Chapter 3 - "He's One Hell of a Handsome Devil"
"So?" asked Jacey Longsworth, dumping the day's paper on her battered desk and practically throwing herself onto her chair. It swivelled uncontrollably till she'd nailed her feet firmly to the ground and twisted still. 'What have you got for me? Seen any nice offices lately?'
Jacey was the kind of person who appeared really laid back and hippyish, without actually being a hippy. If I didn't know any better I'd say she wore tie-dye, drop-crotch trousers at home, threw peace signs, swayed softly to the heavens, and smoked all kinds of recreational herbals. But hell, I knew better. Not even her chunky ceramic rings could sway me. Or her multi-coloured bangles. Even her super long hair, so long the strands got finer toward the ends, which she wore braided, flung over one shoulder.
"Well..." I chewed on my response.
"I'm waiting."
She was a determined soul. She knew what she wanted to achieve with the organisation and worked tirelessly towards those goals, which saw more than enough people rally around to support her efforts. She could just draw people in who genuinely wanted the same things she did, and worked just as hard. No, actually, you know what; no one worked quite as hard as Jacey did. At forty-one, Jacey was a force in the organisation, which was in contrast to her seemingly easy nature. She worked like there were not enough hours in the day. I admired that.
I sighed. "Well, there was one perfect place." I teased. "But I've since dismissed that. I don't think that's the best idea any more."
Jacey leaned back in her chair after a sip through a straw of what looked like a seriously unappetising smoothie. "Why not? If it was practically perfect yesterday, why've you since changed your mind?"
To be honest, I didn't want to talk about it. I'd spent much of last night thinking about my exchange with the beautiful man in the immaculate suit. In fact, it occurred to me that I didn't even know his name. But he'd occupied pretty much every ounce of thought last night. And not just my thoughts, but my dreams as well. I'm loathe to admit it but he even made a cameo in one of my rare fantasies. More like a starring role actually, he was leading man material. And I was willing to let him lead me down a path of absolute unadulterated filth. Call it Ariel Phukzalot and Mr Banger in Crouching Female, Ridden Boner, coming soon. Just not too soon of course *wink, wink*.
You know when you have a chance meeting, you can't get that face out of your head, that...living...God out of your mind? You just end up letting your imagination run wild? Well, that was me. Going to bed gave way to a series of dreams in which he'd appeared. And none of them were remotely innocent. No, all were sexually charged fantasies. One had disturbed me more than most. I couldn't believe I could think of something so graphic. But he was making me think particularly dirty, with multiple rrrr's for extra filth.
"Just," I paused, trying to find a reason. 'It was in Morditchgate.'
'I know that already," she replied. "I didn't get your emails last night. You wanna tell me now a few reasons behind your opinion on the place?"
Whoa. I hesitated.
"What?" she said to my frozen expression.
I shook my head. She wasn't going to cane me for not handing them in?
"Spit it out, Aer."
I fumbled a response till I remembered something the receptionist said.
"Apparently there's been some weird stuff happening there recently."
"Weird?"
"Yeah, like." I shrugged. "Whatever weird means. I mean, the receptionist was being difficult so she could've been spinning me any line for all I know."
"Trying to warn you off, was she?" She said through a scoff.
"I wouldn't say it was a warning. Just..." I had to think about that one for a second.
"Take that with a pinch of salt." Jacey dismissed. The last of her smoothie gargled up the straw as she sucked it to an end and put it aside. "So, we've got Morditchgate and Weird. This tells me nothing. What about your personal feeling on it. I don't want to have to repeat this again."
Okay, simply put, "Admittedly, the place is on point," I said, hating to admit it but feeling as though I had to. "Everything about it was miles apart from anything else I'd looked at for you yesterday. I know one day is never really enough to go on with these things but the tenant rep had done a thorough analysis prior to the showing so it had pretty much been narrowed down before we even got there."
"I knew you couldn't lie to me."
I sunk. No, never to Jacey.
"How large are we talking here? Name the other companies in the building."
Oh how I dreaded the naming thing. After yesterday's run-in with the boss of GD Holdings, I'd been way too preoccupied. Even if I'd remembered, I'd been too annoyed to have even bothered finding out more than the two I'd managed to jot down before it all went tits up.
"There's a few," I said vaguely, sifting through my bag for the digital notes in my phone and trying to buy time. The dread set in. If anything, I'd pretend and say something that sounded as business-like as possible. I started practising in my head; Walton Enterprises, Cranberry Solutions, Braithwaite Consultancy ltd... Funnily enough, they were all names of old school teachers, apart from Cranberry – I was trying to think of a company named after a fruit. That seemed like a popular brand choice these days.
"But like I said before, I'm not so keen on the place any more. I feel like there are maybe other locations worth a nosy around instead." Eager to move away from talking about it, and ultimately away from any connection to a certain tall, silver-eyed man, I left it at that. Other-worldly eyed man more like. Did I mention he had a gold rim around his pupils? Startling.
"But it's sufficient?" Jacey pressed. "You do know we're being subsidised, right?"
My reluctance to even address the place was becoming glaringly obvious. "Yes, but—"
"Look, Ariel," she said, coming forward onto the desk. "You wanna tell me why you're so reluctant to say anything about this place? I mean, you're supposed to be looking for office space and we really don't have much time. You're not even giving me any reason why I shouldn't view this place myself. In fact, you're making me want to check it out even more now."
I swallowed. "It's in Morditchgate," I pathetically repeated.
"You said that already," Jacey pointed out, getting increasingly exasperated. "C'mon, give me something."
"The rent is too expensive." I said.
"We are being subsidised, Ariel." She said it so staccato she might as well've punctuated every word with a clap. "Fact of the matter is; we need to move. It's not like they're going to wait for us to sort ourselves out before they tear this place down, is it?"
It was part of a bigger plan by the authorities to redesign and redevelop certain parts of London. Willoway was on their agenda. We were all pretty much expendable.
"And it's the second place I've had to move out of in the past few months so I really don't need any more complications now," she said.
I knew she was referring to her recent relationship breakdown with a financier who'd cheated on her and left her for his assistant. His assistant of all people. He was a walking cliché. Needless to say, I'd watched Jacey focus even more on work, and to be honest, she worked so damn hard already I didn't think it was possible to get even more involved in it. She part believed that was the reason he'd strayed in the first place. Now her job was her reason to get up in the morning, even more than it ever was before.
And I had to say, working just that little bit extra in an effort to distract and substitute one thought for another was a thing for me too.
"Why don't you tell me about the other companies please, Ariel?" She said, a more stern tone of voice emitting from her. "I want to know that we're working around some ethical businesses at least. Please tell me you have this information."
I stuttered. I couldn't believe I was about to say this. Not least because it was the same company responsible for withdrawing our funding, but it really was the only company I knew that was currently residing in the building. If only I could find the two I'd written somewhere in my phone.
"Well, there was GD Holdings."
Jacey's eyebrow rose. Not sure what I was expecting.
"Huh." Her mouth serious. She opened the file cabinet behind her and rifled through the files before she pulled one out and sifted through.
"Ah," she said upon acknowledgement of what she was seeing on paper. "Their address. I thought I knew of a company that was there already. Didn't think it was them though." She murmured, more to herself than to me.
"Their move was a recent one too," she continued, slamming it shut in visible frustration. ''You do know they're responsible for some of the cuts we're going to see here, right?''
I nodded.
''It won't happen straight away, I hear, but we've got about three months. Still...''
Seeing as she had the company on file, I was curious. ''Who's the guy who runs the business?''
Jacey laughed. ''He doesn't just run it, Ariel, he owns it." She opened the file again, raking her eyes down the page for a second. "GD Holdings is just a subsidiary, one of his smaller companies. Small, small fish in a ridiculously large ocean. What else do you want to know?"
I shrugged like I really couldn't care less beyond what she'd already said.
"That he's CEO of a much larger operation?" She goaded. "That he's a tycoon, a magnate? Head of GD Holdings and CEO of Greco Corp? Okay then, he's all those things. Typical Italian powerhouse of a tycoon. Well, he's a born and bred American but with an Italian family...you get the picture," she said with a wave of her hand.
"Big deal then, I guess." I'd heard enough.
"Greco Corp is Fortune 500, so yeah, he's a biggie."
Turns out their head office was in New York but he had subsidiaries like his Holdings companies in major cities around the world. Fascinating.
"There was a feature on him a few months back." She went looking but couldn't find it. "It's not like he was born into his riches—not that there's much on him beyond five years interestingly enough." she noted. "Worked his butt off to get to where he is today though. And only in his thirties too. Thirty-one,'' she remarked.
Oh, thirty-one. I thought he was twenty-eight/twenty-nine. Not that there's much difference really.
The way she spoke of him...I could see how Jacey would find him inspirational. A mirror of her perhaps? Just at a more elevated level in business.
''Okay then.'' I responded indifferently, almost with another shrug. I was hardly impressed. At least I didn't want to be. These international rich guys were players to the core. Played their position in business, in power, in women. All the same. But really, all this fuss over a business man? Let's be real here; Fortune 500 tells you there's four hundred and ninety-nine others. This guy couldn't be any more special. But I had to admit, coming from Jacey, her awe was pretty significant. I couldn't dismiss that.
''And it's hard not to notice,'' she added. ''But he's one hell of a handsome devil that one.''
I couldn't even hide that I'd noticed. Yup. Didn't get past me that's for sure.
"I mean, I would," she said seriously.
My lips curved. So would most women. And probably some men.
''Oh,'' Jacey remembered. ''Sebastien should be joining us soon. I've got him running errands for me at the moment, I don't think he should be too long.'' She glimpsed her watch.
My colleague Sebastien worked in the public relations department and was eager to please at every opportunity. He'd also expressed an interest in me—shyly I might add—but I'd politely told him I wasn't looking to pursue any kind of relationship with him other than friendship. At twenty-three, he was three years younger than me, and to be honest, I really wasn't interested in dating anybody junior in age. I'd actually been there (by only a couple of years though), and that guy had been super clingy. Not that I'm generalising...or maybe I am? Ah, what the hell. What do I know.
Sebastien was admittedly a good-looking guy, he had that whole boyish thing going on and I knew of a couple of girls in the office who'd be happy to go on a date with him. But there'd be a slight personal conflict if indeed we did date. I just didn't feel it was appropriate in light of my past relationship. I was actually surprised he was up for it considering.
Behind me, the sound of bustling came through just outside the office. The windows to Jaceys office were large and wide, and as I turned around, I spotted a gathering of staff standing around the open-plan space that was our quarters. Just as quickly, an out-of-breath Sebastien came rushing in, shutting the door fast behind him.
''What the hell's going on out there?'' Jacey shot up ready to shout them down no doubt.
''It's Dante Greco," Seb panted. "He's in the building.''