Authors: Anna Belle
O'Conner was thinking about the talk that he just had with William. He sounded very excited about the up and coming partnership that they would be involved in and he believed that both of them would come out of it happy.
His plan was that by the New Year, the company would expand farming production, their employees and, ultimately, their outcome and profits.
He found himself in his office, standing next an open window and thinking about the days he had ahead of him.
He turned as he realized that he had to tell his daughter about this. Marie worried him. To be honest, he worried more about the type of life that she lived recently than about her position with giving up half of the company.
He could tell that she was depressed and lonely; any change to her life would be welcome. He was happy when he heard that she went out with Bruce. He hoped that love would somehow find its way back to her young heart.
Marie, she would always go from one end to another. For a long time she was obsessed with anything that began with the letter "N", for it reminded her of Nathan and the bond that they shared.
But, after the love faded away, she began to hate the letter and any word that began with it. She never knew how to find a middle ground, a look of concern flashed on O'Conner's face, realizing that she would have more to say about the sale once she found out that it was Nathan's company that was purchasing the majority of the shares. For a long time she acted like a child, and sometimes, he couldn't even recognize her.
As he exited his home office, he noticed Lola in the hallway.
"Where is Marie?" He asked her.
"On her balcony." She answered without even stopping for a second.
O'Conner slowly walked to the doors of his daughter's balcony and looked at her. She sat in a large chair, leaning back with her feet on a small stool. She wore a long, dark dress which contrasted strangely against her skin. On her knees, she kept some magazines but she didn't read them, as she gazed into the distance. Her black hair, messy and long, covered a part of her rosy cheeks.
She looked so beautiful to him, just like the little girl that he remembered, not a grown woman who has recently reached her twenty eight birthday.
"Marie." he finally stepped on the terrace. " I've just been wondering who the lucky guy will be that get's to be loved by such a beautiful woman such as you." He said with a warm smile.
"I'm still thinking who the lucky man will be as well." She answered jokingly. "But there's just so many of them." She added with a sarcastic huff.
"Well if you only wanted to open up those pretty little eyes of yours and look around you, you'll notice that there really is a lot of them." He answered seriously as he pulled a chair closer to her.
"No, no, we won't talk about that because I know you'll use your puppy dog eyes and cute smiles to persuade me into thinking that it's not true," he added.
"That's exactly what I planned to do." She turned around towards him, a small smile showing on her red lips.
"I don't know what to tell you." He said with a smile. "Marie, I came to tell you about the news I received from New York. Their agent will come inspect our machines and infrastructure, so he'll be here for about a month."
"When?"
"I think it'll be around Friday in the morning. He'll come straight to the head office."
"Ok, well we'll be there."
"I'll ask you nicely that you stay close to that man and try and help him with anything he needs."
"Of course." She agreed immediately.
"I really think that this won't be as bad as you thought it would be." He said, hoping that she would tell him once again that she will support him no matter what.
"Maybe I overreacted a bit." She said with a sly smile.
"A bit." He showed with fingers.
They both laughed in unison.
William drove Nathan to the airport. The booked the cards, gave the attendants his baggage and decided to go to a nearby cafe and have some tea; since his flight wouldn't be for another hour.
"You never told me anything about Marie." William asked out of nowhere.
"I don't know much about her myself." He answered, a bit shook at the sudden question. "She's weird, hot headed, and confident." He tried to describe her as the image of her smiling face appeared in his mind. "Sometimes she's childish and unpredictable."
"Pretty?"
"Very. The first time I came to Texas for work, the people in her company often told me that she was the prettiest woman that they'd ever seen." He said with a smile as he remembered the look on his face the very first time he had seen her.
"I met her a week after I began working there, when I visited one of their larger farms. At that time, I didn't even know that it was her, O'Conner's daughter."
"The prettiest woman they have ever seen." William repeated.
"They never really mentioned that to her face, just to each other really because she hated being called that. I don't really know why, maybe she was self-conscious about being in the spotlight."
"Except you, of course." William smiled, assuming that his feeling was right.
"Except me, of course." Nathan smiled as well, though not as joyfully as William.
"Did anyone know about you two?" William asked openly.
Just as he finally convinced him to go to Texas, William already began to think about what happened to Nathan the last time he was there and how it would affect him this time; not only him, but his work too.
For the first time since he visited Nathan at his home, he thought that maybe he hadn't made the right choice after all. But, Nathan was the best employee that he had ever had and the one man who he had the utmost trust in to do the job right.
"Just her family." He answered as all the memories he had of her flashed before his eyes like a movie reel.
"What about her fiancé?"
"He spent most of his time in Miami on business. I didn't know about him and he didn't know about me, though I figure that he must have found out about me eventually."
"Odd how nobody told you that she had a fiancé in the first place." William said, truly baffled at how such a thing could just go unnoticed.
"Well I didn't spend much time on the farms or in the office. At the time, I worked a lot from home and the people I knew at the office, I didn't really talk to. She had her own office and she would rarely come out and mingle among other workers. She mostly would stay in her office or go into her father's office and do business there." He tried to explain.
"But Nathan, you spent a year there!"
"Yea, I spent nine months working hard. I've seen and experienced a lot of things while I was there, but one morning I just woke up and realized that I was in love with her. Believe it or not, everything played out like that. Strange."
"That's one way to put it, "strange"." William repeated it.
"Do they know I'm coming?" Nathan tried to change the subject.
"Like I promised you. I didn't tell O'Conner anything nor did I mention you in any context."
"Thank you."
"I hope that there won't be any problems there." William admitted that he had some drawbacks on his decision.
"No, don't worry." he shook his head."O'Conner and I work well together."
"I know, he talked a lot about you." William said as he laid back in his chair and remembered how O'Conner would go on and on about how amazing Nathan is.
In that moment they heard a female voice announce over the intercom that all passengers should get ready for their flight to Texas.
"I'll talk to you later." Nathan said as he extended his hand towards William.
"Good luck," William said as he squeezed his hand before letting go.
Nathan remembered the feeling of Texas very well. "Everything is bigger in Texas," he repeated in his mind as he smiled at a little boy holding what appeared to be a one liter cup of soda.
As he exited the airport, he grabbed a taxi and told the man the address that O'Conner had given William. He wanted to get to his place as soon as possible and freshen up after the flight, maybe even rest for a bit. He could feel the anxiousness building up in his stomach as the taxi pulled onto the road.
Austin was just like any other major city in the United States. Large skyscrapers, busy roads and horns going off every second, but he loved every second of it. Austin was, after all, the first city where he got his big break at O'Conner's company.
Once they arrived at the large building where his room was, Nathan looked up and hoped that the inside looked just as majestic as the outside did. He grabbed his luggage from the trunk and walked into the building.
He was greeted by the concierge and given the keys to his place for the next few weeks. He looked down at the keys, "P1", "Could they mean the penthouse?" He asked himself as he pressed the elevator key up.
As the elevator dropped him in front of his door, he noticed a middle aged woman waiting for him there.
"Mister Greco?" The woman asked as she got up from the bench in the hallway.
"Yes, that's me." He said as he extended his arm towards her, "Nathan Greco."
"I'm Maria." She said as she shook his hand. "And I'll try my best to make sure that the next month here feels just like home."
"Thank you."
"Welcome." She said as she opened the large doors to the penthouse.
Nathan was amazed at the sheer size of the place. In front of him were large windows that looked at the massive city that was Austin.
He shook his head slightly as he remembered why he was here. He dropped his luggage in the large living room and made his way around to the office on the second floor. The entire penthouse had an open concept and a very large ceiling.
As he climbed the stairs, he kept his eyes fixated on the busy city below him. In the office, he found his work laptop, left for him by William, and he sat down to write him an e-mail, thanking him for going to such lengths to ensure that his stay was as comfortable as it could be.
After, he went down into the kitchen and asked Maria to make him some coffee and bring it out to him on the balcony. The balcony itself, just like the penthouse, was very large and inviting. In the middle of it was a large swimming pool and to the left of the pool was a large seating area.
Nathan walked to the seating area, overlooking the city, and sat at the table. He brought out some paperwork from his briefcase and got straight to work.
"You seem like you've been here before." Maria said as she brought him his coffee.
"I lived here before." He added while busily shuffling around papers. It was a trick he used before, when he didn't want the other person to press on the subject, but it seemed like this time, it failed.
"Really? When?" She asked curiously.
"I'm done with the coffee, can you please take the cup to the kitchen." He replied as he downed the cup and gave her the cup. She grabbed the cup and carried it back to the kitchen.
Nathan smiled and shook his head at her questions and wondered if the news of his arrival will reach Marie before he goes down to the office tomorrow. Maria undoubtedly told William that I arrived, but did he let O'Conner know yet, he hoped not, after all, he promised him that he wouldn't.
Nathan left a message with O'Conner's secretary, letting her know when he'll be at the office. He parked his car in the parking garage below and went in through the garage elevator. He clicked the button for the top floor, remembering well where O'Conner's office was.
When the elevator beeped open, he made his way directly to O'Conner's office, wondering what will happen when he sees him.
He found O'Conner alone in his office. He had a feeling that O'Conner wasn't too surprised to see and recognize him.
"Nathan Greco!" He yelled out as he got out of the chair. "I'm glad that I'm seeing you again." He extended his hand and walked towards him smiling. "Now I know why William didn't want to tell me who his expert was." He said jokingly.
"I wanted to surprise you."
"That you did my boy, here, sit." He pointed towards the free sofa.
Nathan sat down and looked around the large room. Everything was exactly the same as before. The room was dominated by a large wooden desk. The walls were covered with different awards and the company's growth throughout its history.
Right above O'Conner's chair, a picture of a green field hung proudly. Nathan knew the picture well, he remembered when O'Conner first told him that, that picture was the first picture taken of the first farm that his family ever owned.
In that moment, time itself seemed to have stopped, almost like all the years that have passed since his move to New York had never happened.
He looked at O'Conner. His hair was more gray than he remembered. His eyes looked heavy and worn. His skin looked old and much more wrinkled that before; time taking its toll Nathan figured. Only his eyes remained the same, the same shining excitement in them that he remembered for years now. A flashing thought crossed his mind, that of Marie and the same eyes and look that she had every single time their eyes met.
Firstly, just like old friends tended to do, they caught up on all the missed time and memories, then they talked about all the important events that happened in each other's lives that they missed out on.
Both of them tried hard not to mention Marie. Both of them did it consciously, since none of them had enough courage to highlight the elephant in the room.
After their talk and a small glass of Hennessey, they both got up and left the office, intent on seeing what else Nathan missed while he was away.
Nathan saw Marie through the glass window that covered the offices on the other side. He saw her as she stood bent over the corner of the desk and behind the desk sat a man with his hands behind his head and a huge smile on his face. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed as she tried to explain something to the man and his black eyes followed every one of her movements, and it appeared to Nathan, absorb every one of her words.
Who knows why, but he grabbed O'Conner forward and he continued to look around the office, acting like he hadn't seen anything. He continued to hurry around the different rooms as O'Conner tried to explain the infrastructure that they currently have on the farms and their plans for expansion. Nathan simply nodded his head with every word, though truthfully, his mind was still locked on that first sight of Marie.
For a second, her face flashed before his eyes. The last time he saw her like that, she sat in the office of the chief researcher at the time, Michael Donaldson. And he, just like now, watched on and felt a pressure build up in his chest. It seemed like nothing has even changed in all the time they've been apart.
O'Conner was called to check on something, rushing out, he left Nathan by himself. They agreed that they would meet again in O'Conner's office in fifteen minutes.
Not wanting to go through the entire top floor by himself, he made his way back to O'Conner's office. He went inside without knocking and stopped dead in his tracks at the site of Marie, sitting at her father's desk.
He felt unsure of himself for a second, but that soon passed and he made his way towards the desk.
She watched him closely, her eyes wide open at the sight of a man that she knew very well but hasn't seen for a very long time. He saw how she moved her lips, but he didn't hear a word. He smiled as he remembered how similar she looked when he kissed her for the first time. Her wide eyes were open then too and her lips moved but made no sound, she simply waited for the shock to pass before she turned and left. He wondered what she would do this time.
"It's a good thing I'm sitting down." He heard her whisper.
"And it's a good thing that you have to go through me if you want to run out." He smiled.
"That was a long time ago Nathan." She said with an ironic smile. "I stopped running a long time ago."
He wanted to say how quickly the time passed, but how she was still beautiful, in fact, she was more beautiful now than he remembered. However, she seemed much more serious and mature now than before, and that was the biggest change that he came to see in her.
"I'm glad that I got to see you again." He said, pushing all his thoughts aside.
"What're you doing here?" She asked him sternly.
"Working." He answered.
"Doing what?" She asked.
"I'm examining the company, so we know exactly what we're buying into."
"Oh God!" She grabbed her head.
"That means that you're the guy then sent, I can't believe it!" She said as she shook her head. "Couldn't they send someone else?"
"They could have, but they couldn't find anyone better than me." He answered back confidently.
"Did my father know about this!?" She asked angrily. At that moment, she felt like she would never forgive her father if he knew that Nathan was coming but refused to tell her.
"No, he didn't, I wanted to surprise you both."
Marie breathed in deeply, straightened herself out and put her hands on the large wooden table. She knew that she had to gather herself quickly and make sure that she never lost control like that again. He really was in front of her and he will be working with her for the next month, and she had to accept that fact.
"Marie, you're here." Her father said as he walked into his office. "I just notified the secretary to tell you to come see me."
"I just found out that Nathan came here to audit our company." She said without attempting to hide her discontent.
She got up from her father's chair and grabbed some papers from his desk.
"Do you want us all together to finish going over the entire office? Then we can go to the farms after to see them as well." Said O'Conner as he felt the awkwardness between his daughter and Nathan.
"Sorry but I can't, I have some work to do." She said as she turned to Nathan.
"Mr. Greco, when you need my help, you know where you can find me." She said as she opened the door and left the office.
The fact that she called him "Mr. Greco" was both funny and sad to him. Now it was only him and O'Conner left in the office as he turned around to face O'Conner and, ignoring the fact that something did happen between him and Marie, began to give him his view of everything that he'd seen in the company thus far.
O'Conner, happy that Nathan didn't want to comment on Marie's behavior, had them sit down over some drinks and talk about the future of the company.