by R. R. Banks
“These women are typically beautiful and incredibly well taken care of,” he continued, giving in to speaking frankly instead of taking exceptional care for his words. “They’re not very smart academically or good with business and finances, but are adept in fashion and modern culture that gives them a certain value that I cannot appreciate.”
Alexis looked on at Nathanial with a bit of a perplexed look after his last comment. “You cannot appreciate them?” she asked, puzzled and wanting some clarification on his previous comment.
“No, not like that,” he defended, motioning with his hands a bit while he tried to relax. “I appreciate who they are as women and try my best to enjoy my time with them, but what I cannot appreciate is the thing that gives them value in society. I am not someone who is into modern popular culture, because I am a slave to the cultures of the past, especially the 1920s in Chicago. I am not someone who can appreciate fashion, because to be honest with you, someone else buys my clothes for me because I don’t care about keeping up with the various trends. Those internet companies that popped up a couple of years ago that will send you clothing every few months for the season has been a life changer for me, because I just pay the bill and they send me a trunk with about seven custom tailored outfits in it.” Alexis laughed heartily as she sipped on her wine, looking at Nathanial with an impressed gaze as he continued his story. “To be honest with you, the women that I typically go out with while I’m here in Dubai do not satisfy all of my needs. While yes, I am physically attracted to them because they are incredible specimens of beauty, they don’t satisfy what I want in a partner.”
“And what’s that?” asked Alexis, adjusting her hips in her seat as she crossed her legs and leaned back a bit, though still sitting with perfect posture.
Nathanial reached for his chardonnay and sipped on it, making an awkward face as he sipped from the glass. “The first is to find someone who doesn’t prefer dry wines,” he joked as his face contorted a bit. He set his wine glass down and drank from the small glass of water on the table, washing out the taste of the chardonnay before shaking his head a little bit. He picked up his wine glass and poured the rest of it into Alexis’s before motioning for the server. “Beefeaters and ginger ale, please, sir,” he requested of the waiter, switching to a gin and soda after one sip of chardonnay.
“Gin with Italian food?” jokingly poked Alexis.
“I’m from Chicago. We drink gin with birthday cakes,” he replied back quickly, prompting an immediate outburst from Alexis. “So, while the choice of wine can be viewed as a deal breaker, there are a few other things I’m looking for in someone,” he continued, still smiling as he watched Alexis compose herself. “I want a woman who is smarter than I am and just as ambitious, understanding that my motivation is to make as much money as possible so that my grandchildren, four generations removed, will not want for anything. With that being said, I also want a woman who is career driven, but also envisions settling down one day and having a family, whether in Dubai, London, New York City, wherever. I’ve accepted that I don’t have to live in Dubai for the rest of my life. I live here because it’s the closest place to COT, and all of my investments are with the various companies that operate inside of it. With the power of the internet and airplanes, I can essentially live anywhere on the map and still be able to satisfy all of my business arrangements.”
Alexis nodded as she listened intently to him talk, describing a lot of the same things and honestly enjoying the fact that he was not married to the idea of staying in Dubai, though trying not to look too far ahead. “So, you really want a woman who is smarter than you?” she asked curiously.
“Of course,” he nodded, taking a bite from the last scallop on his plate as the waiter brought his drink and set it on the table. “I need someone that I actually love to tell me when I’m being an idiot.”
“Wow,” laughed Alexis, enjoying the candid conversation with Nathanial as the waiter removed the appetizer dish and the smaller serving plates while the larger Italian man brought their next course, placing both individual entrees in front of the two. She looked at the plate to see roasted pheasant with a Parmesan and garlic glaze, one of the dishes she was considering before she arrived at the restaurant. “I honestly wanted to try this,” she said calmly, looking over the dish with awe. “This looks better than the picture that I saw on their menu online.”
Nathanial smiled as he turned the plate slightly, upsetting the larger Italian man who had just put it in the perfect position. “It’s one of my favorite dishes here,” he agreed. “I also asked your friend Hannah if you liked pheasant, of which she replied that you enjoyed eating most things that once had a heart beat,” he paused briefly, nodding to himself. “She’s a very unique girl.”
Alexis nodded as she picked up the knife and fork and started to cut into her pheasant. “That’s one of the reasons why I love her,” she replied sincerely. “Honestly, she is everything that I wish I could be, and I’m sure I’m everything she wishes she could be. Where I tend to show more restraint and rational thought in my everyday life, Hannah does not. She instead acts on impulse and immediate judgment, making her an incredible negotiator.”
“But you’re pretty successful too,” stated Nathanial sincerely. “I looked over your profile this afternoon at just how incredible you are at your job. I don’t think I have ever seen someone coordinate the logistics of an entire operation like you in my entire life,” he said candidly, pausing to place a bite into his mouth. “I bet if given the opportunity to come to this restaurant, you could streamline the entire operation in a matter of hours and make this place run even smoother than it already does.”
She looked around the restaurant as she started to analyze things before shaking her head and laughing. “No!” she stated with a smile. “I’ve done well in my career because of the people that I have around me. While I have educated myself on many of the policies and procedures of the world, especially port codes and tariffs, I could not be where I’m at today if it were not for an incredible support staff guiding me along and some amazing negotiators procuring the products for me to move. I owe my entire career to them.”
Nathanial nodded, impressed by her response and her humility. He reached for his drink and sipped from it slowly, clearly enjoying it more than the glass of wine that Alexis had finally finished, though Nathanial did fill it up again with the contents of his glass. “So, you would say that you are loyal to the American Oil Trade and Refiners before anything else?”
“Yes,” she replied quickly, not hesitating to compose her answer or think about her choice of words. “In every decision that I make professionally, I always think about what’s best for the company.”
He leaned back in his chair and looked across at Alexis with a very sudden, serious expression. “Then why did you step in and broker a deal to save the Australian company? Is there any possible way you can link that to helping your employers?” Alexis paused, opening her eyes in fear as she listened to Nathanial’s tone change from happy and joyous, to more perturbed and frustrated.
She looked down a bit, not looking him in the eye while she thought about her answer, allowing the awkward silence to set in before looking back up at him. “Did it save the company?” she asked, dodging his question so that she could get her immediate answer.
“Absolutely,” he replied, still perturbed but relaxed a bit. “The phone call that delayed me was from your boss, Richard, who informed me that the Americans, with my blessing, would help the Australian company recover and reestablish themselves as a premier Oil Company in COT.”
Alexis chuckled under her breath as she tried to suppress her smile, impressed with herself and Hannah that they were able to get this deal done on incredibly short notice. “Look, I did it for three reasons,” she began, adjusting her hips a bit and leaning forward, placing her forearms on the table and starting into Nathanial’s eyes. Her tone went from being incredibly sweet and docile to a lot more
aggressive, showing a side of her that many had never seen. While she was always polite and professional, even when dealing with the most troublesome of people in the shipping world, Alexis never became as impassioned when speaking as she did in front on Nathanial. “The first, my company is bringing in an excess of oil that we’re not able to do anything with, unless we expand our distribution in our country further, which doesn’t seem to be on the agenda at this moment. Thus, we are in a position where we’re going to have to start storing more and more product, which involves renting warehouses, which costs more money and drives down the bottom line. And while Hannah, the most amazing negotiator on the planet, was able to fuck a deal out of Gregorio Bonnucci and get complete control over all of their family’s production, taking in all of that product is almost harmful to us.”
Nathanial stared at Alexis, opening his eyes wider at her last comment. “She won’t admit to why it happened, just that she ended up fucking him in a trailer by one of the oil rigs.” She paused a moment while she reached into the small metallic container and poured herself another glass of wine, sipping on it while leaving the bottle of the table. “The second reason is that Australia is still a prime location for business and for COT to have to lose a valuable member, even though they pretty much suck now, is still something that we don’t want to deal with. Because of the distribution infrastructure in place, and our abundance of oil warehoused in Jebel Ali, I felt that selling it the Australians, through the means that were negotiated, was a win for everyone involved.”
She paused, turning up her glass of wine in frustration before setting it back down on the table and pouring the rest of the bottle in her glass. Nathanial smirked a bit from the side of his mouth as he looked across the table at the frustrated Alexis as she fumed a bit. “And the third?” he asked, watching her breathe heavily while she gripped her wine glass.
“I like you,” she replied. “The other day when we spoke, I felt like we had a real connection. When I saw you today acting like you did when you charged through the office, making a bee line for your car, I honestly felt that something was terribly wrong. When I found out what it was, through various web outlets and news sources, I immediately felt an urge to use every resource at my disposal to help you, not the company, you.” She sat her glass of wine down as the server came and removed the dishes from the table as Alexis continued to seethe.
“Alexis, you will never know how grateful I am that you took the initiative and did that,” he stated softly. “The fact that you were able to pull a deal like this off in such a quick manner is a sign that you may very well be smarter than I am, a trait that I value more than the others.”
She nodded, relaxing a bit though still rather tense in her shoulders and back. “So why did you seem so frustrated?”
“Because I didn’t have the guts to ask you for help first,” he answered quickly, calming the mood as the server set down two pieces of fresh cheesecake in front of them. “Yesterday when we spoke in the break room and you told me who you were, I really wanted to sit down and ask you to look at that company before my meeting today and tell me what I could do to fix it. However, my pride got in the way and I had yet to get to know you, so I opted to go it alone, which is how I’ve done my business since I got into it.” He paused as he reached his hand across the table and placed it over Alexis’s. “You went out of your way to help me when I was too prideful to ask, and because of that, I’ll never be able to thank you enough. Financially, you saved me millions and have given me an opportunity to regain everything that I have already lost.”
He held her hand softly, gazing into her eyes as she relaxed a bit more, finally regaining her normal stature and demeanor. “So, you’re a man then?” she asked playfully. “Can’t seem to know when to stop and ask for help.”
“Hey, sometimes it’s about knowing what your limitations are and praying you have a woman in your life to fix it,” he replied, gazing into her eyes as he caressed her hand gently. “Maybe there’s a chance I found that.”
“Maybe,” she replied. “Just maybe.”
Chapter 9
Hannah rolled around the couch, shuffling her body a bit as she tried to get comfortable. As someone who normally falls asleep on the couch, Hannah relied on her best friend to drag her to the bed as soon as the television show and news were finished. Her back stiffened up as she shuffled her body, opening her eyes slowly to see the rays of the sun shining through the small openings of the curtains. “Why am I still here?” she asked aloud, wondering if Alexis was somewhere in the apartment. Walking through, half asleep and somewhat frustrated over the slight discomfort in her body, Hannah walked down the small hallway of their apartment. Though only consisting of two bedrooms, the apartment was still large and very ornately furnished. Silk drapes outlined the frames of the windows in every room, matching the warm pastel colors of the wall and the dark hardwood floors. The windows were large and facing the east, allowing in plenty of natural sunlight during the mornings but dimming the home in the evening.
She opened the door to Alexis’s room to find her best friend not in her bed, with the room still very neatly organized and kept up. Her bed was still made with the covers perfectly tucked around the edges of the mattress and the pillow still neatly placed underneath the purple comforter. Hannah walked in and looked behind the door, checking the clothesbasket for the tan dress Alexis wore the night before, seeing if she came home and changed at some point, opting to leave her drooling on the couch, which was not the case. “I guess she didn’t come home last night,” she said to herself as she stepped out of Alexis’s room and closed the door behind her, turning and going through the door adjacent to it.
In her room, she opted to prepare for her Saturday, which was filled with plans of doing absolutely nothing. She stepped around the piles of clothes in the floor, walking over to her suitcase that she was still living out of, choosing not to unpack her clothes into the drawers as Alexis did. She pulled off her shirt and tossed it into a pile as she reached into her suitcase and pulled out a blue t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. She pulled the t-shirt over her head and slipped into the shorts quickly before walking over to the vanity in her room to grab a hair brush. Her blonde hair was disheveled and a mess, causing Hannah to look in the mirror and shutter. She picked up the brush with her right hand and immediately ran it through her hair, straightening it out before reaching for an elastic hair band and restraining her hair in a ponytail.
As she placed the brush back on the table and looked at her appearance in the mirror, the door to their shared apartment opened. “Is it time for the walk of shame?” shouted Hannah as she pushed herself away from the vanity and walked out of her room, turning immediately to look down the hallway to see her best friend looking incredibly well. Though still wearing her tan dress from the night before, Alexis didn’t look as if she had a rough night, actually seeming very awake and put together. “This was not what I was expecting,” announced Hannah as she walked toward Alexis. “You look just like you did when you left last night.”
“Some of us don’t like to just roll out of bed and face the world,” she replied as she walked through the doorway and into the living room, looking at the couch where Hannah left her blanket from the night before. “I take it you didn’t move to the bedroom.”
“I did not,” said Hannah as she walked into the kitchen with Alexis following her, opening the refrigerator door and removing a bottle of water and a protein shake. “Under normal circumstances, my roommate drags me to bed once the morning news back home is over.” She explained, opening her cold shake and turning it up, drinking the entire contents of it before grimacing and tossing the carton into the garbage can. “Without the proper turn down service, or at least the ability to be tucked in, I was not able to complete my normal routine.”
Alexis chuckled as she reached into the refrigerator to pull out a bottle of water and closing it, twisting the top of the bottle and sipping from it while looking at
Hannah grimace from her breakfast. “Why do you drink those if you constantly look like your miserable afterwards?”
“Because this body takes work,” groaned Hannah as she washed the taste down with the bottle of water. “It’s either wake up and cook to get the protein I need for breakfast, or opt to suffer through one of these and sleep an extra thirty minutes, and as you’re well aware, I always choose sleep.”
“But it’s Saturday and you have nowhere to be, well at least not yet,” said Alexis.
“Yet?” asked Hannah as she placed the bottle of water on the counter while placing her hands on her sides. “What do you mean by that?”
Alexis smiled softly as she turned her head, trying to look a bit innocent but afraid to talk to her best friend. “Hannah, there’s something that I need to talk to you about,” she said softly, almost with a hint of reluctance.
Hannah tilted her head a bit as she squinted her eyes and glared at Alexis. “Why don’t you tell me about your night first, and then you can talk to me about whatever is on your mind,” Hannah suggested, noticing that Alexis was struggling with words and knowing how she needed to relax before having a serious conversation.
“That’s probably a good idea,” confirmed Alexis, still sipping on her water as she turned and walked into the living room with Hannah following her. She sat on one end of the couch, leaning against the arm as Hannah took the other side, both facing each other with the rays of sunlight shining into the living room. “So, what all do you want to know?”
Hannah smiled. “Why don’t you start with dinner and I’ll let you know when I want more details.”
“Right, well, first off, Nathanial was everything that you and I thought he would be,” Alexis began, talking about her overall feelings before going into the details of the evening. “He was charming, smart, sophisticated, but the thing that we didn’t see coming, is that he was incredibly humble and aware of his shortcomings, even though he did sometimes come off as boastful. However, as the two of us know, anyone who is remotely successful and happens to have a lot of money tends to come as boastful to those of us who earn it for them, but that is honestly irrelevant. Before getting into the details of the night, I want to personally thank you for assisting him in his execution.”
