ARIA'S POV
"So Nixon, huh?" I asked as Lena and I cooked dinner together."There's nothing between us." She glared at me."I never said there was," I smirked. "But I can tell he likes you.""I know that, but the company has a rule so it's never going to happen between us." She filled her plate with spaghetti and meatballs before taking it out of the kitchen.I did the same and joined her at the dining table. "What if there was no such rule? Or what if you guys met under different circumstances? Would you have considered it?""Yeah, I might." She shrugged, putting her spaghetti-filled fork in her mouth."So you like him." I beamed."Yeah, a bit." She pinched the edge of her finger to show me how small a bit she was talking about."Lena?" I raised my eyebrows at her.She dropped her fork on the plate. "Okay, fine. I like him, but the company has its rules so I'm never going to act on my feelings. I won't risk my career over a man and besides, getting rid of whatever feelings I have for him would be a piece of cake."Typical Lena. Since I met her in college, she has never been the one to associate with guys. Not that she wasn't pretty or attractive enough but she thought of it as a distraction to her education and future career. Lena was a goal-oriented woman, so it was normal for her to pick her career over a guy anytime.When I became friends with her, I took her as my role model and copied some of the things she did. For example, abstaining from a distracting relationships and not letting peer pressure influence and bring me down. Lena was the master of those two things and with that, she was able to graduate without any obstacles.I'd always known that one day a guy would appear in her life and make her break all her protocols but I didn't know if that guy was Nixon. I just had to wait and let everything unfold.As we were about to finish dinner, Lena's phone rang on the table. "Hello," she answered and listened to the person on the other side. "The shareholders? Why?" Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion before she ran her fingers through her hair. "Why this again? What time tomorrow?" She rested her elbows on the table. "Okay, I'll be there early." She hung up."Who is it?" I asked."It's Nixon. He said the shareholders are demanding a meeting with the President to discuss the successor of the company." She sighed."Why should there be discussion? Does the company president not have any children?" I raised my eyebrows in confusion."He does but his son is not ready to take over the responsibility of the company that's why the shareholders are holding this meeting to pick someone to take over," she explained."So they might end up picking someone else to take over the company from the president. Why would his son do that to him?" I shook my head."I don't blame him though." She shrugged."Why?" I gave her a confused look."According to Nixon who is his best friend, the president has two sons; Daniel and Dave Mendez. Daniel being the eldest son took all the responsibility of the company on his shoulder because his younger brother didn't want to have anything to do with the company. His parents let him be because Daniel insisted that they let him do whatever he wants that he would handle the company.Dave Mendez lived a low-profile life, hiding his identity as a Mendez from the public, so nobody knew what he looks like except his close friends and people closely associated with his parents. Some people might have seen him but they wouldn't recognize him as a Mendez."It was certain Daniel was going to succeed his parent but everything changed when he died three years ago for reasons unknown to the public. Their parents insisted that Dave take over from where his brother left off but he refused and ran away to London to stay away from his parents a year after his brother died. From what I heard, his brother's death affected him the most because they were close. So now, Dave Mendez is back but he and his parents are still dragging the same old issue," she narrated."Wow, that's sad.""I know."The next morning, Lena and I left earlier for work because of the meeting. As we were about to enter the elevator, we noticed everyone scurrying away and creating a path to the private elevator. We swerved our head to the main exit to an elderly man in a black Armani suit and some men in the black suit behind him walking toward the private elevator."That's the President, Mr. Darrell Mendez," Lena whispered to me.He walked past us with his phone in his ear. "You had one job and you lost him. I want you to find him and bring him back before the end of the day," he said to the person on the receiving end as he stepped into the elevator."Let's go." Lena and I rushed into the elevator and went to our floor.Lena dropped by her office before leaving to attend the meeting with the shareholders while I went to my team's room and got business with work. Summer was putting me through the design pattern which I thought was a great idea by the way, but I had a different idea so I asked Celestine if I could include them.She gave me a go-ahead and told me to show her as soon as I was done.An hour later, the blaring sound of the ambulance siren filled the entire building. The commotion sound from outside made everyone in our room rush outside to see what was going on.Everyone was packed near the floor window which enabled us to see what was happening in the receptionist's office on the first floor. The elevator on our floor opened with a ding as a short dark haired lady walked out."The President collapsed," she announced, making everyone gasp in shock.DAVE'S POVAdrenaline pumped in my vein as I dashed through the woods, letting the dirt under my shoes fly behind me. The music playing from my headphone gave me the drive to continue jogging for more than thirty minutes before I stopped at the edge of the waterfall at the end of the woods.My chest heaved up and down as I stared at the water pouring down, making me remember the times that my brother and I spent together. FOUR YEARS AGO"Dave, come on," Daniel shouted as he ran ahead of him with the wind blowing his shoulder-length raven hair behind him.I picked up my pace to catch up with him but he was too fast. He stopped at the edge of the with his back turned to me while I caught up with him, squatting beside him. His amber eyes looked at me with a smile on his face and his breathing regulated while I was still struggling to catch my breath."How are you not out of breath?" I raised my eyebrows at him."Because I'm not a weakling like you," he spat.Rolling my eyes at him, I st
DAVE'S POVThe beeping monitor and my Dad's raged breathing were all that could be heard in the hospital room as I sat on the chair in front of the bed staring at him. My mother sat beside him, holding his hand with her head resting on it fast asleep. I remembered the last time I was in the position, it was when my brother dropped me off at my penthouse after our little vacation. A few hours later, I got a call from my dad that my brother was in the hospital. It was when I got there that I found out that my brother was dying from Liver cancer and it has already developed beyond control before he found out.It came as I surprise to me that I didn't notice that he was dying after spending the whole month with me. I only understood why he did that through the video, but that didn't stop me from getting mad at him. He passed away in the hospital the following day after saying his last words to me, "I'm sorry." I remembered that moment like it was better which was why I got more scared w
ARIA'S POVThe company was in disarray at the news of the President collapsing but the Assistant managing director managed to calm everyone down and assured us that the President was fine.Everyone went back to work but we could hardly concentrate because Lena and Nixon who went with the ambulance that took the President were not back to give us any news of his condition.I hadn't gotten the chance to meet the President but according to Summer, he was a very nice person but strict at the same time which explained why everyone was sad because of what happened to him.The paper I was sketching on was long forgotten as I kept staring at the door, waiting for Celestine to come back with some sort of information concerning the President. Everyone else was either listening to music or sleeping at their desk because none of our brains were settled to continue working on our project.As the door opened, everyone shot up their desk and approached Celestine who walked in and closed the door beh
ARIA'S POVThat night, I was up way past my bedtime talking to Savannah about how I was adapting to my workplace and things that I have occurred in the few days I'd been here. We got off the call by one in the morning when I told her that I had to go to work early the next morning. "Ari, wake up. We are going to be late," I heard Lena's voice in my sleep before the quilt got yanked off my body. "Five more minutes." I groaned as I curled on the bed."Do you know what time is it? It's 6:40." She yelled and I shot up the bed with wide eyes."Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" I climbed down the bed and rushed into the bathroom. "That is because I wasn't expecting you to still be sleeping by this time," she shouted after me. "Hurry up and meet me in the living room, we have to stop by the hospital before going to work." "Okay." I stood in front of the bathroom mirror to brush my teeth. It was all Savannah's fault that I was getting late for work. If only she hadn't kept me awake til
DAVE'S POVWhen Nixon broke the news of my taking over the company to my parents, they were over the moon. My dad was all smiles that day and the doctor was surprised to see my father's health improving faster than usual. My Mom concluded that it was the good news that fastened his healing process. Dad joined in by saying if he knew collapsing in the conference was all it would take to make me join the company he would have done it a long time ago. Before we left the hospital that night, he instructed Nixon to put me through everything I needed to know about the company. They planned to officially make me the president of the company when my dad recovers fully.At first, I wasn't happy about my decision to join the company, but seeing how delighted my parents were made it all worth it. Since my brother died, I had never seen my parent that happy which made me satisfied that I had granted my brother the favor he asked of me. That night, Nixon spent the night in my penthouse, teachin
ARIA'S POVMy mother had always warned me that my hot temper and running mouth would get me in trouble one day, but I never expected that day to come so soon. How would I have expected that the simpled dressed guy who bumped into me and broke my phone would turn out to be Dave Mendez, the new president of the company I worked in? What kind of evil spirit was following me? If only I had been a little patient, my job in Styles won't be hanging on a thin thread. When we left the hospital that day, I kept on begging Lena to talk to Nixon to convince Dave not to fire me. Since they were best friends, there was a high chance he would listen to me. Lena disregarded my begging and told me to face the consequences of my reckless actions. Before we left the house that morning, I went down on my knees to pray, asking God to save me from getting fired. My heart thudded in my chest as Lena's car approached Stlye's building. We got out of the car only for me to hear a familiar voice calling Lena.
DAVE'S POV"Are you sure?" I asked with a smirk on my face."Yes." She nodded.Standing from my chair, I walked to the front of the desk where she was kneeling and perched on the edge. "Stand up," I ordered and she complied. "You said you would do anything, right?" She nodded with her head down and her hand held tightly together in front of her. It was funny as she was sweating under the air conditioning in the office but I couldn't bring myself to laugh at the moment. "Okay then. From now henceforth, I want you to get me coffee every morning. Not just any coffee, I want it from Brendan's cafe before eight in my office."She glanced up at me with shock written all over her face. "Coffee?" she asked and I nodded. "Just Coffee?""Why? You can't do it?" I raised my eyebrows at her. "Of course, I can." She smiled. "All I need to do is get you coffee every morning and that's it?" "Not really. But for now, I just need coffee. If I need anything else later, I'll let you know." I smirked
ARIA'S POVUsing all the self-control in me, I managed to get into the elevator before I jumped and squealed, hugging the new phone to my chest. When the elevator stopped on my floor, I hopped to Lena's office and barged inside without knocking. "Look who got a nice phone," I announced as I waltz inside holding the phone packed up as my partner. A clearing of the throat made me stop and I looked back to see Nixon staring at me with a raised eyebrow while Lena was busy laughing at my expense. My face was red with embarrassment that I wish I could just disappear. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were busy. I'll come back later." I turned to leave but Lena's voice stopped me."I'm not that busy," she said when she stopped laughing. "So what did Dave say? You were saying something about a new phone." Turning back to them with a smile on my face, I raised the phone pack for them to see. "He got me a new phone." "Really? Dave got you a new phone?" Nixon stared at me shocked. "Yes." I mo