Chapter 3

“I’ll need to hurry. The meeting’s at 1 pm,” Beth says to Iris as they walk to the floor of the building where their offices are located. “You’ll be fine. You can always count on rich billionaire playboys to be late.”

Iris’s phone rings and she answers it.

Sometimes Beth wishes she could be as laissez-faire about everything as Iris is. Her life would definitely be easier. But she can’t help worrying about everything—whether she’ll lose her job, whether her brother will be okay, whether they can keep affording the expenses for her brother’s medical treatments. But no amount of worry has ever solved any of her problems. If anything, it just seems to multiply them. She feels as if the weight of the world is resting on her shoulders.

She hasn’t told Iris that she’s started looking for a second job. Her brother's illness and the staggering bills accruing forced her to make the decision. She has an interview later today for a job as a waitress or bar attendant; the job posting wasn’t clear. She doesn’t care, she just needs anything that would give her something extra to send home for her brother’s medical expenses.

When Beth finally gets to her office, she gathers everything she needs for the interview and heads out. She reaches the exit of her office building, waves to the security guard, and walks into a busy street. The streets are lined with trees and upscale shops.

She’s debating whether to hail a cab or just walk down. She could still arrive on time if she walks, but she decides to cab it. In the back of the car, fall leaves are swirling in the wind as they drive past sidewalks packed with pedestrians.

Twenty minutes later, the cab stops in front of a building with ‘Triad Technologies’ written boldly on it.

Beth has been by the beautiful copper-topped granite and brick building many times, but never inside it. Triad Technologies takes the top several floors, and she recognizes some of the other tenants listed in the lobby as the company’s subsidiaries. She gets directions from the security guard and takes the elevator to the top floor.

When she steps out, she lets her admiring gaze wander over the gigantic interior. The long wall in front of her is glass from floor to ceiling, providing an uninterrupted view of the city in all its fantastic, glittering splendour as it fans out for endless miles in the distance below. The three remaining walls are panelled in satiny rosewood.

"It's absolutely breathtaking," she says to herself.

She glances curiously around at the immense lobby. Everything is white travertine marble: the walls, the floors, and even the graceful pillars that soar two stories to the ceiling high above. Dozens of huge potted trees and lush green plants are lined up against one wall, apparently waiting for someone to move them to their proper positions on the vast lobby floor.

The building is so huge that she has no idea where to go. She’s standing there looking confused when a woman with short black hair, wearing a smart pant suit walks up to her. “Hello. How may I help you?” she asks in a steady voice.

“Um hello. I’m sorry… I’m here for an interview with Mr. Adrian Dane for 1:00,” Beth says but it sounds like a question. Something about this place has thrown her off balance.

“You’re with 'Buzz' magazine?

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

“Okay. Please follow me.”

Beth's feet sink into the emerald green carpeting as she’s guided to the opposite side of the spacious lobby. This half of the floor contains an even larger reception area, with a circular receptionist's desk in the centre.

The woman, who Beth assumes must be Mr. Dane’s assistant, leads Beth to a bank of elevators set into the far wall. She presses the elevator button and the gleaming brass doors slide open revealing a brightly lit elevator.

When they step out of the elevator, she glimpses a beautiful office opening off the right of the reception area, equipped with a gleaming wood-and-chrome secretarial desk. They finally arrive at a room with plain coloured walls and acres of thick cream carpeting covering the floor.

“Please wait here. Mr. Dane will be with you shortly,” the woman says to Beth with a polite smile.

Beth returns the smile and nods slightly. The woman walks out, leaving Beth alone in the conference room. There’s a rosewood desk off to her far right, facing the room with ten chrome chairs upholstered in moss green strategically placed before it. On the opposite side of the office, three long, moss green sofas form a wide ‘U’ around an immense glass-topped coffee table, with an enormous piece of highly polished driftwood as its base.

Beth walks over to one of the chairs and sits. She takes another look at the room, thinking about how excessive it all seems.

****

Adrian is finding it difficult to focus on the meeting. The mysterious coffee shop girl keeps invading his thoughts. He has tried and failed to erase thoughts of her perfectly shaped body from his mind. He keeps trying to convince himself that his interest in her is merely physical. But there was nothing passive about the way his body had reacted to her.

Adrian refocuses on the meeting. The new consultant is going on about how the new company product set to launch in a couple of months needs a new marketing strategy. Does this guy really think he knows how to do my company better than I do? Adrian wonders.

He’s about to say something when Colin stands up and says, “I think that’s enough, Tom. Thank you.”

Tom gives a shaky nod and heads back to his seat.

Colin casts a knowing smile at Adrian. Adrian scoffs. Colin definitely sensed that he was about to have it out with Tom, and had saved the day. Classic Colin.

“Alright, guys, I think we’ve covered everything,” Colin says “We’ll have another briefing on Thursday. Thank you.”

The meeting starts to disperse and Colin walks toward Adrian with a knowing smile.

“You’ve got to cut the guy some slack. He’s new and I’m pretty sure he’s pretty nervous and just wants to make a good impression,” Colin says.

“Well, he should have picked a better way to make a good impression,” Adrian replies.

Although Adrian owns the company, he prefers to leave most of the day-to-day operations to Colin.

“You should try putting more effort into actually connecting with the staff.”

“Why should I? I have you for that. Besides you know I’m no good at all that,” Adrian says.

Colin sighs. “Yeah right, but you have no problems connecting when you want to get a girl.”

“See. This is why we get along, you know me so well,” Adrian says with a smile as they head out of the conference room.

“Whatever, dude.”

“I need to head out,” he says. He can’t shake the desire to know the mysterious coffee shop girl.

“You literally just walked in, an hour late if I might add.”

“Are you going to fire me, boss?

“Just leave, man. See you later.” Colin gives him a quick wave and turns to leave.

Adrian is making his way to the exit when a woman carrying a high stack of folders crashes into him, sending the folders flying from her hands. “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” she splutters as she kneels to gather the folders. As she does this, she leans forward so that her low-cut top reveals even more cleavage and she casts a seductive smile at him.

He immediately knows there was nothing accidental about their run-in. Being who he is, such occurrences are unfortunately common. He, however, kneels to help her gather the last of the folders and hands them to her.

“Thank you so much. I’m such a klutz,” she says as they both stand up. “I’m Aleena, I work in the Public Relations Department,” she adds hurriedly.

She leans toward him and he catches the scent of her too-strong designer perfume. She attempts to shake his hands but he doesn’t return the gesture and instead raises his brow at her outstretched hand. He knows exactly what she’s playing at and he tries to make it clear that her advances aren’t welcome, yet she presses on trying to make small-talk about the company.

He absolutely hates small talk. “Alright then,” he says, stopping her mid-sentence. He forces an almost smile at her and turns away leaving her looking stunned.

He’s almost out of the building exit when he sees Amy walking hurriedly toward him.

“Sir, I just left your office. We haven’t had a briefing on the agenda for today.” He can hear her disapproving tone. Amy is one of the few employees that aren’t constantly trying to kiss his ass and bend to his every desire and he likes it that way.

“Tell me. What’s on the agenda?”

“Well, sir, you already missed your morning appointment but I’ve been able to reschedule it for next week. Then you’re to have an interview with 'Buzz' magazine.”

The confused look on his face tells her he has no idea what she's talking about, so she fills in the blanks.

“The interview was scheduled a few months ago, and it’s on your calendar.”

He constantly gets requests for interviews from all sorts of media outlets and he has repeatedly told Amy to turn such offers down. Interviews are right up there on his list of things he has zero interest in being part of.

“You agreed that I could accept one interview each year,” she says quickly as if reading his thoughts.

He sighs. He remembers agreeing to that after she had made an entire presentation explaining why such interviews were necessary for the growth of the company. “I’ll be there. Thanks, Amy.”

“Actually sir, it’s 1:20. The interview was scheduled for 1:00. The reporter is waiting in the conference room.”

Shit. He runs his hand through his hair. Well, there go his plans. He heads to the conference room, but pauses when he enters.

What the fuck.

The dark brown hair strikes him first. Then he notices the familiar purple gown he’s fantasized about ripping to shreds a hundred times. His gaze moves the rest of the way up to her face and when his eyes meet her face, his breath catches. Could he be imagining this? Have his obsessive thoughts about her somehow made her appear before him?

She stands up from her seat and raises a hand to shake his. “Good Afternoon, Mr. Dane.” Her jaw slackens slightly as she takes him in and the intense grip of her gaze on him nearly takes his breath away.