Negotiations

Two hours had passed since I sat on the sofa in the reception hall of Golden Estate Investments. The red-head sitting by her desk kept flashing me displeased glances. She must have found my presence uniquely bothersome, to say the least. I didn't care. I was on my mission, and I wasn't going to back off… although I was tired, and my growling stomach reminded me that my last meal was twelve hours ago, and that meal was coffee.

I quickly decided to temporarily fill my stomach with water. I grabbed one of the bottles prepared for the guests, standing on the table, even though the receptionist didn't bother to ask if I wanted something to drink. I clicked my tongue, looking at her before taking a sip of water. I could see her jaw clench. I knew that she found me annoying, but I couldn't understand why she looked so nervous. As I began to observe her more closely, I registered her glimpsing at the door at the end of the corridor, and realized something else... Every corridor was empty, as if there was either no one inside the company or they were all hiding inside their offices. I must admit that it looked peculiar. Could it be that every single employee was out of the office? No, the mean red-head wouldn't look so anxious if that was the case.

After a few more minutes, I noticed her restlessly shifting in her seat. I chuckled inwardly as I understood why. Human physiology could truly be a bitch. Suddenly, she jumped to her feet and looked at me.

She cleared her throat. "I'll be right back," she tossed, rushing from her desk to the lady's room around the corner.

I smirked when she passed me by with her thighs glued together. Well, she deserved decent diarrhea for her unprofessional behavior. With her slam shutting the toilet door, my curiosity started to itch. I glanced at the security cameras stupidly pointed at the area where I sat. A wicked grin formed on my lips as I realized that ninety percent of the space behind the reception desk had been made a blind spot. As much as I knew that it was wrong… and illegal, I was bored to death, and I was dying to take an eensy-weensy glance at the redhead's computer. Besides, there was a tiny chance I could get an advantage in the negotiations if I found a useful piece of information.

I sneaked my way behind her desk, and, a second later, I was staring at her screen. I wasn't going to dig deep. If I was lucky, I would find out how they wanted to renovate our building. I rolled my eyes, realizing that the computer wasn't even password protected. I went through some documents, but I couldn't see anything related to our case. I was going to walk away from the computer when I suddenly saw a barely noticeable icon on the taskbar. I recognized this pesky worm right away...

I leaned back, letting a mischievous chuckle escape my throat. I had dealt with this little one before. It was a form of extremely specialized spyware. I was sincerely shocked that their security was weak enough to let it mess with their system. Nonetheless, the problem wasn't mine to solve, and as I heard the sound of a flushing toilet, I knew it was time to get back to my seat on the sofa and act innocent. Should I tell someone that their company's sensitive information might have been stolen? Perhaps I should. The problem was, how was I going to explain how I knew that?! Claiming that I "accidentally" checked the receptionist's screen and taskbar didn't sound convincing...

The redhead came back with relief painted on her entire face. She glanced at me suspiciously and then sighed as she got back behind her desk. Did she think I would steal something while she was absent? Like what? That sofa? If she wasn't that hostile, waiting for someone I could talk to would have been so much easier.

All of a sudden, the door at the end of the corridor opened, and a crowd of people started walking out. There must have been a meeting going on inside that room, an important meeting judging by the stiffness of those walking into the corridor as if they were still holding their breaths. All those employees wore elegant suits, making me the only weirdo wearing a shite top shirt and a pair of jeans. The only plus was that the top nicely underlined my curves. I stood up, preparing to attack the one whom I assumed was the boss. It was a slightly balding man in his fifties. He was the most relaxed person coming out of the room. I stepped toward him before the red-haired receptionist thought of stopping me. I was halfway through the corridor when I noticed that the balding man wasn't the last to walk out of there…

"Oh, shit..." I cursed uncontrollably, pushing my heels down to a violent halt.

Aren Lan stepped out of the room surrounded by three other guys who were desperate to read his emotionless face. This time, it was a black suit embracing his magnificent body. His stride was confident and elegant. He seemed to be paying utmost attention to those who tried to impress him. Nonetheless, his expression stayed unmoved. Unknowingly, I stepped aside and leaned against the wall to let them pass me by, strangely overwhelmed by Lan's presence. Well, he wouldn't pay any attention to me anyway... right? Wrong!

Instead of walking past me, he stopped as he lined up with me. Once he set his eyes on me, his lips curved into a smug grin. I froze. Did he remember me? No, that's highly unlikely... right?

"What brings you here, Miss Cora?" His deep voice caressed my ears while his eyes roamed through my body length.

I swallowed, forcing myself to look into his eyes. People around us stopped in undeniable shock, watching their poker-faced boss become a hot-blooded predator. I felt as if he emanated force that pierced me to that wall, but I wasn't going to submit to his dominance. I struggled to pull a deep breath into my lungs.

"Golden Estate Investments bought the building where we were renting our workshop spot, giving us an unfair eviction notice just because they wanted to turn it into a hotel. It's a tenement house in Brooklyn and— "

Any traces of a smile left his face as his eyes narrowed, sending me a cold stare. "Do you find buying a building an unfair transaction?" he asked curtly.

"No, but we had a five-year contract with the previous owner, and this place had always been rent-stabilized." My words came out sounding much less confident than when I put the sentence in my head.

Aren Lan's eyes darkened as if he had shoved all of his humanity aside. I wasn't the only one who'd noticed the change; everyone took a subtle step away from him and me. "If you have any issues, you should solve them with your previous owner. I assume that you don't have a signed contract with Golden Estate Investments?" he said in a freezingly cold tone.

I gritted my teeth but kept my eyes locked on Lan. "The conditions proposed in our new contract with your company are absurd. You cannot expect us to pay ten thousand dollars a month for renting a filthy basement that we renovated ourselves using our funds at that."

I registered a faint smirk flashing on his face before he turned his eyes to the balding man. "Mr. Errington? Is she telling the truth?"

The man cleared his throat and took a step closer to Aren and me. "I'm not certain what property we are talking about," he tossed nonchalantly.

"Oh, I bet that you must have bought lots of tenement houses from the 1950s recently. And you are planning to turn them all into hotels, am I correct?" I scoffed.

"Do you know, or you don't know what she is talking about?" Aren Lan urged him, annoyed.

Mr. Errington glared at me, but then shifted his eyes to Aren. "Yes. We made them an offer given the cost of the delay in our rebuilding, which would be unavoidable if they planned to stay for a few more months," he explained.

It didn't sound good. I was losing my arguments way too fast. They had it all covered legally, and I could only speak to their conscience, and I couldn't imagine this could work out well. Still, I tried...

"I ask you to look at it from our perspective. This is our place to work. This place is a source of our income." My eyes shifted between them both with a puppy stare.

A mocking chuckle escaped Aren Lan's throat. "This isn't a theatre for you to play a dramatic scene. This is business," he stated, harsher than I had ever heard a human voice could sound. "Goodbye, Miss."

He turned towards the exit and strode energetically while glancing at his watch. A few other managers, including Mr. Errington, followed him while the rest slowly came back to their workplaces. I heard sneers and muttering coming across the long company corridor. It seemed that my show turned into a highlight of those employees' day. My blood boiled in my veins. My heart hammered. I let out a growl of frustration, unwilling to give up. I had too much to fight for.

"Wait!" I shouted, loud enough for Aren Lan, Mr. Errington, and every other manager to turn around. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but, dumb or not, it was the only idea I had. "What if I told you that you have high-class spying software, most likely on all of the computers in this company?"

"This is absurd!" Mr. Errington scorned, but Aren raised his hand, gesturing to let me speak.

I took a deep breath and said, "I will fix that problem for you—if you let us stay in the basement of that building for at least six more months without increasing our rent."

Aren Lan laughed, his voice piercing me dangerously. "Well... You just got my full attention."