Drowning

Chapter Eighteen

As soon as I got home from court I took a shower. Today was our first lawsuit hearing and we got nowhere. Even though Aiden got us to meet with an outside council instead of a judge we still got nowhere. They were wasting time talking back and forth about the same thing. I planned talking to Aiden about what happened in that meeting room and why we didn't make any progress, but as soon as we got to the exit of the building and he saw Luke was there waiting for me the bastard left. I wasted a whole afternoon on nothing. Now I've been avoiding Mariana so that I won't be able to lie to her face and everything well. But that plan is useless as today is our weekly dinner, and just as I grabbed a potato to start peeling it and take my frustration off on it, someone walks in. I don't worry as I know I didn't leave the door open and only two people have the key.

"Vale?" Mariana asks as soon as she closes the entrance door. Great, I was really hoping it was Lidia.

"Kitchen."

"Hey," she says and hops into a bar stool.

"Hey."

"What's wrong?" Am I that obvious?

"Is there something wrong?" I ask trying to act stupid. I know she is my business partner but I don't want to stress her with this. Just three days ago she got engaged.

"Clearly, what aren't you telling me?" You know what fuck it. It's not my place to hide things from her, she deserves to know. Right? Well at least that's what i'm going to tell myself

"You haven't asked about how the court went. Do you want to know?"

"Wow, was it that bad? You usually dont talk about work on dinner nights." I don't. I made that rule for myself when I broke up with my ex. He always said I worked too much, and it's true I can't deny it, but I started to give us one night a week where I give myself the chance to not discuss anything about work. But this is too important for that, we could lose money including clients.

"It wasn't bad. But it wasn't good." I tell her, looking up from peeling the potatoes.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, that's what happened. Absolutely and utterly nothing, they clearly didn't have any evidence, but Aiden just took it as a way to stay silent so nothing happened. And when Iwanted to confront him about it, he fucking dipped."

"So, that bad." she says, stroking her face.

"Don't worry, I'm going to fix it."

"How?"

"I'm going to talk to Aiden and if I see him going nowhere we're hiring someone new. I knew I shouldnt have trusted my mother, it was a dumb mistake and now we're paying the price." I take a breath, I'm getting rattled and that's never good. He's been acting stubbornly since the first day. And I need to remind him who pays the check for his service. "He was so bad, he set the next court date for two weeks. If I don't see him actually with the desire to do a good job we'll do it. I'll hire someone else."

"Whatever you think is best." she sighs. "This is your area of expertise not mine."

"Now to the better news." I did have bad thoughts in mind but I totally forgot about the good ones. I was planning on saying this to them when we were together but she clearly needs a pick me up.

"Our company may be losing millions. I don't think there is a pick me up."

"Come on, we both know we don't do this for the money, we literally have billions in the bank." It's not to be egotistic, but it's true we don't need more money than we already have. We only work for the love, the drive, the chase and the hard work, we're both workaholics. We love it and neither of us can deny it. We both know why we want this lawsuit to go smoothly is because everything we could loose. The clients, the projects, the opportunities. And eventually that will dry us out. "Anyways, I'm planning an engagement party for you and Mark."

That seems to be enough to pick her up, since she literally picks up her head from the counter. "Wow, you must really feel bad about this lawsuit thing."

"What?"

"I know you feel bad that your grand-parents are suing us, which you shouldnt by the way, it's not your fault. Valentina I love you, you know that, but you never do this type of thing, you don't do surprises because you don't like surprises, even less parties. And you don't go out of your way making one big gesture because you believe you should make gestures all the time. And I love that about you and I appreciate that I'm one of the few people you do that to, but you don't have to change your way of thinking and acting because you feel bad, because again you shouldn't." Wow. I don't even know what to say right now. Should I be insulted or not? I do sometimes forget how much she knows me. I don't do the whole big and noisy stuff that's not me, I'm the type to believe that instead of doing a monthly party, we do a weekly quiet and dinner and actually talk about everything. But still I want to do this for her, so I'm going to insist on it.

I round the counter and sit on the stool next to her."Mariana, hon. I do feel bad about my stupid ass family being the reason we are in the middle of a lawsuit but I'm not doing this for them, I'm doing this for you. You and me we're different, while I enjoy a quiet evening with all you guys, you like going partying and having fun." I also did but now that's not me. We rarely get free time and I would rather enjoy that with the people I care about than going partying with people I've never met. "So as your engagement present I'm giving you just that. The opportunity to have fun and party your future with Mark, with all the people you love." I say giving her a small smile. She thinks she knows everything about me and she probably does because I've told her everything there is to know. But sometimes she forgets I know everything about her too.

"That just took my speech out the window. Thank you." she says and leans to give me a hug.

"Of course, you and your lame speeches aren't hard to beat." That earned me a pinch on the arm.

"Really thank you." She says letting go of me.

"Anytime. Now you go over there and prep the table or something, I need to finish cooking. These potatoes aren't going to finish peeling themselves."

"Here let me help." She says extending her hand to grab the peeler but I smack it away.

"Get out of my kitchen, I very much like it and want it to stay this way. I don't need you burning it down.'' When it comes to Mariana's cooking skills, everyone is in danger of poisoning or destroying property.

"Ok don't be dramatic, I know how to cook."

"Really? And how did you manage to get a toaster on fire then. A toaster is the most simple thing in the kitchen."

"I didn't know the bread was burning. OKAY." she says still wanting to grab the peeler. But I take a rag and whip her away.

"I'm serious, get out. I need to finish before Lidia and Mark get here."

She starts to retreat, "fine, fine. I'll set the table." she says, rolling her eyes.

Mar and Lidia got here and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying ourselves over food and wine. We didn't talk about work again, but that didn't make my anxiety for all that's to come leave me.