7

If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a byproduct, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.

~Woodrow Wilson

Charlotte

Waking up extra early so as to get ready for work because Anthony had informed Julio to tell me that I should be ready by 7:30am because we would be leaving at 8am. My first week in first week had gone by quite slow and I had barely seen Anthony and apart from strolling around the Villa, I never really had anything to interesting to do. I was bored to death and finally getting to leave the estate since I got here excited me.

Pushing my feet off the bed, I decided to get started with the hardest part of getting ready which is picking out the perfect outfit. My father always said ones appearance spoke louder than their actions when making a first impression, he also said first impressions were everything. Carefully looking through the formal section of my closet, I tried on various outfit options and after a while was about to settle for an elegant yet traditional pantsuit, and blouse when my eyes landed on a lapis blazer dress in the corner of the closet. Removing it from the hanger and laid it on the bed along with a suitable underwear.

"Perfect!" I squealed biting my lip.

Turning on the mini speaker, I walked into the bathroom and took a long shower, I made sure to scrub every inch of my body before washing my waist length raven-black hair with my signature lavender scented shampoo. Drying my body, I went on to straighten the hair my over curly hair with a flat iron. When it was straight enough, I proceeded to gather it into a low ponytail at the nape of my neck and securing it with a hair tie before twisting the ponytail tightly and wrap it around the base so as to form a neat bun. Securing the bun with bobby pins, I grabbed my make-up kit and started on my face. Decided to make my makeup simple but elegant, which wasn't difficult since I had become a pro at doing my own makeup after practicing on myself and my mother for years.

After finishing everything, I put on my underwear and slipped into the dress. Getting a pair of shiny black stilettos and putting them on, I wore my diamond cuff earnings and necklace set, before finishing everything off by sprayed my favorite lavender scented cologne before walking to the full length mirror and checking myself out. I smiled at how the dress flattered your body shape and complemented my complexion. The outfit looked perfect for a first day at work but also eluded power, confidence and authority, which is what I was aiming for. Satisfied with myself, I packed my phone and other essentials I would need into my bag before exiting the room.

As I descended the long flight of stairs, the men at the bottom looked at me with their mouths ajar.

I could only see Anthony's back as he was talking to Julio who had his eyes on me, when he noticed that the man was not listening to a word he was letting out, he averted his gaze to see what he was staring at.  Anthony followed Julio's eyes and they landed on me.

Like the other men, he stood and scanned my body only his gaze was intense and a smirk played on his pink lips, making me trip.

'Focus Charlotte, you are killing it' I scolded myself.

"Good morning gentlemen." I smirked successfully reaching the bottom of the stairs without tripping from Anthony’s heated gaze that never once changed till I was standing close to him.

"Morning ma’am." Some mumbled back and others just offered curt nods.

"Good morning Julio." I flashed him a genuine smile. Over the past couple of days I had grown fond of the man, yes he really spoke to me but just being in his presence made me happy. Or maybe I was just craving someone’s attention. Back home, my family was always there, even when I didn’t want them to but here, it was different, the house was mostly occupied by men and when they did check in no me it was pure curtesy, nothing more.

"Good morning ma’am, you look lovely this morning." Julio told me and my smile grew even wider at his compliment. It sounded genuine especially with his French accent.

"Why thank you Julio." I smiled earning a glare from Anthony.

"Good morning Elio." I smirked as he cringed at the nickname I would use to piss him off when we were kids and I was on a mission to piss him off as much as I could as revenge for leaving me for many days.

"Don't call me that." he warned sharply but I didn’t plan on stopping.

"Where's the harm in calling you by your name." I gave him an innocent smile making him scoff.

"I think it’s far too early for you to start picking a fight princess, no?" he gritted out.

"Someone woke up from the wrong side of the bed." I chuckled. “But then again, you’re always grumpy, no?”

"You have 20 minutes to have breakfast." Was his response before walking away.

Smiling at my success to piss him off, I walked into the kitchen that smelt amazing and found a short woman with silky blonde hair probably in her mid-30s, in a black and white chef uniform setting the food on the counter.

"Good morning ma'am." She greeted with a bow.

"Morning." I responded with a polite smile.

"Tea, coffee or juice?" She went on.

"Coffee preferably a latte with 2 sugars and cream." I told her while grabbing a plate and putting food on it. I walked over to the kitchen island and took a seat on one of the bar stools. She seemed quite confused by my action but dared not ask on it.

In less than 5 minutes, a mug of coffee was placed in front of me.

I devoured my food as quickly as I could, breakfast was one of my favorite meals of the day but as much as I wanted to take my time to savor the taste of amazing food, I knew I had no time and I didn’t want to be late on my first day at the office.

"Thank you, the meal was lovely." I told the cook as she put the dishes I had just uses into the sink.

"I'm just doing my job ma'am." she smiled.

"Well you are awesome at it." I told her sincerely making her smile grow even more before mumbling a quick thank you.

"Mr. Santoro is waiting for you in the car." Julio announce walking into the room.

"OK" I nodded "I'll see you later-"

"Doris."

"OK, I'll catch you later, Doris." I smiled before following Julio to the black BMW parked up front. He opened my door and helped me get in.

"Thanks." I flushed him a smile as he closed the door.

"He has a wife." I heard Anthony who was seated on my left mutter quietly.

"Excuse me?" I asked but he just kept quite staring at his phone.

"Did you say something?" I kept asking what he had said but he just let me talk to myself. Giving up, I took out my phone and started going through it.

The car ride was as quite as always with each minding their own business.

"Don't call me Elio or Aurelio or anything aside from Anthony, I'm I clear." Anthony commanded. Before I could snap on how he couldn’t order me around, he got out of the car and walked to my side as Julio helped me out.

Seeing the tall building in front of me, I begun feeling nervous all of a sudden. This wasn’t going to be my first time entering a building such as this because I had been to my father’s office multiple times and now worked there but for some reason, this felt different.

"Let's go." Adriano placed a hand on my lower back and my body shuddered at the contact. We hadn’t had any physical contact for ages and it made a strange feeling form in the pit of my stomach.

Closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath of fresh air mixed with Anthony’s beautiful fragrance, I opened my eyes only to find the man beside me staring at me weirdly.

"Shall we?" He asked and I just nodded my head not trusting my voice at all.

He noticed I wasn't moving and gave me a little push causing me to lurch forward and we walked into the building. As we made our way towards the elevator, I tried my hardest not to stare around like a fool.  All the employees that strolled by us would slightly bow their heads and mumble greet good morning which I would occasionally return while Anthony would nod.

"Good morning sir." A medium height man greeted.

"George." Anthony responded with a curt nod.

We got into the elevator and George pressed the 2nd button.

“Pardon my manners.” The man gasped upon recognizing my presence, I didn’t blame him for not doing so earlier, he seemed quite nervous and I understood why, Anthony was one hell of an intimidating person. “Good morning ma’am.” He greeted.

“Good morning.” I returned with a polite smile.

"Charlotte, this is Mr. George Hazelwood, his the CFO of the company." Anthony introduced "George, this is Charlotte Quan, Mr. Jason Quan's daughter." I couldn’t help but frown at the introduction, was it necessary to make mention of my father.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Ms. Quan." George stretched out his hand to me with a huge smile on his face.

"Like wise." was all I managed to say not wanting to seem impolite as I shook his hand.

The elevator doors opened and we walked into a lobby. George gave us mainly me a tour of the entire building, more like it was all for me because Anthony already knew the place.

"This will be your floor." George told us as we walked onto the 30th and final floor.

"His or mine?" I asked

"Both of you." he responded quickly.

Of course we would share the floor together. I mentally face palmed myself for asking such a dumb question.

We continued walking with George as the lead into an office.

"Have all the company files on my desk in 10 minutes." Anthony finally spoke.

"Right away sir." George nodded and left.

"For the record this is my office." Anthony told me as he finally moved his hand from my lower back and I frowned missing the warmth.

"Where is mine?" I asked.

"Opposite mine."

"I'm going to check it out"

"They have not finished furnishing it yet." He told me. “You’ll have to work beside me for the next couple of days.”

Nodding, I took my time to take in the space I was currently occupying.