Olivia And Mr Billionaire

Chapter Six

I began to hurriedly tidy up my apartment. First, I gathered the numerous liquor bottles and put them in a trash bag that I proceeded to hide away in a kitchen cabinet I never used. Then I picked up all the pieces of clothing I had thrown around carelessly and dumped them on my bed. They already knew my mind was a mess; there was no need for them to see the mess had infected my apartment too.

By the time I heard the sound of my doorbell, my apartment was not pristine but at least it was presentable. I took a few moments to catch my breath before going to the door and pulling it open. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

“Hello to you too, son,” my father said as he walked past me into my apartment. His nurse and Brandon followed closely behind, the latter with a smirk on his face that I wanted to wipe off with a punch. My father’s gaze darted around the apartment and he had a look on his face that told me he had a comment he wanted to pass but instead, he swallowed it and focused on me. “You look like a mess, Ryan.”

“Well then, I suggest you don’t smell me. It’s not going to make you like me more,” I said with a scoff, and in my peripheral vision, I saw Brandon scrunch up his nose. My father on the other hand wore a gentle smile.

“At least you still have your sense of humor,” he said as he headed for the living room and sat on the couch.

I followed him. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

“Tell me, do you plan on hiding in here forever?” he asked.

“For as long as I can, yes,” I said with an emotionless shrug.

My father let out a dry chuckle and for a brief moment, I saw a glimpse of the strict man, I knew him in my teenage years. “Look Ryan, you had a bad meeting with the board. It’s not the end of the world. Thankfully, Brandon here isn’t just good at making our company look good to the public. He is also good at making us look good to the board. In the four days you’ve imprisoned yourself, he has tirelessly convinced every board member that was just a one-time thing. Now, all you have to do is meet us in the middle and show up again.”

“Dad, I can’t,” I said. “I don’t even think I can walk into that building without falling apart.”

“Okay. How about this?” my dad said, shifting in his seat. “You take one step at a time. First, you go and take a shower and go out of your apartment for a little while. Recalibrate your senses to the outside world. Brandon here has a nice little bar not far from here that he frequents. You two can go there together.”

“I am not going anywhere with him,” I said immediately to which Brandon scoffed and my father nodded.

“Fine, he’ll tell you the name of the bar and you can just go there. Talk to a few locals and just get a sense of what it means to be a man as important as you are again. Will you do that for me?’

As I looked at my father, I realized how troubled he must be by my condition if his solution was for me to go to a place where alcohol would be served, but if he was willing to help this much then I had to be reasonable enough to accept his help.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go there and see if I can be a normal person again.”

***

I pulled the door open and walked into the bar. Unlike the outside, the air inside was less gusty, warmer, and smelled of beer and an unholy mix of cologne. I stepped in and stopped at the door, looking around to take in this strange place where I intended to re-accustom myself to human company. The room was well-lit by a few fluorescent bulbs placed at an equal distance from each other and one small lamp that hung above the counter where the bartenders stood.

It was relatively early in the night so the room was mostly empty, except for a few men, most of whom were in tailored suits, scattered around with drinks in front of them and cellphones in their hands. I could see why Brandon would know a place like this. It seemed like the kind of place hoity-toity men like him would hang out in to pretend that they still frequented sleazy bars even though by all accounts, this place was anything but sleazy.

There were two bartenders at the counter. One of them was a skinny man with a beard that reminded me of folk singers and the other was a lady whose back was turned to me because she was attending to a man on the other side of the counter so that all I could see of her was her neatly-packed bun and impressive derriere which looked like the angels took their time molding it.

I put my hands in the pocket of my pants and walked to the counter, moving with as much confidence as I could muster even though I could feel most of the eyes in the room on me. Just as I took my seat on a stool, the man the lady was serving looked in my direction and he must have recognized me and said something to her because she turned around and our eyes met.

If her ass had been molded by angels, then God himself must have carved her face. She was the literal definition of hot. Because of her choice of hairstyle and the room’s lighting, I could see from where I was sitting almost every detail of her striking features. Her perfectly shaped brows, her blue eyes with their green flecks, her high cheekbones, her lips which were painted an inviting dark red, and her slender neck which led straight down to breasts that –

I stopped myself and turned away before I would be caught staring shamelessly. She was already walking towards me, perhaps to ask why I was staring like a creep, so, I pulled out my phone and fiddled with it in my hands to distract myself. I had two texts from Vanessa telling me she heard about the board meeting and asked if I wanted to come over to her place to talk about it.

“Hello,” hot lady said as she stopped in front of me. Even her voice was sexy. “What can I get you?”