History

2 WEEKS AGO

Philomena Newman stepped into the large building housing TEX&Co limited, in a bid to locate Steve Archer's office. She's been there before, but that was a long time ago. When Steve just started working for his father.

Her first stop was at the reception where she was directed to Steve Archer's secretary.

"Hello, good morning. I'm here to see Steve, please." She told the secretary at the desk after joggling through a few flight of stairs, which she opted for instead of waiting for the elevator.

In reply to her statement, she got a confused and expectant stare from the secretary.

"Archer, I'm sorry, Steve Archer." Philo corrected, to the secretary's hearing.

"Do you have an appointment, ma'am" The secretary asked, glancing through her boss's schedule just to be certain she wasn't missing a thing.

"No, not really." Philo said with a tight smile. "The thing is, Mr. Archer is a close friend of mine, and we go way back. Just let him know that Mena is here to see him." She urged.

"Philomena Newman is here to see him rather." She corrected, again.

The secretary was calm for a moment, she contemplated calling her boss's office. But finally decided that it was best not to, since it was against the company's policy to allow anyone except family into his office without an appointment.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. But you can't see Mr. Archer without an appointment." She replied. "But, since he's your friend, I would suggest that you call his personal line and have him know that you are here to see him." She suggested.

"I've been doing that since morning." Philo murmured, dipping a hand inside her handbag to grab her phone once again. "He's not been picking up." She continued. "I'll just try again." She added.

She had called him several times already, even before she left home, but, he didn't pick up any of her calls. She felt he was obviously busy and made up her mind to visit the office, confirm that he was around and perhaps wait for him until he was free to see her.

She dialed his number for the hundredth time and fortunately, Steve picked up on the third ring.

"Oh my God! Mena! I must be dreaming indeed." He shouted into the phone excitedly.

"Hi Steve." Philo responded, feeling relieved that he finally picked up. "I'm here, I'm at your company, I came to see you." She announced happily. "I called earlier, but I guess you've been so busy."

"What? You're at the reception right now?" He asked, finding it hard to believe her.

How long has it been anyway? Almost four years since the last time he saw her, and now she said she's right outside his office.

"Yes, I'm outside." She replied with a heartwarming smile.

"Oh my! Give me a few minutes, I'm having a brief meeting at the moment. I'll send for you in a bit." He told her.

"Sure, take your time. I'll just wait here." She said, cheerfully. Locating an empty seat, she sat down carefully and flashed a thankful smile at the secretary, who smiled right back.

"Is that who I think it is? Your brother's Philomena?" Williams Archer asked.

"Yes Dad." Steve replied, shoving a

a file, containing an open document towards his father, who was seated opposite him.

Williams picked up the file and scanned through the first page.

"What happened to her? No one heard from her after the breakup. She suddenly disappeared into thin air. He said, recalling the days following her breakup with his oldest son. It was hell for everybody in the family.

Williams have met the girl in question on several occasions, his son was happy to show her off and he introduced her to everyone worth an introduction.

"She relocated to Eathenmore. Something to do with her family. She said it was private and she didn't want to talk about it then." Steve replied, at least, that was what she told him before leaving Lilycity.

"And now, she's suddenly back?" Williams asked again, turning to the second page of the document before him. "Why is she here, why is she back?"

"I don't know. Maybe she came around and decided to pay me a visit. I guess I'll find out when I see her." Steve replied. "Here is the privacy clause." He added, pointing to a sentence on the file his father was scanning through.

"Oh yes, thank you son." Said Williams.

"Why don't you invite Philomena in and find out why she's here. We still need time to carefully examine the contents of this file. If possible, bits by bits. So, it's definitely going to take a while, and I don't think it will be nice to keep her out there, waiting. So, I'll just move over to your visitor's chamber and allow you two time to discuss." Williams offered, looking at his son.

The smile that appeared on Steve's face reassured the father that his suggestion was a good one, and it was enough proof to show that his son was eager to meet his visitor.

Slowly, Williams stood up and made his way to Steve's visitor's chamber which was demarcated from his office by a sparkly soft, damask curtain. The curtain offered an opaque view of the people inside the chamber, thereby ensuring their privacy.

Now seated comfortably, Williams spread the file on a table and carefully, he started examining its content, word to word. Back in the office, Steve placed a call his secretary at once.

"Grace," he called.

"Good morning, sir." His secretary greeted at the other end of the line.

"Kindly inform Miss Newman that I'm ready to see her now." He told her before hanging up.

A few moments later, a gentle knock was heard at his office door.

"Come right in!" He called, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. During the few minutes of waiting for Philomena's arrival, he tried to imagine how she have been and what she looked like now.

The door to his office opened gently, and she walked in, all smiles. True to the picture he already created in his head, Philo didn't disappoint him with her looks. Her fashion sense was still top notch, and she looked great from head, down. He was impressed.

"The very Philomena Newman, I can't believe you are here. This feels surreal." Steve said standing up, once Philo stepped into his office. "Please sit down." He offered.

"Oh, Steve, it's been such a long time." Philo chuckled. "You look so good, the evidence of good living and a wonderful wife I must say." She complimented him as well, while taking a seat opposite him.

Her sweet satin voice caught Williams attention. Not wishing to announce his presence, the older man relaxed into his seat and listened calmly to the ongoing conversation in his son's office.