Chapter 4

"How's my schedule for today like?"

"You have a meeting by 10 am. Then another lunch meeting by 1 pm. By 3 pm, you go round the company for your usual impromptu supervision then you are to have the business dinner with Mr. Monroe's client by 8 pm."

Giovanni clicked his tongue as he flipped through the pages of the file in his hand. It was another typical day at work except that he seemed to have less work to do than usual. "So I have free time today.”

"What?" his personal assistant and the only person he could consider a friend, August Stone, said.

Quickly checking his schedule one more time, he returned his gaze to Giovanni and shook his head.

"No, you are barely free."

"I have a meeting by 10 am, 1pm, supervision by 3 pm and a dinner meeting by 8 pm. My meetings do not exceed an hour and right now, it's 8am. Meaning I have about 9 hours to spare before I officially get off work. 9 unallocated hours, Isn't that a lot of free time, August?"

"When you put it like that, yes," August sighed. "But it's you. You won't spend it lazing around. “You're going to be busy handling one file or other. Also, lunch breaks weren't included."

"You should change your method of creating my schedule then, " Giovanni dropped the file he was going through on his table to look at August. 'You know what I hate the most."

“Wasting time. Of course, I do.”

"But," August quickly added. "Since you would be having a bit of free time today, why don't you spare an hour or at least thirty minutes to talk to Miss Stark."

"What?"

Biting his lip, August dropped the paper in his hand on Giovanni's table and took a step closer to him. The two men had known each since college where Giovanni was the typical cold senior and August, the not-so-cold freshman. How they bonded was still puzzling to a lot of people but to them, it was their little secret, their unusual friendship lasting even after Giovanni graduated. and as faith had it, August eventually working directly under Giovanni.

"Since you aren't working right now," August chose his words very carefully. "Then permit me to say this."

"Go ahead."

"I kind of overheard your conversation with her. Miss Stark," August said, staring at Giovanni for any significant change in his expression. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop but did. And heard how it went."

"Okay. So?" Already uninterested in the conversation, Giovanni reached for another file and peered into it. "You eavesdropped on my conversation though you didn't mean to. So what?"

"Are you really uninterested in getting to know her?"

"Who?"

"Your bride-to-be."

"Oh, Stacy Stark."

"No, it's not Stacy Stark," August could almost not believe his ears. It was no news that Giovanni was the most nonchalant person to exist on the planet but being that uninterested when he was getting married himself was just a whole different level. "It's her sister, Emily Stark. Stacy Stark ran away, remember?"

"Oh, now I do," Completely bored of the conversation, he flipped the file shut and folded his arms.

"Okay go straight to the point. What's this about?"

"Don't take this the wrong way," August began. "But I could sense hurt from Miss Emily's voice and words the other day. I mean, let's try to look at things from her own perspective-"

"I can't do that." Giovanni interrupted him. "Cause one, I wouldn't sit back and allow my father make such stupid decisions like borrowing money knowing very well he would be unable to pay it. and two, I can't have a coward as an elder sister. Running away instead of facing your problems? That's a lowly behaviour and I can not be associated with people like that. So, no. I can't try to look at things from her perspective without thinking all of these is as a result of sheer stupidity which brings me back to my original question, What is this about?"

"Christ, Gio, you never change, do you?"

"I can say the same to you," Giovanni replied. "I've told you numerous times to stop calling me Gio. At work, it's Mr. Rueben and when we aren't working, it's Giovanni. Just Giovanni."

"Alright Mr. Rueben Giovanni," August scrunched up his nose. "What I was trying to say all these while is please be nice to Miss Stark. Think about how much shock she must be in. having to get married so suddenly? To someone she doesn't even know? And you aren't being the most friendly person at the moment."

"Are you suggesting I change my personality for a woman barely know?"

"Not entirely," August groaned. "You can just be a little nicer. She's still a college student, you know."

"What?"

"Don't tell me you didn't know that," August's eyes widened. "Seriously Giovanni."

"How old is she?"

"Twenty-three."

"Oh, she's a child," he clicked his tongue. "Now her behavior is understandable. She's just naive."

"Exactly why you should be nicer to her," August insisted. "She's a naive little girl who would be getting married to you. I'm not asking you to fall in love with her or anything-“

"You'd be a fool to even ask me to fall in love with her.

"Yes, yes I know," August shook his head. "You hate wasting your time and to you love is the best way to do that. The peak of all useless emotions. You've mentioned that about a billion times it's now engraved in my head."

"I'm glad."

"So please Giovanni, just be nice to her. You can meet up with her at least once before the wedding so you can at least know each other a little bit. It won't be nice if you barely recognize your bride on your wedding day so just consider this you making things a little less awkward for both of you.”

He wanted to tell him he had no reason to be awkward around her at all but knowing that would only result in August spewing more nonsense, he kept quiet. He had no reason to want to know her better or care about how she felt about the entire wedding. But if meeting up with her at least once was going to result in August's lips getting permanently sealed until the wedding was over, maybe it was going to be worth a try.

"You said she's a college student, right? Find and send me her school's address then.”