"May I have your attention?"
Nate and I looked up to see Adrian standing on a dice now placed at the center of the hall. He had his right arm on the dice as he spoke with a charming smile flashed at the audience, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! It's my extreme pleasure to announce that The Stones Inc. has partnered with Eva's and Co. regarding our production and marketing department.”
There was a series of claps and cheers that followed his announcement. He waited for the audience to go silent before continuing, “I'd like to thank the CEO of Eva's and Co., Ms. Evelyn White for the opportunity. I am certain that together, we can create a big impact in the business world. Now I'd like to request Ms. White to come up here and share her thoughts. Thank you. Hope you enjoy your evening." He ended with another one of his rare smiles and a huge applause sounded around the entire hall as people looked at my direct
Adrian's POV:8:00 am. The elevator opened to my office and I was greeted by my personal assistant, Ms. Natalie Carter. At least that's what I think was her name because I never called anyone by their first names unless they were family or very close friends.Well, there was an exceptionbut it was not for my P.A. It was for someone else. I noticed her flirtatious smile and her choice of wardrobe which said one thing- I wassupposedto notice that. I hid my irritation and with a curt nod, walked into my office.Ms. Carter had been providing these subtle hints for some time now and recently it was starting to be more blatant. I was considering firing her because I hated it when my employees forgot their place and the rules and regulations of my company. And most of my previous assistants were fired for the same reason. Ms. Carter was excellent in her job though which was why I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. I
Back to EvelynI finally ended the call and sat down on my chair with a small sigh. It was almost 3 PM now and I hadn't eaten anything apart from a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin Leah had brought when she arrived earlier. That was around six hours ago.I had a meeting with my team regarding the changes with advertising strategies and additional resources required for the company. The meeting was tiresome to say the least. When it finally ended, I had a video conference scheduled with an investor from Italy. He was not fluent in English at all and his thick accent made it difficult to catch a word he said. Fortunately, I'd learnt Italian and had been to Italy several times so we were finally able to come up to a common ground although my Italian was barely passable.And now I was just a second away from chewing my nails out while I waited for Leah to bring me the papers that required my signature. She was supposed to bring them ten minutes
Lunch with Adrian turned out be...nice, surprisingly. We talked about basic things about each other and he told me about Maggs, who turned out to be his aunt. He told me that she lived somewhere near the restaurant with her husband. She was his mother's elder sister and had a son who was a couple years older than Adrian. Adrian had a fond smile on his face as he talked about Maggs and it was clear to see that Maggs had the equal amount of love for him, if not more."Sometimes I can't decide whether to call her my aunt or my friend or even an annoying younger sister." Adrian shared with a hint of smile. It was a rare sight, Adrian smiling genuinely, not just a smirk or a mere amused expression, but a real genuine smile. It almost made me want to keep looking at him all day. But I did not. Because it would seem weird. And Evelyn White was not weird.We finished our lunch with light conversations here and there with him talking the most of course, and me co
It had been a week now since my little outburst with Adrian and I'd been going out of my way to avoid any encounter with him. It hadn't been really difficult so far because he'd only been inEva'sthree times since then.He did try to talk to me a couple of times butcoincidentallyI was quite busy on all of the occasions and hence had to cut the meeting short. But other than that, he hadn't made any comment about my behavior if he'd noticed anything, although I'd caught him staring at me with a weird look on his face. It was as if he knew me more than he let on, which was quite unnerving at times.To be honest, I was quite ashamed of my outburst. I didn’t know what had come over me that evening but the moment I heard him call me by the name which was only reserved for one specific person in my life, it was like coming out from a long duration amnesia. Memories I'd suppressed for so long came back and hit me with fresh waves
"Ms. White, I think you should take a look at this." Leah entered my office with a newspaper in one hand and her iPad in the other.I eyed a photo of mine in the newspaper. It must have been another news or rather, another rumor about the ice cold CEO. I briefly wondered what it was this time around. Other times, it was either my mysterious lover or my secret child. Once, there was a news about how I'd chosen fashion industry because my ex-boyfriend dumped me due to my bad sense of dressing. And they'd published a photo of myex neighborwho worked at a thrift shop. That guy called and thanked me a thousand times because apparently it was his dream to have his photo published in newspapers someday."What is it this time, Leah? You know I don't care about this. As you can see, I'm busy right now. So please keep those things to yourself, and keep the reporters away." I said, not bothering to see the news. They were always sprouting nonsense and I
CHAPTER 14:"Right on time, as always."I smiled at the replica of me sitting on the bed. She looked so much like me that people would mistake us for twins if not for our age difference. My sister, Evangeline was younger than me by eight years and now that she was nearly eighteen years old, we both looked more alike than ever. We had inherited almost all our features from our mother. Same facial structure and same auburn hair.The only difference in our appearance was our eyes. While she had our mother's beautiful sea green eyes, I was the one to inherit dad's boring chocolate brown ones. I remember when I used to complain that the only thing I did not inherit from my mother had to be her most alluring feature. Oh, how I missed her. Missedthem.Shaking those melancholic thoughts out of my mind, I entered the room and grinned at my sister, my grin matching her own. "I would be a hypocrite if I go on preaching my employees about punctuality a
I'd been called a heartless, emotionless, ice-cold and many other names over the time and I must confess that those names didn't really come out of nowhere. Despite what I said about the media earlier, I was willing to admit that they were actually accurate on naming me because I was exactly that. At least one of that, for sure.Emotionless.Over the years, I'd mastered the art of schooling my emotions and fixing a stoic expression on my face whenever I interacted with the general population. Meaning anyone out of 'Eves' list of good people'.They were correct about the other things too because I was exactly what they'd portrayed. I’d never let anyone get close to me except the people from'Eves' list of good people'which included my sister Eva, my best friend Allie, Jake, my Granns and I was surprised and grumpy and ashamed to admit... Adrian. Thankfully he was still in trial phase, though. I didn't even know when he ma
CHAPTER 16:"Eve! Eve! Whereareyou? Ineedto show you something! Minnie!"The boy camerunningso fast that he nearly tackled the little girl who was just coming out of her houseat theboy's call."Addie! Why are you running like you saw a boogeyman in your room? Oh, wait! Did you see a boogeyman? Don't worry, my Mickey. I'll protect you!" She stood in front of the boy in a protective stance, trying to shield his taller body with her shorter one."No! There's no boogeyman! And even if there was, you couldn't protect me anyway. You're so small!" The boy huffed, crossing his arms.She scowled at him and crossed her own arms. "I am not small! I am stronger than you because unlike you, I dwink milk. You never dwink milk so you're weak! Momma told me and auntie Bwinny said that too. And I'm not afraid of boogeyman! I can punch his tummy and hit him with my skating board.