THE BILLIONAIRES GROOM

The sounds of rain drizzling wake me up, and I look at the time. I am thirty minutes early, it's still seven-thirty. I have to be at work by eight, so I lie in the bed and stare at my almost empty apartment. I am twenty-seven, and yet my life isn't as rosy as I imagined years ago when I left school. Being one of those who had calculated life to be all merry after school, reality had gradually eaten away my delusion, and here I am at thirty-five still paying my student loan. A job that helps me get by after paying bills and mortgages, no wife, no kids, no vacations. It can't get any worse than this, I tell myself. I stand up and work in the bathroom and shower, I come back out and put on a new suit, my only suit. I feel it's new because I took it to my dry cleaner and he cleaned it well. I look at myself in the mirror and try a smile. Everything looks good except my eyes. I look tired, too tired. It's all Maria's fault my boss at AMT Internationals. She seemed to be sent from hell, always yelling at Arnold to do this and do that. Walking out of my apartment building, I looked up and noticed the rain is getting fiercer by the minute. I turned to go back in to get an umbrella. I need one before I get a cab, and after, Geeez! I had to walk back up! I was about to turn when I heard a voice call out to me. Hey, do you need a lift? I turned and looked at a Mercedes-Benz GLE 350 SUV staring at me. I walked up close, slowly, her face shines into my eyes. I can feel the rain slow down when she asks me, do you need a ride? "Hell yeah, I need a ride, I need a ride in a ride", but I replied with a nod and pulled open her door and escaped from the rain. "Where are you headed?" "May Street, AMT building." "You work there?" she asks me. "Yes, I do." "So what do you do?" I hesitated for a minute as her blue eyes peeled me open. She hits the throttle and heads straight into traffic. She says to ease the silence now looming over us, "My name is Queenie Dale." I smiled and said "Arnold, Arnold Shaw"." And stretch my hand out. It was routine for me to do so after saying my name, so it happened as a reflex. She stares at my hand and leaves a short smile that says "I can't shake you now". I don't mind, I put my hand by my side where it belongs, and then I look out the window counting the taxing drops on it. She asks again, "what do you do, Arnold?" This time I just say it, "I help the big guys upstairs run analysis, just the paperwork". "Okay," she answers, the traffic moves slowly, she puts on the stereo, and the beetles come on and she sings along with them. I watched her, and all I could notice was her cleavage. My eyes would not stay with me after that moment, and the question pops into my head about s*x. "When last did I have s*x? And now it occurred to me, like a revelation, that I was deprived. "Are you married?" She asks, cutting my thoughts. "What? "I said, have you married Arnold?" "No, I am not married. Okay, that is good. Let's have lunch then. I watched her with my mouth slightly open, wondering if I had heard her correctly. Until she affirms one more time, I want to have lunch with you Arnold, and then she parks the car and says we are here. I said "okay." Not knowing who I was replying to. I drop down and hurry to my office building. I entered the building and Maria Caslov was on the ground floor waiting to yell " You are late! "I don't care," I say in my head, but I rush straight to the elevator and then press the button continuously. but the door doesn't close until Maria enters the elevator, like a conspiracy. I stand there and think about my morning as the lift takes us to the fifth floor. I hurry to my desk and begin to sort out the files piled on it. It's just nine o'clock, and the files here could pull a camel, a bit of an exaggeration. But that is how I feel right now, like a camel being pulled by files. "Listen up everyone, we have a new owner, I hear Maria Caslov", my immediate boss says. AMT International has been bought by 'DALE cooperation'.  Miss Queenie Dale is our new boss. The second shocking news for today. I rush to the bathroom and wash my face.  My breath skipping, I say it out loud so it would make any sense, but it freaks me out the more.  ' I just got asked out by my boss!  I calm myself down before I go back to work, but curiosity gets the better of me and I look her up online. She was everywhere, from buying businesses to real estate and philanthropy.  Just everywhere, you just pick your poison and paint a picture.  "Arnold, the boss wants to see you?" I look up and Maria smiles at me. Maria never smiles at me.  I stood slowly, sweat covering my whole body as I walked to the elevator and pressed the 13th number, which is the last.  I went upstairs and straight to her office and knocked.  "Come in," I heard her sweet voice call to me.  I entered and stood a little distance from her large oak table.  Waiting for her to finish what she was doing, I looked around and admired the office, how spacious it was, and how beautiful it was too.  "Did you consider my offer?"  "Yes, Miss Dale." without a second thought.  "Call me queenie," she says, and stands up with a warming smile on her face. Come, she motioned to me, and there was a table set for lunch.