“You’re late.”
As Catalina entered the dimly lit room, she had to suppress rolling her eyes. Instead, she replies coolly, “Yeah, yeah, forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I was preparing for the meeting, Rio.” She finds the last empty space in the round table good for five, that dominates the center of the room, and places her bag on the floor as one of her family assistants pulls the velveteen chair out to take a seat on it. She is on the highest floor of one of her family's buildings. A five-star hotel is currently renting it and only the elite or the top one percent can afford to book a room.
The Ebony Pier Hotel and Residences. It is one of the last places her parents were able to strike a deal with and allow them to rent one of their most expensive buildings. It was also the last place where her parents were seen before they were sent to God in Heaven. That is…if they were brought there.
To be frank, she does not want to be here now. She knows that she was the last to be invited to the meeting. Being constantly overlooked by her own siblings has made her immune to feeling hurt…at times. Okay, she admits that even if she has learned to be the best of the siblings, it would also be nice to feel part of this group her siblings seem to have. It’s ironic that she worked hard to make it to the top to stop being overlooked, but now it seems that she’s gone way too far that she’s lost touch with her siblings.
Upon fixing herself on her seat, her eldest brother, Hilario (but everyone calls him by his nickname, Rio) huffs out tiredly, “I understand that you’ll want to fight back, but there’s no need to be blasphemous.”
"Would you think I have the right to act that way since I was informed later than the others about the meeting tonight?"
"Don't blame me. Sienna was in charge of sending the announcement." He plops down on the chair behind him and rubs his forehead. Catalina noticed that there are more lines on his forehead than the last time she saw him. That is one of the consequences of being the president of the company.
“And are you really blaming me for doing my job?” A new and disembodied voice chimes in, one that sounded offended. A woman then emerges from behind the door that led to the secret bar of the meeting room. She bears the same facial features as Catalina. The only difference is that she looks older by a few years and that is a given since she is the eldest of the seven siblings.
Sienna flashed an unbothered smile toward Catalina as another assistant quietly pulls out her respective chair to give enough space for her to sit on it. “Oh, chin up, dear Nina,” she says nonchalantly to Catalina. “I told your secretary, Tina-”
“Tia.”
“Whatever,” Sienna mutters, waving a hand of dismissal. “Anyway, I told her just in time for you to come here.” Casually she leans back on her chair and gracefully throws her hands in the air. “You have enough time to relax and fix your hair a bit, though. Narni and Loreta went out together to the toilet. Give them a few more minutes and they’ll return.”
Catalina sighs under her breath and decides not to reply. It would be a waste to do so. She has always been annoyed by Sienna.
If there is anyone who shares the same personality as their mama, it would definitely be Sienna. She has this nonchalant aura that hides a bit of an egotistical side to herself. Their mama was exactly like that and it is not a surprise that Sienna got it from her – she grew up being doted on by their mama.
"Sienna," Rio's voice came out as a warning.
"What?" She utters in defense. "Oh, come on, don't act all righteous. You're still younger than me."
"Only by a year."
While waiting quietly as Sienna and Rio engage in a conversation, or argument, on their own, Catalina decides to look out the large windows overlooking one area of the pier, the water glistening due to the light illuminating from the wide streetlamps lining the roads.
She seems like she’s wasting her time now…and she can be doing more eventful things like finally finding out the set of numbers she’s been trying to figure out for the past hours.
How humiliating. It’s been hours and she still couldn’t find his number. HOURS.
Normally, she could figure out those kinds of things in a matter of minutes, but the man seems to know her too well. What that fish gave was truly a challenge.
"We're back!" Another disembodied voice announces unabashedly. Everyone turns to watch the two newcomers enter the meeting room. The third sibling, Narni – rocking her new hairdo, a pixie cut – sashays her way through the room and takes a seat beside Sienna. “Ah, Nina, about time you arrived.”
Following Narni is the fifth sibling, Loreta, as timid as ever. Catalina paid no heed to Narni’s remark. She drew in a nervous breath when Loreta quietly took the free seat beside her. Her younger sister regards her with a nod and a small smile. Catalina did the same, hoping that it did not come off as stiff.
Catalina can handle any of her blunt, stern, and loud siblings, but the only person that she always finds herself tense around is the soft-spoken and shy Loreta. She finds it weird that she’s like this around her now when, in fact, they were the closest growing up. Loreta is three years younger than her and spent most of her years looking up to Catalina. Loreta was always regarded as Catalina’s best friend. Catalina only loved her out of the siblings because she had such a pleasing personality that even she was envious of her outlook in life. The best part of Loreta was that she listened to everything Catalina wanted to say. She was the only person Catalina loved to share her innermost thoughts with and she isn’t even considered ‘chatty’ to begin with.
Through her peripheral vision, she warily watches Loreta set up a small notebook in the space before her, ready for the meeting to begin.
It feels weird to go from talking every minute of the day to suddenly not talking at all.
And Catalina knows it’s all her fault.
Rio suddenly claps his hands out loud, breaking Catalina from her reverie. “All right! Now that everyone is here, I believe that we may begin.” One of the assistants then carries a tray of glasses filled with sparkling wine and begins to leave one glass on the table on each sibling’s right side. “Trento and Palermo are not joining us tonight because–”
“Ughhh,” Sienna interrupted in a drawl, “yes, we all know. They’re busy with their last year of university.”
Rio dismisses the interruption and explains in a voice he uses when explaining things to his four-year-old children, “I simply said that for the sake of the minutes of the meeting which Lora is willfully doing.” He brings a hand in Loreta’s direction. “Anyway, I called for a meeting since The Ebony Pier is celebrating its 20th year anniversary in a month. The general manager sent me a proposal of the theme of the celebration, all the plans they wish to do during the celebration, and the logistics behind it.”
“Don’t they do this every year?” Narni asks. “Why call for a meeting now?”
“Well, this year marks their new collaboration with Marina Sol Cruises Inc.”
“Ohhhh,” Narni says softly. “And we are connected to this, how?”
“The board of the hotel directors wishes to make changes to the building to accommodate what Marina Sol wants for the collaboration to happen.”
“What kind of changes would that be, then?” Catalina asks, genuinely curious.
“Interior design is one of the changes,” Rio answers, “but the major one would be highlighting a viewing deck on the eighth floor that is overlooking the pier.”
“Hm,” Catalina hums in deep thought. “So we are talking about an increased amount of manpower and changes in hotel operations?”
“Most likely.”
The rest of the siblings ponder on this new change the business wants to partake in. They are all in deep thought, their bearings are refined and aristocratic.
Catalina is the one who is thinking the hardest about it. There are a lot of things to consider here. She will eventually be dealing with not only aesthetic changes but perhaps a new dynamic in the workforce. She would have to know the people at Marina Sol Cruises to also find common ground with them. Maybe she can create this proposal that most of the workers would have to come from them.
“Catalina,” Rio calls her from across the table. “For operations, do you think you can take this on your own?”
Catalina felt insulted by the question. It was a foolish thing to ask. She worked hard all these years for her siblings to know that it is pointless to ask such questions. She replied in a pointed tone, “Of course.”
“Are you sure, Nina?” Sienna asked. Catalina sensed a hint of derision in her voice. “None of us were late for the meeting–”
“It was because you were late in informing Tia.”
“Dear Nina, this never would have happened if you never moved out of the house. Ever since you proudly got a place of your own, you have been treating all of us like strangers.”
“Wow,” Catalina mutters sarcastically, “I never knew that a useless vice president would also be so whiny–”
“Enough!” Rio exclaims, his loud voice bouncing off the walls of the room. It even felt like it shook for a moment there. He garners everyone’s attention in a split second. Catalina and Sienna bite back their retreating breaths. Rio breathes heavily and squares his jaw. After a few moments, he breathes out one last heavy breath and continues levelly, “If you wish to talk about familial matters, then pick a common date and discuss it among yourselves. Am I clear?” He raises an eyebrow at both women.
Catalina forces out a single nod. Even Sienna. Both felt like kids again and it felt absolutely disgusting. The tense air in the room hung heavy with a lingering scent of wine. Catalina even felt Loreta’s eyes on her. She just couldn’t tell what her eyes portrayed. Pity? Disappointment? Sadness?
Catalina decides not to care. Ever since arriving here, she has been sticking out like a sore thumb. It’s as if the moment she entered, everyone regarded her as the bad person – the one they did not want to see. Definitely Sienna and Narni saw her that way. Maybe Rio. Maybe even Loreta.
She grits her teeth. She’ll show them that she’s better than any of them. She doesn’t care if Rio is the president and is, technically, her boss. All the more she doesn’t care about Sienna who is the vice president merely because.
Rio continues to discuss other details regarding the nearing celebration and he stressed how important it is that everyone should be present during the night. Catalina wasn’t as attentive as before. In fact, she was livid. She just wanted to get out of the place and go back home. Maybe she can have a shot of whiskey before bed.
“Excuse me,” a voice by the entrance of the room gently interrupts Rio's mid-discussion. Catalina knows who the voice belongs to. She turns in her seat to find Tia standing by the door. “I deeply apologize for interrupting, but I have an urgent call for Miss Catalina.”
“Thank God,” Catalina grumbles under her breath and stands in an instant, not wasting another minute in the meeting where she is painted as the bad guy.
“Nina–” Rio starts, but Catalina interjects, “Save it for an email you can send me later, Rio.” She faces the rest of her siblings and tongue-in-cheek bids her farewell, “Thanks for all your hospitality tonight. I hope you won’t mind that I have more important matters to deal with, both legitimate and illegitimate.” Without another word, she spun on her heel and walked out of the room with Tia following after her.
Once the doors close behind them, Catalina’s shoulders sag. A huge weight has been lifted off her, yet she still knows that all her pent-up anger is brimming within her.
“What is it now, Tia?” She unconsciously snaps at her secretary. “This better be worth walking out like that.”
Tia refuses to comment about her boss’s sudden frustration. She holds up a piece of paper with a set of numbers written on it. “We think we found his number.”
Catalina’s eyes widen in shock. She forgot about her previous dilemma after being in that meeting. She takes the piece of paper and fishes her phone out of her purse. “Are you certain?” She asks as she begins to type in the numbers on her phone.
“It was the only number we haven’t tried yet and the rest have been all random people.”
Once she finished inputting the numbers she brings her phone against her ear as it begins to ring. Still, in a bad mood, she snaps at Tia once again, “Leave. Let me handle this fish on my own.”
Tia worriedly gazes at her but chooses to not say anything about it once more. “As you wish, Miss.” She leaves quietly after. Now Catalina is on her own with a set of two bodyguards standing by the door of the meeting room. She doesn’t care about them, though.
It rings for a few more seconds before a sonorous voice answers, “Finally, darling.” His voice dripped with brimming excitement.
But it instantly made Catalina more pissed than before. “Finally?” She spat angrily, “What is your problem?” She was absolutely not having it tonight.
“Did you like the challenge?”
“Like it?” She seethed out. “It wasted my whole day!” She shouted. Even the bodyguards flinched a bit at the volume of her voice.
“So you did do it!” The voice happily exclaimed.
“And I am never going to do anything for you ever again!” She said truculently.
“Huh?” He uttered in pure confusion, “Wait, darling–”
“I am blocking this number! Good luck with life, you fish!” In an instant, she ends the call and blocks the number on her phone before storming off down the corridor to head to the elevators so that she can stop wasting her damn precious time and go back home. Nothing went well for her today.
The severity of that call left some tension in the corridor and even the bodyguards were frightened by her. They made a mental note to themselves to never mess with her ever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi!! Thank you so much for your patience (๛ ˘ ³˘)۶
Not too much of an interaction between Catalina and Nemo, but I hope that this gives more depth between Catalina and her siblings :)
To be honest, I've been really having a hard time writing because I've been feeling anxious for the past months. I'm currently applying to grad schools in the States but I can't seem to start my personal statement. And this has been eating up in me. I have a ton of fears now because I'm also preparing for my board exams HAHAHUHU
Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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Thank you ♡♡