Strictly Professional

3: The Ritz

ELLE

"Hello?" I spoke into the handset of the phone, knowing it was Madeline that was calling me from reading her name on the screen before answering.

"Hey, Elle! I have Mr. Horan on the other line and he's asking for you. Shall I put him through?" She asked and I couldn't stop myself from letting out a puff of air, closing my eyes and rubbing my temples with my hand.

"I don't really have a choice." I chuckled, causing her to slightly giggle. She was always so cheerful and she managed to radiate her positivity to anyone she talked to.

"Deep breaths. You can do it." She joked right before the line beeped, indicating the switch.

"Hello, Eleonora speaking." I spoke after I cleared my throat, expecting to hear a male voice on the other end.

"Hey, it's Niall. I called to ask when you had time to see me." He spoke, speaking casually like we were friends. It's like he was doing it on purpose to aggravate me.

"Hello, Mr. Horan. I don't have anything booked for the rest of the day, so you could swing by at your own convenience." I answered, insisting on a more professional manner to irritate him right back.

"That's what I was hoping to hear. A car will be waiting for you in an hour. Let's talk over lunch." The line went dead before I could even process what he just said. I slammed the phone back in its place, gritting my teeth from frustration.

Who does he think he is, making demands like I was nothing but his property? Gosh, I was really starting to hate him. I took a deep breath, calming myself down before I got back to researching possible investments for him. If I had to do it, at least I should do it right. I already had two proposals done and ready, so I was willing to spend the hour he gave me preparing a third one. I was determined to leave him flabbergasted over my work, leaving no room for him to talk badly about me to my boss.

The hour seemed to pass fairly quick, but I was done with my report with time to spare and I was mentally prepared to face him again. Madeline called to inform me the car was here, clear confusion and shock in her tone when she let me know. I gave her a brief explanation before leaving the office, taking my propositions that I printed out with me in a folder. Exiting the tall office building, I faced a black, shiny sedan parked right at the entrance. A driver standing right infront of the back door with a polite smile.

"Ms. Elle?" The middle aged man asked as I approached him. I nodded in response, biting the inside of my mouth.

"Right this way. Mr. Horan will be meeting you at the restaurant." He spoke as he opened the door for me, gesturing with his hand for me to get in.

"Thank you." I politely smiled, sliding into the plush leather seat of the car before he closed the door and got in the driver seat infront of me. Not knowing how long the drive would be, I decided to call my mum and check up on her, since we hadn't talked all day and we make it our mission to call eachother regularly. The phone rang, and it took her a while to answer but that is something that always happened. She had a tendency of misplacing her phone all the time, thus needing sometime to find it before answering.

"Hello?" She finally spoke, pure excitement in her tone.

"Hey mum! How are you?"

"Oh, you know. Same old. How are you, my love? are you on your break?" She asked, and I took a deep breath before I started explaining everything to her.

"I'm in a car. The client I told you about asked me to join him for lunch to talk about work."

"Did he come pick you up?" She asked, making me chuckle.