“News?” I blink at him. What kind of news did he have for me? The last time he had news for me, I ended up the COO of his company, and that is something I’m still miffed about because of the sheer havoc it wreaked on my schedule. But that is beside the point, so I focus on the present and give him an expectant look.“Yes.” He nods to emphasize his point, “while I believe that none of my alleged enemies are behind the recent shootings, I don’t know exactly who is behind it. But there is a pattern in their shootings and the victims. I realized as soon as I landed and read the reports that almost all of them are related to Zelt Tech one way or another, hence, it can be concluded that the shooters are specifically targeting employees of Zelt Tech.”“An astute observation, father.” I can’t help but provide. It’s not like I had been telling him about the exact same thing for the last few minutes. No, he came to that conclusion all by himself.Unbelievable. How on earth are we even related?
I tried to deny my father. I tried to hold my foot down and demand him to take his favors elsewhere and leave me alone here to deal with my actual job and enjoy the summer for god’s sake. I was not his puppet. I could not just drop everything in my life here and haul ass to the freaking middle of nowhere Montana to oversee building a hotel. I’m not a contractor, I knew next to nothing about building stuff. I studied business, not hotel building!And on top of it all, Gerald would not be coming with me.“I can’t let one of my CEOs follow you to babysit you,” my father tells me when I ask if he will be coming with me, “Gerald got enough work to do here than follow you around the country.”“I’m the freaking COO of the company Gerald is CEO in. Last I checked the chief of operations in a company should be there to witness the said operations!”“Someone else will take that position until you return.”“What?!”“I got plenty of people under my employment capable of taking over you for a smal
True to his word, and to my immense surprise, my father arrives at the airport to see us off.“Be careful out there,” he tells me at the lounge minutes before we’re due to board, “I’ve heard from Gerald that you have the propensity to get yourself in trouble from time to time.”If Gerald was here, I would definitely be giving him a glare for prattling to my father.“It’s not so bad,” I reply, trying to keep my tone from being petulant. We are so not close enough for me to be comfortable with that, “I just have such dismal luck sometimes.”My father shoots me a wry smirk, “I see. Want to know something?”“Of course,” I answer automatically because I am so curious about him.“When I was your age, I had the same kind of luck,” shocking me to the fullest, he reveals, “sometimes, it felt like the whole world was against me.”“How did you cope with it?” I ask him and note distantly from the large digital clock hung in the middle of the lounge that I only have five minutes until they give ou
I try to make my way toward the business class. I have no doubt that my expression is thunderous because I cannot believe this. The man lied to me in order to steal my seat! And I fell for it. I didn’t even get his name, but as soon as I listened to his sob story, I just upped and decided that no little girl would be crying for her daddy in my watch.Serves me right for being so gullible.But before I can make it past the curtain that leads to the business class area, a flight attendant comes to intercept me.“Excuse me, sir,” she holds up her hands, “you can’t go in there. That’s the business class area, and you’re a passenger in the economy.”“No, not really,” I reply, “I booked a seat in the business class, but I was cheated out of my seat!”The flight attendant raises a brow and takes a glance at me. Then she sighs exasperatedly.“Look, sir,” she says in an annoyed tone. My stomach starts to sink as I realize what was happening, “we have some passengers like you pop up almost all
When we arrive at Helena, Montana, it is the evening. After the initial altercation on the flight, neither Coraline nor I came across any other issues, thankfully. I was dreading making ground fall because I was so sure that just because the universe wanted to fuck with me at any given moment, my luggage will definitely be lost upon my arrival to Helena, Montana, or worse, misplaced in a way that it would’ve ended up in the opposite side of the country.Thankfully, I was not that unlucky. But I will not feel shame when I saw that I nearly sobbed in relief when I saw that our luggage was pretty much intact when we go to get them, and I don’t have to fight with airport workers over them.Small mercies, I guess.“Travelling with you is pretty exciting, you know,” Coraline teases me as we get into a train to take us to our next destination, from which we will book a rental car and take it to use throughout our vacation/forced exile while we stay at one of the cabins relegated to the staff
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me!” I exclaim as soon as the door to our cabin opens, “tell me this is a mistake.”The supervisor who asked us to just call him Oliver gives out an awkward chuckle, “I’m sorry, Mr. Greyson and Miss. Granger, but we did not anticipate y’all coming here, so the cabins were built for working people with the limited facilities and budget we had. If you aren’t comfortable with the arrangement, though, I will gladly call a nearby hotel and book you two separate rooms.”The cabin looks homey enough, everything made of wood, with a three-room structure, one for the kitchen/living room, one for the shared bathroom, and the other for the bedroom.A single bedroom, meant to be shared. There are two beds placed side to side, pushed near the walls as if it’s some sort of a dorm room. Coraline blinks at it, with amusement etching on her features, contrary to my anxiety. I mean, I’m not that much of a snob to balk at the idea of sharing a room with someone. I’ve done th
Oliver comes to meet us after we put away the dishes and l clean the kitchen off the efforts for breakfast. He’s pleased to know that we’ve taken up cooking.“The town is pretty far away from here, as you say earlier when you drove back,” he says, “so going out to eat is considered a special occasion for the folks living this deep in the mountains. There’s a Mess Hall in the construction zone, of course, and you’re welcome to join us anytime. If you want, we can even ask our chef to deliver food for you specifically?”“Oh,” Coraline and I comment. We did not know that was an option“No need to bother the chef,” I assure him, “we plan to cook or eat out during our stay here, and maybe visit the Mess, now that you’ve mentioned it. We don’t want any special treatments.”“Are you sure? Because Mr. Greyson senior ordered me to do whatever it takes to make you both feel comfortable during the stay here.” Oliver replies, looking a little green around the gills at the mention of my father. I
The next few days are a blast.The thing is the work I do here is more enjoyable than I thought. It’s challenging, and it’s energetic. I feel like I’m always in motion, and even though I spend most of the time in the office building, I feel like I’m really a part of the crew. The workers are friendly, and the senior staff of engineers and architects are brilliant. It could never be said that my father employed less than-brilliant individuals for his projects, but these guys are so damn clever. Whenever there is a problem thrown at them, whether it be the wet and mountainous nature of the construction site posing various unprecedented obstacles, the weather becoming shit, or even the supply chain issues, they come up with new and creative ways to solve them, and I love witnessing it. Most of the time during these, I’m a wallflower. There’s nothing a former COO could do about most of these obstacles as they are very technical. But that is alright, but I could do listening just fine. And