Adrian's POV
8:00 am. The elevator opened to my office and I was greeted by my personal assistant, Ms. Natalie Carter. At least that's what I think was her name because I never called anyone by their first names unless they were family or very close friends. Well, there was an exception but it was not for my P.A. That was for someone else. I noticed her flirtatious smile and her choice of wardrobe which said one thing. I was supposed to notice that. I hid my irritation and with a curt nod, walked into my office.
Ms. Carter had been providing these subtle hints for sometime now and recently it was starting to be more blatant. I was considering firing her because I hated it when my employees forgot their place and the rules and regulations of my company. And most of my previous assistants were fired for the same reason. Ms. Carter was excellent in her job though which was why I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. I just hoped she'd get the hint through my obvious ignorance since I wouldn't want to go through the same process again.
I sat on my desk going through my business proposals when my phone started to ring. I sighed as I looked at the caller ID.
"What do you want?" I barked out, not bothering to hide my irritation from my voice.
"Your credit card."
"What?"
"I want your credit card, Adrian."
"Why the hell would you want my credit card? "
"I forgot mine at home. And now I'm stuck here in the shopping mall with these cool shoes and no money. Adrian please-"
"No" I cut him off and clenched my jaw. My brother Aaron was the most irresponsible person I knew. He was a junior in college but acted like a high schooler. I suppressed a groan as he started speaking again.
"C'mon bro. I really need it right now. You're one of the world's richest people. As your little brother I gotta get some leverage too, y'know? Just think about my reputation. What would anyone say of they saw me, Aaron Stone, the hottest college student, the younger brother of Adrian Stone standing here eyeing a pair of shoes and unable to pay for it? I'll be ruined. I'll be-"
"Just shut up Aaron." I interrupted yet again and sighed. "Fine, I'll send someone. Text me the address and remember, this is your final chance. Either you be responsible or I'll cut off your allowance to half. Understood?" I hung up without listening him and not a minute later I got his text giving me his current location.
Raking my hands through my hair, I pressed the intercom and asked Ms. Carter to send my driver Henry to my office to fetch my credit card and deliver it to my dearest brother. Henry entered a minute later and I took out the credit card from my wallet. I gave him the credit card and the address and asked him pointedly that he bring the credit card back after paying for whatever he was fretting about. If I left it to Aaron, I'd have half of my balance finished before the end of the day.
Henry went off and I was about to put back my wallet when I saw the two photos I'd carried with me since long. The first photo was of a little boy and a little girl.
The girl was pouting although a smile was beginning to form in her face as the boy was ruffling her hair with his right hand while his left was wrapped around her shoulder. Both of them had their fronts to the camera but their eyes were connected to each other. They had matching tshirts, the boy's tshirt had the picture of Mickey mouse while the girl had one of Minnie mouse. As they stood together, it looked like those two characters were shaking their hands.
I smiled at the memory. I was about 11 years at the time and she was about 9. There wouldn't be a day then that we didn't spend with each other, in either of our houses or at the park near our home. We'd constantly pestered our parents for a week until my dad brought the matching tshirts for us. It was not just the tshirts, we almost had everything matching that one could mistake us for twins or siblings at the very least. But it was much more than that.
My fond smile changed into one of sadness and longing as I remembered the memories that followed. This was one of the many photos we had but the last one we took together. I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind and smiled at the next photo.
She had grown so much over the years and more beautiful than ever. If only I could watch her growing up and grow up myself with her as we had for all those years. I sighed ruefully but was jolted out of my thoughts as Nate entered my office with a loud thud.
I quickly put the photos back inside the wallet and scowled at him, "You know, I'm seriously considering firing some useless people in this office and you are the first on that list." He gave out a loud gasp and clutched his chest. Here comes his usual drama.
"How can you say so, Addie baby?" He exclaimed with an overly dramatic manner and I cringed at the name someone else used to call me. But he continued without a care for my ears. "You can not even move a single muscle in your body without me. I'm your better half, buddy. Wait, no! I'm your better 80% and you're powerless without me. And even if you do think about firing me, there are 3 things you need to consider." He said, holding up his three fingers.
"First, I work for you, not under you so it's not your choice to fire me. It my choice if I want to work for you. Second, I'm the best lawyer the world has ever seen so the only person in loss would be you. And third," he smiled mischievously at me as he continued, "don't think I haven't noticed you smiling at a certain someone's photograph."
And before I could even open my mouth to retort, he was in front of me in a flash with his annoying smug smile as he looked at the photos which miraculously appeared in his hands. All in a couple of seconds. I suppressed a groan as he started smiling creepily at the photos.
"Man, she looked hot even as a 10 year old. It's true what they say, morning shows the day. I wish my parents hadn't forced me to spend those two and half godawful years with my grandparents. I would have met her then and I'm sure if we'd met then, she wouldn't have left. Because face it dude, it's your idiotic face that made her leave the states within 2 years. But now I'm sure I'll compensate for all of that. She won't be able to leave me."
I rolled my eyes and got up, snatching the photos from him before he could blink, careful to take them without tearing them. Then I held up 3 fingers as he'd done earlier. "Three things." I started, "First, you cannot call a 10 year old as hot. Second, she was not 10 years old, she was 9 at the time and," I looked at him dead in the eyes as I finished, "and third, the most important one, don't even think about hitting on her and don't ever talk about her like that."
I sat down at my desk and checked the photos for any damage or tears and sighed in relief as I found none, leaving him grinning like a fool. I was sure he was about to say add something stupid but I glared at him and thankfully he held his comment to himself.
I sighed. Nate was the only person apart from my family whom I trusted more than anyone else. Maybe even more than them although I liked to kill him more often than not. And he along with my family were the only ones who knew about her. I knew it in my bones that he didn't mean anything by that apart from a stupid attempt to infuriate me as he liked to do so often but I couldn't help myself from being possessive when it came to her.
She came to my life when my bestfriend since birth, Nate was sent to his grandparents' for 3 years as his parents had an important business deal. Her parents were also into business like mine. But while my parents firmly believed that moving often would cause negative impact on our childhood and therefore refused to move us permanently, her parents didn't share the same idea and she had to move a lot as a kid.
Selfishly I was thankful she had to because that was the reason I met her. Our parents hit it off right away and although I was reluctant to befriend anyone who wasn't a chubby idiotic boy named Nate, she, along with her annoying habit of bringing me her favourite blueberry muffin every morning slowly opened me up to her and we became inseparable after that.
Those two years I spent with her were the best moments of my life. I was devastated when her family had to move yet again, and so was she. I think the day of her departure was the day I cried the most in my life, maybe even more than I did when I was born.
I was back to my broody self until Nate came back with his parents to live next to us permanently. We grew up together then and although Nate was always with me, I couldn't help but think how good it would have been if she hadn't left.
Nate didn't get a chance to meet her but I would often talk about her and show him our photos. The little things our parents bought for us both, teasing him to make him jealous of my friendship with her. I had thought I would forget about her as I grew up but it was the opposite.
I wanted to meet her again very badly with each passing day and as soon as I knew how to, I began searching for her everywhere with the help of my father. Each search left me disappointed until I finally found her. Even that happiness of finding her turned into hurt and disappointment when I realised my longing to see her was one sided.
Sensing my troubled thoughts, Nate sighed and sat in front of me. "Ad, why don't you just tell her everything? I'm sure she'll remember you then and reciprocate your feelings?" He asked, scrunching his face in confusion as if it was the simplest thing anyone could've known. If only... I shook my head at him. "No, Nate. I can't do that. She doesn't remember me."
"But how is it possible? Surely you weren't that bad with women, more specifically girls then?" I rolled my eyes at him and sighed again looking at the second photo taken around 5 years ago.
She looked even more beautiful with her eyes scrunched as she looks adorably at her laptop, her hair tied high in a messy bun, round, black rimmed glasses perched on the top of her nose and a pen between her lips. She looked like both, an innocent nerd as well a sexy siren sitting in that cafe, lost in her own world. I wanted nothing more then than to tuck the stray hairs behind her ears and kiss those lips but I guess not all the wishes came true.
"I don't know either how that's possible. I know she travelled a lot in her childhood and changed more locations than any of us has done till now and we never called each other by our names. For me, she was always Minnie or Eve and she used to call me Mickey or Addie. But even then, her parents knew mine well so they should have told her about me and my family so I don't really understand. And in all these times I've spoken with her now, I haven't seen any kind of familiarity in her eyes which means she really doesn't remember me." I explained trying not to let my hurt and disappointment resurface.
Nate smiled sadly and I quickly narrowed my eyes at him. "Now, I don't think I pay your for sitting idly talking nonsense with me, Nathanial . I've emailed you the details of our upcoming project. You need to find out everything you can about SND Group of companies and its CEO. I expect it to be done by today." I knew Nate wasn't happy with this change if topic but nevertheless he nodded and went out of my office towards his own.
I looked at the photos once again and put it back in my wallet. I then had a strange urge to see her face again, if only to convince myself that she was indeed real and I had finally found her. With that thought, I quickly got up and after asking Ms. Carter to cancel all of my appointments for today, I headed out with the only destination in my mind: to my Minnie Mouse.