Page 84 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

It’s true that 99 per cent of Patels are Hindu, but I was sure
she’d said something or other about a festival that had made me
think she was definitely a Muslim.
‘You probably weren’t listening properly because you were too
busy looking.’
Obviously, having never dated an Asian woman before I didn’t
really care about her religion and didn’t understand the implica-
tions, but my dad was adamant that a Hindu girl wouldn’tbe
allowed to date a Muslim boy.
My father might have completely dismissed her but I hadn’t, and
the following week I decided I was going to make it my mission
to get Aisha to join the company.
‘Hi, Aisha, it’s James Caan from Reid Trevena. I just wanted to
catch up with you, find out your thoughts about the position we
discussed last week.’
‘Hi, James.’ Instantly there was something in her voice that
made me think she wasn’t interested.
‘I thought we should put a date in the diary for your second
interview.’
‘Oh.’
‘What? Are you busy this week?’
‘It’s not that. I talked it over with my father and showed him
the script you gave me. He made me realise that the job you’re
offering isn’t really marketing, it’s selling insurance. We talked it
over and we decided that I should stick with being a fashion
designer. It’s what I trained to do.’
What?! You can’t do that! That wasn’t part of the plan! So I
immediately had to back-pedal: I realised that she wasn’t going to
be my colleague, but I still wanted to see her. So as casually as I
could manage, I asked her to tell me more about fashion and the
career she was hoping for.
‘What aspect of fashion are you looking to pursue?’
I really didn’t know that much about fashion – I certainly wasn’t

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