"Maybe you were right after all." I said to my brother over the phone. We were talking about the inauguration, this was just past nine am and I was in the car, on my way to the office. It was nice to talk about it, ever since I have had the recent experiences, I had a rethink.
"Right about what? I am right about a lot of things and I like specifics, so if you must. Tell me." My brother has always been the arrogant one, more than I am.
"Oh you- the inauguration. I should have honored dads invitation and maybe, just maybe it would have turned out okay. I was around for it anyway. I just skipped it." I said to him as I looked outside my window. "Yes, but as always you had it your way, I don't know why you always do this anyway." My brother said and I just scoffed. He was right anyway. "We will talk later." I hung up immediately.
I smiled but that changed when we got to the building, I saw the paparazzi. I rolled my eyes and adjusted my tie. It was enough that I had to give the speech and not paparazzi's? They have no sense of privacy and they ask the most stupid and unrealistic questions.
"We are here sir." The driver said. I ignored him and I went out. The guards that followed me all did their job well but as always it didn't stop me from getting into the building. I kept my straight face and I didn't smile.
I was formal as I walked down. I wasn't ready for shy questions or any form of interactions. I had one thing to do and one thing only. And it's the speech, I got to the hall. The applause was as usual and even the comments from ladies, the stares too.
"This is the beginning of a new era-" I was in the middle of my speech when I saw her. She didn't change one bit, her hair was still in the same style, her birthmark by her left eye was there too. She wasn't looking at me,
She had her head in her phone with her legs crossed, she seemed uninterested but I wasn't. I saw a familiar face, not in a decade or a century would it be erased from my memory. I guess she didn't recognize my voice yet. I spoke a little more louder, I needed her eyes on mine. "It will be an honor to be the new branch head-" she raised her head and we saw each other. The speech was embedded in my head and I could even read it off the paper.
Our eyes met and she realized who I was. I saw the spark in her eyes. She unfolded her legs and closed her eyes. Her hands were shaky and her phone wasn't placed properly. She closed it and placed it downwards on a table.
I walked around the stage, I knew she remembered.
As soon as I finished the speech. I was to wait behind for some other things but I couldn't. Danielle has left the hall. I needed to catch up with her. It took me a while to find her again in the crowd, I could see a glimpse of her leaving the hall in such a hurry. I closed my eyes and decided to think about how I would leave the crowd here, luckily one of the guards signaled that I could pass a different hall. I saw an empty elevator. I was going to head to her office or some other place where we could talk. It was so funny when she walked right in without looking up.
It was like her world paused when she saw me. I pressed the elevator button on purpose and her eyes widened. "Are you running away from me?" I asked her and she stood there, awkward and stuck. She didn't have any answers, she tried to avoid my eyes but I couldn't let her. I took steps forward and trapped her between my arms. She had no choice but to look at me. I wanted to do that all day, it was fun to see how much I affected her. I left her alone and smiled. My walk back to the office was quite okay. All I could think about was her and how easy it was to get in her head.
"Where have you been?" As soon as I walked into my office I saw my grandfather there and he asked that question, I immediately changed my smile. "Oh, I didn't know you were waiting for me, I thought I saw someone I know." I replied as I sat down.
"Okay. It's all good. I have something to discuss with you and that's dinner. The company dinner party that's coming up." It was the first time that I was hearing about it and I did talk to my brother about how I want to be very active with all the things that are going on.
"Yeah sure." I replied but then it seemed like he wasn't done. "You have to bring a woman. It's your inauguration, so you need to." My grandfather said and I knew what my response would be. "No, that's not going to happen." I replied
"It is important Arthur, you need to bring a partner, a lady. And I am serious." He added and I scoffed. "I don't fancy bringing someone I am not interested in to my inauguration." I explained to him my gentle and concerned reasons.
"It's important Arthur. The press will be there and this is a chance to clear those rumors about your sexuality. So if you can listen to me just once. You need to bring someone with you." I rolled my eyes and I rested my back. This is way worse than merging the companies or parachuting. This is taking me out of my comfort zone, and he knew that.