Hearts Under Fire

Chapter 6 - Andre

On the morning of Monday, October 28, Andre was focused on the project that would ensure his career success. He was a young architect with a very promising career, even though he didn’t show much promise as a student.

Since elementary school, he was often scolded by his teacher because he used to draw eyes, nose, and mouth on any “a” he wrote.

In middle school, he was the leader of the low-achieving students in class because he spent his afternoons playing soccer with them instead of doing homework. There was only one subject where his grades stood out: Art Education. The teacher praised him for having a great imagination and a good hand to materialize his visions.

And so, his mother thought it was a good idea to send him to art school. After discussing it, he was excited to go: he’d heard that art school students were almost all female—aside from soccer, this was the aspect that was most dear to Andre, a thirteen-year-old boy who began to feel his … ahem … interest increasing when he happened to run into the fairer sex.

His passion for architecture blossomed during his junior year. Then he earned a diploma, degree, certification, and he joined the Order of Architects of the Province.

His only sister, seven years older, got married when she was twenty to Giulio Di Vasi’s eldest son—Di Vasi was a wealthy hotelier in town. So, Andre’s parents were able to focus on his future. While he was studying, they’d bought a four-room apartment for him, one of which would become his studio.

His Trials for getting a good row at the starting grid in the race of Life were hard, but with his team’s help at the family-box, he was able to put his car to a pole position. The first curves were terrible: all those drivers in such a narrow racetrack! Nevertheless, he safely passed the opening laps and could run his race, even though the goal was still far away.

He’d gotten a great opportunity the previous August.

Outside the historical center of town, there was a dilapidated building. Nobody knew who exactly the owner was. Di Vasi, Andre’s sister’s father-in-law, owner of three four-star hotels, became interested in the building. He discovered that it belonged to City Hall. The mayors who were in charge over the years had never considered the idea of enhancing that property. Other things in town deserved priority. So Di Vasi decided to buy it and make his fourth hotel out of it.

The negotiation with City Hall went well. Thanks to the intermediation of his dear friend, an assessor, City Hall saw that eyesore of a building change into a little more than three hundred thousand euro. Di Vasi was very satisfied, since he paid exactly what was fair in his humble opinion …

Being on good terms with his ​​daughter-in-law, Di Vasi thought to give her younger brother a chance.

Di Vasi was clear. He liked Andre, but with such big money at stake, kinship wouldn’t be enough. He considered him to be a well-bred, honest, and ambitious young man. If he showed some skills, he would be the right man for the project. Di Vasi told him to sketch some ideas for the new hotel. Eventually, the quality of Andre’s work convinced Di Vasi to give him the job.

Full story is here: http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Under-Antonio-Scotto-Carlo-ebook/dp/B00U88RP52/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1425439430&sr=1-1