Taming the Playboy CEO

That's not my Cole!

Weeks later

The hate that Mariana had been receiving had reduced to the barest minimum as Cole and Mrs Beth had made sure that the sounded a clear warning to the entire company. The receptionist and the lady that had harassed Mariana had been duly sanctioned and relieved of their duties making the company a more conducive place for her.

It is the day of the presentation and Mariana and Yolanda are working together to compute all the data they need for it together and also put in place some finishing touches. Yolanda checks her time and it is already mid day meaning time for lunch break.

Mariana tells her to bring in something they could eat quickly as they were not yet done with work and they did not have much time left on their hands since the presentation was due in about two hours time from then.

Yolanda goes down to the cafeteria and gets a burger and fries with a cappuccino for both of them. She packs them separately. They eat and continue working at the same time.

It is soon time for the presentation. They leave the office when it is about ten minutes to the two so as to have enough time to mentally prepare and set up. As they get to the conference room they settle and wait for Greg's company's representative to arrive.

Outside the company

Alex had just driven into the company's driveway. He steps out of his latest Ford Escape PHEV to meet the branch manager at the entrance. They exchange handshakes as their personal assistants do the same too.

The branch manager leads the way to his office first for drinks and for them to get acquainted with each other before the meeting/presentation commences. They make idle talk about the project for a while before moving to the conference room.

As usual everyone present stands as Alex and the branch manager step in with their personal assistants moving ahead of them. Mariana turns with everyone else to see who the representative was and is shocked to see Alex.

She is dumbfounded and stays rooted to the ground with her mouth agape and her eyes as wide as saucers. She is still standing staring at Alex even when everyone else has been seated, not until Yolanda nudges her and she regains herself and sits.

The branch manager stands up to make a speech and soon the presentation is in full swing as the first director and his personal assistant are soon called upon to begin with their own presentation.

Alex had not still noticed her yet until he took his seat and scanned through the room with his eyes. As soon he sets his eyes on her, their eyes meet as she is also staring at him, he begins to have a splitting headache.

He tears his eyes away from her and the headache reduces. He wonders why he gets a headache whenever he looks at her.

He assumes that it was him being paranoid and looks at her again and this time the headache goes a notch higher. He immediately takes his eye off her and makes a mental note not to look in her direction again throughout the duration of the meeting.

Mariana soon realizes that he had not recognized her yet and is very confused. She wonders if it was Alex's doppelganger and not the real Alex as there was no way Alex would not recognize her except if he was pretending not to. They had dated for 2 years and had been friends for about a year.

They had met at a mutual friend's charity gala and had fallen in love with the same piece of art. It was a masked party meaning they did not even know who the other person was at the time.

They had started off on a wrong foot with Mariana nearly spilling her glass of champagne on Alex as she had hit him when she was staring at a piece of art absentmindedly.

She had quickly apologized for not noticing him. Alex had brushed it off as nothing had happened and asked if she was an art lover and what she thought of the piece she had been looking at.

They had spent almost the entire evening talking about the different arts, their credibility, the artists, the inspiration behind each artwork and what the artists had in mind to convey.

They were so engrossed in their conversation that nearly missed the entire gala. They laughed it off and spent the rest of their evening together.

After the gala, Alex had stayed to ask the hostess of the gala, who was an old friend of the lady in the wine colored sequin dress as they had documented every single guest present for security reasons. It was not easy to convince her to give it to him but as soon as he got it he gave her a call. And thus their love story began.

Mariana is almost in tears as it looked like he had forgotten about her and moved on with his life while she was still trying to get herself together.

She knew something was up somewhere but could not really place what it was. She decides to finish up with her presentation first before looking into the matter.

It is soon her turn to present and she gets up with Yolanda to the podium. Yolanda, noticing her mood, was determined to stand in and help her to the best of their ability. She starts her speech as she is to begin the presentation before Mariana takes over by explaining the work done in their section.

Alex tries as much as he can not to look at Mariana as she stands at the podium waiting for her cue to speak and she tries to do the same.

It is soon Marianas turn to speak and she begins her speech trying not to let her voice quiver. As soon as her voice is heard, Alex's headache begins again, this time worse. He tries as much as possible to hold it in but instead it gets worse as Mariana talks.

He lets out an ear piercing shriek and faints immediately. The conference room is soon in chaos as everyone rushes to see what the problem was. As soon as Alex slumps, Mariana rushes to him immediately as she had noticed his discomfort because her eyes were on him the whole time. His personal assistant goes to get an ambulance to convey him to the nearest hospital and also alert his adopted family.

The ambulance soon arrives and the nurse comes in and carries Alex on a stretcher to the hospital with his personal assistant and Mariana's branch manager following suit. Mariana is torn between going after the ambulance or calming down and waiting with the rest of her coworkers to get information about his well being whenever their branch manager returns.

She decides to wait and leaves the conference room to her office so that she could at least clear her mind and think properly.

As she gets to her office, she goes to the bathroom to splash water on her face. Getting there, she does that and stares at her reflection in the mirror above the sink.

She recalls Alex's facial expression and reaction when he looks at her. She also wonders why he fainted. Was he ill, she thought. She is totally confused and frustrated.

She goes back inside her office to call her mom and sister and tell them about what she just found out before she makes a rash decision. She places a call to her mom first but she does not pick up even after five rings.

She then decides to call her sister, Choice. She calls three times before Choice picks up at the fourth time.

'What is it, Maria? I was in the middle of an important shoot' she says as soon as she picks up the call. 'Calm down' Mariana says. 'There is something important I need to tell you but it can't be said over the phone'.

'What is so important that you are this troubled and still can not say it over the phone?’Choice cuts in.

'It is a matter that requires urgent attention. Could you tell mom to please talk to my company's CEO, so I could get an impromptu leave to come back home by the weekend’.

Choice is surprised at this request and wonders what was the matter that her sister was so insistent on not saying it over the phone but instead she wants to return back home first before saying it. 'Okay', she says ‘I'll convey your information'. ‘Thank you very much. I owe you one. Now get back to work before you s*******r me', Mariana says.

They both chuckle and end the call.

Yolanda knocks on Mariana's office door and opens up when she hears Mariana's muffled voice from inside. She steps in and sees Mariana with her head on her desk.

She came to drop off Mariana's laptop and the files they had carried to use for the presentation. She drops it off on Mariana's desk and settles down on the seat in front of the desk and inquires about Mariana.

She asks if she was okay or feeling ill in any way. Mariana says no and tells Yolanda to please be quiet as she needed to clear her head or it would begin to ache. Yolanda obeys her request and stays quiet.