by Nikki Bella
“Well I don’t know what YOU are talking about?” he says pointedly. “He came to me the day before, he didn’t look very pleased with the meeting he had with you”.
“I didn’t have any meeting with him,” I said while racking my brains around what had actually gone down that day.
“Well that seems to be a problem with you doesn’t it?” Arthur says half smiling, half crying.
“He flew all the way from Chicago to meet you and you could not even sit down with him for five minutes and have a talk with him”.
“I had other things to do,” I say remembering perfectly well that I had walked out of the door for a supposed sit down with Arthur.
“He is one of our biggest clients; five percent of the money that flows into this company is because of him”.
“I get it you’re important and busy all the time, with waking up next to a different woman every day, but this is important too,” he says, looking defeated and a hundred years old.
“You show up late, sometimes you don’t show up at all and then I am left to answer, which is okay, that is what my job titles entitles me but what happened when one of your biggest client doesn’t want to have a sit down with your head of legal for a session?” he says.
“Well Arthur that is why I have you, just because my name is on the door, it does not mean I have to be here to entertain drunken old men whenever they feel like hopping down and meeting me,” I say to an awe struck Arthur.
With that I turn away and make my way to the office.
Arthur had been one of the longest serving people at Dunlow along with Mrs., Stroman. He had been my father’s second in command during his time.
After my father passed away, just like the company, Arthur was one of things that came along and I could not get myself to part them away.
He had been serving the company for forty years and I could trust him with my life.
However at times he drove me insane.
I didn’t exactly ask for this company for myself. Sure it was inevitable that I was going to take over once dad retired, but it wasn’t going to be for another few years.
His death had seen me suddenly fly down from Monte Carlo and put myself into work the very next week.
Sometimes I think I should blame my father for things. I was never prepared to work in a company as big as this. I never had an interest in its running. All I wanted was to travel the world and meet different women.
Anyway, Arthur will be Arthur, I think as I think of the best way to repair the damage with Halifax.
A bottle of the finest drink would have to do. Or maybe I could fly to Chicago and surprise him.
What am I his girlfriend?
I shake my head and give Stacy a reminder for a meeting with Halifax.
Chapter 14
Alexis
I take a deep breath as I step out of the taxi, thanking my lucky stars that I was not caught in the New York morning traffic.
The wind blew around me as I adjusted my handbag’s strap and caught my coat that was flapping away with the wind.
The mid in between weather in New York always had me in the edge.
It wasn’t exactly chilly chilly, but it wasn’t exactly warm either.
The weather in May had a mind of its own.
The honking of car horns bought me back to reality to get a move on and not be late on my first day of work.
I make way to the familiar lobby of the large glass building where the next great big adventure for me awaited.
The steady stream of men and women dressed in the latest YSL and Gucci, made me make a mental note that I needed to indulge in some serious shopping therapy and a wardrobe upgrade.
I make my way to the end of the lobby where a large number of people were mulling around.
I stand in line for the last elevator before I catch a familiar looking face giving me a searching look.
Who was this man and why was he giving me the look?
And then I remembered the interview day, the man in the gray suit who thought I was an idiot.
Maybe he doesn’t think I am much of an idiot after all I made it here.
Maybe he doesn’t really care that I made it here either.
I take a step back as a lady in bright red lipstick talking fast on the phone approached the lifts.
“No I don’t care who you have to bump off the list, I need an appointment for today at 1, she continues while admiring her hands.
Typical, I think to myself as the elevator stops on the ground floor and I climb in.
The lady, still on her phone.
As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, my stomach does a kick skip before I step off.
Immediately I am faced with a woman who distinctively reminds of the head mistress in Monster’s University.
She points a finger towards me and says, “Ms. Strope?”
I nod my head and follow her where she leads me to a conference room marked C.
The room is filled with equally nicely dressed men and women who turn their heads to look at me as I take a seat at the back.
“Now that you’re all here, I would like to welcome you to Dunlow,’ the lady who had bought me here starts.
“My name is Mrs. Stroman and I am the head of HR here at Dunlow”, she continues.
“While it is a huge deal that you have made it here and you might think this is it, let me just tell you that it’s not,” she says firmly.
“You all will be on a three month probation period, after which a lot of you will not be here for the actual job part,” she says while taking a look around the room.
“Do not for even a second think that these first three months are going to be any less of a competition,’ she adds with finality.
Still trying to absorb in her words, another lady starts talking about the rules and regulations of the office and the codes and ethics in place.
While she talked I started to take a look around the conference room and took it all in.
Just as I looked out, beyond the glass walls of the room, I see a tall dark haired man being hounded by another relatively shorter man, who was talking to him animatedly.
“Ms. Strope if you are done taking in the office, would you mind telling a bit about yourself to the rest of the people in the room?” the woman had stopped talking about codes and ethics and now was looking at me.
The rest of people in the room were looking at me to.
Caught off guard, I stand up and tell them about where I had moved from and what I had studied in college.
I sit down and tried to be more attentive before, the “headmistress” took out a sheet of paper and started reading names off.
One by one, people in the room started getting up and walking towards the pointed directions outside.
“Ms. Strope you have been assigned to Mike Hadderly, he is the head of our marketing and communications department. Please follow me.” The headmistress says as I pick up my bag and follow her to the elevator which took me up to the eight floor.
Chapter 15
Nathaniel
The day had been nothing but one meeting after the other with last one so intense it even put Arthur on the edge.
I finally took a break at 1 to get some lunch and to be away from numbers.
Numbers had never exactly been a favorite of mine, but ever since I took over the company all I got to deal with ever was, numbers.
Signaling Stacy to send my lunch in, I made my way into my office.
Exhausted from the morning, I took off my coat and loosened my tie and sprawled on the chair behind my big mahogany desk.
I closed my eyes to take a break, when Stacy’s voice floated in from the intercom telling me the lunch was right outside my door.
Buzzing the door, I let the chef from the downstairs restaurant into my room, who, came into the room beaming as usual.
“Hey Clark, how is it going?” I asked the ever smiling forty year old chef.
“Same old, same old Mr. Dunlow
,” he said before putting down the tray and moved towards the door.
“Hope you like today’s special” he said before moving walking out of the door and closing the door behind him,
Clark was known for his specials all over the building.
Whenever a client was needed to be impressed, Clark was the way to go about it.
Just one of his specialties was enough to get the person hooked, and the deal done and dusted.
And that was when it hit me; I needed Clark and one of his specialties for a meeting with Stephen Halfax.
Sure the only way to get to that man was to gift him a barrel of the finest scotch there was but food was another one of his weakness and I knew just the way to handle it.
Abandoning my food, I pressed the button on the intercom where Stacy picks up on the other end.
“Stacy set up a lunch meeting with Halfax, here, Chicago wherever and whatever time he’s free, but as soon as possible”.
“Also get Clark to cook up,” I continue.
“You got it,” she says on the other end and disconnects.
Food is defiantly a way to the man’s heart I think and return back to my food.
Chapter 16
Alexis
“So, how has you first day been so far,” a tall guy with beach blonde hair and too much tan asked me as I sat down for lunch in the break room.
Go away I think to myself. I just want to eat my sandwich in peace and not talk about it.
She smile over my growling stomach hoping he had heard the whaling of my stomach and would leave me alone.
I take a bit of my sandwich as surfer boy pulled up a chair and started making casual conversation with me.
Despite having a full mouth at every question he threw at me and I politely nodding to it, surfer boy did not leave me.
When I was done, for which he was obviously waiting and hadn’t moved an inch since he had sat down with his coffee mug.
“Yeah so listen I have a boyfriend and I am really not that interested,” I say to his obviously very taken back face and walk out of the break room.
Idiot, I think to myself, why does every boy think it is okay to hit on every girl who just seems to be sitting alone.
Maybe I was sitting alone because I did not want to have a conversation with anyone.
Maybe I was sitting down because I have had a very exhausting day so far and all I wanted to do was sit down, relax for a few minutes and eat my damn sandwich without having to nod and smile at anyone.
So far as Mrs. Stroman had mentioned in orientation, the work was hard and there was not a moment to relax and sit down.
Welcome to Dunlow, I think as I return back to my seat.
‘So here are some more pitches that Mr. Hadderly would like you to go over before he finalizes them and discuss with the rest,” Sam, Hadderly’s red haired secretary said to me while handing me a bunch of papers before settling herself in her seat before me.
I take the files from her and start going through.
Apparently this is what end of the month looked like at Dunlow, one pitch after the other that needed to be dealt with so the money could start rolling in the next month.
After about thirty minutes of going through them and correcting what I though could be made better, I pull myself up and starch my neck.
“Mike wants to see you,” Sam says and points to the glass office of Mike Hadderly where he seemed engrossed in a deep conversation, with a tall, dark haired man
The same man I had seen in the morning during the orientation.
“That’s Mr. Dunlow, if you’re wondering,” Sam says to me as I continued to look at the man.
“Nathaniel Dunlow?” knowing full well that he was the only Dunlow alive with his father passing away a few years ago and no brother or uncle was in sight.
“Uh huh”, she replies.
“Keep out of his sight will yah,” she says to me and gives me a look.
I turn my face into a scowl and wait for Dunlow to walk out of the office.
After what felt like an eternity he turned around and walked out of the office.
He gave Sam a smile before throwing a fleeting look at me and walking away.
A second was all it took for me to be enticed by his steel gray eyes.
Sam pokes at me and tells me to go meet Hadderly.
Still lost with the mere mini second look interaction with the bad boy and the heart of New York party life, I go into Hadderly’s office, who now seemed liked the most uninteresting man on the planet.
“So how has your first day been so far at the office?” the salt and pepper bearded man asked me.
“Pretty good. Everyone has been really cooperative and helpful,” I say hoping I could get out of having a conversation with the third most important man in the building.
“Well, your resume was very strong compared to the rest who applied for your position, I hope I won’t regret making this decision,” he says with a twinkle in his eyes.
Decisions, decisions I think to myself. These will be the death of me.
“Now about these new accounts, what do you think can be made better about them?” he asks and points towards a seat in front of him.
I pull up one of the chairs and sit down and start talking what could be done better.
After battling it out with Mike for two long hours, on how to best handle two of the clients biggest clients, I put my head back and twist my neck around hoping to get circulation back into my head which seemed to have frozen.
With a smile, that seemed to say, I knew I wasn’t wrong about you, Hadderly finally closed the files.
“Well you do know your stuff after all, Jeremey Rivers wasn’t wrong about you after all,” he says.
“You called up my old boss?’ I asked surprised Jeremey had anything, but nice to say about me after our last interaction.
“Why yes of course. We don’t just hire anyone who sends in their resume. Previous employer references are very important and help a lot,” he continues.
Wow, I think to myself. Jeremy not being a total dick wad for once was something new.
Maybe Jess was holding a knife to his throat when this call was made.
Huh. But how would Jess know.
I shake myself out of my day dreaming and possible murder scenarios for Jeremey’s death and head out of the office.
‘See you tomorrow,” Hadderly calls out before I close the door.
Well that was not as bad and boring as I though it would be I make my way back to my desk and pick up my coat and bag.
I say goodbye to Sam and head towards the elevator where people were starting to mull around, hoping to leave before the 5 pm rush hour traffic.
I pass by surfer boy who seemed to be chatting up a leggy blonde who obviously looked very interested by the attention she was getting by him.
I roll my eyes and passed them.
How long before they officially start dating and break up and become just another office romance gone wrong.
Two months, three tops, I say and step into the crowded elevator.
First day done and dusted, I say to myself as the doors close.
Chapter 17
Nathaniel
Fate work workouts had been a long time favorite of mine.
Well any sort of work out was a favorite of mine.
It had been a good day at the office.
Halfax had agreed to another sit down after his initial tantrum of not being given enough attention.
Arthur might have a few more years to live and I had a date tonight.
This is why New York was my favorite city; you could eat at a different restaurant every night and still have a new place to try every other day.
The same could be said about the women of the city, you could meet a new one every night, screw her, dump her and move onto the next one and you could never ever meet her again.
Until and unless you worked in the same place or just happen to cross her path every day.
Bad things do happen.
My mind wandered off to Mike’s new associate who I only had a glance at this morning.
Pretty interesting choice for a man, who had never lifted his eye to another woman as long as I had known him.
I need to know who she is.
I turn my attention to my beeping phone that reminded me that my driver was outside and I needed to go home, relax before taking out whoever it was I had decided I was going to be spend the rest of the night with.
I head for the showers, but before I could my phone starts vibrating.
Arthur, what does he want now?
It’s after hours and at this time I only entertain people I can sleep with.
I ignore the phone and head inside.
“Are you trying to wash away the last girl you slept with?” a familiar voice floated into the shower.
I stuck my head out to see Sam wearing his usual goofy grin twirling a water bottle in his hands.
“That could take some time, seeing as there were two of them last time around,” I say as I put a towel around my waist and step out.
“So what exactly are you doing in this part of the New York?” I asked
“Can’t a man come down to see his best friend?’, Sam asks.
“Not without a very good reason and that also in the middle of a work week”.
“Well I do have some big news for you,” Sam says his eyes giving away the excitement in his voice.
I turn my head to look at his very excited face.
“I am getting married!” he says, almost shouting, while getting looks from the rest of the people in the lockers.
Looking at my confused face he continued.
“Do you remember Meghan?” he asked.
I most certainly did not.
Just like me, Sam was not known to be seen with the same woman every time he stepped out of his front door.
“Do you remember the brunette we met during the Capri trip?” he said making me rack my brains which had been very drunk during the entire trip.
“Every woman we met on that trip was more or less a brunette with an occasional blonde thrown in the mix,” I say to him.
Sam makes a face.
“Well one of the women that I met during the trip was Meghan, we kept in touch. She came back to Florida two weeks ago,” says Sam.
