As Sean drove into his office car park the next morning, he had to buzz security to let him into the car park as somehow, he had misplaced his security pass that he would normally swipe at the car park that would open the boom gate to let him in. He had already called Leo to arrange a new security pass and disable the previous one so that no one could access the building should they get access to it. At 7:50am, Sean was seated in the Café across the road from his building. It was a beautiful café with lots of light and planter boxes with flowers around the outside tables. Sean made sure that he got there early, he was not going to risk getting there late and having Grace walk away. It was 7:58am as Grace approached the café.
As soon as she reached his table, he pulled out her chair and pushed it in for her before he sat back down himself. ‘He’s not only early, but also a gentleman’, she thought to herself. As he handed over the breakfast menu, he told her that he hadn’t had breakfast so he would order some breakfast and then suggested she order some as well. ‘Very well”, she answered, although, she was wondering how a coffee date to pay her debt in ruining his shirt ended up turning into a breakfast date.
The waitress came over and took their order. “I’ll have a Smoked Salmon and Avocado Toasty and a Cappuccino thanks”, Grace said as she looked at the waitress. “I’ll have 2 poached eggs with Salmon and Sourdough toast and a cappuccino thank you”, he said as he handed the menu back to the waitress. Sean wanted to make the most of what little time he had with Grace. They discussed work and what they liked doing in their spare time. Both of them like swimming and going to the gym. “Grace just for transparency, the office space you are leasing belongs to my company. When the space was leased a few weeks ago, all I was told was that it was leased to the ‘Messi Group’. I did not know until recently that you are the lady boss of ‘Messi Group’, he said to her. “Thank you, Sean for your transparency, I guess taking on that lease happened so quickly and it came at the right time. I left it with my assistant to handle the paperwork after I found out there was some office space available there. I had too many other things going on that I was handling as well, she responded. “If you need anything in that building be sure to let me or my assistant Leo know”, he said to her as he handed over his and Leo’s business cards. “Great, I’ll give these to my assistant so that she can contact one of you should that be the case”, she replied.
Sean then changed the topic to the situation with Arlo and the Brady family business. It seemed that with all the evidence of his actions against women, he had been arrested and more companies had stopped their business dealings with the Brady family business in the last few days leaving the company hanging by a thread. Days later it would go into Bankruptcy.
“Grace, I know I asked you before, but I have seen the video of your attack outside ‘Blue Moon’ club, and besides my absolute admiration for the way you handled those two beasts, I saw that you copped a punch on your ribs. I’m a bit concerned you are hurt and you have not sought any medical attention”, he said to her in a gentle and concerned tone. “I was a bit tipsy, so I let my guard down. Yes, I copped a punch to my ribs, but it’s nothing big and I’m taking care of it”, she replied back to him.
“I suppose you heard what has come of Arlo and his family business since that night”, he asked her. With a satisfied look on her face, Grace replied, “Of course I do, I was the one that found those videos and sent some to the police and posted the rest of them online. Like I told Arlo, I am not one to be trifled with. I am generally a kind and patient person, but people should not mistake my kindness for weakness. I only hit back in retaliation if I feel it is warranted. He should be in jail for quite some time and before you say anything about my actions putting his family business into bankruptcy, let me tell you that his family were the ones that suppressed previous instances with other women before. They paid the women off or threatened them into silence.” Sean was gobsmacked. This girl was so much more capable than he initially thought and yet he knew there was much more to her. He could not believe that she had the skillset to do any such thing. Tyra was also brilliant in hacking into systems but now Grace seemed like she may well have the same skillset. He looked at Grace with admiration and felt his heart beating against his chest. ‘I think I like this girl’, he thought to himself as a big grin came across his face. “I find you very intriguing Grace”, he said to her. “Maybe we can go on a real date one day,” he suggested. Grace went red at his remarks as her heart began to beat faster being next to him. She had her fair share of bad luck dating men and although it had been a while since she had dated, she was not interested in dating again. All her time would be spent on growing Messi Group. She built that all on her own without any help from her family and was driven to make it bigger and better. “Thank you Sean, but I’m not interested in dating anyone and I have my reasons”, she responded to him as she bit her lip. Sean was not one to give up, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to make you change your mind’, he thought to himself as they were finishing up their breakfast.
Just as Grace was finishing breakfast, Claire came up to their table. “Sean, I’ve been trying to reach you for the past few hours, but you didn’t answer your phone. You left your security pass at my house last night after you bought me dinner”, she said to him as she handed over his security pass. The reality was that Claire had taken it from his car on the way home from the hospital yesterday. She had heard Sean and Grace making plans to meet for breakfast when she spied on them yesterday when Grace spilt the coffee on Sean. The whole thing from the sprained wrist to the fake tears, taking his security pass and having him stay at her place was a ruse so that she could interrupt their breakfast and make Grace think that’s she and Sean were in a relationship together. Claire looked at Grace and said, “Hi, I’m Claire, sorry to interrupt, but I was so worried about Sean not having his pass with him today after being with me last night so I had to come here today and bring it over”. Before Claire could finish talking, Grace interrupted her and said, “I’ve got to run, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me”. She gave Sean a look of disgust, picked up her bag and took off”. Sean tried calling after Grace, but she never looked back. “Why did you do that for?”, he snapped at Claire. “Do what Sean, I don’t know what you are talking about. I was so worried that you would find it hard to get in through all your security coming in and out of your building and even with my sprained wrist I came here to give you your pass back. That girl was rude anyway, I introduced myself to her and she just ignored me”, she said to him.
Sean was livid, just when he thought he was making very small progress with Grace, Claire made out that they had a dinner date at her house. How was he going to explain this to Grace. He would figure it out. First, he had to get rid of Claire. “Claire, thank you for returning my pass but in future, you have Leo’s number so you could have called him. You are right, it is inconvenient without my security pass getting onto my secure floor and into my car space but I already replaced it this morning and arranged for this one to be disabled. Also, Grace was not rude to you. You were rude barging in on us and making her think that we had a dinner date last night. Claire then put on the water works and started crying. “Oh Sean, I can’t believe you think that of me. I care for you so deeply”. Sean then received a phone call from Leo as he was needed back in the office. “Claire, let’s just leave it at that, I have to get back to the office. Look after your wrist and let Leo know if you need anything. The Doctor will be by to see you tomorrow”. With that, he crossed the road and entered the ‘Harper Group’ office building.
Although Claire wasn’t happy with Sean’s reaction, she was happy when she saw Grace’s reaction and the way she looked at Sean in disgust and then took off. “I’m glad to have scared Grace away. Sean is mine and no one will have him, including you. I will not give up until I am Mrs Harper”, she whispered softly.
Grace made it back to her building. ‘What just happened there? Was that Sean’s girlfriend or a potential girlfriend that he has been courting? If so, why was he acting like he was interested in me? Was he hedging his bets? That girl was certainly not happy to see me with Sean, so maybe they are in a relationship. Oh dear, Sean is just like the other men I have dated. He’s a good for nothing liar trying to hit on a girl when he already has a girlfriend. I need to keep my distance from him’, she thought.During the coming days, Sean couldn’t take his mind off Grace and the staff knew well enough to. He was frustrated as he didn’t have her mobile number and wasn’t sure if he should go and see her at her work. Since she worked in the building next door, every time he left his building, he hoped that he would bump into her but that that never happened. He decided to call Carter to meet up with him for some words of advice. He couldn’t talk to Sebastian about this because he also ha
When Mara brought in the third bunch of flowers in the week, they were so big and wide she could hardly be seen behind them. “Someone wants your attention. I wish I had a boyfriend that gave me such magnificent bunches of flowers”. As the bunch was so big, they had to be put into three separate vases. Grace reflected on the cards that Sean had written. She didn’t want to be a third wheel in his relationship with Claire and Claire had made it abundantly clear that day to whom Sean belonged to. Grace was not looking for a romantic relationship with Sean, it was merely just starting to be a friendship. What if there was indeed a plausible explanation. At that moment, Grace decided to give him a chance to explain.Back in Sean’s office, Sean was in the middle of a Video conference call. Although his phone was on Silent mode, he saw a call coming in. As it was from an unknown number, he chose not to answer it as he was in the middle of a meeting. A few minutes later, his assistant L
Grace was utterly shocked with Sean’s revelation. So many thoughts were going through her mind, ‘How could this be? Should I tell him it was me that saved him? Maybe not. I don’t want him to feel like he owes me, but then again, he is being lied to and manipulated by Claire’. Just as she had so many thoughts going through her head, she saw Sean close his eyes tightly and rub his temples again. Grace realised that something was wrong. “Sean, Sean”, she called in a concerned tone. “Are you ok? Here, she grabbed onto his wrist and felt his pulse. So as not to raise any suspicion from the people in the Harper Group building lobby, she asked him to lean on her whilst she called Sean’s assistant Leo. Within minutes, Leo had arrived. “Leo, help me inconspicuously get Sean somewhere private. We need to get a Dr to see him immediately. In the few minutes that we have been seated on this Sofa, it appears that he has been having a headache”, she said to Leo. Sean opened his eyes and too
The next day, Claire received a video of this encounter outside the Harper Group building. She replayed it a few times and with each viewing, she not only clenched her fist harder but her anger also increased. Claire had paid someone to follow Sean for a few days a week for a few weeks whilst she got to know his routine. She couldn’t afford anymore with the money Sean gave her as it would cost more and there would be a bigger chance of Sean noticing. Claire received several videos a week of Sean going out to lunch, what he ate (so that she could lie and tell him she had the same taste in food), meeting his friends and even going to his Doctors for his appointments. Now for the first time, she was sent a video of this interaction with Grace and she was not pleased. ‘Looks like I need to try harder to get rid of this bimbo woman. How dare she go after my man’, she thought to herself. Claire knew where Grace worked. She didn’t know that Grace owned ‘Messi Group’, she had seen her
That night, Sean met up with Carter, Sebastian, Kiara and Tyra for drinks at ‘Blue Moon’ club. Sebastian had been away on a business trip where he signed a number of models over to his talent company and now had them assigned to the latest fashion show that was being brought to Straco City over the coming months. He also collaborated with Carter’s sister Kiara as some of her clothes from her fashion line would be paraded on the cat walk at that fashion show by the models from his company. One of the models happen to have been walking by and had seen Sebastian at the club. He had fine on a few dates with her in recent weeks but had been avoiding her in recent days. “There you are Sebatian, why haven’t you been returning my calls?”, she asked him. Sebastian had only just started to date in recent months but with the two dates he had with her, he found she didn’t have any substance but all she talked about was her looks and also enjoyed spending his money. Sebastian took her aside
With a determined and icy face, Grace stood up from her chair, turned around and marched over to the booth in the café behind where she had been sitting. There was a group of people sitting at the booth that were staring at her as she made her way over. Grace looked at the male closest to her, “Excuse me Mr Gibson but I did not ask you to pay for my meal, thank you but I can look after myself”. Grace then angrily slapped the money for her meal on the table in front of Sebastian, picked up her laptop bag and strode out of the café with her long curly hair bouncing around, whilst lots of people staring at her admiring her beauty and her curvaceous figure. (EARLIER THAT MORNING)Walking into the ‘Shore Café’, Grace spotted the same table she had sat at the last two times she came to this café. It was in a quiet area of the café, near the window facing the beach. Growing up near the beach in Sydney Australia, it was one of the things she missed the most about living there. Having the
As Grace strode confidently into the Shore Café, her slender legs, gorgeous, angelic face and bright blue eyes captured the attention of many. There were whisperings amongst a lot of the café patrons, in particular the men:“Who is that Girl, isn’t she beautiful?”“I’ve never seen her here before”“Look at her long legs, I wonder if she is married or has a boyfriend. She looks like she came straight off a modelling shoot”Grace was oblivious to all the comments and whispers around her as her only intent was to get the same table she had been getting the last few times to sit down and enjoy her breakfast whilst she carried out some company work. She was still looking for new office space, so she was currently renting a small office for two months that only catered for ten of her staff until she secured a lease on a big office space for the staff moving from her Boston Office and new staff she intended to hire. The whisperings continued, even when she sat down to look at the menu. Sean
(EIGHT WEEKS EARLIER)It was a cold winter morning, Grace had just finished her jog and was coming up through the bushes and walking along the road to get to the motel she was staying at. She had only come into town four days ago and each day she started her day with a run, before she embarked in morning conference calls, answering emails, reviewing and signing off proposals, resolving issues that her managers had escalated to her to do with the business, as well as tasks in relocating her Head Office from Boston to Straco City. It was a big move going from one City to another but she had to make a clean break after nearly being discovered by that man she ran away from in Australia. The only other big task was to go apartment hunting that she started three days ago. As she contemplated the apartments she was viewing today, she was excited at the prospect of two of the apartments being right on the beach. She couldn’t wait to move into her own apartment and turn it into her home.As