"Don't invite me to drink if you're going to be like this the entire time." A sarcastic voice sang, pulling Leo out of his deep rooted thoughts.
Sitting across Leonardo, was the closest thing he had to company, Enzo. A diplomat he met overseas, whose father somehow, knew his late father.
Leo, who had been staring at his glass of whiskey, pursued his lips and dropped the glass on the table, disinterested.
"Why the long face?" Enzo pried, helping his friend to finish the alcohol that was, 'too expensive' to be left alone.
"If I told you, it would endanger your life." Leo honestly told his friend, certain that nothing good would come out if Vitto's identity was jeopardized.
Enzo was the sort of person who firmly believed that ignorance was Bliss, hence, he was the living and breathing definition of the saying...
'What you don't know won't kill you'.
"Fine, just as long as it doesn't affect the favor you owe me." Enzo said, rolling up his blue plaid sleeves.
"What favor?" Leo defensively asked, getting pensive at the sound of the word favor, especially when it was Enzo, who would be doing the collecting.
"You promised to go on that date with my coworker from the other day, you owe me for that 1am booty call." Enzo reminded him, exaggerating a bit.
It was true Leo had called him at one am, but it was to help drive him back home, because he was too drunk to drive himself. And it would look bad in front of his employees, if their new boss slept on the sidewalk, intoxicated.
"With the things going on in my life, a date is the last thing on my mind." Leo half confessed, indirectly referring to Vitto, who had made a bold declaration.
"I do have something I need to ask, does the name Vitto Moretti ring any bells?" He voiced out, making sure he wasn't heard by any of the other customers at the bar.
Enzo, who was barely in the country due to his work surely wouldn't know much about such a small time gangster.
Leo thought, in his head, if he hasn't the slightest clue about her, that simply meant she wasn't popular enough.
"You must have hit your head on the door when we walked in." Enzo responded, too stunned to cought out a suitable response.
"What?" Leo retorted, the look on Enzo's face made it seem like he was either an idiot or just plain naieve.
"Vitto Moretti is a big name in the city's underbelly at the moment, not only does he have ties across the entire country, his connections spread across three continents. Of course, the ties are established under the Moretti Clan, but no one can downplay how significant he's become over the past ten years." His friend took a pause and poured himself more liquor.
"He's known as the Wraith of death, and the only people aside the family whose ever seen his face, meet with death that same night. Right now, his net worth can't be measured accurately, because he has too many unseen assets at his disposal. If there's anyone you'd want to place your bets on in a fight, then it'd have to be Vitto Moretti." Enzo receited, his face reddened from all the excitement he got from speaking about gangsters.
What piqued Leo's interest, was the fact that Enzo referred to Vitto as a he, and not the outrageous woman who barged into his office barely two days ago.
"Why the sudden interest in the Mafia?" His friend inquired, "it seems too out of character for you."
Why Enzo took pride in studying criminals, was because he had once been saved by a gangster when he was fourteen years old.
"I just heard the name somewhere and got curious, he didn't sound like a big shot to me." Leo's hurt pride spoke, pissed off that the arrogant woman was capable enough to cause him some real trouble.
"The man's dangerous, much more than you think." Enzo concluded, his jovial tone declined into a serious minded one.
**********
The chat with Enzo replayed in Leo's mind on repeat, all throughout the next week, restricting him from focusing on the pile of paperwork he needed to sign and approve.
He was just about to step out for a stroll to clear his head, when he received a text from Enzo, who left the country, only yesterday.
*Enzo: I've booked a reservation for you and Zita, tonight, she's leaving the country in two days and insists on going out with you.
Leo groaned at the text message, and quickly typed a response, about to tell Enzo to cancel the reservation.
Just as he was about to hit send, the door to his office flung open and in came Lucia, in a panicked state.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt" He interrogated, shoving his phone into his back pocket.
"A truck with break failure collided into a bus on a bridge and a fire broke out. As we speak ambulances have been sent to rescue as many as possible. The staff says to gather everyone with medical qualification on board. We have less than ten minutes till they arrive." She explained, trying not to leave out a single detail.
Leo who had handled special training for this sort of situation immediately dashed out of the office, holding Lucia by the wrist. Till they reached the lobby, where all the available staff and residents were busy prepping themselves.
"Call the closest hospital nearby with decent facilities and have them prep for an emergency admission!" Leo instructed the receptionist on sight as he walked into the middle of the lobby.
"Nurses, administer first aid to any patient you find unattended to, no one's hands shouldn't be idle."
He took up a folder and drew a straight line in the middle, then lifted it above his head.
"Once the ambulances arrive, doctors, according to your discretion place the patients into three categories. Green, yellow and red, with yellow as the middle ground. Anyone below yellow, the nurses handle them, anyone above yellow receives immediate attention. Residents, take charge of all the patients labelled yellow."
Lucia swiftly got a white lab coat and handed it to Leo, wearing an all knowing look on her face.
*Six hellish hours later*
The day had quickly seeped into night, and the tension at the hospital had eventually died down. It was fortunate that only a handful of people were labelled Red, and most of them were either green with just a few yellows thrown into the mix.
Everyone at the hospital was left stunned by how well the CEO handled the situation, and ended up respecting him for it.
Even up till late at night, he was still monitoring the condition of all the patients labelled Red, who had to undergo emergency surgery.
Lucia of all people, noticed how hard he worked himself, and bought him a cup of coffee.
Of course, she bought one for all the other doctors as well, but that was just a cover up story.
"Here." She said, sticking out the piping hot cup of coffee to his face.
"Thanks." He replied, taking it without breaking his concentration from the patient he was checking.
"You were amazing today." She said, voicing out her thoughts, "the other residents really wish you were mentoring them."
Leo took a sip from his coffee and relaxed his tensed shoulders, "if you'd like, I could join the mentorship program." His words were muffled, but Lucia still caught what he said. Though she ignored them, it still made her glad that he harboured such thoughts.
"You were amazing too, you were the most level headed one, who thought to inform me of the situation." He stated, then took a sip out of his coffee.
"What do you say to us getting some drinks tomorrow night?" It was either the tiredness or the late night caffeine that boosted the man's self confidence.
Lucia, who didn't count on her boss actually asking her out was convinced for a moment that she must have dreamt up the question.
"I'm sorry, is that too inappropriate?" He voiced out in a careful tone, judging by her facial expressions, she wasn't too pleased with his offer.
"No! I think I'm free that night, tomorrow works fine." She replied in a rushed manner, sounding overly excited to go out with him.
"Great, I'll text you the time and place." Leo said, half smiling as he watched her prance away to check up on some patients who were just regaining consciousness.
***********
It wasn't till another hour before Leo left the hospital, he was too tired to drive and ended up calling for a cab.
The drive from the hospital to the house he bought early that year, lasted twenty whole minutes. And the one thing on Leo's mind, was taking a hot shower and eating the left over food from yesterday.
But sadly, it was only after the cab driver drove off into the distance, and Leo had walked through his gates that he noticed something curled up in a ball, sitting on his porch.
Someone, rather.
"Shit." He cursed and took out his phone to dial for help, while he took stealthy steps towards the immobile figure.
A trail of fresh blood caught the young man's eyes, and softened his heart. He dashed into action and cupped the person in his arms the second he discovered they were injured.
The only thing Leo didn't expect, was to discover that the person bleeding on his porch, was no one other than the cause of his stress.
Vitto herself, in the flesh.