Chapter 17: Coffee date

As Sean drove into his office car park the next morning, he had to buzz security to let him into the car park as somehow, he had misplaced his security pass that he would normally swipe at the car park that would open the boom gate to let him in.  He had already called Leo to arrange a new security pass and disable the previous one so that no one could access the building should they get access to it. At 7:50am, Sean was seated in the Café across the road from his building.  It was a beautiful café with lots of light and planter boxes with flowers around the outside tables. Sean made sure that he got there early, he was not going to risk getting there late and having Grace walk away.  It was 7:58am as Grace approached the café. 

As soon as she reached his table, he pulled out her chair and pushed it in for her before he sat back down himself. ‘He’s not only early, but also a gentleman’, she thought to herself.  As he handed over the breakfast menu, he told her that he hadn’t had breakfast so he would order some breakfast and then suggested she order some as well.  ‘Very well”, she answered, although, she was wondering how a coffee date to pay her debt in ruining his shirt ended up turning into a breakfast date.

The waitress came over and took their order.  “I’ll have a Smoked Salmon and Avocado Toasty and a Cappuccino thanks”, Grace said as she looked at the waitress. “I’ll have 2 poached eggs with Salmon and Sourdough toast and a cappuccino thank you”, he said as he handed the menu back to the waitress.  Sean wanted to make the most of what little time he had with Grace. They discussed work and what they liked doing in their spare time.  Both of them like swimming and going to the gym.  “Grace just for transparency, the office space you are leasing belongs to my company.  When the space was leased a few weeks ago, all I was told was that it was leased to the ‘Messi Group’.  I did not know until recently that you are the lady boss of ‘Messi Group’, he said to her.  “Thank you, Sean for your transparency, I guess taking on that lease happened so quickly and it came at the right time.  I left it with my assistant to handle the paperwork after I found out there was some office space available there. I had too many other things going on that I was handling as well, she responded.  “If you need anything in that building be sure to let me or my assistant Leo know”, he said to her as he handed over his and Leo’s business cards. “Great, I’ll give these to my assistant so that she can contact one of you should that be the case”, she replied.

Sean then changed the topic to the situation with Arlo and the Brady family business.  It seemed that with all the evidence of his actions against women, he had been arrested and more companies had stopped their business dealings with the Brady family business in the last few days leaving the company hanging by a thread.  Days later it would go into Bankruptcy.

“Grace, I know I asked you before, but I have seen the video of your attack outside ‘Blue Moon’ club, and besides my absolute admiration for the way you handled those two beasts, I saw that you copped a punch on your ribs. I’m a bit concerned you are hurt and you have not sought any medical attention”, he said to her in a gentle and concerned tone.  “I was a bit tipsy, so I let my guard down.  Yes, I copped a punch to my ribs, but it’s nothing big and I’m taking care of it”, she replied back to him.

“I suppose you heard what has come of Arlo and his family business since that night”, he asked her.  With a satisfied look on her face, Grace replied, “Of course I do, I was the one that found those videos and sent some to the police and posted the rest of them online.  Like I told Arlo, I am not one to be trifled with.  I am generally a kind and patient person, but people should not mistake my kindness for weakness. I only hit back in retaliation if I feel it is warranted.  He should be in jail for quite some time and before you say anything about my actions putting his family business into bankruptcy, let me tell you that his family were the ones that suppressed previous instances with other women before.  They paid the women off or threatened them into silence.”  Sean was gobsmacked. This girl was so much more capable than he initially thought and yet he knew there was much more to her. He could not believe that she had the skillset to do any such thing. Tyra was also brilliant in hacking into systems but now Grace seemed like she may well have the same skillset.  He looked at Grace with admiration and felt his heart beating against his chest. ‘I think I like this girl’, he thought to himself as a big grin came across his face.  “I find you very intriguing Grace”, he said to her. “Maybe we can go on a real date one day,” he suggested.  Grace went red at his remarks as her heart began to beat faster being next to him.  She had her fair share of bad luck dating men and although it had been a while since she had dated, she was not interested in dating again.  All her time would be spent on growing Messi Group. She built that all on her own without any help from her family and was driven to make it bigger and better. “Thank you Sean, but I’m not interested in dating anyone and I have my reasons”, she responded to him as she bit her lip. Sean was not one to give up, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to make you change your mind’, he thought to himself as they were finishing up their breakfast.

Just as Grace was finishing breakfast, Claire came up to their table.  “Sean, I’ve been trying to reach you for the past few hours, but you didn’t answer your phone.  You left your security pass at my house last night after you bought me dinner”, she said to him as she handed over his security pass.  The reality was that Claire had taken it from his car on the way home from the hospital yesterday.  She had heard Sean and Grace making plans to meet for breakfast when she spied on them yesterday when Grace spilt the coffee on Sean. The whole thing from the sprained wrist to the fake tears, taking his security pass and having him stay at her place was a ruse so that she could interrupt their breakfast and make Grace think that’s she and Sean were in a relationship together.  Claire looked at Grace and said, “Hi, I’m Claire, sorry to interrupt, but I was so worried about Sean not having his pass with him today after being with me last night so I had to come here today and bring it over”.  Before Claire could finish talking, Grace interrupted her and said, “I’ve got to run, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me”.  She gave Sean a look of disgust, picked up her bag and took off”. Sean tried calling after Grace, but she never looked back.  “Why did you do that for?”, he snapped at Claire.  “Do what Sean, I don’t know what you are talking about.  I was so worried that you would find it hard to get in through all your security coming in and out of your building and even with my sprained wrist I came here to give you your pass back.  That girl was rude anyway, I introduced myself to her and she just ignored me”, she said to him. 

Sean was livid, just when he thought he was making very small progress with Grace, Claire made out that they had a dinner date at her house.  How was he going to explain this to Grace.  He would figure it out.  First, he had to get rid of Claire. “Claire, thank you for returning my pass but in future, you have Leo’s number so you could have called him.  You are right, it is inconvenient without my security pass getting onto my secure floor and into my car space but I already replaced it this morning and arranged for this one to be disabled. Also, Grace was not rude to you. You were rude barging in on us and making her think that we had a dinner date last night.  Claire then put on the water works and started crying. “Oh Sean, I can’t believe you think that of me.  I care for you so deeply”.  Sean then received a phone call from Leo as he was needed back in the office. “Claire, let’s just leave it at that, I have to get back to the office. Look after your wrist and let Leo know if you need anything. The Doctor will be by to see you tomorrow”.  With that, he crossed the road and entered the ‘Harper Group’ office building.

Although Claire wasn’t happy with Sean’s reaction, she was happy when she saw Grace’s reaction and the way she looked at Sean in disgust and then took off.  “I’m glad to have scared Grace away.  Sean is mine and no one will have him, including you.  I will not give up until I am Mrs Harper”, she whispered softly.