4 The Encounter

Athena sighed again as she the waiter entered with her food. She set her phone down and watched as her table was covered with delicious, mouth-watering delicacies. Compared to the other rich business tycoons, she didn't have much to do, she had hired capable and loyal subordinates who ran her various businesses for her. All she needed to do was give them general directions and goals that she required them to follow. She didn't even feel the need to go to her office most of the time. The downside of such a plan was that her subordinates kept sending her e-mails and messages updating her on the progress they had made, keeping her always busy on her phone.

At one point, right after she had had completed the annoying kid god's tasks she had thought of selling her various businesses, or at least completely handing them over to people more interested in such affairs. She had learnt the relevant knowledge purely out of her competitive spirit to ace the bet she had made. She had won that bet and had completed the challenge, although the results were far from her satisfaction.

"...Ma'am?"

She was woken out of her thoughts by the voice besides her. She realized that he waiter was still standing besides her.

"Ah...I'm sorry could you repeat that?" she asked with a sheepish smile.

"Of course ma'am." The waiter smiled at her, she idly noticed that he had a rather nice and sincere smile, "Would you like something to drink ma'am? I recommend the herbal tea, it supposedly has a calming effect and allows one to have clarity of thought."

"Is this guy a psych or something?" she thought in amusement, "To think he'd recommend me tea that'll let me have clarity of thought."

"Yes, I'd like some herbal tea please." she replied politely.

"Yes ma'am, I'll bring some immediately", the waiter replied politely and left her alone in the privacy of her VIP room.

___xx___

Still absorbed in her thoughts of how to best spend her money she absent-mindedly walked out to the reception area of the hostel. She was startled to see the group of men and groaned inwardly and almost wanted to duck into the restroom and hide before they noticed her. Sadly her plans of escape were cut-off before she could execute them as the men noticed her and started walking towards her with smiles plastered on their faces.

"Miss. Lancelot, fancy meeting you here! Did you come here to have lunch?" one of them asked expectantly.

"Yeah, it's funny you'd almost think a restaurant is a place where one comes to eat", hearing the absolutely normal words coming the man's mouth she couldn't help but roll her eyes and say sarcastically. The man smiled but didn't say anything as if he was used to her rudeness. The other men with him too only smiled wryly at each other while having helpless looks in their eyes.

They were some of the most eligible bachelors in the entire country, countless girls wished to be their partners but couldn't even earn a second look from them and yet this girl in front of them treated them as nusiances and they couldn't remember the last time she had ever said something nice to them...forget being nice they couldn't remember a time where she had even been courteous to them! Well, it was rather to be expected. All five of them were childhood friends who had grown up together from the time they were in their diapers, at this point, to expect the girl that had been the fearless leader of their squad in the art of mischief to suddenly turn docile and sweet on reaching adulthood was an impossible dream. In fact, the four of them would have been scared stiff if she ever did treat them nicely because that would mean she had surely been possessed by some evil spirit!

"What are you lot looking at me with that weird look for?" she snorted in displeasure.

"These guys are surely upto no good," she thought, "maybe I should call the aunties and let them know." the wicked thought made her smile deviously.

"There, there calm down Miss. Lancelot! There is no need to smile so wickedly! We're only here to meet a business associate for a casual luncheon!" The man who had greeted her said in a voice that sounded completely terrified.

"Huh...how boring." she said unkindly. "Well have fun then I suppose. I'll be on my way", giving them a lazy wave she continued on her way without caring much about their relieved goodbyes.

As she reached the entrance a tall, handsome man in a grey suit brushed past her with a muttered "Excuse me" trailing behind him.

For a second she blanked out, the guy looked way too handsome!

"I wonder if he's that business associate those guys mentioned. Never seen him around this place before", mulling over it she got into her car the valet had brought over and as she adjusted her seatbelt she was struck by a thought, "Maybe I should give romance a try."