Lustrous

Chapter 36: Untitled

Shut up, I can be comforting if I wanted to!

My inner self gave me a disbelieving look that said: Yeah right.

I leaned my head on his shoulder and cuddled in close to him. Slipping my arm around his and leaning into his side.

Anthony appeared slightly shocked but quickly responded, placing his head against mine to give his muscles a break and letting his hand rest effortlessly on my knee.

"Anything I can help with?"

He scoffed. "No offense babe but..."

I held up my hand. "I warn you, offense will be taken so crash that train of thought."

Don't just crash the train of the thought, derail it and let it take out an over sized over pass with innocent bystanders trapped in cars.

I blinked. Okay, I am becoming slightly concerned with these thoughts you've been putting in my head.

My inner-self waved her hand at me. Oh relax, if I ever gained control of your hands, then you'd be in trouble. She winked at me.

I gulped and turned to look at Anthony.

He appeared slightly amused and dropped the sentence, starting a new one. "It's this damn proposal I have to present to my board next week. Because we had that weekend away, I've been struggling to catch up."

"Why does it matter if your board doesn't like it? Don't you own the controlling share of the company?"

"Technically, my family as a whole owns the controlling share, and these smart investors wanted in on the idea, but still, I can't just say this is what I'm doing if you don't like it, get out."

I frowned. Point taken.

"Wait, you have a proposal and now you have a new investor?" I thought out loud. "What are you planning?"

Anthony smirked. "Well there are multiple steps to this but the ultimate goal is hotels in Japan and China."

"Japan?"

"What's wrong with Japan?"

"Nothing, but, won't it be expensive?"

"That's why I needed another investor."

I sighed knowing he was far too excited about opening a hotel in Japan that even money wasn't going to stop him. "So what's step one of your grand scheme?" I asked him partly because I was interested, but mostly because his business talk was lulling me to sleep.

Nothing like boring business talk to send you to sleep.

Anthony hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Well I'm planning to merge my families company with yours."

I lifted my head to face him. "Okay that makes sense." So why was he hesitating? "Any particular reason?"

He shifted a little seeming a little uncomfortable with the direction of conversation. "Well, your father's investors don't like me and are trying to shove me off as CEO and find someone new."

"But they can't do that, you have the controlling share."

Again there was that hesitation. "No I don't."

I frowned confused. "But.." I trailed off not knowing how to make sense of this.

"Sky, your father gambled away the majority of his shares."

I was shocked. It was like I was being submerged in an ice bath. "I-I was g-given shares." I cursed myself for stammering. "For my eighteenth birthday."