As we make our way to Abraham's Incorporated in Sandton City, Charles and Damien cannot stop talking about just how extraordinary this meeting is going to be, coming up with crazy scenarios of how I'm going to react, and all of them end up with her pregnant.
At this very moment I am upset with her, why were there rumours of a merger? Hopefully, it is just the public making assumptions for her sake, but I am still upset with her and in all honesty, scared too. I didn't want to meet her, after seeing those pictures that day, I haven't been the same, that's all I see, in my head and my dreams, I hate her.
"Uh Xander, you're thinking out loud," Charles says worriedly.
"There is nothing to be scared about Xander, you'll be fine," Damien says.
"I am not scared,"
"Dude, you're angry and somehow terrified of the woman, she is way better than you and I mean if she – ouch!" Charles says, and Damien gives his lover a warning look.
"What? I'm being honest," Charles says.
"Maybe too honest. Just tone it down a little," Damien says, and I nod in agreement.
"Okay, I'm sorry Andy, I just think you could learn something from her," he says.
And that's all it takes to get me reeling.
"Me? Learn from a woman. I'd rather have my dick chopped off than learn from a woman," I protest.
"You're going to if you keep up with this sexist behaviour of yours," Charles yells.
"Charles we are not having this discussion anymore," I say. The car stops and X steps out of the car and opens my door, Damien quickly gets out.
"Xander, don't you dare!"
I jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and walked towards the doors of the building X rushed ahead of me and reopened the door.
"Thank you, X," I mumble and walk into the building. Charles and Damien rush behind me and I walk towards the receptionist, and she immediately gives me her best smile.
The amount of makeup on her face makes me want to puke.
"Good morning, sir," she greets cheerfully.
"Morning, I'm here to see Miss Abrahams," I say, she lowers her top to show her cleavage and I almost cringe.
"Oh, she is not in at the moment, she'll be arriving shortly. I would be incredibly happy to keep you company," she smirks.
She's such a whore, who hires such people? Oh, wait, Miss Abrahams, typical.
"How incompetent, she is a professional businesswoman, and she is late," I growl, Charles glares at me and I mumble some insults under my breath and make my way to the waiting area.
"I can't believe it,"
"Xander, you do know that we are almost 45 minutes early," Charles says, "And she's got other people to see, unlike some people."
'Whatever," I mumble, and I look outside the door and there are no paparazzi outside, that's odd.
"You're impossible sometimes," he sighs and walks away to stand with X and Damien.
We patiently wait for the woman to arrive and lo and behold, twenty minutes later she shows up with quite the squad, bodyguards, assistants, and photographers. The woman looks angelic, with long flowing hair, her black dress hugging every curve of her body, and a beautiful smile, wait, wait, I take all of that back.
She walks through the door and sees me, and her smile becomes wider, it makes me want to smile and I don't do that often. She stops in front of me, and I almost choke on my spit at how beautiful she is.
"Good morning Mr Forsythe," she smiles as she reaches out her hand.
"Morning Miss Abrahams," I croak out, I clear my throat and shake her soft hand, holy moly her hand is so soft, I feel a nudge at my side, and I let go of her hand.
"How was your flight here?" she asks, handing her handbag to the woman beside her.
"Good, it was good," I stutter.
"You need to chill Andy," Charles whispers.
"Have you been offered anything to drink or eat?"
"No, we have not," Charles answers.
The woman sighs, "Rebecca, what did I tell you this morning?" she says walking to the receptionist's desk, "You know what, don't answer, bring coffee and everything I told you to get to my private boardroom ASAP."
"Yes ma'am," the receptionist nods and scurries away.
Strict and commanding, can she get any more attractive?
"Let's head up to the boardroom, I apologise for keeping you waiting," she says frustratedly.
"Don't worry about it, Miss Abrahams," I reply with a smile.
Since when am I so nice?
"She's usually more reliable and well-behaved," she says, we walk to the elevators, the doors open, and I gesture for her to walk in first, earning a few weird looks from Damien and Charles, who walk in before me, I'm the last one in and the doors close.
She presses a button on the elevator, and we head up to the top floor, after an awkward elevator ride, we finally arrive, the doors open, and I'm hit by cool air, I look down the hall and I'm jealous, she has an eco-friendly building, state of the art building material and design, Charles was right, I should have asked the Germans.
We walk down the hall and make it to two glass doors, her bodyguard opens the door, and we all walk in except for Damien and her bodyguard, the interior décor of the room is simply a classy monochrome look, I'm so renovating my office building.
"You may sit down, while we wait for Rebecca," she says as she sits down on the left side of the table, I sit directly across from her with Charles beside me.
"Will it just be us?" I ask.
"Yes, this is a very private meeting only you and the important parties involved in the project know that you are here, they have all been sworn to secrecy," she replies.
The receptionist walks in with a trolley and Charles's face lights up when he sees the muffins on it. He immediately gets up and walks to the trolley, he makes my cup of coffee and brings it with a bran muffin, he places it in front of me and walks back to
the trolley.
Once everybody is ready, we begin the meeting.
"So, Mr Forsythe, I take it you've read through the proposal?" she asks, as a cup of tea is placed in front of her.
"Yes, I have, and I must say I am quite impressed," I reply, I look up in front of me and catch her receptionist smirking at me and I grimace.
"Thank you, Rebecca, you may leave," Miss Abrahams says sternly, and the receptionist frowns.
"My pleasure Miss Abr- I mean Nikita," she says and leaves.
"You let your employees call you by name,"
"Of course, only my PA, receptionist and top management are allowed to," she replies, sipping on her cup of coffee.
"That's not how you run your business, you need to be professional, they must respect you,"
Boom!
"I didn't build my empire by being friendly to people," I added proudly.
She chuckles, did she just chuckle?
"Firstly, sir, you didn't build that empire your father did, you're just running it, and by the looks of things, you're doing a terrible job secondly, this is my business, not yours so mind your own," she replies.
I look like an idiot, don't I?
Everyone in the room is dead silent and shocked, I mean I am too, I want to scream at her. Charles is sitting beside me, and he is beside himself, he is going to chew my head off for this.
"Women, soft hearts, can't even discipline their employees, especially that receptionist," I say
"Says the man with a workforce still on strike," she shoots back.
Damn, she's good.
Charles almost chokes on his tea but lets out a small cough.
"And besides, you need to have a good working relationship with your employees, that's business 101," she adds.
"If they turn on you?"
"As yours did, there would be serious consequences, so they wouldn't think of it,"
"Of course, they wouldn't," I mumble in defeat.
"Mr Forsythe, can we proceed with the meeting, or do you want to continue to embarrass yourself?" she asks with a smirk, I clench my jaw and nod.
At this point the air is so thick you can cut it with a knife, it's undeniable.
"Let's proceed, you say you had questions," she says, her PA, hands her a black and gold folder that looks the same as mine, she opens it and pulls out a copy of the proposal.
I feel a nudge and I look down at my copy and then up at her, "Yes, who is the third in command, you didn't mention their name,"
"That would be Aiden Desmond," she says proudly.
I hope she's getting too friendly with the man.
"Will he be joining us for the meeting?"
"No, he's on a site inspection at the moment," she replies, "He will be at the next meeting."
"Good, so who will be in charge of the finance and administration?"
The meeting carries on with a back-and-forth question and answers for about an hour and a half before we call it a day.
I am downright agitated with this woman, I tried to break her, but I just couldn't, hell she almost broke me, I must be losing my mean streak.
Charles, Damien, and I make our way back down to reception and we sign out, we step outside to find X already waiting for us, we get into the car and immediately regret sitting in the back with Charles. As the car starts moving Charles is staring at me with a creepy smile on his face, I try and ignore it, but I can't.
"What is it, Charles?"
"How are you?"
"Charles, don't," Damien warns.
"Listen to your boyfriend Dante," I say to him.
"No, I just wanna know, how he's feeling, I mean after that beat down in there, I wouldn't be the same person," he says.
"I'm fine Charles," I reply through gritted teeth.
"Oh no Andy, you, my dear best friend, need to tell me how you feel because I know that you're upset, correction, angry, you feel disrespected and disgusted by Nikita's behaviour, and you're also both attracted and terrified of her. You think, no, you know she is better than you, she has more power than you, don't you Andy? Someone finally put your thick-headed ass in its place and guess what/ I'm glad it a woman was,"
Fuck!