My Mafia Madness

Chapter 8 - The Flowers

Gary Harworth was in the middle of introducing both Dante and Alexa officially for the first time and she couldn’t believe her ears as her boss continued their introductions.

“Dante, this lovely young woman is my personal assistant.”

“How could I forget.” Dante mused.

Alexa’s heart sank and her entire body felt heavy as the realisation kicked in within seconds.

Did he just say this was Dante Romano, her boss?

The same man she had almost kissed in the elevator less than a couple of hours ago?

This couldn’t be happening… and yet it was.

“Miss Myers, it’s a pleasure.”

Dante greeted her smoothly with a coy smile as he reached out for her hand.

“Mr. Romano, it’s… it’s an honour to officially meet you.” she replied cautiously.

Before she knew what she was doing, Alexa instinctively reached hers out and watched as he took it, lifting it up to meet his soft lips and giving it a warm and gentle peck.

As he did, his eyes remained locked on her the entire time.

She lowered her hand once more, though she could still feel the warmth of his lips against the top of her hand. Her other hand came to rest over it.

“And might I add, what beautiful eyes you have.” he complimented with a satisfied smile.

She tried to brush off the compliment and remain as professional as possible in front of Gary.

“Thank you for the compliment. If you require anything during your stay here in the city, I would be more than happy to help you.” she announced with a professional tone to her voice.

Dante’s expression darkened slightly as he grinned and replied.

“That’s certainly good to know.”

-

Once everyone had made their way to the elevator and were escorted down to their waiting town cars, Alexa was busily working in the kitchen, helping the waitress staff to finish off with the last of the dishes.

She didn’t have to wash the dishes herself, but the warmth of the water was soothing and seemed to calm her racing mind.

Smiling to herself she had her back to the doorway and hadn’t noticed as she was suddenly no longer own her own.

“Miss Myers…”

She knew that voice; it was Dante’s.

Swallowing she turned around to face him as he continued.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Yes, Mr. Romano, of course.” she replied hesitantly as she pulled off the large yellow kitchen gloves and placed them onto the kitchen counter.

Dante stepped inside of the kitchen and casually strode across to the island that she was now standing nervously behind.

Having a solid barrier between them seemed to make her feel even slightly more capable of facing off with such a powerful figure.

“I’d like to talk to you about what happened earlier on this morning… in the elevator.” he began, but she quickly cut in.

“About that, I had no idea-”

Dante raised his hand as he spoke over her concerns.

“-You have nothing to worry about Miss Myers, it stays between us.” he spoke calmly.

“You have my word.”

She looked genuinely relieved to hear this.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, and one more thing… about the flowers…”

“What flowers?” her brows furrowed in confusion in such a heated moment.

“The ones in the board room, the tulips... whose idea were they, might I ask?” he queried, both brows raising in interest.

Alexa seemed to take a moment of silence to think to herself before she formulated her reply; was she frightened?

Did he not like them?

“Um… I chose them. You see, I did some research and thought you might like the gesture. That it might make you feel more comfortable during your visit, I mean.” she explained, stuttering nervously.

She had no idea of why she was so nervous around this man.

Sure, he was clearly extremely rich and powerful, but like she said earlier on, he was just a man.

Dante grinned, tucking both hands into his designer jacket pockets and looking down at the ground as he replied.

“Not many people would have gone to such trouble… but you’re not like other women, are you, Alexa?”

She could feel his heated gaze lingering over her curvaceous body as she spoke next.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Romano… what is it that you like about white tulips? I mean, in particular?”

She found herself enquiring a new interest in him.

“Is there some kind of special significance to them perhaps? The articles I read all mentioned your fondness of them but... I couldn’t find a reason as to why.”

Suddenly the mighty CEO seemed lost in thought, adrift and not entirely in his right mind as his eyes dazed down towards the expensive marble tiles of the penthouse kitchen.

It was as if a dark cloud had settled in over him and Alexa immediately recognised her mistake for asking.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to pry-”

“-They were my mother’s favourite.”

His admittance caused Alexa to freeze up, listening intently to what he now had to say.

“Freshly-cut white tulips. She always had them around the house when my brothers and I were growing up. Their scent… it would often remind me of her.”

Alexa’s brows furrowed.

She could sense the sadness radiating from him.

Had he lost his mother, is that what he was inferring?

And why was he opening up to her, she was nothing but a complete stranger to him?

This seemed so personal and important to him... so why had he told her?

“Has she… passed?” she asked timidly.

Closing his eyes for a couple of seconds, Dante pursed his lips together as he took a deep breath to gather himself and hide away his emotions.

This was not like him; he’d never told that to anyone before, let alone some strange woman he had met only hours earlier that morning.

Dante cleared his throat and instantly all signs of his emotion had vanished entirely.

And in its place remained a serious expression as he lifted his head back up to meet her gaze.

It would appear that his icy-cold businessman exterior had returned.

“Will you please advise Mr. Harworth that I’m waiting for him in the boardroom?”

His question felt more like a command and Alexa merely nodded her head in response.

With an awkward nod of his head, the CEO turned and marched off, headed back towards the direction of the boardroom.

One moment he was vulnerable and completely opening himself up to her, and the next he was closed off entirely; almost a completely different person.

Alexa felt more confused now than ever as she headed off to find Mr. Harworth and pass on Dante’s message, as instructed.

-

As the last of the attendees of the business meeting was escorted to the elevator, Gary smiled and waved as the elevator doors slowly closed in front of him.

The exact moment they had his smile faded and he let out a large sigh of relief, running both hands through his styled hair.

“Mr. Harworth, Mr. Romano has asked to speak with you in the board room sir.” Alexa announced as she came up behind him in the foyer.

“He needs you in there right away... sir.”

His skin began to crawl as he turned to face the meeting room.

The blinds were closed; that was never a good sign when it came to meeting with Dante Romano.

His past experience with the powerful businessman had proven that.

But what had he done wrong? Everything had gone perfectly, hadn’t it?

Straightening his posture and adjusting his tie, Gary cleared his throat and spoke.

“Thank you, Miss Myers. I’ll handle it.”

With a final huff he forced himself to man up and marched along towards the board room.

-

As he entered the room, he noticed the young CEO sitting silently at the head of the large oak table, surrounded ironically by eerie darkness.

“Dante, I hear you asked to speak with me?” Gary announced confidently.

“Gary, please close the door behind you and take a seat.”

Dante gestured with a nod of his head as both of his hands were clenched together, his fingers interlocked in front of him.

After closing the door, Gary made his way across the room to sit in the chair beside his intimidating boss.

As he walked Dante watched him carefully, noting his mannerisms and expression.

It was obvious that Gary was afraid.

“So, that was one hell of a presentation.” Dante began with a small smile.

“I have to congratulate you. You’ve clearly put a lot of work into it. The presentation, the catering, everything, even down to the flowers...”

Gary pursed his lips and suddenly became rigid, his eyes darting down to glance at the desk.

He knew the truth; that Alexa was the one who had put all the work into this meeting, not him.

His assistant was responsible for everything going so smoothly today.

But he had already decided that he wouldn’t reveal that to Dante.

The praise, as it would seem, was now his for the taking.

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.”

And then a moment of silence began between the two as Dante considered what he would say next; one so awkward that it caused Gary’s forehead to begin to sweat uncomfortably as he shifted in his seat.

But at last Dante spoke, breaking the silence.

“You must have been in here quite late for at least the past week to have organised all of this on your own. And may I ask, why those particular flowers, Gary?”

Dante gestured with a wave of his hand towards the vase positioned in the middle of the conference desk, never once breaking his fixed gaze on his employee.

Gary seemed to stutter as he fought to come up with a believable response. It was clear that he had no idea of why those particular flowers had been displayed in the room.

But Dante was enjoying this power-play far too much to put an end to his suffering.

“Er… I thought they were appropriate sir.” Gary finally replied with a forced smile.

“Appropriate?” Dante questioned, his brows raising and his head tilting forward in disbelief.

“Well yes, I mean they do look quite nice, don’t they?” Gary grinned proudly.

“After all, who doesn’t like roses, hmm?”

Dante’s expression instantly darkened within the fraction of a second, alerting his underling immediately of his apparent mistake.

Something was definitely wrong here.

As Dante spoke next, his voice remained calm as his left brow rose in question.

“You know who I am, Gary. That means you know what I am capable of, correct?”

“Of course, sir.”

“So, tell me, what gives you the audacity to lie to my face?”

Gary’s face quickly paled, and his eyes widened as he swallowed nervously before replying.

“Uh… s…sir?”

“Let me rephrase that. Why would you willingly take credit for someone else’s hard work? Is that the kind of man I have working for me?” Dante probed sternly.

It suddenly dawned on Gary as his expression showed his uncontrollable fear.

Dante knew the truth.

It took a moment before Gary was able to compose himself enough to even try and formulate a response to his superior’s questions.

He needed to explain, fast.

“Mr. Romano, I must confess to you that my assistant did handle the arrangements for the business meeting…”

His confession started off well enough.

“…but I oversaw every little detail myself. Everything, from the food through to the guest’s travel and accommodation.”

“Flowers included?” Dante queried abruptly, clearly not convinced.

“Yes.”

Gary attempted to hide the obvious defeat in his eyes.

A short chuckle escaped Dante’s lips as he shook his head with a devious smile.

“You called the flowers roses, Gary...”

Gary frowned in confusion, apparently not understanding the issue with it.

“Yeah, so?”

Dante’s expression was dark now, his eyes narrowed with fury.

“They’re tulips.”

“I… I knew that.” Gary protested with a chuckle, clearly flustered.

“Roses, tulips, they’re all the same thing... flowers I mean.”

Rolling his eyes, Dante let out a large sigh of frustration.

It was time to get right to the point.

“Let’s talk about the lovely Miss Myers then, shall we? She’s got quite a skill for organising things, wouldn’t you agree?”

Gary frowned at the mention of his assistant as Dante went on.

“Now... I want you to tell me the truth Mr. Harworth, and don’t you dare try to deceive me a second time. Was it Alexa who chose the white tulips?”

Suddenly the second-in-command’s shoulders slumped over and he frowned.

“She did sir.”

“And everything else?”

Gary sighed.

“All I did was sign off on everything. Miss Myers was responsible for overseeing preparations for the board meeting. She’s the reason everything went so smoothly sir.”

“I see…” Dante announced calmly.

“So effectively you lied to me.”

Gary was about to argue the point, but Dante’s mere expression gave him warning not to even bother.

He had been caught out and needed to fess up to his lies if he was going to maintain Dante’s confidence and trust.

Dante seemed to think this over for a moment as he eyed his second-in-command in silence, seated against the back of the chair.

After what felt like an hour of waiting for a rather nervous Gary, Dante finally spoke.

“Mr. Harworth, you willingly violated my trust and in my profession that is not something I take lightly...”

He paused for added effect, causing Gary to sweat a little before he continued.

“However, I may have a way that you can make up for such insolence. A proposition, if you will…”

Narrowing his eyes with concern Gary replied.

“What kind of proposition?”