The Italian Heir-CASTELLANO SERIES: MARTIN’S STORY

5

Turns out, Zoe Blunt wasn’t my only unexpected guest of the day. But at least the rest had the common courtesy to make an appointment with John—my secretary, before they came barging in thinking they owned the place.

We—when I say we, I mean Erika and I. Yes, I kept my word and allowed her to sit in the said meetings with me so that she could learn a thing or two and take notes (I had yet to see for myself as to what she had written in that little 4x4 notebook of hers with that fuzzy blue thing on top her pen).

I found my attention drifting bit by bit with every move she made as I watched her from the corner of my eye; every expression she drew on her face when she didn’t seem to agree with something being said, the frown that came with when she did not understand business-related jokes. The potential investors that sat in the meeting room with us sent her furtive glances, as if afraid she was recording them word for word with a fuzzy blue pen. Every now and then, a smile would creep up my face and frankly, I didn’t mind if I were to have another 5 meetings lined up if she was in there with me.

“Did you actually fire those investors off the board for good?” Erika asked, as we made a fifth trip today to the 50th floor where the meeting rooms were. “No I didn’t fire them Erika, that just isn’t real—“ My words caught in my throat when Erika shot me a confused look as to why I stopped speaking. I promised her I wouldn’t make her feel inadequate with my words. Be nice, I told myself. She was no less than me.

“I only suppress them as much as I can in recapitalization—that means I minimize their involvement in substantial changes that will be made in our capital’s structure in the time to come. That way I’ll be able to maintain stabilization between owners and stakeholders with the continuous help from our company's legal team…why...are you scribbling that down?” I asked amusedly, pulling the door open for her while I watched her scribble messily on her notebook once again.

“I’m here to learn, aren’t I?” she asked. That made me smile. “You’re trying too hard with all that sucking up E. I don’t play favourites with my interns.”

“Yeah, but he puts me in his office but leaves my assignment buddy outside with the rest of his employees.” She murmured. I held her chin between my thumb and forefinger, “I believe I didn’t quite get that, were you grumbling in front of your boss?” I asked. She swatted my hand with her fuzzy blue pen. “Behave yourself, Sir. No touchy.” She tapped the pen against my coat.

The sound of someone clearing their throat caught my attention and I let go of Erika, taking a step back. John stood in the doorway and behind him was a skinny man dressed simply in a blue long-sleeved shirt that was two sizes big paired with dark pants. His silver hair slicked all the way back, revealing his large wrinkled forehead. Nothing about him particularly screamed ‘Hey I want to dump a million dollars into your company’ like the rest that came in today.

“Mr. Castellano, this is Mr. Tate—your last appointment for today. I’ll be right back to get some refreshments ready.” John informed him, nodded politely and excused himself.

The man was sweating heavily while dabbing himself with a tattered handkerchief and a briefcase at his side. I granted him a seat and greeted him. He looked nervous and excited all the same time as he almost missed his seat. “Here, let me help.” Erika smiled kindly and pushed the seat for the man who’s height only reached Erika’s shoulder.

“Thank you dear.” Tate rolled his chair closer towards the large, long Oakwood desk.

Erika nodded politely and returned to my side. “Good afternoon Mr. Tate, my name is Martin Castellano and this is my—”

“Protégé.” Erika interjected and grinned brightly. For the 5th time that day, she was calling herself so, although clearly, her ID card had the words ‘INTERN’ printed smack on it.

“Intern.” I corrected and her smile faltered and was replaced with a scowl. Tate’s eyes were wide with surprise but he did not say anything other than introduce his name once again. I had a feeling neither of us wanted to waste any time, so I continued. “Why don’t we skip the formalities and you can show me your business portfolio, Mr. Tate?”

“Oh no Mr. Castellano, I’m afraid you got it wrong. I’m not here to make an investment.”

I raised a brow, Erika’s fuzzy blue pen hung mere inches from her notepad. “I’m here because I’m interested in working for you.”

**

“Well, that was interesting,”I said, moving my thumb and forefinger around my chin, thinking as I leaned further into the chair. The meeting ended minutes ago and Mr. Tate was long gone but we stayed behind in the meeting room. 10 minutes, that was all it took for Tate to get his business preposition through.

I must say, that’s how meetings should run, short and sweet.

“He wasn’t here to invest his money nor does he have the intention of doing so. I admire his confidence, but I don’t think I’m able to trust someone with such a small capital…”

Erika was silent throughout the whole meeting and no frown came from her like it did for the rest of the candidates earlier. I also noticed that she had only written one single word on her notepad. She too looked like she was thinking hard about something. Finally, she spoke. “Martin, it’s okay to have your doubts, really. And it’s not like he expects you to say yes to his preposition immediately. Of course, you’re allowed to think about it. But him offering himself as a backup plan for your magazine printing…”

“What makes you think I would even think about it?”

“Aren’t you already doing so?” She answered smartly. I turned to her and scoffed. “You’re getting really smart mouthed for a mere intern, aren’t you?”

She fought the urge to roll her eyes at the word ‘intern’. “And you love me for it, even though you don’t admit it.” She stuck out her tongue and ran a hand through her hair whenever she was done ‘thinking’. I pressed my lips in a thin line before answering. “Yeah you got me.” I sighed, pushing work and the whole meeting agenda into the back of my mind. “Come on, I’ll take you home today.”

“Oh, about that.” She said before pushing herself off the chair. “I’m supposed to meet up with Lucien to discuss some things for the outline of our report—Rhea wants us to start earlier.” She said that last bit grudgingly. “How about I’ll see you at dinner or something?”

“Erika, don’t you get hungry easily? Dinner for you is anytime after 5pm.” I said flatly, following her to the door.

“Yeah, but I guess dinner can wait for today. I feel bad; I haven’t spoken to Lucien after lunch, I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t have the fear-of-missing-syndrome, sweetheart. Did you even ask if I’m feeling okay? I did max out my attention span today for 5 meetings back to back, watching that fuzz on your blue pen move back and forth was really distracting.”

“Oh Martin, stop being such a baby. You’ve handled more than 5 meetings in a day, there’s nothing about you that I can possibly worry about.”

I pulled her forearm back and her back crashed into my chest before she could even press the button on the elevator. She gasped audibly.“What do you mean there’s nothing about me that worries you?” I asked.

“I mean, look at you. At 23, you seem to have your life all figured out. You’re running a whole department on your own and you’re named the most influential young adult—the man who’s got his s**t sorted. What could be more perfect than this? It seems to me you’ve got it all, don’t you? What else is there that I can possibly worry about?”

When I didn’t say anything, she looked up. The tip of her nose grazed my chin as she did. “Is something bothering you?”she asked softly.

“No one’s that put together, I assure you. Not even myself. You’re reciting what everyone else already knows and assumes about me, but no one has actually asked me about it. If you only knew what was going on in my head, you’d spend eternity worrying about me. But I won’t let you.”

“Martin…”

The doors of the elevator opened and we stepped into the metal box. I stood behind her.

“Don’t you start bombarding me with your questions now.” I flicked the side of her head gently and she huffed. “You never let me worry about you because you’ve never shown any signs of weakness, at least not for a huge chunk when we were growing up.” She said earnestly. “And if I did, you’d protect me like you used to do, won’t you?” I answered.

“That was in middle school.” She didn’t turn to look at me but I could tell she was smiling. “But you intimidate half the people you meet with that cold stare of yours. I don’t think you’d need me around to do any of that now, do you?”

“I never said that.” I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my slacks.

Lucien was waiting for Erika at his desk, his intern ID still hanging around his neck. His eyes lit up when he saw her walk out of the elevator and walk ahead of me. “You ready to go?” He asked her and she nodded. “Yeah, just give me a sec, I’ll go grab my bag.”

When she was out of ear shot, Lucien stood next to me uncomfortably. I didn’t say anything at first, but I figured I’d try to be nice, especially when this kid was working in my department now and he was a friend of Erika’s.

Erika would kill me if she knew I intimidated this boy as well.

“Erika says you’re an exchange student from France, yes?”

“Yes Sir.” Lucien looked constipated, like he was holding in his breath. “I arrived in New York last month just in time for a new semester for a Business exchange program.”

“I see. I hope you’re enjoying New York. And please, you may call me by my name after office hours. You’re making me sound older than I really am,” I said. Erika was right, his French accent was so strong I had a hard time picking up his words and, at the same time, trying not to make a fool out of myself for not being able to.

“I—well, okay.” Lucien nodded. We were silent for a moment. Was Erika packing up my office? All she needed to take was her bag, no? “Erika mentioned a lot about you, says the two of you grew up together. And to see two best friends working in the same company? I’d say it’s pretty cool.”

I scoffed mentally, if this guy really knew what she had put me through to get here.

“It is.” I smiled. “Have you gotten a chance to look around New York yet?”

“Nope. But Erika had offered to take me around. She had got the map of New York memorised on the back of her hand. You’re okay with that, right?”

And yet she can’t remember to show up for classes. Wait, why had he asked me if I was okay with Erika bringing him around?

“Excuse me?” I can’t help but say. But I didn’t get my answer.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting!” Erika swung her tote and walked towards us, raising a brow at me, wondering if I had scared her new best friend already. I noticed that one of her converse shoelaces was untied.

Lucien’s attention shifted to her, his eyes lit up instantly. “You ready to go?” He asked. She nodded and turned to me, “Thank you for today, Martin, I gotta admit I quite like working life.”

“It’s only the first day, Crawford, I can’t promise you won’t be cursing me later in the week.” I winked. She was about to follow Lucien who was already leaving through the double doors, but I pulled her back towards me. “Smartin, you’re really got to stop doing that.” She said heavily as she turned around.

I made her sit down on the nearest lounge chair and knelt on one knee in front of her. “I don’t think this is the right time and place to propose.” The amusement in her voice faltered once she realised what I was doing. “Trust me, if I were to do it, it wouldn’t be in an office.”

“And I can do that myself.” She insisted as she watched me pull her leg towards mine.

“You would trip over it before you even realise it’s untied.”

I did a quick loop and knotted the strings tightly together. “Hey Erika, you okay?” Lucien’s voice rang behind me, she looked up. “My shoelaces were untied.” She pointed sheepishly before I tapped her calf, signalling to her I was done.

“Make sure she gets home safely,” I said. No, more like ordering him to do so. I watched both of them leave, Erika looking behind her shoulder once more, waving before walking into the elevator with Lucien.

“You set the bar too high for all those men in Miss Crawford’s life, Mr. Castellano. I’m afraid that the French boy might not be able to keep up.” John appeared out of nowhere, with his usual tablet in hand, probably waiting to give me a final report of the evening. “Then at least I know I’m doing something right then. My father taught me every woman should be treated like a queen, it’s easier to do so when you acknowledge that she’s one herself.”