I Should Love You

Chapter 1

"Send them off to Hanson.. Yeah.. no, no! Make it work.. Yeah, do what you have to.. Bloody hell! What the f.." I rolled my eyes as dad continued his argument. He called me in his office to discuss something important and I had been waiting for the past half an hour. Sighing, I grabbed a apple from his personal fruit basket and he eyed me, warning me not to eat his favorite fruit, but I just stuck my tongue out as I took the first bite. This is the least he deserved for making me rush from home in between a new CSI episode and then making me wait.

"Hurry up dad." I said frustratingly and he nodded his head while glaring at the apple in my hand. "Yeah, okay. Talk to you later John." He ended the call and I raised my eyebrows. "John Parker? Since when did you discuss your business with him?"

"His indulgence is unfortunately necessary." He sighed and typed away on his phone before turning his attention back to me,

"Melissa."

"Dad."

He sat on his chair, straight as ever, and looked at me seriously. "Mel," Uh oh, I knew that tone. Whatever he was about to tell me, wasn't going to be good but important nonetheless. "Yes, dad?" I asked cautiously. Please let it be better than terrible.

"I need a favor." He said sternly and I looked up at him, waiting for him to continue.

"Our shares are going down," He stood up, hands in pockets, and faced the window. "Ever since the murder accusation, our reputation has lowered-"

"But the media and the public aren't aware of what happened."

"Yes, but someone from our company turned out to be a leech and passed around the news so some small companies are aware of it. However, we have shut them up with money, for now. We can't let the public know about it until we can get to the bottom of this by ourselves. Our PI is handling it and we have some good leads so far however that's not helping us gain the trust of the companies who are aware of what's going on-"

"Why do you need their trust?"

"We sell our products to quite a few of them and if we don't have their trust, they won't buy it. And if they don't buy it, other companies who buy them will get a whiff of it and ultimately the truth will come out. We need them Melissa. Some of them are not buying our products but we cannot let that happen with the others. However we are a little low on cash now. After calculating our finances, I realized that we need quick cash and we don't have much time. Our outflow is more than our inflow and this is not healthy at all." He sighed.

"So how can I help dad?" He turned towards me and sat back on his chair. Looking straight into my eyes, he said, "The only way I can get some quick cash is if I partner with some strong company for a year or so."

"Okay.." I let off, wondering how this was connected to me helping him.

"Doesn't the heir to Davis Inc. go to your college?" His question caught me off guard. Davis Inc. was the most powerful company and also our major rival. My father hated them. He always said, Jeffery Davis, the owner of Davis Inc, was a major scumbag and a sun of a gun. He never spoke about them, never. Unless he wanted to diss them in front of his colleagues.

"I heard he transferred this semester.. but I don't know. I haven't seen him so far." I replied honestly.
"Well he has joined, and.. here is his schedule." He handed me a neatly folded paper that he took out from his right drawer. I took the paper confusingly and gave him a annoyed look. "Dad, what are you getting at?"

"You know I hate that Jeffery.." He spat with disdain.

"And..?"

"But he seems like the only help at the moment.. -" My eyes were wide but before I could say a word, dad continued, "I really hate doing this but I need that scumbag's help. Now, he isn't going to just accept my contract until he sees what he can gain. Of course, two strongest companies bonding together will be a great asset in the short and long run and this would indicate profit for us both but his nasty personality will get in the way and he will, without a doubt, find out the real reason behind our short term contract. At this point, it is impossible to gain his trust. So Melissa, I need you to become good buddies with his son because as soon as this semester is over, he is taking over the company and your friendship will be a great asset to our company."

"Are you serious?" Were the only words I could manage to say. Become good buddies with the Davis kid? Are you crazy! If his father is nasty, god only knows how much worse the son will be!

"Extremely." He said without missing a beat.

"Dad, I-I c-ca.. Dad, I don't even know him! If he is anything like his dad, he will know something is fishy! And I am pretty sure he is aware of our rivalry so there is no way he will agree on being my friend!"

"If it doesn't work out, John will try and handle it. But you know I don't trust his competence and it doesn't hurt to try Mel. If you guys don't get along, we lose a good opportunity but that's about it. However if you succeed, our problem is practically solved. So what do you think is the right thing to do?" I sighed. I know dad was right and I could at least try. But I didn't know anything about him! How was I going to approach him?

"I don't know anything about him." I told dad and he had a victorious smile on his face, knowing he won me over.

"I did my own research actually. His name is Nolan Davis, 22 years old. He is not very famous with the media mostly because he is very secretive and reserved. He doesn't go out much and is known to be quiet. He seems very different from his father who is practically a fucking bastard. No information on any affairs, business plunges, except that he is the only heir who will be taking over Davis Inc. after completing his final year in college."

"What about his interests, hobbies?"

"No information." My jaw dropped. Nolan Davis was a important man in the business industry since he was going to soon take over the most powerful company but the media didn't have the slightest hint of his daily life. This was odd because no person ever managed to steer so clear of them, specially someone as important as Nolan.

"Do you think he paid the media for not revealing much about himself?" I asked and he chuckled softly before shaking his head, "No sweetie, gossip is the only thing money cannot stop."

"Hmm.." I wondered. This was our final year in college and it had started about 2 weeks back. Rumors of Nolan joining were very high and people used to give me looks because they knew that our companies were rivals. It was universally known to every living being that Davis Inc. and Brown Inc. did not get along. And now my dad wanted me to take the first step of friendship towards the next heir to Davis Inc. God only knows how bad this plan was going to turn out.