Untouched love

Chapter two: Emotions

The day was quite a long one, Samantha was very tired. After all the meetings with different companies, she's had no time off. Arriving at the double door of her father's mansion, she pushed it open to enter into a large hallway. The interior of the house was the same colour as the blue white coloured exterior, the colours were intensified by the golden sun ray coming through the long plain white glass. The hallway led to the large living room which had a huge flat screen television on the wall. There were two staircases that led to the upper part of the house, Samantha chose to go up the right stairs, which provided the quickest route to her room. She needed to cool off with a cold shower and wash her sweaty body. She expected the house to be empty since her father told her he was seeing a friend.

''Welcome home, Daughter.'' Samantha was greeted by her father Jide Browne's deep voice. A deep voice that came from her left, from up the flight of steps.

Startled, Samantha jumped a little. She turned her head to watch her 57 year old middle-aged father descend down the stairs. She watched as he took his sweet time walking down the stairs towards her. He towered over her, as he stood at 6'0 tall and was quite handsome for his age. He had a dark face with slight wrinkles on his completely shaved face. Even with the wrinkles, he was still looking very much young.

''Good day, Father.'' Samantha replied, a little winded. '' You startled me. ''Thought you said you were going to see your friend. Why are you home early today?''

''Something came up and he had to attend to it... You seem really tired. '' He said taking in her face. He moved to sit down on a sofa. '' How was work today?''

''You have no idea.'' Samantha replied her father.

''Actually, I do. I built the company.'' Her father chuckled. Her father was like that, never missing a beat to remind her he was the owner of the company. Which was quite funny, because he didn't exactly build it on his own, he had her mother to help him. You really have no idea, since you left the company to me when it was failing she thought. She wanted so much to say that to his smug face, but she held herself back. She settled for an eye rolling. He was still her father, after all. She didn't mind all that much, though. What he said was partially the truth. It was rather the way he said it that bothered her, since she was the one doing the heavy lifting in the company.

''So, any progress concerning the meetings?'' her father asked. Things were not going well in the company at the moment, has not being for a while, and they were trying to salvage things, hence the meetings. But things were not looking good at all.

''It is still a work in progress.'' she replied. ''As of now, there's no real agreement on either side. I will have to continue the negotiations. I'll fill you in on what's going on later. But now I need to go shower and have a little nap. If you need me, you will have to wait a while.''

As she was going up the stairs to her room, her father said authoritatively ''Daughter, don't fail me. The company must survive and I made you the acting CEO because you've showed me you can handle the company.''

''Yes father, I understand. I am trying my best as you are aware of.'' Samantha sighed as she replied to her father tiredly. It is not like she wants the company ruined, too. After all, it was as much her mother's company as it is her father's. And Samantha didn't want the company her mother helped build be destroyed.

Samantha's loving mother died when she was still a kid. She had cancer which they found out when it was too late. Samantha remembered her mother as she laid on the hospital bed, always trying to smile when she talked to her, her loving mother, even on her sick bed always tried to make Samantha laugh. She was always telling her jokes and listening to all her stories about her day. She had been the kindest mum, both when she was well and when she was sick. She was there when she took her last breath. Samantha remembered crying for days before finally calming down. It took her years before she got over her death. Her father never remarried but he changed. Her father was always a person who liked to be in control, but he got worse after her mother's death.

Samantha opened the door to her bedroom. A large room with a queen sized bed close to a window that overlooked a beautiful garden in the compound. Her room was located in the west side of the mansion and provided her a view of the beautiful garden that her mother had created and nurtured when she was still alive. It was a mixture of different flowers which all blended together to create a beautiful sight as it was been illuminated with golden rays of the setting sun. Whenever she was less busy, she enjoyed taking walks in it and sometimes help the caretaker in pruning and taking care of it. It was one the few places left in the whole house that still had the touch of her mother. It was a place that was dear to Samantha. Samantha remembered the times her father and mother would take her along as they all walked in the garden. These days, her father doesn't even go near the place.

She went straight to the bathroom after removing her work cloths. Standing under the shower, she let the cold water fall on her body and could instantly feel her fatigue washing away. Samantha took a long breath and let it out slowly and as she did thoughts of the day started coming back to her. She had been putting it off before but she let it run through her mind now. The thought of the man she had passed by at Antares Company.

Samantha could still remember all his features, his brown eyes as it pierced hers. They seemed to stare into her soul. He had a kind of boyish handsome face with nicely trimmed beard on his face. He would be in his late twenties judging by his looks. He was tall with broad shoulders. She felt waves of emotions she had felt back then sweep over her. She shivered a little then felt warm and fuzzy, a feeling she quite enjoyed. Her heartbeat had been beating very fast she thought it would burst. With the way he looked at her she was sure he felt something. Something about their meeting resonated deeply in her soul.

Samantha wanted to stop to talk to him but she had business to attend to and wasn't about to be distracted. He also didn't stop her, she remembered feeling a sting. She actually wanted him to stop her, wanted him to interrupt her day. She wouldn't have regretted stopping to have a conversation with him. Now, alone with her thoughts, she wondered if she would see him again, she wanted so badly to. Samantha wasn't sure whether he worked in the company or not.

There were quite a lot of things that made her not want to pursue this, but she pushed it back. After all, there's no harm in just knowing him.
Samantha made up her mind to talk to her friends about it later. They were always her go to when she had things like this on her mind. They had a way of knowing topics about men. They were addicted to gossiping. She smiled at that thought, it is not like she doesn't like things like that too, but they took it to another level. They made it like their full time job, even though they had actual work they were doing. How they found time to know those things was a mystery to her.

She turned off the shower and dried her body. Samantha made her way to the wardrobe, took out her silky black nightgown slid it down on her body. She made her way towards the bed after turning off the light. She wanted to catch a much needed sleep after a long day. She was going to leave her thoughts up for the next day. She climb onto the huge bed, pulled the cover over her and closed her tired eyes. Sleep came immediately.