Chapter 86 - Flight For Love

He got Lucille in his arms as they walked to the hangar. Lucille was barely awake for she slept late last night playing with the dogs and her grandfather for their last night together. Antonio was able to get permission to fly earlier than the first schedule which was a good thing.

Flying early was a better choice considering that they would be on air for more than eighteen hours. Probably more, since they have to have a stopover in Fort Worth International Airport. 

Pressing a kiss on the sleeping Lucille's temple, a prick of guilt poked his heart. He knew taking his daughter for a vacation in San Lucas was not entirely because he wanted Lucille to see the ocean. He chose San Lucas because he was shamelessly chasing Miss Zimmerman's pretty ass. He grimaced inwardly. 'When did he become a starry-eyed teenager over Jess?'

"Everything was ready, sir. The plane is waiting at the tarmac." 

He stood up from the bench he was sitting on, with Lucille still asleep in his arms, he got on the SUV that would take them to their waiting plane. His daughter barely stirred in her sleep. Their entourage of four gets on the plane with their four-person airplane crew. 

The crew of the plane are the same people, his pilot, Captain Aigasaki welcomed them when they entered the plane, but he smiled and nodded when he saw the sleeping Lucille in his arms. He returned his nod and mouthed "laters" for he needed to put Lucille in bed. 

Soraya was already in the cabin and had the bed ready for Lucille. He gently laid her down on the huge bed. And watched her for a few minutes as Soraya put the panda stuffed toy in her arms. 

"You can join her for a nap." He told her before stepping out of the cabin to talk to Captain Aigasaki. 

"Good morning, Sir. I'm Evan Matthew, Captain Aigasaki's co-pilot." 

He accepted his hand for a handshake, "This would be the third time that you are flying with us, right?"

"Yes, sir." 

"Well, it's nice to formally know you. Thank you for your service." 

"It's my greatest pleasure sir." 

The man is about one hundred sixty-seven centimeters give or take, he has soft blond hair and a cheeky personality. According to his resume, Evan is a twenty-eight years old lad, from Maine. 

Noah has a good feeling about him. It could be because of the cheeky personality. He heard good things about him from Captain Aigasaki. The old pilot is hard to please, but he complimented the newly hired pilot as someone who has steady hands. 

"Sir, would you like a cup of coffee?" 

He snapped his head from observing the young pilot who already entered the cockpit. He met the familiar face of one of the flight attendants. He looked past her and saw Antonio already having a cup of coffee. 

"Yes, please. Thank you, Amara."  He gave her a playful wink. 

She kept her composure and smiled her professional smile, "Coffee, coming right up." she said cheerfully. But at the back of her mind, she was wondering how Antonio said that their boss was somewhat a devil. 

She cocked her head thinking, he was a devil indeed, but a dashing one. That wink was unnecessary, but she didn't mind when he did it. She felt like Mr. Tiefenbacher was teasing her, and she doesn't know why. 

"Antonio gave me the report for the transaction Markus did in Dubai."

He looked up from his cup of steaming hot black coffee to make sure that he understood what his boss was asking.

"Lucille is still sleeping, and she would probably sleep for another two hours or more. We can do some tasks while she is asleep." He chuckled softly with the thought that Antonio was so determined to keep him from working as if he had an agreement with his daughter to make sure that he won't touch any work during these two weeks vacation. 

"Thank you, Janella." He picked up the cup of coffee that the other flight attendant served. He wondered why Amara wasn't the one who served his coffee.  "So, tell me the report of that acquisition," he returned his attention to Antonio. 

"The acquisition went smoothly. All of the legal documents were signed, with all the i's dotted and all the t's crossed out." 

"So, where is the problem? I can hear it in your voice. Spit it out." 

"The problem didn't occur in the business transaction itself but with the social parties. As you said, Stefan really knows how to party but it was too much fun we got a scandal in our hand because of some photos that surfaced online with Stefan allegedly spending the night with one of the daughters of a sheikh." 

"What did Markus do?" 

"He did some damage control. We released some photos of the daughter with other people at the party. Good thing she was all over the place it's difficult to pinpoint where and with whom she spent the night." he handed Noah some of the photos of the said scandal. "We were able to take down these photos online, same with all the articles. However, Markus left some articles of it on social media." he creased his forehead in disagreement. If he was the one working on it, he would make sure that everything was cleaned out. 

"It was a good move." 

"How so, sir?" he asked because he couldn't understand why it was a good move when the job wasn't properly done. 

"Markus knew what he was doing. He knew the mentality of those rich kids. A good place to hang out was somewhere safe that no one would know what they are doing, at the same time they want people to know. The urge to show off your conquest, what you have that others don't… that's how they play. Hence, leaving something of that fun that was undiscriminating for their supposedly untainted reputation is good for business." 

He stared at his boss in disbelief. It must be the reason why Noah never let him handle those kinds of tasks and always delegate them to Markus. He doesn't know what to feel about it.