Chapter 4

Alessio:

“May I ask why the sudden change of decision?” Jennifer asked frowning, her brown hair straightened, more like burned, with a blow drier.

“No reason, I felt like it was the right thing to do. Now, unless you want to lose your job completely, I do suggest that you go and pack your things to move to your new office” I said smiling sarcastically at Jennifer who looked like she was hit by a bus.

The girl turned around and left the office without saying a word, I could tell that she was cursing me under her breath, but I couldn’t care less as I went back to reading the papers I had to sign today.

“You told her, didn’t you?” Nick asked entering my office, he was the only one to enter the office without knocking the door or without giving any notice. But then again, he is my partner and best friend, he didn’t really need permission to enter the office. However, my eyes widened when I looked up at him, seeing that he was completely drenched.

“What happened to you?” I asked wide eyed. His blue shirt was wet as was his usual neat black hair was still dripping on his clothes. I had to fight back a laugh that was threatening to escape me as I looked at the lad.

“Let’s just say that Jennifer didn’t take the news as calmly as I expected her to” Nick said looking at me, sitting on the leather seat in front of my desk, I laughed pinching the bridge of my nose earning a glare from my best friend, his blue eyes meeting my brown ones, Nick raised an eyebrow at me, his playful anger drawn on his face.

“She’s bound to accept it eventually, it’s not like she’ll find another job that pays her this well easily, plus, all you need to do is charm her and, ta da, you’ve got her in love with you, then we can start planning your future children” I teased making Nick get up and playfully threaten to hit me, I laughed and moved away from his teasing assault.

“What? Not like you’re not wishing about it, dreaming about her…” Nick hit me with a file stopping me from finishing my sentence, I laughed and stood up playfully fisting my hands as if preparing to punch him. I was an athlete, and I generally boxed at the gym, though that didn’t mean that I was going to punch my friend.

“Who’s going to be your new victim anyway?” Nick asked sitting down after a few minutes of laughing, I got up and walked toward my coffee corner, taking out two capsules and making two cups of coffee for both Nick and I. I shrugged, I really didn’t know who the girl was, I even tried finding out this morning at the HR office, but there was no CV about an applying new girl, nothing about her.

“I really don’t know how, I tried asking Aunt Nermine, but according to her, she hired a monster, aka Jennifer, who has unmade eyebrows. I swear she started ranting for almost an hour about the subject, and even called me to try and convince me to fire her rather than hire her as your secretary” I said laughing making Nick burst out as he imagined Aunt Nermine and her rants “but, let’s see what she has to bring to us this time, you never know, the poor girl might actually satisfy her this time”

“I can’t believe that you’re hiring YOUR secretaries to satisfy her” Nick teased and I shrugged, I owed it to the woman, she handled me when I was at my worst after mum had died, taking me to stay at her and my Uncle Xander’s house, not wanting me to take my pain by myself, I could never deny the debt I owed them for what they did to me.

“Well, she is Aunt Nermine, you know how she’s like and to be honest I’m really not in the mood to hear an earful about how ‘ugly’ the secretaries are, or how they’re wearing last season’s outfits, or how they’re unstylish in a styling company” I said answering Nick who laughed. Him and I had a styling company, I was the designer of the clothes, and he was in charge of the financial matters, each season I would draw new designs and we’d discuss them as a company, the budget to having everything designed and the galas planned out is determined by Nick.

“Oh, my, what a disaster, we have barbaric monsters for girls in the company” Nick mimicked Aunt Nermine making me laugh. Both of us took a sip of our coffee and his eyes caught the papers that were on my desk, frowning at the sight of them.

“You still haven’t signed them?”

“I was going through them, but a drenched best friend decided to come and have a little gossip party, you know, the usual” I mused making the lad laugh as I mentioned him, he rolled his eyes on me and I smirked.

“Alright, point taken, I’ll leave you to work. We’ll have this conversation tomorrow” I said rolling my eyes.

“Oh, no, why would you think I was talking about you?” I teased sarcastically, Nick chuckled and got up, his mug in his hand, I rolled my eyes and watched as he walked out before going through the papers which I needed to sign. Hoping that this time I don’t get disturbed by anyone, not that Nick was any disturb if I were being honest. He was my brother, him and I grew up together, both as children, and in this company, having started it a year after mum had passed away, he too stood by my side, not leaving me for a second when she did. The woman had practically raised him and he too considered him as his own, especially since his own mum died when he was seven. We were both getting back from school when he found out, his father abandoned him a few weeks later, both mum and dad took him in as his foster parents not wanting him to go to a foster home, they eventually adopted him and both him and I were inseparable, as friends first, then as brothers. Therefore, it was fair to say that his heart was almost as broken as mine was when mum passed away.

You may wonder what happened to my father, well, he too passed away with mum, they were both in a bad accident, however, my father and I didn’t really have the best relationship as I grew older, constantly seeing me as a challenge to him. We constantly had our differences, and as I grew older, the more I resented him, and when I found out that HE was driving when he and mum had died, well, I may or may have not blamed him for mum’s death, though I know that he technically had no way of stopping it, he died in it too. I still couldn’t bring myself to forgive him for what he did to me growing up, nor could I forgive him after he died.

The door to my office was knocked stopping my train of thoughts and I called a low come in not knowing who would possibly be coming at this time of day, especially since it was still morning, and a while after coming to work.

“’Lessio, son, love, how are you? What are you doing? Did you miss your Auntie?” Aunt Nermine said smiling, her voice as enthusiastic as usual, I chuckled and got up to hug her.

“Hi Aunt Nermine, I’m fine and you? Working as you can see, and of course I miss you, even though I was with you last night” I mused raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, but that was ten hours ago” she said smiling, pulling away to look at me “you’re losing weight ‘Lessio, I need to make sure that you’re eating more properly from now on”

“I’m not losing any weight Auntie Nermine” I chuckled and she shook her head putting a hand on my bicep.

“Yes, yes, you are” she said stubbornly “I’ll make sure to have Ian bring you the food that you like”

Her driver was a poor man when it came to her, ever since I moved out of the house, she’d be sure to have him go shopping for my groceries, sometimes she’d send me food from what she or her maid would cook when she knew that I was staying late at work, she really was a caring mum to me.

“Alright Auntie Nermine, if it makes you comfortable, then you can do whatever you want”