DON'T FORGET ME

CHAPTER 4

Charlotte struggled to move faster in her skirt, balancing 3 coffee cups in her hands. She had made 3 runs from the conference room to the cafe in the last 30 minutes. Most refills were from Arthur and one from Mr. Stone. It had been 3 days after she received her surprise package and Micheal still hadn't responded to her voicemail and that had been on her mind. "Hadn't he gotten the message ?" Charlotte thought, hoping she hadn't forgotten to pay her phone bill.

"Oh God! Hello?!" The barrister yelled

"Sorry" Charlotte sighed and took the tray of refilled coffee cups to the conference room. On getting there, dozens of men and women dressed in suits flooded out of the room, leaving Arthur and Mr.Stone in the conference room with two other men.

"Everything has to take immediate effect," Arthur concluded, grabbing a cup of coffee once Charlotte dropped the tray.

"We'll keep in touch" The men stood up to shake Arthur and Mr. Stone before walking out of the conference room.

Arthur took another sip of his coffee whilst Mr. Stone turned to Charlotte. He sized her up and down and clenched his jaws before sipping his coffee. Charlotte adjusted her shirt feeling more self conscious.

"Don't you think you've had too much caffeine for today?" Mr. Stone took another sip before abandoning the cup and focusing on the file in front of him.

"I need this much caffeine to deal with these advertisers" Arthur took another sip, scrolling through his phone "And a health check up every two weeks, seems to balance it all out"

Mr. Stone sighed and clenched his jaws, flipping through every page of the file. Clearly he was tense and everyone in the room could feel it apart from Arthur who was too busy on his smartphone. He sat there flipping through pages as the conference room remained silent. Charlotte glanced round the room at the two bodyguards at opposite ends of the door, the Italian artwork on the wall that looked too colourful for the room and back at the two men on the conference table. Mr. Stone slammed the file and got up abruptly and everyone in the room stood straight and attentive apart from Arthur.

"I'll be in my office till 5pm,no disturbance" He buttoned his suit and walked up to Charlotte. He took in a deep breath and stared at her "Fix your skirt" He whispered before walking out of the room with the bodyguards behind him.

Charlotte looked down at her skirt and noticed the coffee stains. Embarrassed, she walked out of the room, to the nearest bathroom and let out the deepest breath. It seemed like she'd been holding it In for ages. That's all she ever did whenever she was around Mr. Stone, he was so hard to impress and his silence made her more uncomfortable. Almost a week into her service to Mr. Stone and his face made more remarks than his mouth spoke.

She wiped off the stains and stepped out of the bathroom.

"Charlotte!" Mrs. Frances walked to her direction “You need to make your way to the storehouse on the ground floor. You need to sort out the packages and mail that came in this Wednesday. Separate the fan mails and only select the important items you think he might want or need “

“What of his personal items?” Charlotte asked, still trying to grasp this task and why she was being assigned to it.

“Mr. Stone's personal orders are delivered to his house, this is just something to keep you busy whilst Mr. Stone works. There's no deadline you can stop anytime you want, it's just so you have something to do and not be idle” Mrs Frances replied

“Ok, I understand “ Charlotte nodded

“Great! Ask Lucy for directions once you get down and please don't overwork yourself, remember this isn't your primary job” Mrs Frances smiled before walked past her further into the hallway

******************

The storehouse was big, not just big HUGE. So many boxes and parcels, Charlotte didn't even know where to start from. She picked up a box and dusted it off. Paper towels, it was filled with custom paper towels from Greece. it was fan mail, obviously, but Charlotte felt it odd that they had to add their family picture from vacation, maybe it was to act as proof that they did in fact make the trip.

At first, she started off slow, there were a lot of Christmas packages down there. Mostly with horrendous knitted sweaters and hideous decorations that made her scoff a few times.

Her time there picked up when she got to the fan letters. They were so hilarious and out of this world, she had to take a seat to read them all. At first, she thought they were written by erratic teenagers who's fantasies took hold of them, until she got to the middle aged women who shamelessly wrote professing their attraction to him. Most were after they watched him in an interview on TV, or in the magazines. They obviously knew nothing on the practices of MacChip or even what the company was about, they just felt the CEO was so hot and irresistible, and if they had so much luck they'd be picked to be his wife out of the other thousands of people writing the exact same thing.

After a few laughs, she got tired of reading and picked up a huge box wrapped in green paper. She unravelled the gift and lifted the guitar in it. This was the first actual gift she'd opened since she'd gotten here, she picked up the letter in the box and read it

“For your hobby, to keep your fingers busy” it read. Obviously this wasn't fan mail, Charlotte thought, which was quite weird because it felt like it was from someone from Mr. Stone's personal life. “So Mr. Stone's into music?” Charlotte questioned checking out the guitar, it was brown and shiny and had his name signed in red at the bottom “Weird” she shrugged

“Charlotte!” Tim barged into the storehouse and Charlotte jumped up. “Sebastian needs your help!”

******************

Friday.

It was supposed to be another Friday, nothing special. It was, until 4 words twisted its trajectory. 4 words, and Charlotte's thoughts stopped, her feet became heavy and her chest pumped. Running behind Tim, she wondered what possibly could have gotten Tim and the rest of the team at such unrest. They flung the doors of Mr. Stone's office and the crowd consisting of Mrs. Frances, Lucy and a few other bodyguards divided. Charlotte was still stuck at the door when a few medical personnel lifted Mr. Stone on a stretcher, out of the room. Arthur was on the far left of the room, yelling on the phone. “Go with them” Mr. Frances turned to Charlotte whose position remained, still finding it hard to move her feet.

“Come on, let's go” Tim finally grabbed her arm and they rushed downstairs. They had carried Mr. Stone out through the back door, where the ambulance was. Tim and Charlotte went through the main entrance, it was obvious they didn't want the rest of the office to know, that'll explain the unaltered buzz of business men on all other floors apart from the top floor where his office was.

Tim's car was a 2023 Range Rover model, Impressive on the outside and a total mess on the inside. There were empty wraps of chicken sandwiches and chocolate bars all over the floor and a few alcohol stains here and there. “Ignore the mess, I had a party last night” Tim laughed trying to clear some of the mess. Charlotte rolled her eyes and tried not to get too comfortable on the seat.

It took about 25 minutes to get to the hospital and they rushed in to meet Arthur already speaking with the doctor, who led them to the emergency room where Mr. Stone was in. Charlotte was asked to wait outside although she could hear all that was being said inside.

“He had a temporary seizure, probably a result of stress” The doctor began “It is also quite evident that Mr. Stone hasn't been taking his medications judiciously and if this persists, he might need to be admitted and watched for any irregularities in his body movements…”

“Well that can't happen, the company needs him to be active” Arthur cut him off

“Which is why, there would be an addition to his medication, I've booked him a few appointments for these coming weeks, just to regulate a proper checkup. If we can curate a favourable schedule for him to follow, he'll be fine for now” The doctor said

“Seizure?” Charlotte thought to herself. Mr. Stone was sick? Still bewildered in her thoughts, Tim walked out of the door with Arthur right behind him. “We'll have him released in a couple minutes, I just need to sort some of his medical files” the doctor smiled before walking away.

“Charlotte” Arthur coughed moving towards the reception of the hospital “walk with me”

“Yes Mr. Miller?” Charlotte followed, matching her steps to his.

He let out a huge sigh and rubbed his temples before speaking up “Your job here is about to take a whole new direction” He started “We hired you as an assistant and I don't know if you've noticed although, it was stated in your contract but, Mr. Stone's sick, a terminal illness”

“Sick?” Charlotte's brows furrowed

“Young onset Parkinson's disease. He got diagnosed a few weeks before we left for San Francisco, and from the look of things he needs a lot of help before this illness beats him up and f***s up the company” He rubbed his temple again and folded his arms “your schedule is about to change and you're about to become more personal in his life. You need to regulate his medications, medical checkups and his medical vitals.”

After a long pause Charlotte uttered “Well can it be treated or removed?” Charlotte asked trying to grab the levity of the matter at hand

“Parkinson's is a very critical disease but we do believe that with proper attention and care, we can maintain it until we think of other… permanent decisions” He said searching the room.

Before Charlotte could even cook up more questions, the doctor signalled for Arthur's attention and Mr.Stone was being rolled out of the emergency room in a wheelchair by a nurse. Charlotte stared at the man in the wheelchair, his face was expressionless, unlike his usual stern growl and determined eyes roaming from one place to another. How was she supposed to help him get better if she couldn't even stand being in the same room with him? Or had she just judged him out of a biassed perception?