Doing it For the Kids

Doing it for the Kids - Chapter 3

Violet stood staring at the man who just looked back over a smirk, every inch of her body was riled, she wanted nothing more than to slap his face, but this was a busy and expensive restaurant, and she'd been brought up to know better.

Eventually she had to break the silence, "I presume you are Hendrick Kaiser?"

He nodded his head and gestured to a seat opposite him, reluctantly she pulled back the chair, all the time glaring at him, in her head screaming 'a real gentleman would have at least pulled the chair out for you', she scoffed as she sat, when had she ever met a real gentleman? He was lounging, almost lying in the chair, his eyes hooded as he watched her like a hawk.

"Something amuses you?" he asked, and for a moment she swooned, his voice was deep, his pronunciation perfect, but his intonation was clipped, a sign that he was possibly native to South African, or maybe Dutch or German?

She shook her head, "not amused Mr Kaiser, not even slightly." She gave him what she hoped was an icy glare, then looked around for a waiter, finally ordering a black coffee once she caught someone's attention.

She sat back in her chair, blatantly sussing out the man opposite. He was everything she remembered from the other evening, chiseled features, the signs of five o'clock shadow well before midday, the rest was how she imagined her father's business partner should be, impeccably dressed, the pin stripe suit looked expensive, his dark thick hair was groomed, she stifled a laugh, there was an attempt at being groomed.

Then she glanced down at herself. Old jeans, a fraying jumper and her oldest yet thickest winter coat. She never normally cared about how she looked, but today she felt distinctly under dressed.

Raising her chin she looked back at Hendrick Kaiser and his knowing look informed her that he was more than aware of her thought patterns. And now he was back to laughing at her.

Her coffee arrived and she was sipping it slowly in the same level of awkward tension when Mr Hodgson dashed in.

"Sorry I'm late!" he gushed, reaching out to shake Violet's hand, at the same time Kaiser stood in the correct manner of etiquette and reached across to shake the man's hand. She was wrong-footed again; he was purposely treating her with contempt, looking down that rather masculine and elegant nose at her, yet schmoozing around Hodgson like they were in some sort of boys club. Her blood started to boil, but she would win this battle.

Mr Hodgson sat and ordered them all brunch, before turning to Violet, "Sorry my dear, I did intend to be here to introduce you to Mr Kaiser."

She shrugged, not mentioning their 'meeting' on Saturday evening, "we've introduced ourselves Mr Hodgson, not to worry."

Hendrick raised an eyebrow, surprised at her not taking the chance to discredit him, to badmouth what she saw as his underhand tactics. She merely smiled sweetly, she was no walk over, he may want her inheritance to further his share portfolio, but she had two desperate children to defend and she was ready to fight him.

"So," Nathaniel turned to her, "Mr Kaiser wants to buy your father's portion of the business from you." He rifled in his briefcase for some documents, then handed her a proposal, "this is the offer he has laid on the table. As you'll see there are a variety of payment options, depending on various factors....."

She took the paper and read it diligently, pausing to sip her coffee every now and again. It took several minutes to digest every nuance of the legalese. All the while she could feel two pairs of eyes observing her intently.

Eventually, she shuffled the papers, laid them beside her and took another drink of her coffee. As the waiter arrived with fruit, pancakes, bacon and eggs, she paused and watched him laden the table with goodies, then reached for some fruit and placed it on her plate.