Bewitched His Soul

Aria blinked her eyes to make sure she was not hallucinating, never in her dreams did she expect this person to be the director.

Today he was dressed up in a completely different manner, he was wearing a navy blue three-piece suit, neatly polished black shoes, and a heavy Rolex watch on his right hand.

Usually, the director will be around 40-50 years as they need a lot of experience but this guy looked in his late twenties or early thirties it meant he was very capable and talented.

He had a sinister expression like he had an argument or maybe his subordinates had disobeyed him.

Aria gave him a smile, hoping he may recognize her from yesterday's event and go easy on her during the interview, but he had a blank expression and continued to sit on his chair.

A few seconds passed and neither of them spoke, they were just staring at each other.

"If you have nothing to say, you can get out," that man grumbled.

Aria came back to her senses, and stammered, "I..I am Aria Cooper, I am the new artist who has been selected for this season."

"Take a seat," the man said sternly and went on doing something on his laptop.

"Yesterday I got very scared by your dog. I never thought we would meet like this," Aria said.

"This is my working hours and I don't get paid to talk about my personal life. People have already wasted my time today, and I don't want you to do the same," Justin snapped.

Aria did not think he would blow up for such a small thing. She bowed down and kept both her palms together on her lap.

She just sat there and after some time he was still on his computer and something else caught her attention. Aria looked at the nameplate on the table and it stated Justin Brown. She repeated his name once again in her mind.

"So Ms. Cooper, all your paintings are of landscape style. Don't you think just learning one technique of painting is not enough," Justin asked.

Aria was very much inspired by nature and so she was better at painting nature than people or objects. "I also know abstract and portrait painting but Landscape is my specialty," Aria replied.

"How do you keep up with the changing trends in the painting field," Justin was full on in business mode.

"I think we have to be informed with the trends but in the end stick to our originality as true talent is timeless. Even when everyone told Vincent Gogh to change his style he refused to listen and persisted. Now his paintings are masterpieces and are irreplaceable. So I want to master landscape painting and make a mark in the industry. I don't believe in being a Jack of all trades but a master of none," Aria answered confidently.

"I want you to explore all types of painting and I will choose what type will be displayed during the exhibition," Justin dictated.

Aria nodded, as this man made her feel like he was very controlling, and did not trust the artist's word and only believed in the results.

"How is your working schedule?" Justin asked.

"Once I take up a project I don't rest until I complete it. I am quite flexible," Aria responded.

"Flexibility is not enough. The artist's work with crazy hours here, you might need to pull all nighter and sometimes you have to do others' work without questioning or complaining, so be prepared," Justin chuckled.

Of course Aria knew that once you decided to pursue art there are no office hours where work ends at 5.00 pm. At least until you get recognition, you need to do every small task by yourself.

"Ms. Cooper I have to warn you I want everything perfect in my exhibition. So if I find that your painting is not up to the standard, I can terminate you. There will be other artists and mentors with whom you should work with, day and night, to produce your best piece of work," Justin commanded.

Aria had no problem working hard; she just needed a chance to showcase her talents. "Don't worry sir, I will never disappoint you," Aria promised.

"Let's see then," Justin stated.

One of the employees knocked on the door and informed the director that the guests were waiting in the conference room.

Justin stood up and buttoned his coat. Her interview was cut short because of his meeting. He extended his hand and Aria did the same, thinking they were going to shake hands.

But sadly he just took the pen from the stand in front of her and she was embarrassed by having her hand in the air. Justin did not even spare her a glance nor said a word and went out in a hurry.

Aria put both her hands on the table and took a deep breath thinking about Justin's attitude. Even though he had seen her yesterday he refused to talk about it.

All the questions were direct to the point and he never made her comfortable for a second. And lastly, he did not even have the courtesy to give her a hand shake.

Arai went to the auditorium and there were already many people listening to the mentor with the canvas in front of them. All the seats were filled so she was careful not to make any noise and went to sit in the last row.

Today, they were teaching about the colour palette and were talking about primary and secondary colour. The mentor spoke of a colour and talked about mixing two to three colours to get the desired colour.

Aria was waiting for the mentor to check her canvas when someone patted her shoulder. She turned around to find a short girl with coloured hair wearing dungarees.

"Hi, I am Piper," the girl waved her hand.

"I am Aria," Aria smiled.

"I have never seen you before, today is your first day," Piper dragged her chair to sit next to Aria.

"Yes, isn't the seminar a little strict as if we are some school students," Aria said.

"Oh, this is nothing, wait till Mr. Francis comes, he will never be satisfied even if we paint like Picasso. How long was your interview with the director," Piper asked.

"I guess around 20 minutes," Aria replied.

"My god, you are very lucky. My interview lasted more than one hour. Trust me, if he had asked one more question, I could have broken down and packed my bag to go back home," Piper groaned.

"When I checked the reviews, they never said that this company was so harsh and uncompromising," Aria frowned.

"I heard there were some losses from the previous two or three years. They criticized the exhibition and even lost a few big clients. The newbie artists' paintings were of low quality and some works were even plagiarized. The sourcing process was very liberal and most of the artists were not from prestigious colleges. So from this year the director is very particular about every minute detail and is micromanaging everything," Piper explained.

"Oh, looks like it will be a roller coaster ride," Aria said.

She thought there will be a lot of changes and surprises in her career, but never thought her personal life will also take a dramatic turn and she will end up with a person she least expected.