Fourteen

DAVE'S POV

When Nixon broke the news of my taking over the company to my parents, they were over the moon. My dad was all smiles that day and the doctor was surprised to see my father's health improving faster than usual. My Mom concluded that it was the good news that fastened his healing process.

Dad joined in by saying if he knew collapsing in the conference was all it would take to make me join the company he would have done it a long time ago.

Before we left the hospital that night, he instructed Nixon to put me through everything I needed to know about the company. They planned to officially make me the president of the company when my dad recovers fully.

At first, I wasn't happy about my decision to join the company, but seeing how delighted my parents were made it all worth it. Since my brother died, I had never seen my parent that happy which made me satisfied that I had granted my brother the favor he asked of me.

That night, Nixon spent the night in my penthouse, teaching me everything I needed to know about the company and filling me in on their newest contracts and investors. It was all time taking and boring, but I knew I had no choice but to endure it.

Nixon drove me to work in my Maserati after making me breakfast that morning with the excuse that I deserved special treatment from him since it was my first day as the company's president. I wasn't in the mood to argue with him, so I just let him have his way.

He drove into the parking lot of the company and parked the car in my father's spot. I opened the door and climb down from the car myself before he went as far as opening the door for me. As we were about to walk into the company, we noticed a blue Porsche driving into the parking lot. Nixon stopped and stared at the car with a smile on his face, making me wonder who the owner of the car was.

My question was answered when I saw Lena come down from the driver's side of the car and to my surprise, that lady at the hospital with the broken phone was with her. I couldn't seem to remember what her name was because I was too angry at her to keep her name in my head.

"Lena," Nixon called as he approached them. I had no choice but to follow behind him but my eyes were on that lady beside Lena.

She looked at the source of the voice and her eyes widened when she spotted me behind Nixon. She said something to Lena before running inside the company before we could get to them.

"Why is she running?" Nixon chuckled when we stopped in front of Lena.

"She's still beating herself up for what happened yesterday and kept begging me the whole day to call you to stop Dave from firing her," Lena replied and I chuckled silently. She turned to me. "I know she was rude yesterday and I'm sorry about that. But I promise she is a very nice girl and hardworking too, so please don't fire her." She gave me a pleading look.

"I have no intention of doing that." I shrugged as I shoved my hands into her pocket. "How is her phone?"

"Still broken. It would take her a while to replace it because it wasn't part of her budget." She sighed.

"Okay then, let's go." Nixon placed his hand on my shoulder. "You have a big day ahead of you."

We walked into the building with Lena and Nixon behind me, causing everyone to stare at me with a confused look. I ignored them as we stepped into the elevator. Lena dropped off at the fifth floor while Nixon and I continued our journey to the top floor.

We alighted from the lift and went into my dad's office. I took my place on his chair before I heard a clicking sound from Nixon's phone. "Did you just take a picture of me?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"You don't know how long I have been waiting for this moment, so I have to take memories of it." He grinned as he stared at the phone screen.

"Whatever." I leaned into the chair. "What am I supposed to do now?"

He sighed before he gave me all the pending work that my father left behind and explained how to complete them. "Just do that for now. If you have any questions, contact using the telecom. Key 2 is directed to my office while Key 3 is to Lena's office, not that you have any reason to call her. See you later." He turned to walk out but I stopped him.

"Wait," I said and he turned back to look at me. "That girl that was with Lena..."

"Aria," he cut me off and I nodded. "What about her?"

"Which department does she work in?"

"She's a designer on team 4," he replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing." I opened the first document at the top of the pile in front of me and started working on it.

As soon as Nixon left, I picked up my phone and ordered a new iPhone 14 online, requesting for it to be delivered to the company today. It was getting near to the lunch break when the phone was delivered to my office.

After so much contemplating, I clicked on key 3 on the telecom.

"Hello," Lena's voice came through.

"It's Dave. Can you tell Aria to meet me in my office?" I asked.

"Um, why? Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all. Just tell her to come see me." I hung up.

Staring at the phone in my hand, I took a deep breath. I had no idea why I was doing this but I know guilt was part of it. One way or the other, I was responsible for her broken phone but I wasn't going to admit that to her.

A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. "Come in," I said.

The door opened and Aria walked in slowly with her head down, giving me enough time to check out her amazing figure which I only noticed when she walked in. Her light brown hair fell on each side of her face as she put her head down and she glanced up at me from time to time with her beautiful hazel eyes that were clouded with fear.

What I did expect was for her to fall on her knees, crying. "I'm sorry for everything I said yesterday. I will do anything you want, I promise. Please don't fire me."

"Anything?" I smirked.

She glanced up at me. "Yes."

The event just took a different turn which was likely to favor me. She just made the wrong promise to the wrong guy.