"A gentleman is kind, considerate and respectful of others. He does not lie, cheat, or swindle to get his way for that would be rude and crass as they are the tactics of the uneducated. Gentlemen have manners, are polite and follow proper decorum, they do not cause scenes in public, settle scores and debts with pride and honour and do not show violence towards the elderly, women and children. They simply do not, for they are gentlemen. A gentleman does not do anything with dishonourable intentions or act out of pettiness or jealousy because those are emotions that bring out the ugliest and most twisted aspects of someone's character. However, most importantly, to call yourself a gentleman, you ought to follow a sound set of morals as it is your obligation to uphold the reputation of those who call themselves gentlemen.
Well, it's a good thing that Adrian Lee is no gentleman."
Adrian Lee wasn't a fan of the dark, not because he was scared of it, although that had indeed been the case when he was younger. He didn't like it because it impaired his vision, it made surprises come all too easily and he didn't like surprises. He also wasn't a fan of the dressing down that Selena had given him, in front of his own father no less, although he knew that it only stung because it rang true and the insults were too close to home for comfort. After all, she hadn't been wrong. He had been neglecting his own affairs, he had been allowing the company that he had built to tread water while he spent his days chasing after Selena Zhao and his nights contemplating her existence. The impact her very presence in his life had on him was astounding, to say the least.
All in all, Adrian Lee found himself more and more enamoured by someone who could only be described as a bad influence on him, even if she was completely unaware and he didn't like it. If it were not for this inane pact that her father had made with the late Mr Zhao, whom he had referred to affectionately as uncle Zhao while growing up, perhaps he wouldn't even be having these kinds of worries. Maybe, this girl wouldn't have even come back into his life and instead remained a snotty socialite. With all the money she had at her disposal, even a fall from grace of her magnanimous proportions could have been smoothed over with a few choice words to the right people and the transferal of funds to some unnamed offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. He sighed, closed his eyes and sucked in a lungful of the cold evening air.
After a moment, he pulled out his phone and groaned as it buzzed in his palm.
Notification Centre
From: C. Rang
Subject: URGENT - Shellcorp 66573; DOCUMENTATION SIGNATURE
_____________
From: C. Rang
Subject: Boss man, where the f*CK are you
_____________
From: C. Rang
Subject: Upcoming Deadline, 9 am today
____________
From: Gerald Balfeind, Balfeind Thompson, Corporate Law
Subject: URGENT: Signature Required
___________
Honey
Your e-coupon for House of Fraser will expire at 09:00 BST, please redeem before them!
___________
From: C. Rang
Subject: I swear to god they're going to leave the deal
___________
From C. Rang
Subject: BoD is going to kill us
__________
From: C. Rang
CC: J. Adams, Jeanie HUANG, A. Patel, A. Anderson
Subject: URGENT - File Distribution Error, SHRED ALL OF THE FILES MENTIONED BELOW
Adrian flipped his phone around and made a beeline for his car, ignoring all the emails, he ordered himself a strong coffee to the office and unlocked the car. His ride was short and silent. Given that it was quite literally the middle of the night, the streets were silent save for the rattling of empty soft drinks cans and general rubbish that bounced around the pavements randomly from being picked up and dropped by the wind. The rumbling of cargo trucks that passed him by once he hit the highway provided good white noise for him to think and make a mental to-do list. He sighed again, rubbing at his temples as he parked the car and proceeded to make his way groggily to the security guard who greeted him with a grimace and a steaming polystyrene cup of liquid energy.
"Mr Lee, you look roughed up, do you need a cab home?"
Adrian took a few moments to gulp down the coffee, ignoring the sharp pain that stabbed at his chest from the heat and shook his head vehemently, "Good morning Jack, I'm just in a little early, got some papers to take care of."
"Sir, it's 2.15 am, like in the morning sir."
"Exactly right, bright and early. Now, you go and have a great day." Adrian's words were slurring slightly but he thumped the other man on the back in farewell and left for the lifts.
___
"What a sight for sore eyes, now this is new. Boss man here before me?" Caleb Rang, the long-suffering personal assistant to Adrian Lee stared incredulously at the slumped form of his boss who had dozed off some time in the middle of the night. He set his briefcase down and proceeded to take out his phone and snap a few stupid photos and gloating to himself before clearing his throat and shaking his boss' shoulders.
Adrian stirred and started muttering strings and stings of unintelligible gibberish and smacked his wrist on the edge of his desk. Suffice to say that woke him up. After swearing up a storm and fervently vowing to never fall asleep again, he eyed the mountain of papers that he had crushed while sleeping critically and started furiously annotating one of them at lightning speed.
"What's the time?" Adrian asked without looking up from the dense document.
"It's seven, usually don't see you for another three or so hours, did you finally read my threatening emails?" Caleb asked, fully aware that his boss who never reads his exasperated, threatening emails, ever, would not have even so much as glanced at them, never mind opened them.
"No, however, I've looked over the acquisitions from Balfeind Thompson, they are on that pile with the yellow sticky notes, there are some of the details that need to be amended and also the 'Maxwell vs State' argument doesn't work in our favour. Gerald Balfeind is going after our money by trying to increase the hours he works by losing this motion before slamming the final one. Strongly suggest to him that we use 'Curtis vs Swinston Bay'. In fact, fire him if he doesn't.' Adrian paused to take a breath, "I also need coffee."
Caleb didn't hesitate to hand over his own cup of coffee and started jotting down on his trusty tablet the list of tasks that his boss had just reeled off. "The Shellcorp contracts are ready to go and just need to be scanned and faxed over, make sure that they don't have any missing pages."
And schedule a meeting with the board and also the heads of the Monteith project for Monday morning at nine and make sure that Faraday has had time to look over the initial proposal before the meeting, otherwise he'll accuse me of trying to make him look stupid again. It's his own incompetence but whatever.."
"Why do I need to schedule for Monday, we could free up this afternoon and have the meeting today?" Cabel muttered swiping rapidly on his tablet.
"I have a date, I mean an appointment. Dress shopping and-"
"Hold up, you're going on a date?" Caleb cut it, absolutely incredulous. "I'm sorry who are you and what have you done with my boss? My boss doesn't date anyone."
"I pay you to get rid of my headaches, not add more to the pile, shut up and go and do your job. Remember you are easily replaceable."
Cable snorted and looked up from his tablet, "please, you won't hire any female PAs for ''medical reasons', hence everyone thinks you're gay, who on earth are you going to hire? It's not like there is a massive market of male PAs for you to choose from and then there's the issue for you finding someone that would actually put up with your erraticism. The only way you'll find another one is if you poach Elise Faulkner, but then your girlfriend might kill you." He ducked just in time for the file that was hurled at his head to just skim the top of his quiff. "You're only resorting to violence because it true..." Caleb shouted behind him as another heavy file followed the first.
The day passed quickly, a flurry of papers and the muffled click-clack of high heels on the marbles floors of Lee Corporations Head Offices. These days, it was a rare sight for the CEO, Adrian Lee, who sat in his office, buried deep under paperwork. Although rare, this was a much-needed sight as, during the last few weeks, the standards had dropped dangerously low in comparison to the norm. Adrian Lee himself spent most of the morning on the verge of tearing his hair out because of all the errors that he had to fix along the way, from clerical to administrative, it was all in all, not a fun morning.
In no time, the alarm that Adrian had set on his phone for 2 pm went off and he fumbled to turn it off before staring for a while at his almost cleared desk, a huge improvement from almost twelve hours ago when he had stumbled into the office. Having run on only coffee for so long he ventured out of the cave that was his personal office with his coat flying behind him, looking like a man on a mission.
"Off to get some food I hope, or are you going straight to your date?" Caleb, his long-suffering assistant asked from his desk without looking up.
"For the last time, it's an appointment, just a shopping appointment." Adrian bit back as he flew past.
"Whatever you say, remember to eat!"
"Only if she agrees to dinner," Adrian muttered under his breath.
______
Fosse Shwartz Shopping Emporium was renowned for its prestige. The entire place oozed grandeur and luxury, and as will all establishments such as this, reeked of money, old and new. With high marbled ceilings, ornate gold embossed walls and intricately carved pillars of rose quartz, the state-home-turned-shopping-mall that spanned over one hundred acres of land, one had to have a membership to even step foot into the establishment. The once endless gardens had been turned into sleek garages and a huge outdoor car park. It was the social hotspot for the elite, the insanely wealthy and those who had more money and sense.
However, it was an establishment that Adrian Lee did not frequent very often. Adrian didn't do the whole shopping sprees around the mall with the women he was seeing at the time, or like ever. He despised the lip service; the constant swooning of sales assistants flocking around him like some kind of novel attraction in a zoo and of course, because he was known for his laissez-faire approach to most things in his life; women and some men too threw themselves at his feet. As much as he hated the place, he never asked Caleb to stop paying for the membership, for this exact reason. Getting into the boutique that Selena had texted him was a hassle and a half, fighting his way through the sea of bodies that swarmed him and escaping from the gazes of shoppers and staff alike was enough to convince him that he really didn't need to be there. No matter the value of what he could potentially be missing out on.
The shabby boutique that the piece of paper she had left him had sent him to was situated in the furthest corner of the second floor. Unlike the others that he had walked past, there were no gaudy boards or neon plastic signs that enticed customers with the newest hot take from the runways in Milan, New York and Paris or flashy new collection releases from fashion big names. There were no obvious attempts to attract the eyes of shoppers in the shop windows or the highly coveted floor space. A small bell ringed as he passed through and handed the piece of paper to the sales assistant standing by the door, hand outstretched as if expecting him. She scrutinised the paper and swung her arm, gesturing towards the back of the shop.
Adrian found his eyes widening as he passed through the dimly lit shop. When he had accompanied other women dress shopping, he had always been left on the shop floor to gaze at rows upon rows of dresses in every style and colour imaginable for hours. However, this one had no dresses on display. Unaccustomed to the low lighting he closed his eyes momentarily and waited for them to adjust. The walls were covered from ceiling to floor with dockets of all shapes and sizes, each crammed with swathes of fabric and haphazardly filled tubs of paraphernalia piled wonkily on top of each other. The floor was barely visible and Adrian had to concentrate hard to figure out where he could put his feet in order to not tread on or break anything.
"Adrian?" A familiar voice called out from somewhere behind a desk and a heavy-looking set of curtains, "is that you? cause you're late. Madame's disappeared muttering about chiffon gauze and I need a hand with the zipper, it's too low for me to get it myself."
Adrian took a deep breath, nearly knocked over an open jar of some kind of oil like substance and yanked the curtain open. He took one look and momentarily stopped breathing. She certainly did have that 'je ne sais quoi'.