Chapter 49

49 Everywhere With Him

“Send this project over to the CEO’s office. The team will fix it. You see, apart from dealing with key projects we also fix the shitty messes when other teams can’t even deal with their regular projects,” Ace spat without hiding his utter disappointment.

He shook his head like he deserved to see and hear something better than the presentation just now. Without another word, he got up from his seat and the others quickly did the same. Ace walked out of the room without looking back while the others bowed respectfully. With that, the meeting came to a close. Ace didn’t even wait for me, so it was my responsibility to try to keep up with him. When we were outside in the hallway, I kept my distance from him because I was simply scared and extremely intimidated by him.

The Devil CEO...

After a few meetings that went exactly like that and ended in a very similar fashion, I finally understood why he had that title. I knew that Ace was scary when he got serious, but I never knew that he was this scary. Ace still seemed like he was in a bad mood which wasn’t good news for me because I sort of have to talk to him right now.

'

“Umm...next up is dinner with a client at the Everly Pavilion hotel. Finally, it’s the last thing on today’s schedule,” I told him in a small voice.

Ace sighed as he stopped walking, and I took that as a sign that he was waiting for me to catch up to his side.

“Thanks,” he said, surprisingly calmly when I stood at his side.

“Should I get you a drink?” I offered.

“No need,” he declined immediately.

.....

Finally, the day is over for me. I’ll send Ace off to have dinner with the client and then I can head back to my apartment for some much-needed rest. Today had been such a long day and my feet are killing me already. Why did I have to wear these heels today of all days? I bet there are blisters on the back of my heels and I didn’t even walk that much. I walked Ace to the front of the building where his driver was waiting for him along with the usual black Bentley that he uses.

“Enjoy dinner,” I said politely as I waved to him.

“What are you doing?” Ace asked in a low voice as his eyes narrowed suspiciously at me.

My body froze at this gaze. Did I do something wrong just now?

“Umm...sending you off to dinner with the client?” I responded.

“I can see that. I’m asking because it doesn’t make sense for you to send me off when you’re supposed to join me for dinner,” Ace said pointedly.

“Me? I have to go to dinner with you as well?” I asked, surprised at this sudden turn of events.

Ace looked at me like I was dumb and blind before he shook his head and sighed.

“You will do everything that I say and go wherever I go. Work doesn’t end straight on the clock if you’re my secretary. What kind of secretary goes off to rest while her boss is still working?” Ace complained before he grabbed my wrist.

Before I could apologize or make any excuse for myself, Ace had dragged me with him into the back seat of the huge black Bentley.

Cleary, as far as Ace was concerned, work was still far from over.

...

Luckily, I read up on the client’s profile a little, so I had a pretty decent idea of who we were meeting. The client and his company were also famous so it wasn’t a surprise that he could book a dinner time with Ace. Jim Langley, current CEO of one of the largest fashion outlets on the continent. His company specializes in running outlet for designer products across many large outlets in various countries on this continent. His company experienced rapid growth as a result of one of the marketing campaigns that our company helped him with in the past. Since then, he’s been one of our loyal clients.

“Ace! So happy that you could make it,” Jim said with a beaming smile as he stood up from his seat and shook Ace’s hand firmly.

“Happy to meet you. It’s been too long,” Ace said warmly.

“And this beautiful lady with you is?” Jim asked as his eyes fell on me.

“This is Karina, she’s my personal secretary,” Ace replied as he introduced me.

“A pleasure to meet you. I’m Karina,” I introduced myself politely.

“I see. Welcome. I’m sure Ace can take on more projects now with you helping him out,” Jim said followed by a laugh before he gestured with his hand for us to take a seat.

Soon a man joined us, and Jim quickly introduced him as the new head of marketing for his company. The man was probably in his late forties.

“This is Johnny. He just joined us as head of marketing. I wanted to introduce him to you so that we can work together more in the future. We are thinking of rebranding the look and feel of our outlets very soon, and of course, we would like to work with Jesses and Hill’s on that,” Jim said.

“Sounds like an interesting project. Rebranding is one of the things that we do best. As always, I’ll be happy to help out and I’m always thankful for the trust that you place in us,” Ace said politely but I could tell that he meant every word that he said as well.

“Excellent. Well, we don’t need to discuss the details now, but Johnny here will definitely be in touch with your company soon to work on this,” Jim said with a satisfied smile.

The meeting that followed was more relaxed and it seemed more like a catch up between friends rather than a serious business talk. Of course, business was discussed, and some thoughts were suggested by both sides on what the project could mean and the various directions that the project could take.

–To be continued...