Chapter 3

                      

I stared incredulously at the little white bag in my hand.

I couldn't believe that I, the notoriously cold head of Cordova Industries, woke up early this morning and sent away my driver to personally go to a bakery near my apartment before work to pick out a few pastries for a woman.

For a woman that I barely even knew.

To add on, I ended up staring at the enormous array of sweets in confusion for so long that one of the employees had to walk up to me and offer to help me. It must've looked utterly ridiculous to see such a large figure hunch over the display, fretting over these tiny pastries.

I sighed when the elevator chimed, signifying that it had reached my office's floor. When I stepped out of the elevator, I was met with the usual greetings from all my employees as I made my way to the back of my floor.

To no one's surprise, I found Ms. Belcalis already sitting in her glass office and typing away at her desk even though it was still far earlier than her actual start time.

I knocked lightly on her door, trying to make my presence known as to not startle her, but she still flinched at the noise anyway.

She looked up at me in surprise and swiftly made her around her desk toward me. She nervously shuffled behind the door, keeping it as a barrier between us, as she opened the door for me.

It was quite clear that she was scared of me. I still couldn't figure out what I had done wrong last night, but hopefully, these were enough to offer some consolidation.

I bashfully held out the white bag containing a miniature strawberry shortcake. "As an apology for last night. I'll try to remember to keep my distance in the future, so I hope you won't continue to feel uncomfortable around me. I truly didn't mean any harm."

Her eyes lit up at the sight of the strawberries instead the bag as she crept out from behind the door and graciously accepted the bag. Holding it in front of her, she bowed ever-so-slightly  and softly whispered, "Thank you."

My eyes widened.

It was so quiet that I barely caught it, but it was definitely her voice. She had a lovely voice, one that was sweet but not in the sickeningly sweet way, the type of voice that naturally brought a sense of comfort to others.

Caught completely off guard, I stumbled over my words, "Y-you are... You're welcome, Ms. Belcalis." I backed off from her doorway, diverting my eyes as I suddenly found it difficult to look straight at her. "Um... I'm going to go finish up some paperwork now. I'll see you later for our meeting with the architectural team."

I hurriedly walked away from her office and ducked into my own office, ignoring the stares I was getting from my other employees.

I immediately turned on the switch for tinting the glass walls of my office before dropping all my stuff on the table and slumping over in my chair. I was completely stunned by the turn of events.

What was wrong with me? I was never one to get flustered, not even when one of my mother's blind dates stalked me all the way to my office and sprawled herself across my desk completely naked. Yet, just the sound of her voice sent my brain haywire.

In all 29 years of my life, I had never felt like this before.

I spent all my youth preparing to inherit my father's company, and the moment I graduated, I threw myself into my work to bring it up to where it is now. Sure I went on dates here and there as per my mother's and Sebastian's meddling, but I never actually had a romantic partner before, one I would consider spending my time with.

Did I like Ms. Belcalis? Surely, no.

I had only met her a few days ago and spent a total of less than 24 hours with her.

                                         

             

                       

Was it just because I found her attractive? I doubt it.

I'm used to seeing pretty faces, but...

I quickly shook my head to clear unnecessary thoughts. It was probably none of the above.

I was sure that I was just being thrown off from meeting a woman who didn't look like she wanted to pounce me with every glance. I shivered at the memory of how some previous women had tried to tear my clothes off.

I probably just thought of her as a breath of fresh air, something nice that reminded me that at least not all women were horrifyingly terrible.

Yep, that must be it, so no need to think about it any further.

With a sense of finality, I flipped my laptop open and threw myself into my new stack of items that needed to be addressed.

An hour flew by with ease as I buried myself in my work.

Although I found joy in building up Cordova Industries' reputation in the business world, it could sometimes be stressful, especially when dealing with a bunch of idiots.

"For God's sake, Marvin! I distinctly remember telling you to have that list of invoices ready and on my desk by yesterday morning! Yesterday, you hear?" I shouted into the phone.

He was stuttering on the other end of the line, prattling about with some excuse, but I couldn't care less.

I mindlessly sipped on my coffee but immediately spat it out, forgetting that it was the disgusting cup that I made in a rush this morning.

Before I could yell at him again, there was a knock on my door, making me whip my head around in annoyance, wondering who else couldn't do their jobs and needed to bother me again.

But I quickly bit back my work when I found Ms. Belcalis standing outside my office, pointing at the schedule on her tablet.

Shit, I was supposed to be going to that meeting with her right now.

I held a finger up, telling her to give me one minute, to which she nodded in compliance.

Turning my attention back to the phone, I cut the blabbering idiot off, "Listen to me, Marvin, and listen to me well. I don't give a fuck about whatever story you concocted in your head, but I want to see those papers on my desk by the end of the day. Otherwise, consider yourself fired."

I slammed my phone down and pinched the bridge of my nose. Dealing with people like him made my head hurt, and it didn't help that I haven't had any good coffee these last two days because Joseph has been a bit busy with the to-do list I sent him.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed as I gathered up items, making sure not to forget the finalized contract for the architectural firm. I picked up my jacket and coffee, tossing the disgusting drink into the trash on my way out.

I opened the door and asked Ms. Belcalis, "We're meeting with them on the upper east side, right?"

She nodded quietly.

I hummed as I glanced at my watch. "Joseph should still be out running errands, so I'll drive. Send them a message that we're going to be 20 mins late."

She nodded again as she scrambled after me. By the time we made it to the garage, Ms. Belcalis was breathing much heavier than before.

In my rush, I had forgotten that the little lady was more than a head shorter than me and couldn't keep up with my large strides. I quickly apologized as I opened the door to my car for her, but she didn't seem to mind it all too much and simply nodded understandingly.

She sat stiffly in her seat as I pulled out from the basement of my building and onto the streets of New York City. I couldn't tell if she didn't like my driving or if she was just still scared of being near me, but she definitely held all her qualms to herself with the death grip that she had on her bag during the entire ride.

By the time we arrived at the architectural firm's office, her knuckles had already turned completely white. I glanced at her worriedly as she stumbled out of the car with a nauseous expression.

She tried to follow me as we made our way into the building, but she was wobbling side to side and looked like she was about to puke. Yet, she didn't say a single word to ask me to wait for her or slow down. She was definitely stubborn, to say the least.

I sighed when she nearly fell over while trying to step out of the elevator and paused in my track to make her stop moving.

She looked up at me in confusion, rather than relief, when she noticed my lack of movement.

I pointed at the micro kitchen across from the elevator. "Ms. Belcalis, you are obviously feeling unwell from the car ride. Please don't push yourself and get yourself a drink as you recuperate. I can handle speaking with the design team by myself until you feel better, okay?"

She looked at me hesitantly but eventually gave in and nodded in agreement.

I watched as her tiny figure disappeared into the micro kitchen before walking to the conference room and settling myself down at the head of the table.

Trying to ignore my unnecessary concern for someone who simply worked for me, I pulled out the finalized contract and tossed it onto the tablet, marking the start of our meeting. "Alrighty then, let's see what you came up with for me."

Twelve different designs later, I still couldn't get my head off her.

She was a big girl, so there was no reason for me to be worrying about her so much. Yet, why was I still itching to get out of my seat to check up on her?

Snapping me out of my thoughts, the team lead cleared his throat, "Um, Mr. Cordova. We don't have any more options left to show you. Do you have any thoughts you would like to share?"

My eyes widened when I realized I didn't pay any attention to their presentation and had no clue about anything they showed me.

I quickly swiped through the designs on their tablet and replied, "I like the 3rd and 7th designs. The curvature of the 3rd design's skyscraper would be good for implementing the open space and nature-aesc concept in the 7th design. Something to enhance my employee's mental state rather than making them feel confined in a box. Preferably with as many glass walls as possible to allow natural light in."

The team of architects immediately nodded and started scribbling away on their tablets in an attempt to come up with a rough sketch of my request.

Rather than focusing on the rough blueprints they sent me for the different designs in search of anything else that may be useful, I found my eyes drawn to the back of the room as the door cracked open and a tiny brunette slowly inched into the room.

She looked much better than before, a little less pale, as she made her way into the back of the room.

Noting how everyone else was already occupied, I waved her over to me.

With a confused expression, she walked closer to me.

I leaned up and whispered, "Are you feeling better, Ms. Belcalis?"

Her eyes widened innocently into little saucers, probably taken off guard by my uncharacteristic level of concern for an employee's wellbeing. She nodded mutely and flashed a weak smile alongside a timid thumbs up.

The tightness in my chest relaxed ever so slightly as the sight.

Despite being in the middle of a meeting with a whole team of employees looking up to me, there was only a single thought in my head at that moment: ah, she's alright