The Secret Arrangement

by Danielle Greyson

  Laura was admiring for a few moments the huge transparent walls of the restaurant where she could see through them the ocean, and every variety of fish.

  To Laura, that restaurant was absolutely fantastic, she had read and seen pictures in the book she read during the flight, but being there and see with her own eyes was something she could not find the words to express herself, the restaurant was too incredible. Finally they sat and asked for typical Arabic food because Laura had never experienced.

  They talked nonstop and after dinner they felt more relaxed, longing for each other, they went up and had a tenderness and loving night.

  The next morning Laura imagined that Ali had to get up early, and she made an effort to be ready at the same time as he took breakfast in the suite. After, they went down together.

  In the lobby Ali told her he has meetings all day long and come back only at dinnertime, Laura reassured him that he did not need to worry about her, she said she understood perfectly that he needed to work. Before leaving the main entrance, Ali handed her a credit card, smiling:

  "Use and abuse from this card, buy real nice things for you, go shopping, pumper yourself"

  Giving her a huge hug, kissing her, making Laura the luckiest woman in the world to have had the opportunity to have meet Ali. He feels it and says "I love to see you again and would love to make you happy"

  She spends all day, following Ali’s advice, she had the driver at her disposal and the magnificent Rolls Royce went to Dubai Mall the largest shopping center in the world. On the way to the mall, Laura was once again impressed, she saw the massive new buildings, every building was larger than the other, fountains with dancing waters. Whether she looked, there was something wonderful just to look at it, she looked to one side of the road, she saw a car and when she thought there was nothing that could impress her today, she saw the car beside her, with an Arab driving with a cheetah next to the driver, sitting as a pet.

  This was certainly the last display of wealth - Thought Laura smiling and finding amazing what billionaires did to stand out from the rest of the humanity.

  Strolling through the mall Laura felt the rich airy in the shopping center with the world's best shops concentrated where she could buy everything she wanted; she only needed money, which she had it. People who walked in the mall were mostly well groomed and it was well noticed the power of money in the air.

  Her greatest desire was come true, having the liberty to choose and buy whatever she wanted, was a sense that made her feel on top of the world.

  She didn’t lose time and bought a Prada bag, one beautiful night dress in Oscar De La Renta and one day dress at Chanel and lots of make-up, creams and two perfumes. She bought a coat at Burberry, white shirt and one pair of flats At Louboutin she bought one pair of heels and another one pair at Tom Ford. Lingerie she went crazy at La Perla, she wanted to surprise Ali and make him happy with the finest lingerie. And she bought in the only gold ATM machine in the world a gold bar to offer to Ali.

  Already with too many bags, she hired a carry bag man to carry all her shopping and drops to the car for her. One of the most famous marinas was the place Laura chooses for lunch, which was another location with only new sky scrapers.

  After lunch she did something she had always wanted to do, she hires a small hydra plane and over fly’s the city and surrounding area to see from everything the air. She saw the most famous islands in a palm tree shape and the islands forming the world map. Laura loved to see the contrast of the city, one side was the sea and the other side was the desert.

  Returning in the evening to the hotel, and happy with a day filled with unique experiences.

  Back to the suite, Ali had arrived as well, she had an infectious enthusiasm talking about all she had seen and purchased, offering him the small gold bar to him to use in his wallet if he wanted. He looked at the gold bar and smiled for her, because she remembered him and have bought something he likes.

  Until dinner time, their focused on each other, Laura genuinely enjoyed being with him and Ali felt the same about Laura, he loved the simple way she appreciate everything he was able to give her. They matched up well and truly enjoyed each other's company.

  But there was something about Ali that Laura is completely unaware, which is that Ali was already married to two women and had six children back in Iran.

  Right now Ali was searching for his third wife, a young wife who could give him more children.

  He intended to tell her when he thought Laura was ready for it, as he needed time to get to know her and know if she could be a wife for him to stay in London and raise their kids most of the time alone, although he would provide for all assistance she needed, he wouldn’t be there most of the time. Ali was hoping she would like to marry him willingly, before knowing the whole truth, and in exchange he didn’t mind to give Laura he knew she wanted, comfortable life and lots of money.

  But what Ali was not counting with was that Laura had no agenda to get married, not with him for sure.

  She aspired to live that life of luxury, but not as the wife of a billionaire, she just wants the door open to enter to the lavish life with Ali and from there she will do everything she can to stay in that world, with a boyfriend, sugar daddy or alone.

  She still doesn’t know for now, because she was still studying the situation and would definitely try to approach more than one situation from here then Ali to understand how it worked for business, to be able to see if she could somehow build a business for her as well and be successful and not depending completely on a man, she would like to have something mean full to spend her time and earn money from it.

  But she was still exploring possibilities and reading books on the subject.

  As if the universe had heard Laura, they ended up changing dinner plans and went dinner at the last minute with Ali’s business partner. Laura took the opportunity to use her new clothes she had bought at the mall, and before leaving the room, Ali offered her a pair of earrings with 1 carat diamonds.

  At the entrance of the hotel heading into the Rolls Royce when Laura had a crazy idea, as in the morning she noticed that guests could enjoy the hotel's car, so she issued a challenge to Ali, each one should drive to the restaurant, he looked at her surprised and starts laughing.

  She was a well of surprises that Ali adored, perhaps she was a too simple and inexperienced, but that's what seduced Ali and her ability to adapt so easily to a new reality, made her even more interesting. Ali felt compelled to do something special for her, but had not yet discovered what she liked. Ali accepted Laura’s challenge, without a word he entered in a Ferrari, she entered into a Lamborghini.

  Laura had never driven a Lamborghini but it was as if she always had despite arriving at last, she came right behind him to the restaurant, and left the car with the concierge at the restaurant and someone would pick up the cars from the hotel.

  Dinner ran excitedly and Laura felt like a fish in water, the end of the night Ali business partners living in Dubai, said goodbye with the promise that they had to repeat a new dinner soon. Laura and Ali returned to the hotel talking endlessly, and Ali asked conversationally what she thought of him and what she thought of that lifestyle.

  "To tell you the truth, when I signed up on the website didn’t expect to meet anyone interesting, but I had the greatest luck in the world to meet you, I love everything about you, your easy going way about everything and you treat me in a very respectful way and of course all you can offer me, it’s absolutely magnificent. I love it!"

  "Would you like to travel around the world?" Asked Ali to Laura suddenly very serious.

  "I would love to live in the world, a few months in one country another couple of months in another; get to know new habits, new cultures, taste different food and finally live different experiences." Said Laura pausing and then continuing. "I would like to have one day a job where I could earn enough money to travel all over the world."

  "Do you have a business in mind?" Asked Ali
apprehensive, because he was afraid that he would lose her, if she became too independent from him.

  "I don’t know yet, there are so many business opportunities and the tuff choice is to choose wisely. If it was easy everyone would do it, wasn’t it?"

  She approached Ali, hugging him and giving him a long kiss, awakening both the desire to give to each other with all the time in the world.

  Laura knew more or less what he wanted, she got the idea at dinner time when everyone was talking about, but she was decided not to tell Ali, she wanted first try it out and if it turned out a success, she would tell him.

  She was enthusiastic about the idea and the more she thought about it, the more the idea seemed to make sense to her and best of all is that investment wouldn’t be big at all. She fell asleep entangled in this thought and dreamed of her idea.

  The next day Laura was thinking of going in Dubai, where it was very hot outside, to the ski resort. But Ali woke up with a call and after he hangs up, he looked at Laura with a very serious face, sat on the bedside, stroking her face he said:

  "I have something to tell you, I received an important call and have to go as soon as possible to Bahrain solve some business problems that emerged there and my people can’t handle this one without my presence. It will be a nightmare in the coming days, do you want to stay here alone for a few days or do you want to return to London today? I'll have to take my plane but I can rent another one, to take you if you want."

  Laura proved to be sympathetic and said she would rather return to London, she didn’t want to stay there alone and after all he had to take care of business, it was a priority and she understood.

  He hugged her, thanking in silence.

  "I want to ask you something" Laura said "I don’t need a private plane to return to London, but I'd like to try the cocoons of Emirates Airlines first class, do you think it's possible?"

  "Sure, that’s not a problem." Ali made a phone call, spoke quickly in Arabic and said in English as he finished the call "Within minutes you will have your first class ticket, at midday. But I have to take a shower and leave."

  He made a few more phone calls for someone to come to their suite to pack all his bags, to have the car and private jet ready, before hitting the shower, took quickly breakfast, giving a long kiss to Laura and left.

  Chapter 4

  Laura returned to Dubai Airport, and like last time she had someone to carry her bags, going directly to the first class lounge. Once settled in the airplane in the first class comfortable cocoon, she amused herself with everything, after takeoff Laura spend most of the time sleeping.

  When they finally woke up, she remembered that Ali had forgotten the financial agreement; they did not spoke about financial terms this time. And Laura wouldn’t bring it up, after all she had made the purchases she wanted and he didn’t objected, she did what she wanted, traveled like rich people use to making her feeling almost wealthy as well, she felt good.

  What could she ask more? - Involved in her thoughts, suddenly she remembered that she hadn’t give back Ali’s credit card. As soon she landed in London, Laura sends him a message telling him.

  He replied immediately: "Don’t worry, spend what you need, I have other cards, this one can stay with you, as it has a small plafond as well, and it’s only £1,000,000. With the stress of having to leave in a hurry I forgot to tell you that I have put in your suitcase £40,000 for your expenses. I want to see you soon. Kisses, Ali."

  "Thanks, Ali! Love when I can make you happy. I can’t wait to see you again. The time we spent together was superb and unique. Big kiss"

  "Good thing you like, I also loved. I’ll give news soon."

  Laura arrived to her small and sad rented flat, she began to walk around the small flat and she decided it was time to move into a new apartment. She had Ali’s credit card which she could use as her pleased and she intended too. Now she had money enough to move in to a nice flat with modern furniture and with lots of light in central London.

  The money Ali had given her, she decided to put aside for rainy days because she was aware that it would not last forever, but while it lasted, she intended to take advantage the best she could.

  Spending hours searching online for contemporary apartments, she books visit for 3 the next day. When visiting the apartments for rent on the day, choosing was easy, she decided to stay with the first floor apartment in Marylebone, she loved the fact that she was 2 minutes away from Oxford Street, but still cozy and noise free inside. She paid for six months on advance with Ali’s credit card.

  She also bought a new laptop and after she moved into the new flat, Laura felt fulfilled with the necessary conditions to begin her new project.

  And so she did, she researched, saw videos, took notes, enrolled in a course of 4 weeks duration to learn how to write books. At the end of the first week of the course, she started to write, at the beginning the words didn’t seem to born from her head to the screen, but gradually Laura started over and over again and the words began to shown on the screen, one after another.

  As she had lots of time, and Ali was busy, keeping in touch daily, Laura didn’t spoke about her new project and she wrote every day, losing herself in hours.

  The course taught her to write and how to be a self-publisher, and she was ready to publish her first eBook.

  To her surprise she started making money within 24 hours.

  After two weeks Ali decided to invite Laura to travel again and meet him in Spain, where he had business. From there they would travel to Suisse and after that they would travel to Africa, where Ali has the oil company.

  Laura was use to spend most of the day and sometimes nights all by herself, she didn’t bother, because when she was tired of shopping she went to the hotel, sat comfortable in a chair in her suite and wrote for hours. When she was tired she would just for a walk nearby, in one of those days, she was having coffee in the hotels terrace in South Africa a beggar approach her from the street, at first Laura tried to ignore her, the old lady looked filthy and was barefoot. At first the old lady asked for money, but Laura didn’t give it to her, but she was insisting, as Laura was ignoring her, to capture her attention the old lady said: “I know that you will need my help in a near future, only with my help you can be really free achieving what you most desire, be famous, have more money you can spend and not depend on any man.” Laura was listening to it and the old lady got Laura’s attention: “20Dollars Miss…” Laura laugh feeling that she was about to be coned, but at the same time she was curious what she would say and pulls 20 note and give it to the old lady: “Okay…care to explain.” The old lady took the note, and started to search in her wrapped and filthy clothe for something, Laura was waiting. She gives Laura a small wrapped brownish paper, Laura opens and see’s dry herbs, looking back to the old lady without understanding a thing. The old lady explained: “These are very powerful herbs for tea, completely untraceable. You will know to use it when the time comes” And walked away, living Laura looking at her. She felt that was very strange, and called the waiter to ask for security, but between the time, the waiter arrived at Laura’s table she thought it was not necessary, it was just an harmless old lady trying to scam tourists. She asked the waiter if he knew who that old lady was. The waiter said she was a well known fortune teller; she has the ability to see some people’s future, but not all.

  Laura laughs and forgot about the incident, going back to her writing.

  Chapter 5

  After one month travelling around the world with Ali, she was glad being at home again. She didn’t saw Ali for about 2 weeks, one day he calls to invite her again to meet him, this time in Monaco, he invited Laura to the famous annual Rose Ball. For a moment Laura was confused.

  A Ball? - She questioned herself but didn’t mention it to Ali, she didn’t Ali to know that she didn’t know what it was. Instead she searched online to know what it was exactly and the dress code.

  Laura found out that the annual Rose Ball
in Monaco, was a charity ball, very famous because it started when Princess Grace wanted to help her husband, to keep peace in Monaco, she invited for the charity ball all having political issues and willing to start a war. With the charity she was able to do a memorable speech and kept peace in Monaco.

  Ah after all it is a gala. - She thought relieved, first because it was meaningful gala and then because she would have probably have to possibility to meet new and interesting people.

  Both agreed to meet again by the next Friday and Laura traveled to Nice in Ali’s private plane, and with helicopter she arrived in Monaco.

  Today Ali was waiting for Laura with a large bouquet of roses and a small gift. She hugged him and kissed him fondly as he twirling happy Laura in the air making her laugh.

  "Hello again nice to see you again." – Laura told him at same time she goes down slowly until she touches with the tips of feet on the floor again. Ali catches the bouquet and a small box from the floor and gives to Laura.

  "Hello you! How are you my dear?" She said to him with a last quick kiss to smell the roses and opening the small box, inside the box Laura took a wide, beautiful and spiked bracelet with diamonds.

  Laura looked at the bracelet and only managed to say:

  "Wow, it’s beautiful! Thank you so much you are incredible!" Laura needed more than a moment to be able to express how much she thought about the wonderful and lovely bracelet.

  “It's very nice of you, that you find it beautiful because it cost a small fortune.” - Thought Ali seeing happily all Laura’s enthusiasm. But ending up saying – “Do you have the notion of how much this bracelet was? It has the same price tag as a flat in central London. But I offer it to you, because I know how appreciative you are and that makes me really happy.”