Chapter 4A Chapter by Maria MChapter 4 Amongst
the flurry of people which banged their shoulders against me as I made my way
to my apartment building, or me fumbling for my keys to try and open the door
to my apartment, now lying in my bed it felt like I had done the journey from
Christina’s apartment to mine in a matter of mere seconds. The reason was
obviously being that my mind wasn’t in the present. It had set on a journey to
the past when I had the fondest first memories of seeing Elisa walking into that
party. Those memories had been locked away in my mind for safe keeping, and now
have been unveiled to hurtfully remind me that those memories weren’t from so
long ago. I
should have called Marissa to give her a heads up for another divorce battle,
but I was a wreck. A man who had literally lost everything. The cherry on the
cake would be not landing the deal with Margie Mason. That was the only thing
that I could keep a positive state of mind about. As I lay in bed, staring at
the ceiling, I wondered what the satisfaction of landing a deal like that would
feel like. Not that I’ve never had satisfaction in other ventures I’ve invested
in, but this was different. This was not a venture which would be limited to
the city of New York, this was a venture which was going national. And then
something else popped into my mind. How satisfied I would be to see Elisa’s
face when she read the front page of The New York Times that her ex-husband had
done it again, big time! That was a thought which had already lifted up my
confidence, even though obviously, I was feeling under the weather. I
looked at my IPhone standing idly on my mantelpiece, half expecting Elisa to
call or send a text. But all my expectations fell short. I had had a long day,
I was drained out. In a matter of a few hours my life had turned upside down.
And with a list of things I had to the next day, I closed my eyes and hoped
that tomorrow this nightmare would be over.
________________________________
As the
first light of day began passing through the light sheer curtains in my
bedroom, I was already wide awake. I had slept for most of the night, but I had
woken up with a startle at around 5:30am. I half imagined that the right side
of the bed was occupied by my beautiful wife, but I was wrong. A moment of
sheer realisation was over me, seems like the nightmare wasn’t over, it had
just begun. After checking my e-mails which I had not bothered to look at
yesterday, I went into the bathroom to take a quick cold shower, dress in my
favourite suite, because I needed some self-confidence, and sat alone in my
kitchen cooking pancakes and making coffee. All these things were just a simple
reminder of what my life would soon be like. The life of a lonely, unloved man,
which had everything he wanted but not everything he needed. A man who was so
wrapped up in what he thought he wanted, that he had lost track of what was
really important in his life. I have to admit to myself, no success that work
ever gave me can live up to the success I felt when I put a ring on Elisa’s
wedding finger. That was, till now, my biggest achievement. As time went on, my
biggest achievement was that I had maintained a marriage which was older than 5
years, now my biggest achievement was that I managed to have Elisa in my life,
even for a while. Even if she did run to the South of France with my biggest
rival, Milo Banks. Even if there’s a 99.9% possibility that she was cheating on
me way before all this happened, but it doesn’t matter now. Maybe they do
deserve each other; they’re both liars after all. I kept having debates in my head, and I
wondered if the love I felt for Elisa would turn into a love-hate situation. In
the case of Milo Banks there was only one conclusion. I didn’t hate the guy, I
just thoroughly and fully disliked him. As I
sat contemplating in stance about my life and feeling sorry for myself, my
IPhone ringing quickly brought me back to reality. I literally sprinted as if I
was in a 100m Olympic race towards the bedroom and grabbed my IPhone as if it
was the Holy Grail. And in a way, it was the Holy Grail, because Margie Mason
was on the other line. “Um, hello?” I answered, stuttering. “Hi Mr Johnson. Listen, I know this is last minute, but
a meeting I was supposed to have this morning got cancelled and I was wondering
if we could squeeze the appointment we had yesterday to early this morning. I
don’t want to lose any more time, you see,” Margie said. “Uh, OK, OK, is 10:30AM good for you Ms Mason? I do not
have any appointments at that time,” I said, feeling partly excited. “Brilliant, that is perfect. Thank you Mr Johnson, I’ll
see you soon,” she said, and hung up. I
stared dizzily at the phone. What had just happened? Before panic could strike
me, I put my game face on, put a quick call to Marissa to get herself as
quickly as possible to my office because Margie Mason would be in the building
in less than three hours. As expected, Marissa was in a flurry of panic, saying
that her biggest problem of the moment was not deciding beforehand which suit
she would wear for this very important meeting. I told her anything would be
good, I planned on speaking to Margie privately in my office anyhow. After
I had hung up from Marissa, I called Roger, telling him to pick me up in less
than fifteen minutes because work urgently needed to be done back at the
office. Like usual Roger simply agreed and hung up, hiring him was one of the
best decisions I could have done to spare me extra hassle that I already had to
deal with. The
next ten minutes were spent picking up all the important documents and drafts
which I had, carelessly I must say, lay hanging around the apartment trying to
make two ends meet. I then grabbed my laptop and the documents put them in the
suitcase and used the remaining time to make sure that I looked presentable and
that my suit had no creases. After
Roger gave me a call to tell me that he was waiting for me outside my apartment
block, I grabbed my suitcase and laptop and feeling panicky, I rushed
downstairs, into Roger’s SUV, and off we went! As usual, New York traffic was a
nightmare, and I felt that it was a
nightmare even more now that we had so much left to prepare. At moments I
wished I had taken the Tube but then I wouldn’t have survived down there, with
all those people rushing about like maniacs as if there was a time bomb down
there. On the way the to the office, I kept writing in my memo all the things
that needed to be done. I emailed my receptionist to get the cleaner team going
about, to get everything organized and all the associates to keep their desks
clean and presentable. Even though
the journey to the office was in fact a tiring one, I made it to my office with
about an hour to spare. Everything around the floor seemed to be going in
order, everyone was doing their work, and I felt like this company was working like a
well-oiled machine. I spent most of my time left making sure that my office
looked perfect, especially since first impressions are the most that matter. I was
sort of panicky for most of the time, especially since I had never personally
met Margie before, I had only spoken to her on the phone. When negotiations
were initially taking place she was all the way in Japan travelling with her
husband. With a
few minutes to spare until 10:30AM, I looked at the game plan I had planned on
presenting to her. It was a done deal basically, I was almost sure that she
would sign the papers there and then, but what I had heard about Margie Mason
may seem to stray the direction of where this meeting could be going to the other
direction. I offered that within the time period of the first year, 12 pastry
shops would be opened all around America together with another factory close to
Los Angeles. Together with that the company would oversee that all the pastry
shops are opened in time and that staff is found and most important that the maintenance
of the shops is overseen. I had a new concept budding in my mind which I would
discuss with her as well. All this would be done for the sum of 200 million
dollars together with assets that Johnsons Inc. would be involved in. On the
dot, as soon as 10:30AM came about, I heard the flutter of heels hitting the
granite floor. They must be coming. First came Judith, my receptionist, which
opened the door, giving me a look which only told me that I had my hands full. And
then a petite woman, quite young for such an successful businesswoman, no one
other than Margie Mason. At as soon as I recognized her, Christine Bower’s face
came to my mind. © 2013 Maria MAuthor's Note
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Maria MZabbar, Catholic, MaltaAboutHi, My name is Maria. I'm an 18 year old University Student studying Radiography and Radiotherapy for the next four years of my life. I also live in the beautiful island of Malta. I've always loved.. more..Writing
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