"The what now?" Eleonora couldn't help but gasp at his declaration. She hadn't thought of the possibility of Raul pitching her against someone.
"You look shocked, Ms. Von Berg." He said in a polite voice, his expression anything but. His haughty gaze screamed challenge and mockery. He was daring her to speak up and oppose him.
Yet, Eleonora wouldn't be Eleonora if she gave up or crumbled in the face of an adversary. She thrived on it and she knew this time would be no different. At least she hoped it wouldn't be. She leveled a steady gaze, not looking away.
"We shall be leaving for a site visit. I'd like the two of you to draw up ideas with cost-benefit analysis. I hope you've gone through the files. We shall have a discussion tomorrow."
Raul walked ahead, after firing instructions. She had to admit that his company was greatly organized and easy to follow up with any resources and annotations she needed. But his capability and excellence had nothing to contribute to his personality.
"Patriarchal prick," she muttered under her breath as Helton fell in step with her.
"You didn't know it was the final interview?" He sounded curious but also confused.
"It's a long story. But no, I was informed of the site visit and everything else. Except this teeny bit of information."
Eleonora huffed as she glared at his back. "I didn't think we'd end up competing through this too," she shook her head with a smirk.
"Competing against you? Ah, just when I ran into this familiar face. Guess we'll always be arch-nemeses." Helton shrugged, a smooth smile on his face.
"Well, we don't wanna piss off our employer now, do we?"
"That's a lost cause," Eleonora muttered to herself, following him to the site with Ercole hot on their heels.
As soon as the bunch reached the archaic building that looked to be on the verge of collapsing in on itself, Eleonora looked up in awe. She had never visited places of such grandeur in her university days. She certainly had her share of site visits, but nothing like the one the government was trying to protect as a symbol of heritage.
With her tablet in hand, she roamed the area with the crew as they discussed the pain points they would be working on. She found two surprising things during the visit.
One, Raul had a huge ego boost due to his booming business and successful clientele, that he had not once allowed them to make suggestions. For the whole morning, he had been going off on a tangent and wanting them to pop out ideas that would help his views into fruition. 'What a huge disappointment...,' she thought to herself.
It was mostly his monologue.
'The dome needs support and polish, we'll have to subtly add support structures.'
Or, 'The long winding hallway has poor pillar support, not enough to hold it up. We need reinforcement pillars.'
Or his epic, 'We might need to make some alterations to this, somewhere to leave behind a legacy.'
While saying the last comment he looked so serious as he watched the painting of a mother and child in a boat as the child plays with the fish they've caught. She was tempted to throw the tablet at his handsome face. 'And a self-centered prick,' she finished her previous thought.
Another surprise was Helton. He had been nodding along to Raul, taking his suggestions and adding his opinions to them in a twisted way. He was making Raul reconsider and give him credit. Yet, Raul was giving him an inch while taking back two. So, although Helton's method wasn't effective either, his attitude reminded her of how good of a sweet talker he was back in his school days.
She could remember how Helton was the guy that could receive favors without sweating it or have the teachers extend the due date or host a barbecue day when he felt he needed a moral boost.
As he turned back to her to shoot her an apologetic smile with a shrug she had to hold back from chuckling. Apparently, Raul was wearing him down as well. As she was planning on suggesting a lunch break to get him to stop, he suggested a ridiculous idea.
"So, now that you guys are caught up in what you need to do, I trust you to deliver."
"Like hell we are!" She snapped as she caught the opening, closing the distance between them with a quick step, coming to stand in front of him. "You, Mr. D'Ambrosio has been in the clouds with your so-called brilliant suggestions so far. Earth to."
His nostrils flared in anger as he levelled her with a chilling look for insinuating the insult. "Are you actually suggesting how to plan this project and that my plans aren't good?"
"Well, isn't that why I'm here? To give better suggestions?" Eleonora responded hotly, in a sweet voice, causing Ercole to clear his throat.
"You? Let's hear it." Raul paused and took a step back, allowing her to take the metaphorical microphone.
"Well, I have some finer issues jotted down for revision, but let's hear the major ones. Reinforcement pillars? Seriously? Are we renovating a stone building that was functioning perfectly for 12 centuries by adding concrete pillars? You want me to buy it?"
"That's why you're naïve, Ms. Von Berg. It's not a big deal to create a look-alike pillar for supporting the system." He speaks slowly as if chiding a kid. "Like you said, it has functioned for a millennia. We are restoring it to protect it and not make it function."
"Yeah, are you sure you're protecting it, Mr. D'Ambrosio?" She scowled back. As they were having a glare down, Ercole and Helton watched with bated breath, too uncomfortable to interrupt and too amused to stop them.
"We are protecting a heritage symbol. Not rebranding it." She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. When brown eyes clashed against the irritated grey ones they looked ready to kill each other.
"Besides, you've already scouted this place and have all the measurements down. I've looked at your goddamn files. I know there's no need for additional pillars. We can't always take the easy way out, Sir. We'll have to reinforce the existing pillars." Eleonora was far from finishing but she decided to keep it short.
"We need to study the material. There wasn't enough info in your database. It's best if you reconsider your excellency's idea."
Raul's eyes remained sharp on hers, as if evaluating her. He had to give it to her.
The demure woman, strongly challenging him after deceiving him, gets the job, calling him stupid and still rendering everyone speechless. Especially him.
Eleonora was watching him assessing her as he cleared his throat, giving her a noncommittal response.
"Your argument might have just cost you your job." He turned to walk back towards the car, leaving her shocked. The other two who were already gaping were still gaping at the duo as he turned, looking over his shoulder.
"If you hadn't made sense."