A CRAZY IDEA

"And that is why the partnership between Tremont Realtors and Indiana Hotels would be beneficial,” Kristen ended finally and took in a deep shaky breath. She was convinced that she actually did very well, she saw looks of approval from several of the men seated, she smiled when she saw her father nod his head, her heart filling with joy, and he was not disappointed.

A certain somebody refused to smile or even give her a nod of appreciation. Adrian had been staring at her, his blue eyes boring into her skin as she talked. 

When she began, he looked shocked that she knew all of that and she internally smirked, patting herself on the shoulder. Before she could praise herself more, he schooled his expression back to the frown he was wearing when he first saw her. If she had not been so sure, she would have said she had not seen right.

“Bravo! Bravo!” Clayton Tremont said as he clapped his hands, his blue eyes shining in wonder and his brown hair falling over his eyes. Even in that situation, she could not help but notice that he badly needed a haircut.

As he began to clap, everyone followed suit, the handsome tattooed stranger too, clapped and smiled at her. When she directed her eyes to land on Adrian, she could see that he was scowling even more than usual; her success seemed to annoy him. She simply rolled her eyes at his childish behavior and smiled.

“Thank you everyone,” Adrian started, but his father put a hand on his shoulder, gesturing for him to calm down and Adrian did.

“I have heard your beautiful presentation Kristen and Tremont Realtors would like to join our companies together,” Clayton Tremont said in his commanding voice that reminded her of Tommy’s. Kristen could see how Adrian was pushed back even though his father said he would take charge of the meeting, it was basically how she had been pushed back all her life and for that she felt bad for him.

“I have a proposition that will please us all. Why don’t we talk about this in the other office?” Clayton asked as he stood up, her father and Adrian going with him, but Tommy sat down.

“Yes Sir,” she replied and tried to gather all the things she had used for the presentation, before walking behind them.

“You did very wonderful Kris,” Tommy said as she was about to pass him, giving her a nickname as though he had known her more than a few hours. Nevertheless, the praise was nice and she appreciated it.

“If you all start to praise me this way, my head might begin to swell,” she joked, smiling.

“Or you could just say thank you,” Tommy said and Kristen smiled before waving him goodbye, and then rushed after her father and Clayton as they had already entered into another room.

Kristen pushed the padded door slowly and entered the air conditioned office. It was smaller and much more private than the glass walled conference room. Her father was seated beside Clayton and they were deep in discussion while Adrian looked angry, furious even. It seemed like he didn’t agree to whatever they were planning.

“Oh Kristen, have a seat,” Clayton said nicely as they noticed her in the office.

“Thank you,” she replied and took a seat, the only available one beside Adrian.

“So Kristen, as I was saying. I am suggesting that we add something to seal the deal,” Clayton said in a tone that showed that he was anything but suggesting.

“Okay,” she said, she was still half confused where the entire thing was going, but she knew that she was not going to like it.

“I want a marriage between our families, between Adrian and you to be precise. I want the partnership to be a generation long and I am sure we can do exploits together,” Clayton began and the only word Kristen could filter was marriage to Adrian.

He wanted her to marry his son?

The arrogant bastard for that matter

“Your father had agreed as he has always wanted a competent man to take over the company when he dies and my son is very much the right candidate for that,” Clayton continued. Kristen wasn’t surprised that her father would say that. She always knew that he felt like she was not enough, but she still felt very much ashamed that he had told another person about it, and that he wanted to marry her out for that reason.

“So, the wedding plans will begin as soon as possible,” Clayton said yet again in Kristen’s head.

“What!” She shouted, unable to hold her response. And her father had the good grace to look shocked that she did.

“What wedding plans? Don’t I have a choice in this?” She asked yet again, her father was looking very much angry at her and was staring daggers at her, warning her to shut up, but at that moment she wasn’t prepared to listen to him.

“Well, of course you do. This only happens if you want to marry him, you have a month to get to know each other and that is it,” Clayton said. It was a pretty decent plan, they could talk and get to know each other and at the end of the month, she could say she didn’t want to marry him, simple.

But that was not the problem, the problem was that the man in question that she was asked to marry was Adrian, the arrogant bastard, she had no intentions whatsoever of getting to know him, talking to him and most of all, she had no intentions of marrying him.

“This is a crazy idea. I don’t want to marry him. I have no intentions of doing so. I don’t want to get to know him. From the little I know about him, I would rather die than actually marry this arrogant bastard!” She basically screamed pointing her manicured finger to Adrian, who was still scowling at her.

“And I don’t want to marry her,” he said, finally contributing to the conversation. On hearing that, she stood up and left the room, ignoring her father’s calls at her.

                                                     

“Well that was interesting,” Adrian’s father said, chuckling to himself, making Adrian more and more annoyed.

Adrian could not fathom what his father found amusing in the situation, the girl had in a few words, insulted him and his father found it funny.

He was quite surprised to see the girl that she stepped on his foot at the party as one of the daughters of his father’s business partners, but he was even more surprised that she was not a dumb bimbo like he had thought; it seemed like the makeup one her face had blinded him from what was underneath. 

She seemed very much in her element as she talked on why their two companies should join together, and he was tempted to say yes just so he could listen to her more.

He was impressed by her intellect, that didn’t mean he wanted to marry her. She might have been a little smart but she was still very much a woman and not to be trusted.

He had been proven right by how vehemently she had disagreed with the plans for a wedding and he had seen a glimpse of the girl he had seen on their first meeting, the overly spoiled brat who felt everything had to go their way. And he was not prepared to marry anyone who thought that way.

“I can see this working out perfectly,” his father said, yet again surprising Adrian with his view of the situation.

“This is not funny father and neither is it working out fine. I told you that I don’t want to marry anyone, at least not one and most especially I don’t want to marry her,” Adrian said, letting out all of the feelings in his mind.

“Let me go out and check on Kristen, I promise I will talk to her,” Mr. Trevor said, apologizing for his daughter and Adrian just groaned, he didn’t need anybody apologizing for anyone, he just needed the supposed arranged marriage to be cancelled.

“Okay,” his father said and Trevor immediately rose to his feet, walking out the door, probably to find his obnoxious daughter.

“So, you didn’t tell me that you have met Kristen,” his father said and Adrian felt like face palming himself, hard.

“That is not the point father. The point is that I am not going to marry her,” he said.

“Why?” His father asked and for a moment Adrian was taken aback, he had not expected that question, frankly he had not expected any question at all, much less an explanation. He didn’t want to marry and that was all there was to it.

“For one she is a spoilt brat,” he began and his father just cocked an eyebrow at him.

“And you figured that out by seeing her make a presentation?” His father coyly asked. Adrian knew that he had fallen head deep into one of his father’s traps.

“No, I met her at the party,” he admitted. “But, she was slightly drunk and had stepped on my foot,” he defended. Actually saying the words out loud he figured how much girly they sounded.

“Okay,” his father said, pausing a bit as though giving him time to complete his pathetic little tale.

“You know what it is fine. I will get to know her, but that is it. I will admit that I don’t know her well enough to judge, but first impressions don’t lie. Goodbye father,” Adrian said as he stood up from the chair and left his father’s office.

He was pissed, confused and angry. He could have never imagined his day to go that way. He had been annoyed by his younger brother, his youngest sister and had a marriage thrust at him all in one day.

He tried to calm his mind down as he drove down the street. In his anger, he didn’t even realize how far he was driving; he didn’t realize he was moving towards his resting place, where he came to where the real world seemed too stressful.

It took a while but the high rise buildings were replaced with stretches of vegetation, the pack of humans were replaced with dots of animals and the few people that lived that far from town. He rolled down his windows and breathed in the air as it was so fresh. It had been so long since he had been out there. His father was planning to step down soon and so he had been given more duties than usual and Adrian could not complain, it was what he wanted even needed.

The only thing that irked him to no end was the fact that his father didn’t seem to want to leave the company to him. He still interjected in his decisions, still pushed him aside, he still didn’t trust him to do things right.

Adrian clenched his jaw and his fist tightened on the steering as he remembered how his father had pushed him aside during the meeting.

I am not going to think about that.

His bad mood was immediately forgotten as he got into view of the small cabin which he considered his favorite spot.

The small wooden cabin was the smallest and most probably the cheapest property that Tremont Realtors acquired, but it was Adrian’s favorite. Anytime he could get the chance, he came out there to capture the scenery or his feelings with his paintbrush.

With a bounce in his steps, he walked up and knocked on the door, intentionally not using his keys he didn’t want to scare his housekeeper.

“Oh it’s you,” Rae, his housekeeper, said. She sounded a little out of breath and it seemed like she was expecting someone else.

“Were you expecting someone else?” Adrian asked as he passed his side and passed her into the house.

“No Sir, I am just surprised that is all. You have not been here for a while,” Rae said. She was a small slender lady in her early twenties, the original owner of the house had recommended her for a housekeeper and he kept her. She had been taking care of the house for five years and he had not regretted his choice. She had still been in her teens when she started the job and he had been scared, but she had proved him wrong.

She had a full head of brown thick hair and brown doe eyes. She was soft spoken with an easy smile, and he reminded her of his younger sister, only less annoying.

“Well I am here now,” he said. He really didn’t have the patience for small talk as his fingers were itching to touch a brush, they were itching to paint.

He walked straight into his art room. It looked as disordered as he had left it, but he could tell by the clean floors that Rae had come in to do some work.

He glanced at the paintings he had made over the years, to some they might look like a splash of disorder but they meant much more than that to him.

Adrian took off his suit jacket, and his white shirt, putting on the brown shirt Rae had left for him. He smiled as he realized that even when she didn’t know that he was going to be there, she prepared for his arrival. He sat down on the most comfortable chair he knew, though it was made of hard sturdy wood other than the soft plush ones he sat on at the office.

He took one of his brushes and dipped into black paint and rubbed it on the empty page of the easel, he got the feeling that he was searching for. He felt calm.