fine when we arrived and enjoying our dinner. We talked about so many things including works. But as he started talking about Jennifer..."

"Jennifer?" asked Sarah in disbelief.

"Yeah..."

"Huh..." Sarah made a big sigh and shook her head left and right.

"It's okay Marina, I'll take him home. Thank you so much for calling me and not leave him just like this."

"Don't worry about it, Sarah. Please give me a call should you need anything, alright?"

"I will, Marina...I'll see you later, alright?"

Marina nodded her head and smiled to Sarah.

Sarah took Daniel home and from that moment on, I just could not stopped thinking about this Jennifer lady. My curiosity intensified every time Daniel's voice about her resonated in my head. If possible I wanted to get all the details about the former couple from Sarah. But what if she tells it to Daniel? What would my workmates think say? I'm sure I'll be the topic of their gossips for quite some times. And what if it made its way to Daniel himself? Oh I'll be ashamed to see his face for years!

"Why don't you try Googling her?" Suggested Ally.

"Google her?

"Yeah. I mean I know he's not Khairy Jamaluddin or Aaron Aziz. But he's still quite well known by the public. I'm sure there must be something about him and that Jennifer on the internet. Google it!"

I was quite hesitate with the idea in the beginning. But then I thought, why not! Ally was right Daniel had quite a big name in the publishing and socialite world. So maybe there was something about his relationship online. So I went for it and filled in 'Daniel Hey Editor and Jennifer' into the search bar.

"How is it? You got it?"

"Yeah. There are some links which I think are gossip pages." I clicked these links into multiple different windows to make it faster and easier for reading. "Yes! I think I have found a credible one. It's from the Malaysian Tattler." I told Ally in weird excitement.

Before I knew it I have spent almost a couple hours reading one after one articles about their stories. Obviously each of them was quite a celebrity in the KL and Singapore's elite world and they were even dubbed as one of the power couple in the scenes.

"Hmmm...interesting..." I said to myself when I finished everything. I could not stop looking at the picture of the girl, whose full name was actually Jennifer Adams. Admittedly, she looked very interesting. Beautiful with brain, I supposed. She was a language and communication lecturer in the National University of Malaysia and not only did she speak Malay, English, French and Arabic fluently, she has been involved in a few publications on Psycholinguistic too.

"She's pretty, she could be a movie star if she wanted to" Ally just could not stop admiring this lady. But I think nobody would disagree, including me. I had actually read it just now that she did have an intention to be in the filming industry long ago, but she gave it a second thought after being with Daniel who had introduced her to a lot of media people.

"She doesn't look like me at all, but if Daniel thinks we both share some kind of similarities, well I'm flattered," I said it to Ally.

"Yes! I think you should get face to face with her! Then, maybe you could see Daniel's point."

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Kid Haider

KID HAIDÉR

KidHaider

KIDHAIDÉR

Mohamad Khidir Bin Mohamed Yazir

Mohamad Khidir Mohamed Yazir

Khidir Bin Mohamed Yazir 

Khidir Mohamed Yazir 

Khidir M. Yazir