The Fast Rising Billionaire

Your Pleasure

Upstairs, Christopher went to his work desk and continued to work, ignoring the snickers of his co-workers as they came into the shared office space. 

“Yo, Christopher,” laughed Tim, the office jester, “you're getting fired today! If I was you I wouldn't even have bothered to come into work today. ” 

Intentionally, Christopher decided to it ore it just like he had ignored Moss earlier that day. Walking out of the elevator, River approached Christopher and began to mock him. 

“I called you while you were downstairs, and you ignored me. Do you have any idea just how disrespectful that is? Today is the day you will lose your job, so you might as well just do as I tell you.” 

“That… is my job,” muttered Christopher. “There's no way you think that I should be doing anything different.”

“Talking back, I see. No worries. The clock will soon strike 9:00am, and you will no longer work here, you waste of space.” 

Ignoring him, Christopher continued to type on his keyboard, logging in the rest of the report he had been asked to type up the day before. 

Almost immediately after that, Atis walked over, his shirt stretched by the paunch of his stomach. “These are the tax reports that are due in the meeting in two hours. I don't know if you will still have a job by the time the meeting hour rolls over, but I we'd you to complete that, now.”

“But I'm busy with the report you asked me to-” 

“Find a way to do both,” shrugged Atis. “And go and get me a coffee. An Americano, oat milk,  no foam.”

Nodding silently, Christopher accepted the hand that held out the work and set down the files.

Half an hour to the ominous time, Mr. Davies walked in, flanked by his assistant. The mere arrival of such an important figure led to whispers all around the office,  and Christopher looked up in time to catch Mr. Davies's familiar face. 

Walking over to Mr. Davies, Christopher smiled. “Good Morning Mr. Davies. Please, take a seat.” 

Aw Mr. Davies settled down, a door opened in the distance and River rushed over to both Christopher and Mr. Davies. 

“Ah, Mr. Davies!" Exclaimed Christopher, “How nice to meet you sir. My name is River, and I will be helping you today. If you're at Philly group, there's only one thing you could want. If you could just come with me, I can get you started on the best possible properties. They will speak to your affluence, and you will get the best prices, of course-” 

“Let me stop you there,” smiled Mr. Davies, pointedly ignoring all that he had said, “I'm here to make a purchase from Mr. Christopher. I am.more familiar with him, and so believe that I will feel safer spending my money under him.” 

“This riffraff?” frowned River, rolling his eyes. “This tool has not sold a single property in two weeks. If he manages to sell you anything, why,  I'll eat my foot!” 

Hearing the ruckus in her office, Laura set down the papers she had been shuffling and considered stepping outside into the hallway to help her husband out. But then again, what would be said of her? 

And of him, letting her be his entire defense?

Besides, she had enough to worry about. Both of their jobs now banked on the fact that he would manage to get a sale well over 100 properties on time. His confidence earlier that morning, from ignoring River as he came into the building reassured her. He could handle himself.

“With all due respect, Mr. Reed?” asked Mr. Davies, faltering on the name, “The only person I wish to work with in this company, is Mrm Christopher. If he is not allowed to attend to me, then I am afraid that I will not be making a purchase from your company today, and instead I will poach him over to my side.”

“You can't-” 

Ignoring River, Mr. Davies looked Christopher and smiled. “Now, Christopher. I would like to make a purchase of 100 properties, please.” 

Atis, who had stepped out into the hallway at the sound of the ruckus had a disapproving frown on his face and watched as the conversation went down. 

“Of course sir,” smiled Christopher. “As I was saying. There are quite a few options for you, and I think you would like these.” 

If he had looked up just then, he would have caught the faces of River and Atis, frozen in shock. Mr. Davies on the other end, had decided that focusing only on the person he wanted to work with would do him a world of good, so he nodded as Christopher pitched to him the best properties to buy at that point in time. 

Realizing that he was no longer in control of the conversation, River tried to make use of another tactic. Smiling sweetly at Mr. Davies, he reintroduced myself.

“Mr. Davies, ” he said, smoothing out his shirt. “My apologies. I believe that we might have gotten off on the wrong foot. I should not have behaved that way in private, much less in your presence.” 

“You are right. I do not take kindly to my friends being mistreated." Taking a break, he signalled to his assistant, “go ahead with Christopher and finalize this deal on my behalf, would you?” 

“Yes sir,” came the response. 

“Good, now where were we?” asked Mr. Davies, waiting for River to speak. 

“Yes sir. I was just saying that I was sorry and it was such a good thing that you decided to come to make the purchase in our office. it was my pleasure to help you, and I wanted to thank you for your help with the-" 

“Your pleasure?” interrupted Mr. Davies, “You did not help me, Mr. er-” he paused, forgetting River's name. “The help I got today at this company was given to me by Christopher.” 

The office had fallen silent, so the last of his words drew out the other executives from their offices. “If I find out that credit of this sale had been given to anyone but him, I will take.the time to personally seal with the offender. And you owe him an apology for the way you spoke to him in my presence. If you don't, I will make sure that you never get a jobs anywhere else in the world.”

Bowing down his head, River sighed. “I'm sorry, Christopher. That was rude of me and I should not have spoken to you that way.” 

Ignoring him, Christopher walked over to Laura where she stood in the doorway of her office. “See? I told you to trust me.” 

“You did!” she squealed, her cheeks puffed up with pride. 

“Come on, let's leave this dump. We deserve better. Besides, I have a surprise for you.”

“You seem to have a lot of those lately," she laughed. 

Outside of the office building, he pulled off a tarp and showed her the sportscar that he had gotten for her. “It's a gift. A symbol of the beginning of the rest of our lives,” he said, smiling. 

“Wow. I- You're different. I like it,” smiled his wife, looking at him adoringly.