Sunshine On My Mind

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

(two years later)

Charlotte sat in her office, talking on the phone.

“Yes, cancel that meeting.  My brother is getting married on that day.  Reschedule it for another day.  He’ll understand.  Also, have you contacted the construction company?  No?  Okay.  I’ll do that.  I have a change in plans and I don’t want to cause any confusion.  That’ll be it.  Thanks, Stacey.”

Charlotte put down the phone.  She looked at her schedule, realizing she had a meeting with Chase in 6 minutes.

“Crap.  Let me just grab some things real quick.”  She gathered her things and went to the meeting room, which was relocated to the floor below.

After she officially took over her father’s company, Charlotte made sure the place was renovated, top to bottom.  It did take quite a lot of money and time, but it was worth it.  An employee even started a fundraiser within the office to support the renovations.  Around $10,000 was raised.  Now, the office felt brand new, which it kind of was.

She stepped out of the elevator, greeting people she saw.

“Hey, boss!  How’s your day going?”  A man asked.

“Good, although it’s going to get worse as soon as I step in those doors.”  She said.

The man chuckled.  Everyone who worked at the office knew about Charlotte and a certain business partner named Chase.  Things weren’t rainbows and butterflies as soon as they were in a room together.  It surprised everyone to know that their partnership was actually quite strong besides the two CEO’s quarrels.

“Have a good day,”  Charlotte said to the man, before going into the meeting room.

There, she saw Chase.  It was quite a surprise when she found out Chase was actually Blair’s cousin.  Blair never mentioned him, even though she was super close with his parents.

“I just didn’t think he was worth mentioning.”  She had told Charlotte.  Charlotte couldn’t argue with that.

“So.  What brings you to my office?”  Charlotte asked.

“Straight to the point, eh.”  Chase joked.  But he got serious in a split second.  “So, if you’ve been watching stocks lately, you would see that we are in the lead.”

Charlotte nodded her head.  “Yes.  I was thinking the same.”

“So I thought, why not build some new luxury apartments in Cali.  Maybe out in San Francisco.”  Chase said.

Charlotte frowned.  “Actually, I was thinking, with all this money, why not donate some to different charities.  Heck, I was thinking about starting a charity.”

Chase laughed,  “Nice, but no.  Look, if we could build these luxury apartments, we could earn even more money, securing our place as the richest people in the world.  I’m thinking about using the shared assets.”

Charlotte shook her head, clicking her tongue.  “Don’t be so greedy.  The Lord doesn’t like greedy people.”

Chase chuckled, “True, but I still think this is a brilliant idea.”

Charlotte wrote some things down.  “Well, if you want to invest the money into building new apartment buildings, we’ll have to talk with the other men about it and see if they like the idea or not.  Meanwhile, I’ll come up with a similar plan to counterattack your plan.”  She smirked.

Chase shook his head.  “We’ll see.  How about let’s do this meeting virtually.  My weeks are quite busy and there won’t be enough time unless we do it virtually.”

Charlotte agreed and they sent out emails to the other men.

“Until then.”  She said, leaving the room.

“Charlotte,”  Chase called out.  Charlotte turned around, “You look good.”  He said, smirking.

Charlotte rolled her eyes,  “Thanks.”  She said sarcastically.  She heard him laugh as she exited the room.

She was surprised they weren't yelling in that meeting.  She was kind of proud about it too.

She went back to her office since there were no more meetings for the day.  She came up with a plan to counterattack Chase’s.

Instead of building new luxury apartments, she wanted to renovate older apartments in the ghetto parts of cities.  

Charlotte couldn’t really do it all by herself.  She would need help from the other businessmen to agree with her plan.  She smirked.  They just had to agree to her plan.

She grabbed her phone, dialing her father’s number.

“Hey, sweet pea.  How’s your day going?”  Her father asked.

“It’s been going good.  You’d be surprised that Chase and I didn’t yell at each other today.”  She laughed.

“Ya know, you keep mentioning Chase at least once in every single one of our conversations. I just wanted to say I approve of your relationship with him.”  Her father joked.

Charlotte groaned,  “Don’t worry.  Nothing is going on between the two of us.  It’s strictly business.  Chase actually came up with a plan, since we had all this money in our hands.  He wanted to build new luxurious apartments in Cali, but I don’t like it.  He only wants to do it because there would be more income.”

Her father sighed,  “Darlin’, you’re the CEO now.  You make your own decisions.  Now I get it, the money y'all are using is the shared money, but just remember, don’t act out if he wins.  Be calm.  I have to go, Linda is shouting at me.  I need to take my meds.”  

“Bye, dad.”  Charlotte said with a smile, “Love ya,”

“Love ya too sweetheart.”

Her father had met Linda not too long ago, and he’s been head over heels for her.  Linda was about his age, maybe a few years younger.  Her father was 56 and Linda was 54.  Linda was the only woman her father had his eyes for after her mother's death, which happened nearly 5 years ago.

Charlotte sighed,  “Back to work.”  She muttered.

She called the construction company.  

“Hello.  Murph’s Construction.  How may I help you?”

“Charlotte Turner speaking, can I make an appointment with your manager?  We want to propose a construction plan to build a custom home.  I’ve got floor plans ready, and I just need to go over them with a builder.”

“Yes ma’am,  I’ll see if I can set up an appointment.”  Charlotte heard the rustling of some papers before the woman came back on the line.  “We could set up an appointment tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.  That’s the only time he is available for this week.”

Charlotte nodded her head, “Thank you.  Tomorrow morning will be fine.  Have a nice day.” 

Next Morning hehe

“So!  What do you think?  I mean, not that I care, but please?  Do it for me?”

Charlotte rolled her eyes.  “Blair.  I already told you, I really can’t.  I mean, I bet half of them are saying yes because I’m rich.”

“Yeah!  But there’s one that I think will be great!  He’s also rich, and I blackmailed him into going on a date with you.  Of course, he doesn’t know it’s you, because then he would never have said yes.  But the point is-”

Charlotte cut in, “Blair.  This better not be Chase.  I know you and your tricks to get Chase doing what you want.  And from the sounds of it, the only rich person you have connections to is Chase, besides myself of course.”

“Okay, okay.  Fine, it’s Chase, but please.  It would mean the entire world to me if you just went on one date with him.  Then I’ll drop this match-making thing.  Pleaseee?  I mean this is an awfully great deal.  One date with Chase, and this nagging will stop.”  Blair said.

Although Charlotte couldn’t see her, she already knew Blair was making a puppy face.  She sighed, “Fine.  However-”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence when Blair squealed.  “Eek!  Yes! Yes!  Thank you for giving me a chance.  I promise not to let you down.  I’ll send you the info right away.”

“Wait Blair-”  With that, Blair hung up.  Charlotte looked at her phone and laughed.  About 30 seconds later, she received a text notification from Blair.  When she opened it, she was greeted with a paragraph-long text.

Without reading first, Charlotte texted,

C -  Were you writing that while on the phone..?  Or did you have it already there, like just copy and paste?

B -  Yea,  I had it in notes and I copied it and pasted it.  

B - Did you read the entire thing?

Charlotte smiled.

C - No, not yet.  I had a question, so I asked.  Lemme read it really quickly.

B - Oki.  I actually have to get going now.  Cya! :3

C - Oki  Byeeeee

Charlotte read the contents of the paragraph and chuckled to herself.  She checked the time and rolled out of bed.  She stretched her body for a minute and continued to go to her bathroom.  Today was going to be a long day.