Chapter 4

 The meeting passed in a whiz as soon as Ms. Belcalis rejoined us.

Although I had the final say in all the decisions, she helped guide the architects toward the type of sketches that I was looking for by pointing out all the little things in the previous designs that were suitable for the idea I had in mind.

She was so good at her job that I momentarily considered stealing her from Benedict's company, but I was sure I'd never hear the end of it from him if I actually did that.

We managed to wrap up the meeting half an hour early after giving the architectural team a good idea of what I wanted and sending it off on their way to draft a final blueprint in the next few days.

Remembering how poorly Ms. Belcalis reacted to being in a car with me, I called Joseph on the way down the elevator to come to pick her up.

She started to fret almost immediately when she heard me mention her name on the phone to Joseph. It was almost adorable how round her eyes could become as she waved her hands around in futile, trying to get me to hang up. But she eventually gave into me when I came up with some excuse about how I needed to go in the opposite direction to meet up with the head of one of my child companies.

It wasn't an entirely truthful statement, considering I was originally going to have that man meet me in my office, but it was good enough to get her into the car with Joseph.

Sadly, I didn't make it back to the office until late in the afternoon. The meeting with the head of my child company wasn't difficult at all because it was just the usual monthly report. But my lack of caffeine in the last two days and the fact that I missed lunch today had really started to affect me.

By the time I reached the door to my office, I had a raging headache, and all I wanted to was a bit of quiet time. However, the so-called Gods were not in my favor.

Rather than find a peaceful and empty office, I found a moron called Marvin standing in the waiting room of my office.

My eye twitched at the sight. Rubbing the side of my temple, I asked in as calm of a voice as I could manage, "Good afternoon, Marvins. I assume you have the invoices I'm looking for, right?"

"Y-yes, sir," stuttered the man in question. "T-there was just a few i-inconsistencies that I thought w-we should go over t-together."

I sighed and motioned for him to sit down. "Alright. Hurry up and show me what you're talking about."

He was practically shaking in his seat as he pulled out the papers and pointed to all the items corresponding to the inconsistencies.

The throbbing pain in my head became increasingly worse with each word spilling out of his mouth. None of these items were part of any inconsistency in the orders caused by outsourcing. Rather it was all caused by his atrocious computational skills.

When I finally had enough of his incessant words, I snapped and barked, "For fuck's sake, how bad do you have to be at your job to not even realize that it's all a bunch of 2nd-grade arithmetic errors?!? Not only do you have the audacity to come up with a bunch of bullshit excuses for missing your deadline, but you seem to be so arrogant that you can't even realize that you did your work incorrectly and that this mistake has nothing to do with anyone else!"

"M-Mr. C-cor—"

"Just shut up for once in your goddamned life. I feel like my head is going to burst from listening to your idiocy."

"B-but—"

"Get out! I've had enough of you." I slammed my hand down on the table, making the entire structure shudder under the impact. "Considered yourself fired. If you don't get out of my eyesight in the next 5 seconds, I will make sure that you can't get hired anywhere else!"

                                         

             

                   

He immediately scrambled out of his chair and ran out of my office, leaving the door swinging wide open in his wake.

I rubbed my forehead in pain, trying to will the ache away. Now I had more work to do between finding a new head of accounting and sorting out these invoices by myself since I needed them to be sent out by tonight.

I sighed when I heard a slight shuffle at my doorway, thinking that the fool from earlier had decided to come back with some sort of death wish.

Lifting my head up, I started, "Did you not—"

I stopped mid-sentence when I found a pair of shining violet eyes staring back at me. "Ms. Belcalis..."

My voice instantly fell as her name escaped from my lips out of surprise. "What brings you here? Are you heading home now?"

She shuffled in her spot for a moment before nodding.

"That's fine. You don't need to tell me before leaving." Thinking she would leave after those words, I closed my eyes and leaned against the back of my hand as the throbbing in my head became stronger.

However, I assumed incorrectly once again when I heard a soft thud on my desk. I opened my eyes and found a paper bag and coffee cup on my desk. A mouth-watering scent of food wafted out of the bag, instantly eliciting a loud grumble from my empty stomach. I looked up at her in surprise. "This is for me?"

She nodded with a light pink blush resting on the tops of her cheeks. Fiddling with her finger, she diverted her eyes to the ground and mumbled, "Y-you seemed t-tired when y-you came b-back."

My headache instantly melted away at the sound of her voice.

"I was. I missed lunch today, so thank you for the food." I paused for a moment before hesitantly asking, "Would you like to have some with me?"

Her eyes nervously darted at the clock on my desk. "Um... T-Thank you for offering, but I-I need to go h-home. M-Maybe some o-other time, Mr. C-Cordova."

I nodded understandingly, deciding not to push the matter any further. She already quite skittish around me as it was, despite my attempt at a peace offering, so I didn't want to make it any worse. "Please have a safe trip home, and I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Belcalis."

She bowed her head in reply before making her way out of my office, shutting the door quietly behind her. I watched as she walked across the floor without pause before stepping into the elevator.

When the elevator doors closed and started to descend, I snapped out of my daze and reached for the coffee. It had a wonderfully deep-roasted scent. Taking a sip, I hummed in delight as the warm beverage slid down my throat. A bit sweeter than what I was normally used to, but I could see myself growing into it.

Nonetheless, it was the best coffee I've had all week, not that it was difficult to top those disgusting cups of coffee that I attempt to make myself.

Setting the coffee down, I fished out a small black Tupperware with a clear lid, showing a simply roasted piece of salmon on top of some asparagus and rice. It wasn't anything fancy, but my mouth was practically drooling at the sight.

I easily dug into the food, putting me in a much better mood than before, as I started working on revising the invoices.

Hours later, with a now empty cup and container, I had finally finished all my work. Even though it was completely dark out, I didn't seem to mind it at all for some reason.

I quickly gathered my items and started to make my way out of my now empty building. When I reached the ground floor, I found Joseph waiting for me next to my car.

I raised an eyebrow out of surprise. Normally, he would've gone home by now. I wasn't heartless enough to force my PA to work overtime simply because I had a tendency to stay at work until 10 PM.

"Is everything alright, Joseph?"

"No, sir." He nervously glanced at the car. "It's just that—"

The back window of my car rolled down, revealing my father.

I sighed, thinking that he probably had something important to talk about if he decided to come to me in person, and waved Joseph off. "It's fine, Joseph. You can go home now."

Joseph nodded obediently and left to the otherwise of the garage to retrieve his own car to go home.

Turning my attention onto my father, I walked up to his window and deadpanned, "What is it that you need?"

"It's about your mother."

When was it never about her? Even though he was once known as the devil of the business world before he retired, I knew that he simply loved my mother and was willing to comply with all of her demands, but didn't he ever get tired of it? There must be some limit.

I frustratingly pinched the bridge of my nose, not wanting to deal with such a conversation so late at night. "Father, I already agreed to go on one of her nonsensical blind dates again. What more could she possibly want?"

"I know, I know. She is just a tad bothered by how you are scheduled so far out." He sighed. "Look, I know that you don't care much for women, but there comes a time where you should start planning for an heir. I know you haven't met her yet, but Mellisa's daughter is lovely and well-mannered. She wouldn't be difficult to live with. Even if you don't trust her, you could always get a prenup. What I'm trying to say is that you're almost 30 already, so don't you think you should start settling down?"

I exasperatedly ran my finger through my hair. "You know that I don't like the idea of marrying for political advantages or the purpose of conceiving an heir."

"I know..." He nodded understandingly. "I won't bother you about it anymore, but could you at least drop me off at your brother's place? Your mother kicked me out of the house until I could convince you to settle down, so I'm waiting it out until she cools down."

I begrudgingly agreed, knowing that this wasn't the first nor last I would have to do this for him.

Even though I found my father's undying devotion to my mother to be quite bothersome at times, it was also something I wanted for myself. To find someone who actually cared about me for me and not for my money or reputation.

And for a moment, a pair of bright violet eyes flashed in the back of my mind, appearing as quickly as it disappeared.

But, it was just stupid fantasy of my own at the end of the day. One that I needed to toss away at some point in my life.

Something that was completely unattainable for a man of my position.