Coincidence, Maybe?

Chapter 5: Ferrari For Me

"A mansion?" 

"Gilbert." I smiled up at my brother, before telling the dogs to sit in German, he then helped me off the floor. 

"It's good to see you little bruder" He said smiling at me. I ruffled his white hair, emphasizing how much taller I was than him, and he sighed. 

"It's good to see you too little bruder." I said grinning at him. The three well trained dogs began barking at me. 

"Stille! (Hush!) You'll wake Feliciano." I told them, and then to my surprise two little arms wrapped themselves around my waist. 

"I Cani? Tuo Fratello?" (The dogs? Your brother?) He was too sleepy to function in English. I picked him up holding him in my arms. 

"Yes the dogs are here, and so is my brother. Come on I'll take you back to bed." I carried him back up to his room laying him in the bed. I walked back downstairs to finish the conversation with my brother. 

"What happened to 'I'm just going to be a single guy with a flat, and no dogs? Working for Ferrari and sending Mutti part of my paycheck'?" 

"That vas Ferrari's CEO, und I vill still be sending Mutti most of mein paycheck, Danke." I said in a very matter of fact way. He just smiled at me.

"Know of any hotels?" 

"You can have my room here." I said showing him where that was. I headed to the couch when I heard a sleep and shaky voice cry out my name, walking upstairs I saw Feliciano sitting up in bed. 

"You aren't sleeping on the couch." He said scooting over on the bed, making room for me. I smiled, rolling my eyes at the sleepy Italian I crawled in bed beside him, his arms once again latching around my waist. We fell asleep like that. 

~~~

The next morning after breakfast, and leaving a note for Gilbert that Araldo would give breakfast and some gas money. I got dress in the indicated work dress code, a dress shirt and a tie, I got in my car and headed to work. Feliciano had to go in an hour before me, but I was going to be thirty minutes early. When I arrived he was already in the huge conference room, in his full suit discussing something with an advertisement designer. At exactly nine o'clock he started the meeting with all the officers, none of which were late. I got out the papers he had given me. 

"Buongiorno everyone. Before we begin, I would like to introduce the newest member of the team, our international adviser, Mr. Ludwig Beilschmidt, brought in from Berlin. He'll be working with us on the Miami project first." They all nodded saying various hellos and ciaos. Feliciano then brought up a slide show. 

"So the Miami project is crucial to the new America campaign, the problem with this is over there Chevy and Ford have both have two cars that are cheaper, with the same engine design, but several flaws, how do we pitch the new 488's?" He said to the room, with pictures of a clean flawless car next to the new ford mustang. I knew my models, but not the engine, and I understood what caught peoples eyes. Several opinions where put in and lots of notes were taken. The ad designer said. 

"If I knew what caught American's eyes I might be able to come up with a decent low budget commercial." This statement was the opener to me, everyone leaned over listening to what I had to say. Swallowing hard at all the eyes on me I began. 

"I've noticed that a lot of the American car ads are still shots, where the cars advertise the 'family friendly' aspects of the vehicles. What we need to really get attention is a bright colored car showing off it's real life uses." I said smoothly, they all nodded writing things down. Feliciano smiled in that I hired the right person way. The meeting closed out quickly after that, and I was shown to my office by Feliciano. It wasn't as small as some of the ones I had seen, but it wasn't as big as the ones on the top floor. I set a few small pictures on my desk and got to work. By two o'clock I had a decent idea of what kind of shot would really get us going in America. I pushed the intercom button on my desk phone, calling both line one and line three which was Feli and the chief ad designer. 

"I have it" They both came down. I went over my general ideas, and they both nodded. 

"I could have a shot like this in three weeks, two hundred thousand tops." 

"Done. Ludwig, remind me to give you a raise." He said smiling, and the two of them started to walk out. 

"Hey, Feli?"

"Si?"

"Give me a raise." I said smirking, he rolled his eyes, straightening his tie and walking back to the elevator. Work went by quickly and I left at seven, which was my scheduled clock out time. Nine to seven wasn't a bad set of hours, however it was longer than Feliciano's. He went eight to five thirty. I got in my car and made the drive to the mansion slowly. As I walked in, I expected to be greeted by my three dogs, and Feli. Instead I found all the lights off, the fireplace crackling and the four of them all snoring on the couch. Various dog toys were scattered around on the floor. I whistled sharply and the three of them jumped off of Feliciano.

"Ah." He said turning red, and sitting up. He doubled over making a squeaking noise. One of the dogs had kicked him... In a very sensitive area. 

"I'm sorry liebling" 

"I'm fine." He moaned out. "Also what's-a liebling"I could feel my face turn red

"Oh, It's German... for darling..." He blushed. 

"Ludwig?" 

"Yes?"

"Are we boyfriends?" He asked tilting his head.