Chapter 2

Eugene sent me another message in less than two minutes. This time, his tone softened with me.

[I'm so sorry, Bro! I was being too sensitive. Tina is such an extraordinary woman, and I'm always fearful that someone would snatch her away from me. Don't be mad at me, all right?]

[Take more photographs of Tina for me later when you have your meeting.]

I rolled my eyes at how fast the way he changed his tone in his messages. I held back my frustration and quickly cleaned up to rush to the office.

Eugene was a university student who Tina had hooked up with. Since Eugene found out she was the boss of her own company, he came running to the office to announce his 'ownership' of her. However, this young man must either be dimwitted or read too many romance novels. He treated every male employee in the company like his love rival. As Tina's university classmate and the general manager who built the company with her, I naturally became enemy number one in his eyes.

He guarded me as if I were the greatest threat and had no idea that my full focus was on making money. I had no interest in starting a romance with anyone.

It was 9.30 am. Tina and I appeared on time in the meeting room at Kent Charleston's office to go through the details of our meeting notes. We still had 30 minutes until our 10 am appointment when my phone on the table kept ringing. The message notification sounded particularly sharp in the quiet meeting room.

Tina glanced at my phone and frowned while berating me like the boss she was, "You need to keep your phone silent during working hours. Do you need me to point that out to you?"

I picked up my phone to look. As I had expected, they were all messages from Eugene.

[Are you in the meeting room now, Bro? Have you met Mr. Charleston? Take a picture for me!]

[I need a full body picture of you too. I have to check if you're dressed appropriately today.]

[You're with Tina, aren't you? Why isn't she replying to my messages? Remind her to check her phone right now!]

I could feel the veins in my temple throbbing. I took a deep breath and turned to Tina to remind her politely, "Miss Kayden, your boyfriend is trying to reach you."

When she heard the word 'boyfriend', she picked up her phone right away and turned to leave right after glancing at the messages. I was taken aback as she left me alone in the meeting room. Kent was about to arrive at the meeting, and she chose this moment to reply to her messages?

Two minutes after Tina left, Kent and his secretary pushed the door open. He frowned when he saw the empty seat next to mine. "Where's Miss Kayden?"

Kent was a traditional man of fifty-plus and a renowned figure in the industry who was experienced. He emphasized efficiency and was a stickler for the rules. He was extremely unhappy about what he saw.

I quickly smiled to smooth the situation and made up an excuse. After that, I took the lead in the conversation and started to talk about how we can work together on the project.

After 30 minutes of negotiation, Kent nodded continuously, and things seemed to be moving well.

That was when Tina pushed the door open to enter the room. She did not look anxious at all as she slowly took the seat next to mine and asked about the meeting progress. When she found out that the meeting was a success, she was clearly relieved. After that, she brought up details of the contract with Kent, and I took the opportunity to get some water from the pantry.

When I got to the pantry, I took out my phone to see over a hundred of messages on it. There were dozens of missed calls, and it did not take me much to figure out they were from Eugene. Before I could take a look at them, a call came in.

I hung up, and he continued calling. I hung up again, and he still called… After this repeated several times, I knew I could not avoid the messages any longer and could only pick up the call.

The moment the call got through, Eugene roared at me. "Andrew Sanders! How can you ignore my calls again? Are you guilty about something?"

I could hardly contain my anger. "I told you before that I was in a meeting, Mr. Larson. This is a contract that involves millions of dollars. Can you handle the consequences if anything happens to this contract?"