“Verginius, sorry for interrupting, but the meeting starts in about fifteen minutes,” Leah offers as she pokes her head in the door of my office to remind me. She is already walking back to her desk and leaves my office door open. Leah is a mad PA, so damn organized and I swear she had eyes and ears everywhere. I know she could hear me speak to her through my open door, as she continued working through a stack of correspondence we had already discussed.
“Thanks Leah, I’m heading there now,” I offer as Matthew and I both stand. I am just putting my notebook in my briefcase and freshening up, so I am already aware of the time. I double check my lipstick, pop my collar, and change to my killer heels. I might have been full of anxiety and swirling emotions but I need to feel good.
Matthew walks me out of my office, waiting while I ask if Leah could arrange dinner reservations for Caleb, Matthew, and I. This board meeting will be long, and I will need a glass or two of champagne after it is finished. I honestly enjoy our board meetings, even though they tended to drag on, and today is an auspicious occasion, the first one that I am officiating. Once set, Matthew and I stand shoulder to shoulder at the lift as I wait to go up to the penthouse level.
“Come on, let me give you a good luck hug Gin. Tradition and all,” Matthew bumps my shoulder before I juggle my bag into one hand and pull him in for a hug. Matthew is always up for a laugh, so he takes the opportunity to sweep us around, so that I am leaning back into his arms, balanced precariously as we laugh aloud, his lips blowing raspberries on my neck. Totally unprofessional, but I grew up with the staff here and they all know the boys and I spend a lot of time goofing off. I’m not embarrassed, well not until the lift opens and Hunter-fucking-Hollingsworth is standing there. Once again, scowling at me.
I somehow twist out of Matthew’s arms and stand there looking at Hunter, who is looking insanely hot in a beautiful steel gray fitted suit. One that hugged his body in all the right places. And good god, he isn’t wearing a tie, his crisp white shirt open at his chest. I am pretty sure my mouth fell on the floor.
“Wow, not what I was expecting to see! I knew you would be in the meeting but, yeah not this,” he growls low, taking me and Matthew in.
I move forward as does Matthew, sensing my irritation, “Why are you here Hunter? You need special clearance to be in my building,” I reply somehow keeping my snark locked away.
“I am presenting at the meeting. I represent Cybersécurité. Actually that is not right, I am Cybersécurité. It was in the submission. I assumed you saw,” he says stepping further back into the lift as Matthew stands behind me with his hand on my lower back. He guides me in, ignoring Hunter. But he knows all about Hunter from Caleb, so I suspect he is just stirring the pot now.
“Oh well, you know what they say about assuming,” And then I turn my back on him and watch the floors click over as we travel up. I feel Matthew step over to my other side and I am a little perplexed as to why, until I feel his hand slowly rubbing circles on my back, intimately actually. Yep, major pot stirring.
The door’s open slowly and I am surprised that Hunter didn’t barge past us. Matthew though, the showman that he is, grabs my hand then stops right in front of the open doors of the lift.
“See you tonight, Sweetheart. Knock ‘em dead!” he smirks before bending in, to press a small kiss to my lips. A purely platonic kiss to my lips, but nonetheless the air around us seems to start simmering.
I laugh and walk away from them both. I have no idea what or even if anything happened behind me, I am more focused on staying upright and not freaking the hell out. Sara, our secretary in the executive lounge, buzzes me straight through the secured area and I hear her asking Hunter to sit.
“Afternoon all,” I offer the other members that are already sitting chatting. Today is pretty important for all of us, it is the first meeting with me sitting in Grandpa’s old seat. I drop my bag on the table and saunter over to Grandpa who is on his mobile in the far corner. I wait until he hangs up before leaning in and whispering in his ear, “Fate has come to play again, Grandpa,” my eyes are huge as I step back.
“That makes an old man like me very happy Ginny. Now let me see what fate looks like these days,” Grandpa offers before turning abruptly on me and walking out of the boardroom, through the security door and straight into the waiting room to meet Hunter and hopefully the other IT company. I cringe at his directness.
I distract myself from his antics, grabbing some mineral water and finding my chair, sorting my space out, trying desperately hard not to listen to the laughter and loud murmuring happening out there.
The warning bell sounds through the PA system on the executive floor, heralding the start of the meeting and our nine other board members find their seats.
The door behind me swooshes open and Grandpa strides in looking like he just ate the canary, the joy on his face is infectious and everyone around the table starts laughing.
“Oh Mansueto, what have you done?” Valentino, Grandpa’s oldest friend and one of our longest serving board members, questions.
“Hush, all in good time!” he laughs heartily, his eyes still twinkling in his mischief. He sits next to me, before leaning into the centre table buzzer, calling for Sara, “Hello my dear, could you please arrange refreshments for us old people and also ask John to make his way up from his meeting with HR, before he leaves?”
“Of course Sir,” Sara’s tinny and very professional voice rings out.
“Okay, just a small change of plans. We will have to recommence our board meeting in fifteen minutes. And before you all start with the silly notion that I have retired, we actually haven’t got to that listed agenda item, so technically I am still driving this bus. Hold on, cause my parting surprise is, well, fate inspired,” he offers the waiting crowd, his hands gesticulating his Italian passion and heritage. But to me, he winks and in doing so, my heart drops to my stomach wondering what is going to happen next.
It is only minutes later that John walks in looking flustered, but that is nothing new. Awkwardness seeps from this man. It’s why we have him heading up our IT department and not the marketing team. I watch him walking past me, without making eye contact which is very, very strange.
“John,” grandpa croons, “please take a seat, unless of course, you feel better standing?”
John closes his eyes and shakes his head, waving his arms in front of him. Seems like he is happy standing.
The doors behind us swish open again and Ian, our inhouse lawyer walks in along with two security guards.
“Now we have everyone gathered, I wish this next part was unnecessary, but alas no. Verginius most particularly, along with Bellafonte as a company, has been under a constant barrage of online and personal stalking for quite some time now. An incredible invasion of privacy, an annoyance and a waste of considerable time and money. It has caused my sweet girl a lot of stress. Look at the bags under her pretty eyes!” grandpa sweeps his arm at me. My face flushes in embarrassment but everyone around me looks at me sympathetically as they offer a few soothing words, Mary next to me even rubs my arm.
I roll my eyes at all of them. Growing up with these people has been a blessing and a freaking curse. Most of them still struggle to remember that I am no longer a skinny tween, but family is family. I wave my hands at Grandpa hoping he continues his tale.
“My Ginny and I have been looking at our options behind the scenes, cause we didn’t believe that two plus two was adding up. And it seems we did well to not include our John here. Now John has been with us only a couple of years, but still, we have treated him like family, have we not?” Grandpa asks the table.
Everyone nods their agreement, I turn to glare at him instead, seeing it painfully clearly now. My only question is why?
“John played us?” Mary asks and everyone gasps. Good god, I swear these people love the drama!
