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"And when will they be here?" He asked.
"A few minutes," I replied. "Not more than five."
"You want me to wait out here for five minutes?" He asked, and then he nudged his head toward the skyscraper. "I own the building."
I didn't know how to respond to this, so I simply lowered my head. "I'm sorry, sir, but it's just a little delay. We can head back in to wait if you—"
He left and headed over to the curb. I watched in confusion as he lifted his arm and in a few seconds, a taxi driver pulled up. He got in, and I was almost ashamed to do the same but I didn't exactly have a choice so I got in as well, and to my surprise, he didn't stop me.
I didn't apologize. Instead, I opened up my laptop and by the time we arrived at the venue more than half an hour later, I was done. I saved it into a flash drive, stored my laptop safely in my purse, and then airdropped the updated document to his phone. He was speaking to a bunch of people when he received them, and for a moment, I was scared that he was going to reject it, but he received the document and from time to time, I watched him glance down to go through it.
I didn't stay close enough to warrant him having to introduce me whenever someone new came over to speak to him, which by this point felt like it was every second. But I did stay close enough for his gaze to always catch me when he needed something.
I got him water and some refreshments and disappeared, and then eventually it was time for his speech on the genius business acquisition, scaling, and management in the current times.
After setting up the slides, I of course took charge of aligning it to what he was saying.
For the first time for what felt like that morning, I could relax and so I listened to him speak and he was completely unflustered. I admired him I realized because after looking at his calendar and in that head of his I was sure was a million spinning bottles yet he seemed as calm as a monk. From time to time though I couldn't help but notice that his gaze lingered on me, however, it wasn't in a good way whatsoever. Somehow I noticed it but I could see the immense disapproval in his eyes and it made me wonder if I had messed up some part of the slides.
So far, all seemed to be going well, and I simply ignored him and his gaze until it was over. He didn't spend any time afterwards, despite the horde of people eager to talk to him. He acted as if he had somewhere urgent to be, but I knew that thenext thing on the agenda was simply lunch. Not exactly willing to monumentally mess up again, I quickly called Sophie, asking where he usually preferred for lunch so that I could recommend the place or at least ensure that he got what he wanted from it.
"I've handled it," she told me. "Michael is waiting out front with his lunch."
I was immediately alarmed. "How exactly did you handle it?" I asked, "I'm with your phone."
"And I'm with yours," she replied. "Don't worry, I just told him that I ran out of battery and I borrowed someone else's phone briefly."
"Oh, alright," I said and was about to put the phone away when she stopped me. "Oh, and I was trying to get everything in order since we've been so sloppy and I realized that there was one thing we did miss that Lucien's sure to be pissed about, and he does hold a grudge, so I apologize in advance."
As I looked ahead and watched Michael open the door for the man, I suspected that I was finally able to understand perhaps why he had been grumpy with me all morning. "And what is that?" I groaned.
"There's a man there that Lucien highly respects, Matthew Cubain, and he always goes to this panel solely for him each year."
"And?" I asked quietly as I got into the car as well, but this time I made sure to stay in the passenger seat. Michael gave me a sympathetic look, and I heartily accepted it.
"Well, we didn't get a gift for him. Actually, I did order it two weeks ago, as I usually did, but because of all the issues I've been having with Jerald, I forgot to check on it, and now I realize that it's been stuck in transit for a couple of days. For no reason, I might add. I've been trying to call them now to get it all resolved, but it's not working out."
I shut my eyes then as I took in her words.
"Whether you resolve it or not, it doesn't matter much. Does it?" I grew furious.
"I'm sorry; I know you're mad."
I ended the call then, but I wasn't done seething, and so I included a scathing comment and sent it to her.
Me: The more the day goes by, the more I suspect that you threw me into this den this week so you didn't have to deal with any of this stress.
Her response was just as lethal as I knew she could be.
Sophie: You're right. I really couldn't handle any of it this week. And I'm sorry. I've been making a lot of mistakes this week.
I sighed and sent her another message.
Me: It's my misfortune that I look like you hence I'm available to cover up your mess, so you'd better rest well with the time you have.
Sophie: How are you going to handle this mistake with Lucien?
I was almost tempted to look back to gaze at him.
