Chapter 5 Coincidence

Andrew's POV:

I had never believed in fate, but at that moment, I thought I should change my perspective now because right in front of me was the girl I loathed the most. The girl, who was as rude as one could be, thought of herself as some Disney princess, judged everyone's intentions, and made her own ridiculous opinions. I was beyond happy with that turn of events.

Just ten days ago, she punched me

right in front of the whole casino, and since then she is stuck in my mind. The problem was not that she punched me, I was not like her to make opinions about others before even knowing them. I could excuse her punch. Yes, I could excuse. But the problem here was that she had never asked my forgiveness. She punched me when I was not at fault, she should have at least apologized to me for her rudeness, but what did she prefer instead? To just stare me in the eyes like I was some maniac, snatched her cash, and made a beeline for the exit? Perfect.

But no worries, because now I had her under my wings or more like my paws. The moment I laid my eyes on her in my office, I made a vow to make her life a living hell, and I was a man of my words. Just the thought of fun I was going to have brought a deadly smirk on my face.

If she was scared of seeing me there, which she should be, she didn't let it show. I gave her a moment to acknowledge that her life was going to flip upside down. I was a straightforward guy, I never messed with people who did not mess with me, but if someone insults me in front of hundreds of people and that too in my own

casino, then I am not the one to forgive them. I am gonna chase that person to the seventh gate of the hell if I have to. But for once, God was having mercy on me, by bringing my enemy in my own territory to let me punish her myself.

After a few minutes of giving her a hard stare, a deadly message clear in my eyes, I went back to my cabin, because at first, I needed as much information about her as I could. And all of that could be gained from my lovely secretary, Mary. So for that purpose, I ringed the bell and she came to my office after a moment. She had worry all over her face, I could see that she was worried about the documents I mentioned carlier, but little did she know that there was something more urgent I needed at the moment.

"Who is that girl behind the reception desk?" I asked her straightly.

"Sir, she is a new receptionist. I told you about hiring a new receptionist but you said that I should take the matter into my own hands. So, we had a few interviews and chose her," she replied dreadfully, thinking I was gonna reprimand her for

appointing that girl, but I could even promote Mary to the CEO position for doing that, only if that step wouldn't leave me unemployed.

I lifted my phone, trying to act uninterested, and said, "So, she is a new employee. Don't you think that I should know about her for the sake of having information about my employees?"

She replied abruptly, "I'm so sorry sir. Just give me a moment and I'll bring her application and documents." With that, Mary rushed out of the office. I waited patiently for her return, but truth be told I was really excited about whatever was going to happen. After a minute, she was back in my cabin and handed me a thin stack of papers arranged in the file.

"Okay. You may leave now. Make sure to get all the documents ready. We'll leave in 30 minutes for the meeting." I said to her flatly.

Once she went out of the office, I opened the red file in my hand. Red, the color of danger, I thought and laughed to myself. There, at the upper right corner of the form

was her passport-size photograph.

I stared at that for a minute or two and ran my thumb slowly over her picture. Soon realizing what I was doing, I jerked my hand away. I averted my gaze away from her picture and moved on to read the information printed on the paper.

After getting to know as much as I could from a piece of paper, I stood up and paced my office. I was so restless for some reason. I didn't only want my revenge on her, but I also wanted to have her head examined. I wanted to teach her some lessons for her rudeness and the way she treated people. I know I was going to do that, but how?

As I was thinking all about that matter, I felt the door opening. I knew who it would be even before looking at the door. Only Jacob rivera had permission to enter my cabin at any time without knocking. Actually, I never even permitted him. He himself decided that I should not bother him barging in whenever he wanted to. I dreaded the day if he would ask for spare keys to my penthouse. I shook my head just at the thought.

A tall frame of 6 feet appeared before me in a brown suit. Jacob had his sandy hair puffed at one side, his brown eyes narrowed down in the confusion and focus, which was making his jaw even more prominent.

"As far as I know, I haven't touched any drink other than water since I woke up. Have I been drinking vodka thinking of it as water the whole morning?" asked Jacob, looking at me but deep in his own thoughts.

"I wish I would have a way to teleport in that head of yours, Jacob, because half of the time I do not have any clue what the hell you are trying to say," I deadpanned.

"Calm down bro. Just tell me, did you see the same creature behind the reception desk as I did?" asked Jacob, wheels turning in his mind.

"Yes, and I..." cutting me in between my sentence he said rapidly, "Tell me all about her, what were you doing behind my back? I thought you loathe her but look, here you are offering her a job in your own office so that she remains in front of you the whole time. I never thought of you to be this romantic." He literally winked at that.

I wiped my hands over my face and tried to explain my point

calmly, all the while knowing that there would be no point, "Before this morning, I knew nothing about her. She is just appointed by Mary today as a receptionist. And if you are desperate to get any further information about her, then go and ask Mary."

His eyebrows met his hairline as he made his way to my table and said, "... or should I just look around in your office to know more about her?" he pointed his finger at her file which I had forgotten was resting on my work desk like it was some crucial file.

I didn't bother to reply to him. He went through the file and then snapped it shut. Before he could say anything more, I looked at my watch and said in an all-business-like voice, "We have to leave in five minutes. Come on, we can't be late for this meeting."

As we were making our way to the door, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, "Ohhh, I just remembered. Today morning, I received an e-mail from Luca's secretary stating that luca wants to meet us. We should tell him the date and time."

I was silent, trying to process this newly sprouted information. "Let's make him wait a few days and then we will respond to him."

I haven't decided my response yet.

I and Jacob came out of my office, and I immediately spotted Liliana Walker behind her desk. She was busy with some paperwork, but the moment she realized someone was gawking at her, she lifted her head. Our eyes met, her browns stuck on my blues. I wanted to see some horror in her eyes, but what I was seeing was nothing even close to horror, in fact, her eyes were filled with as much stubbornness as it was flowing out of her body. That only made me even more determined to replace that stubbornness and rudeness with horror and terror.

Once again, I was having a devilish smirk on my face as I left the office for a meeting. It's been two days since Jacob had told me about Luca's willingness to meet me. And for the two days, I had been thinking about nothing else but Luca. I was not sure about meeting him. What's the point? It wasn't like we would try to befriend and save both of our interests. We were enemies, and we both knew that. He had clearly known about my intentions for a long time now.

And then there was also aurora jennings. I was not paying her much attention for the last two days. Let her think that I am over that incident, that I've chosen to forgive her. Let her relax, and then I'll strike when she would be least expecting it.

My thoughts turned back to Luca. I could sense that he was planning something against me but I could not point my finger at what was going on in his disgusting mind now. Jacob was willing to meet

him, just for the sake of curiosity, according to him. But Jacob was not the one to make important decisions. He just sat back and enjoyed the show, while I was the one who ran the mentioned show. And he knew all about that, and that's why he was not thinking about this issue from every angle like me.

After some more pondering, before these repetitive thoughts drive me insane, I messaged and told Jacob that I was agreed to meet Luca.

Later that night, he texted back to inform me that a meeting had been set up, three days from now. In our office.

Let the show begins. The next day after leaving the gym, I spotted Jacob's car in the parking lot. I went to the car and sat down in the passenger seat. Jacob called me some ten minutes ago and told me that he was passing nearby so he thought that we should have dinner together. So there we were, deciding what to eat tonight.

"Should we go to Pearly restaurant? Wine there is really rich in taste." I suggested.

"Come on, Andrew. We always eat exquisite food in an expensive restaurant. Tonight, I'm craving for a greasy cheese burger," Jacob replied giddily.

That caused my mouth to water. I and Jacob used to savor greasy burgers during our teenage years. But when we made money, we knew that we needed to high up our standards if we wanted to make a reputation in the town. We started interacting with rich people, made our status, and bid goodbye to all the cheap thrills, including greasy cheese burgers.

"Of course. For old time's sakes," I replied earnestly. We parked the car near Johnny Burgers and went into the restaurant. The area was not spacious and the restaurant was packed even at that hour which could only mean one thing; the food there must be best.

We went through the menu and ordered two Classic cheese burgers and drinks. While waiting for the food, I took a look around the restaurant and that's when I spotted her. A girl, in a black and white uniform, was serving a table near the aquarium. Unlike other waiters and waitresses, she had no smile on her face while serving. At that moment, I got to know that Aurora worked part-time here at night. And just like that, I knew what my first step was going to be.

Just the realization of what was going to happen soon doubled the thrill of having a greasy Classic Chesse Burger.