A Wife for the Billionaire -
Chapter 46: SOFIA
Chapter 46: SOFIA
There are moments in one’s life that if it was possible, one would probably choose to take them back.
That’s exactly the kind of moment I found myself in as Harry fumed, using his closed palm to blow out exhales of hot air.
He was trying not to lose it. He was on the brink and as I watched I could see that if he lost it. Nothing would be able to reel him back to coolness... at least not after he had done irrevocable damage.
"Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out" Vera kept saying using her palm in demonstration.
As for me, I just stayed as far away from Harry as his office allowed, trying desperately not to meet his eye.
He had removed his tie and was now using a file to fan himself even though the room temperature was freezing. Even with my coat, chills ran down my skin and goosebumps lined the map of my skin.
It has been just a minute after Vera dropped the news and since then I have been trying to say something, offer to back out, to forfeit the tour, but each time I tried to speak, Vera with a raised finger commanded me to silence.
It would be cruel to have this tour at the detriment of another. What’s the fun if my tour guide wasn’t enthusiastic about the sites and things he’s showing me? How could I possibly enjoy such a tour?
Just imagining how it would be, made my mind cringe. The harshness, the silence to questions, the hurriedness, the I-couldn’t-care-less attitude... all of it would snap the fun and color out of the tour and at the end, I would be wishing I never asked for it in the first place.
"I... um" I began as Vera raised her finger once again, Harry was face down, veins stark on his bald head. He had his hands on his laps, ruffling his trousers. Up and down. Up and down. As if the exercise could help cool him down.
Ignoring Vera, I continued,
"Um, Harry, you don’t have to give me the tour if you don’t want to. In fact, it would be cruel of me if I decide to go through with it. Should have known that Richard Wellington was incapable of granting favors, unless of course, it was at the expense of another. I’m really sorry, I didn’t know he agreed to this to spite you, I will just take my leave. After all, I would never be seen back here ever again so you could always pretend, or simply tell him the truth that I backed away from the tour"
Vera was patting him at the back, even as he remained face down. None of them spoke and I took that as my cue, adjusting my handbag, I made to leave.
In a voice barely audible, Harry said,
"No", halting me at the threshold.
More audibly, he repeated,
"No, come back. If it’s a tour that he requires of me, then a tour, I shall give." He sat up then, causing Vera to stop her exercise on his back.
"No," I said, shaking my head, "you really don’t have to. I would hate it if you did something you didn’t want to, on my account. So, please Harry, just let me go."
Without even looking at me, he declared,
" Vera, go back and tell your boss that I would gladly give Miss whatever her name is, a private and detailed tour"
"But Harry_"
It was Vera who silenced me,
" Don’t make it harder than it already is, just go along with it, besides isn’t it what you had wanted?"
" Yes, but I didn’t know it was to be like this, that someone was to suffer for me to get what I want_" I was saying.
" Girl!," Vera yelled, then putting her hands on my shoulders after it seemed, she had gained a bit of control over her rage, she continued,
"In case, you are yet to figure it out, it’s always that way with my Boss, now please just keep mute and don’t make this hard for Harry. Do you think you
can do that?"
Not sure I would ever be able to respond or convince them otherwise, not with how she was looking at me. I swallowed hard, and bobbed my head in response.
"Great!" She thrilled, as if it hadn’t been her who was just giving me the glare of death.
To Harry, she said,
"Give her one hell of a tour"
A wink, and a forced smile from Harry and she was gone.
My palms felt clammy as I stood there trying my hardest not to look at the bald man who was arranging the files he had disheveled when he was having his moment.
A stapler clattered to my feet, and as I
reached out to retrieve it, a look from Harry was all it took for me to decide otherwise.
His gaze was like a whip, lashing me to stillness.
I left his office after that and waited for him in the corridor.
Fixing his tie, he appeared thirty seconds later and without as much as a glance, stalked off the same corridor that leads back to Richard’s office.
I hurried after him, and for a moment I thought he was taking me back to Richard’s office, to tell him no. To defile his order, a thrill washed over me as I imagined how it would be, facing Richard and telling him to shove his order way up his ass. It would be the most glorious thing ever.
"Adorning these part of the Executive floor walls" he said to my utmost disappointment, "are some of the best works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, surely you are familiar with Michelangelo’s "The Creation of Adam" and Leonardo da Vinci’s "Lady with an Ermine" and this over here," he said pointing at a pnot that I expect to know what it is Rembrandt’s "The Night Watch"
For someone who was a senior clerk and not in any way part of the tour committee, or staff, Harry was really good at this. Though he was quite offensive at intervals.
But right now as he pointed at what he referred to as modern arts because those he had first explained were classic arts. Not that I didn’t know that already. He was animated, blabbing on and on about Pablo Picasso’s "Guernica", Salvador Dali’s "The Persistence of Memory", Claude Monet’s "Impression, Sunrise" and others I couldn’t take in.
A few places from there, he went on,
"Now these are Contemporary arts, like the arts of the present age_"
"Yeah, Harry I know what ’contemporary’ means" I found myself cutting in.
Brushing away my interruption as one would do a pesky fly, he continued,
"This is David Hockney’s "A Bigger Splash", Takashi Murakami’s "Super Nova" and this right here," he said stopping at a painting where a brown-haired girl stood in what appeared to be the entrance to a grand ballroom in a ballgown unlike any other.
It was as if the painter didn’t care much about other details of the painting, not that they weren’t perfect, but not as exquisite as the emerald ball gown the girl donned. The attention to details on the sleeves, the filigree on the flowing skirt was simply wow. I often dabbled in my sketchbook, that was how I came up with the shirt dress during my internship days, but whoever drew this... whew... he/she was a maven especially in designing dresses.
Perhaps I had spoken too early, because the next words Harry said were totally unexpected.
"This is Richard Wellington’s "Belle at the Ball".
"Sorry what?" I asked, removing my hand from where they brushed the painting.
"Yeah, you heard me right, our CEO is truly a man of many talents," he found himself saying, the pride evident in his tone, before he realized himself and added indifferently,
"If you can gawk at such ordinary painting, I wonder what you would do when we get to the showroom. Come along."
Hide it all he wants, I knew Harry was proud of his boss. In fact, I think Harry is that type of person who even though he gets mad, he also forgives easily.
We crossed the elevator, which was some sort of demarcation for the white walls and the glass walls.
He told me of the Frontpage Headlines. Apparently they were sorta divided. Business and Finance came first,
The first glass case read, "WELLINGTON EMPIRE POSTS RECORD PROFITS: Richard Wellington’s Leadership Drives 20% Increase in Quarterly Earnings" (New City Financial Times)
The second read, "WELLINGTON FASHION DOMINATES GLOBAL MARKET: Company’s Revenue Surpasses $10 Billion" (Forbes)
And of course, the proud prick couldn’t get enough of himself and his achievements, as the third one from BusinessWeek read, "RICHARD WELLINGTON NAMED CEO OF THE YEAR: Wellington Empire’s Growth and Innovation Cited"
Moving over to Fashion and Lifestyle, in this section, Bogue dominated.
"WELLINGTON FASHION WEEK ROCKS THE RUNWAY: Richard Wellington’s Designer Collections Wowed Audiences Worldwide" (Bogue) - the first read.
"THE YOUNG AT IT AGAIN!. Meet Richard Wellington, the world’s youngest CEO who is taking the fashion world by storm" (Bogue), this was the issue I had featured in with Sheila and Jacques.
After that it was Innovation and Technology, and I just couldn’t bring myself to read or even look at any more of that brat’s achievements... and worse, he had done it all in the space of two years.
Who knows what he will do in ten years? I bet he will be needing a museum by then to hold cases of his achievements.
Never have I felt like a failure as I did in that moment, and I know it’s unhealthy, stupid even, but my hate for him (Richard Wellington) added a few more spikes.
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