A very Corporate Affair Book 1 (The Corporate Series)

by Latham, D

  "We must stop meeting like this Miss Reynolds," he said. I simply raised an eyebrow, and sat back on the bench, closing my eyes. He didn't take the hint.

  "That was quite an impressive workout," he went on, not twigging that I was practically ignoring him. I opened one eye. He looked hot in just shorts. Nice smattering of chest hair too.

  "Just a normal workout," I said quietly.

  "How often do you work out?"

  "Every day usually, if I can." I wanted him to go away, his half naked body in close proximity was having a bit of an effect on me, which I didn't like.

  "Would you like to join me for a coffee or something when you finish in here?" I opened both eyes in surprise. A man who had never so much as smiled at me was asking me for coffee! He still looked miserable.

  "Sorry, I have an appointment I need to get to." I really didn't want to spend time with this scowling bundle of anger issues, and I really wanted to get my nails done.

  "Another time then," he said, as he stood up and walked out of the sauna. I breathed a sigh of relief. I stayed in there another five minutes, enjoying the peace, before heading into the showers.

  Feeling squeaky clean, I wandered down to the shopping arcade to see if the nail bar could fit me in. Forty minutes later, I was perfectly manicured with long lasting gel polish in a sophisticated nude shade. I text James to see if we needed groceries, then headed home, stopping at the mart for milk.

  Back home, I told James about my encounter with Oscar at the gym.

  "Hmm, seems like he's set his cap at you. Just be careful, there's something about him that's just not quite right."

  "I just don't understand how he thinks he can chat me up without cracking his face. It's a shame, he would be good looking if he smiled a bit. He's got a killer body though."

  "Were you ogling him in the sauna, you naughty girl?"

  "A bit. Couldn't really help it, he was only wearing shorts. I was looking, not ogling," I said primly, which made James laugh.

  "So is he muscular? Hairy? Scrawny?" James asked, prompting me to guess he was gay.

  "Decent muscles, little bit of chest hair, long legs."

  "Is that your type?"

  "I don't have a type," I said, which was true. All the boyfriends I'd had, had been wildly different. "What's your type?" I asked James.

  "Blondes," he replied quickly.

  "Male or female?" He looked amused at my question.

  "Female. You didn't seriously think I was gay did you?"

  "I wasn't sure," I said, a bit embarrassed. To be honest, James had come across a bit asexual, like I thought a brother would be.

  "Not gay, just not one to chase women. I had a bad breakup last time, so I'm sworn off relationships."

  "Oh. What happened?"

  "I thought she was the one, so I proposed. She said no, and then buggered off to Oz with my best friend. I gather they're married now." From the little bit of James' face I could see, he looked sad.

  "That's awful."

  "Yeah, well......shall we watch a film? We have Netflix, so there's loads of choice. We scrolled through the film menu and settled on an action movie. I poured us each a glass of wine, and we sat in companionable silence.

  The next day, I did my laundry, and headed over to the gym for the 11am yoga class, as I was a touch aching from the day before. Thankfully I didn't run into Oscar again. Back home, James had bought the Sunday papers, and was reading them at the kitchen island, pausing only to make coffee, and scoff the Danish pastries I'd bought.

  Monday morning I was in the gym at six am, and did a precise forty five minute workout before showering. I did my hair, makeup, and got dressed, managing to walk into the office at seven thirty. I was surprised to see a few dozen people there already.

  Peter was the only one in my personal office present. He was working at his computer when I walked in.

  "Morning Elle, good weekend?"

  "Great thanks. Yours ok? Any idea what I'm gonna be doing today?"

  "Lewis Jones is your line manager. He's the one who assigns you your cases, and monitors your workload. He's in the office next door," Peter pointed to his left, "and he's in already."

  I headed to the next office, and knocked on the door.

  "Come in, you must be Elle Reynolds, I'm Lewis Jones, your manager.

  "Pleased to meet you Mr Jones." I shook his hand. He was middle aged, rotund man, with sharp, intelligent eyes.

  "Lewis, please. I'm going to start by showing you around the offices to orientate you with the facilities and the people who work here, then today you will be shadowing me to get a feel for the cases we're currently running. Sound ok?" He smiled warmly.

  "Sounds great." I followed him out of his office to meet everyone.

  The morning passed in a blur. Lewis was as sharp as a tack, and I knew I'd learn a lot from him. At midday, Priti came to find me to take me to lunch. She showed me a cute little cafe tucked in a corner of the arcade. We picked out our sandwiches and coffees, and grabbed a small table. I really liked Priti, she was bubbly, gregarious, and seemed to know everyone and everything. She pumped me for information, finding out that I didn't have a boyfriend, had just moved, and shared an apartment with a bear-man called James.

  "There are loads of hot men working in the tower, you'll definitely find a boyfriend. There are a few super-hot ones too that everyone salivates over. The best one is a dreamboat Russian who's the CEO of a finance type company. He only goes out with supermodels though."

  "Hmm. Is he a client of ours? I wouldn't ever date a client."

  "No, he's been in when our clients have sold to him though. You should have seen the secretaries, they were practically dribbling." Priti smiled at the thought. By the time we headed back to work, we were firm friends.

  The rest of the afternoon flew by. Apart from one of the secretaries, who had been a bit offhand, everyone seemed friendly and helpful. Lewis gave me a contract to look over, so I sat at my desk and went through it line by line. At five, Priti came into my office.

  "You just had flowers delivered," she said without preamble. I hurried out to reception to find a large bouquet of lilies, which perfumed the entire area. Puzzled, I found the card nestled amongst the blooms, and ripped it open.

  Hope your first day was successful

  Best wishes

  Oscar Golding

  Priti watched me frown, "not expecting them?" She asked.

  "From a man I met in the coffee shop last week. Not someone I'm terribly keen on. I just keep bumping into him." Priti took the card from me to read. Her eyes widened as she read it.

  "Do you know who this is?"

  I nodded, "he lives in my flats and works out in my gym. Never cracks his face though, gotta be the most miserable sod on the planet."

  "You don't know who he is do you?"

  "Not really."

  "Chairman of Goldings bank, two floors up. I think his great grandfather set it up. He belongs in the super-hot club. Every woman in this tower is gonna be green with envy." I blinked at her. He had told me in Starbucks that he worked two floors up. I hadn't bothered to look up which company was on that level.

  "Getting his PA to send me flowers isn't asking me out. He's just a neighbour being friendly, so don't waste your time greening up." I plonked the bouquet in the corner and went back to the contract.

  James' eyebrows shot up when I walked in that evening lugging the bouquet as well as my gym bag and handbag. Before he could ask, I pulled the card out of my pocket and handed it to him.

  "An admirer already? He seems to be pursuing you quite aggressively. I bet he won't let up. His type never do."

  "Hmm, I'll handle him. Priti told me who he is. Some hotshot banker. If I keep ignoring him, he'll get the message eventually." I busied myself arranging the lilies in a vase James had pulled out, while he dished up some food.

  "I made chicken chasseur tonight. Hope that's ok," he said.

  "Great thanks, it smells delicious. I'm starving."
I told James all about the rest of my day over dinner.

  "So you're gonna hold out for the Russian financier?" James smirked.

  "No. Apparently he only dates supermodels. I didn't work my way up to this job to find a boyfriend you know. I can manage perfectly well without a man on my arm, besides I haven't even seen that one yet, he might be pig ugly."

  James laughed, "doubt it if all the secretaries knickers hit the floor when he walks through. Some people just have it all."

  I changed the subject to James' day. He told me all about the new app he was coding which would allow people to pay each other via their mobiles. He hoped to sell it to either a bank or a large payment portal. He told me about the banks that had expressed interest already. Mobile phones weren't as susceptible to viruses, so were more secure than PC banking systems. I could see how animated he became when he discussed his work, he clearly enjoyed it more than he let on.

  After a hot bath, I crashed into bed, exhausted. I reasoned that it had been a good first day, despite the interruption of the flowers. Within five minutes I was asleep.

  I woke up at half one to the sound of faint piano music, a heartbreakingly sad melody. I padded through the apartment to see if it was James. His room was in darkness, as was the rest of the flat. Straining my ears, I worked out that it must be coming from downstairs. I padded back to bed, and lay listening for a while, until my eyes grew heavy, and I went back to sleep.

  Next morning, I mentioned it to James. He said he'd never heard it before, but as his bedroom was the far side of the apartment, he wouldn't be directly above it.

  "Must have been old misery guts upset that you didn't swoon at his feet over the flowers," said James, glancing over to the lilies. I rolled my eyes.

  "Was I meant to knock on his door to say thanks do you think?" I asked.

  "He probably would have bitten your head off if you had, so no, but I think he'll be hanging around you before the weeks out."

  I tried to ignore the sense of foreboding and get myself ready for work.

  Thankfully, the rest of the week proved uneventful, although busy. There was no further contact from Oscar, which I was pleased about. Lewis had been delighted with the work I'd done on the contracts he'd assigned me. I'd managed to spot a couple of errors and issues, which had earned me brownie points, and Lewis some high praise from a grateful client.

  Friday afternoon, Lewis poked his head round my door, and asked me to join him for a contract negotiation. He explained that he would do the actual negotiating, but it would be a good opportunity for me to observe. I smoothed down the front of my dress, and followed him into one of the conference rooms. He explained that one of our clients was negotiating with a venture capitalist in a debt for equity deal.

  Our clients arrived first, looking nervous. After introductions, we all sat and waited for the other party. We didn't have to wait long, they turned up exactly on time. A group of suited men walked into the room, before parting to reveal the most beautiful looking man I'd ever seen. He had piercing blue eyes, silky black hair that flopped slightly over his forehead, and the squarest jaw I'd ever seen outside of a cinema. His name was Ivan Porenski. The Russian, I thought, it had to be. I concentrated on appearing cool and collected while introduced to him, but felt the electricity as he shook my hand. We all took our seats, and the meeting began.

  I was grateful that Lewis was doing the talking, as my brain kind of fried a bit around Ivan at first. He commanded the room, charisma pouring off him by the bucketload. His English was perfect, although heavily accented, and he led the negotiation. I could see he was losing our clients with the fiendishly complicated detail he was demanding, so I slipped a note to Lewis under the table to that effect. I didn't want to accuse Ivan of trying to bamboozle our clients, but it looked as though he was trying to do just that. The numbers he was spouting in a rapid fire simply didn't add up.

  I slipped another note to Lewis. Works out at 63% over the term, not 53%. A note came back, are you sure? I lost count. I caught his eye and nodded.

  "We will need some time to check these figures Mr Porenski, my colleague has indicated a possible discrepancy in the percentage figures you quoted," said Lewis. I prayed to god I was correct. The Russian pinned me with such a furious stare, I knew at that moment that I had indeed been right.

  Lewis insisted on a break in the meeting to check the figures. During the recess, we calculated and checked. I had indeed been correct. I breathed a sigh of relief. When we reconvened, Lewis used the issue with the figures to negotiate a far better deal for our client than had previously been on offer. I could see that the Russian wasn't happy, but thankfully he acquiesced gracefully. I even caught him looking at me with an amused smile.

  We ended the meeting and agreed to reconvene the following week to sign the revised contract. After both parties had left, Lewis gave me a pat on the back.

  "Well done Elle, you just saved our client 10% of his company, quite an achievement doing those figures as quickly as you did. That Russian is quite a bag of tricks. Catches a lot of people on the back foot."

  "I can understand why, he was bloody fast, and so confident, I almost didn't believe my own figures," I admitted, trying hard to loosen the tension in my shoulders.

  "Monday morning, we'll revise the contract, in the meantime, have a great weekend. You've had a stellar first week." He smiled warmly before walking off to his office, loosening his tie as he went.

  I wandered back to my office to shut down my computer, and grab my gym bag. The other three stopped work as soon as I walked in.

  "Heard about your triumph against the Ruskie," said Adrian, with a touch of admiration in his voice.

  "Good news travels fast here," I replied, unsure where this was going.

  Matt looked at his watch, "around the tower in three, two, one. That's it, you're famous." They all sniggered.

  "I doubt it very much." I said, collecting my gym bag, "anyway, I'm off, have a great weekend." I walked out through the main floor, convinced I could hear whispering. As I stepped into reception, I saw Oscar standing by the door. He stepped into my path.

  "I need to talk to you," he said, his usual scowl in place.

  "Oh? What about? Thanks for the flowers by the way, they were lovely," I replied, keeping my composure.

  "Come with me, I'll tell you on the way." I followed him out, waving goodbye to a dumbstruck Priti on the way. Lugging my heavy gym bag, I struggled to keep up with him as he strode along the corridor to the arcade. The lift had been full, so he hadn't said a word all the way down.

  "Will you slow down a bit," I said loudly. He turned and grabbed my bag off me and carried on at the same pace. I trailed after him into a wine bar. He led me to a secluded table, and dumped my bag on the floor.

  "Drink?"

  "White wine please." By now I was beyond curious. He went over to the bar and bought two glasses of wine. Setting them down on the table, he sat opposite me.

  "So you got one over on Ivan?"

  "How fast does news travel? In actual fact I just stopped Ivan getting one over our client, different thing. How do you know?"

  "I'm his banker." Oscar smiled, "and not many people can keep up with him, he was impressed."

  "Good. Did you know you look entirely different when you smile?" That made him laugh. He looked even better.

  "Thank you for the compliment, but I wanted to let you know that I overheard him ordering a background check on you."

  "I have nothing to hide, he can check as much as he likes."

  "Just be careful around him. He has a reputation with women." I nearly spluttered into my wine.

  "Pot, meet kettle. Anyway I'm a big girl thanks."

  "What do you mean pot and kettle?" He looked affronted.

  "Been warned about you too. I have sharp little ears you know." I watched him blush.

  "What am I meant to have done?"

  "I heard you were quite the playboy. Although I will admit its only hearsay, which is i
nadmissible as evidence."

  "Hmm, don't believe everything you hear. Did you enjoy your first week?" He tried to change the subject.

  "Yep, it was great. I love working in the tower, and my new flat is fantastic. By the way, you live in the flat below don't you? Was you playing piano music last night?" I watched his face carefully. He remained impassive.

  "Yes, I tried to buy the one you're in, but your flatmate beat me to it. Did I disturb you last night?"

  "Not really, I was awake and heard it, that's all. It wasn't loud. James sleeps on the other side of the apartment, so has never heard you." I was dying to ask why he was listening to maudlin music at one thirty in the morning, but decided against it. "Priti told me you work in a bank."

  "That girl knows everyone's business. Yes I work for the family firm, which is as much a curse as a blessing." Oscar stared into his glass.

  "In what way?" I pressed. He had me intrigued, and this softer, more human side was definitely proving quite attractive.

  "It's a great job, great money and perks and all that, but I have to live up to expectations at all times, which can be difficult. I wouldn't give it up or anything like that, I just sometimes wish I didn't have to be Oscar Golding, bank chairman and upright citizen." I tried to look sympathetic, but struggled. He owned a bloody bank and was whining about it. He should spend a bit of time in a south London council flat if he wanted something to moan about.Instead, I kept schtum. He broke my musings by asking, "have you got plans this weekend? I'd love to take you out to dinner." He smiled hopefully, seemingly having learnt that I liked smiles.

  "I could do tomorrow evening," I said, intrigued as to where he'd take me.

  "Great, I'll pick you up at 7.30," he said, "wear a dress." With that he got up and pecked my cheek goodbye, before striding off.

  I couldn't wait to get home to tell James about it.

  Chapter 3

  I sat at the kitchen island recounting my day to James. He listened intently without comment until I got to the part about going out to dinner with Oscar.