Chapter 6 The Meetup

• Adrian
• “I hope this is worth it Leo,” I say while walking into the hotel.
• “You have got to trust me, man, have I ever failed you? I have worked with her a lot and trust me you will love her.” Leo reassures me as we head to the table he had reserved for us.
• The hotel has an aesthetic charm to it, more or less like Leo’s style. The grey matte and brown walls embody a blend of elegance and charm. Half of the wall is covered in midnight blue wallpaper that kind of reminds me of the deep ocean that encloses a lot of dangerous sea animals. The seats are u-shaped and leather-textured and were rather a bit uncomfortable due to their straight-like nature. It is quite elegant I must say.
• “I hope your girl is time-conscious, you know how I feel about punctuality,” I say after ten minutes of waiting.
• “Relax man, she will be here. Order something while I ring her and ask her where she is.” Ryan says while taking out his phone and dialing her. I decide to order a latte for a start to calm my nerves. Leo orders a cocktail, typical Leo, good thing he can handle his alcohol.
• “How is Bianca doing by the way? I have not seen her in a while now.” I ask while taking a sip of my latte.
• “Dude, she is getting on my nerves of late. We had a big argument the other day because I was out with Chloe without her permission. I get the kid is not mine but I am the father figure in her life and she loves me like her own dad so I have every right to make her happy by taking her to the park on a random Saturday afternoon. I mean come on! Does she prefer that deadbeat dad who left her when she needed him the most? I was so mad bruh.”
• “I kind of get Bianca’s anger. She just wants to ensure the safety of her kid you know.”
• “So she does not trust me with her kid. We have been together for two years now. If I was to hurt the kid I would have already done that by now.”
• “That is not what I am saying. Mothers can be a bit protective of their children. Do not be too harsh with her. I have had similar issues with Meghan. She sometimes will not let me see Amy for the most absurd reasons and I can tell she just doesn’t want me around her.” I say while taking another sip of the latte. It is not as good as the latte at Tim’s but it is good enough plus I needed it, I had a long day at work.
• “The situation is not the same, man. You are divorcing Meghan while Bianca and I are even planning a wedding. If she does not trust me around her kid I wonder why we are even getting married.” Leo finishes and I can see the anger flash in his eyes. Bianca has been that one girl who has managed to make Leo finally settle down. I am their number one fan and could never at one time imagine that they would not get married. I mean come on, one of us has to win in this thing called love.
• “Don’t think like that, couples fight all the time but that does not mean they should not be together. You two need each other and mostly Chloe needs the two of you together in her life.”
• “I am just tired of the fighting honestly, but I love her so much, I love them both they are my world. Let me try and keep my cool and hope for the best in this. I do not want to lose her, if I do I am not giving love another chance and I am going back to my player ways, I swear to you.” He says while keeping eye contact and I can see how genuine he is.
• “It will not get there, I promise you. The wedding will happen and I have to be the best man remember that. You know maybe Bianca is a bit cranky because she is pregnant.” I say while chuckling thinking that that will ease our conversation but it doesn’t.
• “You think so?” Leo asks with concern on his face. I knew I was bad at making jokes but I thought we would laugh this one off.
• “I was joking man come on. Is your expert still coming? It is already half past.” I ask to change the subject.
• “There she is,” Leo says while looking at the entrance and standing up to go get her.
• The so-called ‘expert’ is quite short, about 5’2. She is a redhead and has on casual blue jeans, a Red Devil t-shirt that has been tucked in on one side, and a black Converse. So much for being professional. She seems to have run all the way here from the drips of sweat on her face. How am I supposed to receive help from her? She doesn’t seem composed herself. This is a joke. I should have never agreed to this. They hug when Leo finally gets to the reception and talk a bit before heading towards me at the table. I do not see the essence of standing up to greet her as she has already disappointed me. I think this is the first and last meeting I will ever have with her. I cannot put my most trusted possession in her hands, hell no.
• “Adrian, meet Ellie. Ellie, Adrian.” Leo says while signaling me to offer my hand to her.
• “Nice to meet you, Mr. Adrian. I am so sorry for keeping you waiting. I was helping my best friend set for her little sister’s birthday tomorrow. You know how birthdays can be especially for little 10 year-olds, cakes, decorations, party plates and cups, food, snacks and you know my best friend cannot do it alone. I am so sorry, I know this is more important and I should have prioritized this meeting to that but I like making everyone happy and contented so immediately after I rushed here I knew I am talking too much and I should shut up now.” She finishes off her little monologue and I can see her chubby cheeks flush with embarrassment. She is quite a character. I do not normally like a chatterbox but there is just something to this one.
• “Nice to meet you too, Ellie, please sit down,” I say gesturing for her to sit down and at least ease the awkwardness. Leo flashes me a smirk while taking a sip of his latte. He knew what he was signing me up for.
• “You can order something first before we get down to business, to make you feel a bit at ease,” Leo tells Ellie while signaling to the waiter to come.
• “I think I will have a cup of coffee too.”
• “What type of coffee ma’am?”
• “Is there iced coffee?” She asks as I think to myself who even takes iced coffee? Statistics say that most sociopaths prefer iced coffee to regular hot coffee. Maybe she is one.
• “Yes ma’am. We will bring you right away,” the waiter says while jolting down something.
• “Thank you,” she says while giving him a genuine smile. She has a beautiful smile I will give her that.
• “So, how have you been Ellie? It has been a long time since I last saw you. I think the last time I saw you was when I introduced you to Polar Industries, how did that go?” Leo asks taking another sip of his latte.
• “I have been good, up and about. The job was nice and they were kind of nice people to work with, making my work even ten times easier. Do you know that they now entered the above 50 upcoming businesses in the country?”
• “Oh my God! That is so nice. I never doubted you at all.” Leo finishes off by giving me a look. That ‘I told you so’ look.
• “I have heard about them. So far not worked with them but they are promising.” I chip in to get into the conversation too.
• “Yer, they have even opened branches in about five states and all are doing exemplary.” She says with so much pride in her eyes. Say much for tooting one’s horn.
• “You know they would not have been there if it were not for you. You have helped them grow a lot, Ellie.” Leo says trying to emphasize to me how good she is.
• “They did most of the work, I was just a helping hand.” She says giving off that smile again.
• “You seem to be good at what you do,” I say trying to get to know much about her. Just before she answers, the waiter brings her iced coffee and sets it in front of her.
• “I do what I can Mr. Adrian. It is my joy helping people.” She says while taking a sip of her coffee.
• “So what exactly is it that you do?”
• “I mostly work with upcoming businesses to help them grow. This is by giving them strategies for advertising and marketing, if they let me, I can help them plan on the company growth and analyze it and generally just make them take a step forward. I also work with companies that have collapsed to bring them back to their glory. I have a masters in economics so I am quite the best as they come. Also, I am normally punctual, today was just a hiccup.”
• “I hope so as I am big on punctuality, I am a busy man so I cannot afford to waste time waiting for people,” I say while giving her a stern look. “Where did you study economics?” I ask while taking a sip of my drink.
• “I studied at Harvard for my degree and graduated with first-class honors then did my Masters and graduated two years ago.”
• “I see you are quite smart. What companies have you worked with so far?”
• “I have worked with Polar Industries, Lockwood, The Gideons, and NAP just to mention a few. Most of them I have worked with for almost two years now, they do not want to let me go even after getting there as a company.” She says chuckling.
• “That is promising I have personally seen some of those companies grow, I did not know you were the brains behind it. Leo here has convinced me you are the best in the industry and I seem to quite trust him so I want to believe that you are.”
• “Yes Sir. I love my job and do it to the best of my ability.”
• “My company faced a blow about some days ago and ever since the market is not working in our favor. We have lost a lot of our partners including Lockwood and I am not ready to see us collapse. We have tried our best to make our grids positive and to no avail hence Leo recommended you. Am I to trust that you can take this job?”
• “First of all, I am sorry to hear about that. Yes, you can trust me to do anything in my power to bring you back up. I am so glad that Leo recommended me, I will not disappoint you. Though, Leo did not fill me in with the many details about this meeting. What is the name of your company?” she asks while taking a sip of her coffee.
• “Sage Enterprises.”
• Immediately after I utter those two words, she chokes on her drink and seems terrified. This is becoming suspicious. Does she have a history with Sage Enterprises that I do not know about? What is it she is hiding? What terrified her so much that she choked on her drink? Myriads of questions run through my mind.