Chapter 4
"Uh, okay. They are likely back here," Paige gestured towards the rear of the cafeteria and started walking towards the door. As she walked to the door, she felt like someone was staring at her. 'I guess that's normal since I'm leading them, but this feels rather intense.'
Nathaniel watched her intently, studying her. Her butt was very nice. She looked like she could have an hour glass figure, but that was difficult to discern with her current outfit. He hoped that reducing the number of people with them would allow him to ask her to dinner. He just needed a little bit of privacy to ask her, though.
"This is the kitchen and dishwashing station. We have a fridge and freezer. The supply room is through that door. It attaches to a loading dock."
Paige led the group to the supply room. She opened the door and let out an audible gasp. The scene was that of utter chaos. Haley was arguing with a delivery driver along with George, their receptionist. Their social worker, nurse, head cook, supply chain manager and about 10 volunteers were opening boxes and examining their contents. There were packing peanuts everywhere, along with piles of plates and glasses. When she asked Haley to manage this, this wasn't her intention. She liked things orderly and clean; this was causing her a lot of stress.
Nathaniel was thrilled at the opportunity that presented itself. To him, this was a gift from the universe and he was not going to waste it.
"Jamal," he started, "assist Alex and Rhonda. Get this place cleaned up."
Paige turned to look at him. He looked into her gorgeous hazel eyes before stating: "Please continue the tour. My personnel are the cause of this chaos, so they can deal with the mess. Otherwise, they can polish up their resumes due to incompetence." He turned and gave them a cold look before opening the door for Paige.
Paige was not thrilled that she would be alone with this man, nor with the way he treated his employees, but he was donating so much money to the shelter. So, she walked through the door that he held for her and led him through the kitchen and cafeteria. She walked through the recreation room to a door on the opposite side and held it open for him.
"This is the arts and crafts room, where we keep a lot of supplies. We also have people that donate their time to teach classes on valuable life skills here, hence all the desks. Classes on money management, interview techniques and how to apply for jobs, for instance."
He stared at the young woman in front of him and smiled, not caring about the room. It could be a castle and it would not be as fascinating as she was.
Paige was looking at him and trying to have a neutral expression, but she was bewildered and intrigued. She hadn't seen him smile yet. His face was totally blank until they were alone. It made her heart flutter a bit to see the dimple in his left cheek and his perfect teeth. 'I hate to admit he's attractive when he's so mean to everyone…' she thought to herself. She blocked the intrusive thought from her mind as he spoke.
"How wonderful. Where to next?" He opened the door that had closed behind them, gesturing for her to lead them away.
Paige led them to the doors next to the room they were just in and stopped. "These are supply rooms. One has supplies for the shelter and the other has supplies for our clients. There's donated clothes and toiletries, mainly. Shoes are harder to come by, so we will be using a small part of your donation for that."
"I'm glad that you'll be able to benefit people in so many different ways with my donation," he said, smiling again.
'He really seems like he has a split personality. He's acting like a totally different person.' Paige did not understand. She at least tried to be authentic, obviously in cases like these, she wasn't completely authentic but she treated people with respect, at least.
She led them to the health center. There was a lobby area and three rooms within this room.
"This is our waiting area. We have a physician's office towards the back. Our local hospital has what they call a 'street medicine' program where they donate their physicians and supplies to see our clients, as this also aids them in reducing catastrophic emergency admissions. The office on your right is shared by our psychiatrist and substance use counselor, who aid our clients with mild, manageable symptoms with treatment. The office on your left is our social worker's office. She aids our clients with pretty much everything. I'd like to try and hire at least another part time social worker to help her because she's always so busy," Paige said with a slight frown.
'This was his opportunity,' he thought. He closed the gap between them by stepping forward. "Why don't you and I discuss this further over dinner tonight? The check hasn't cleared yet. We can see about that vacant lot next to the building being an add on to this shelter." He said it so sweetly that he surprised both Paige and himself.
Paige was more than a little shocked. Prior to this morning, she had never had any correspondence with or contact from Nathaniel Donovan. It was always through Alex. Alex had told her that this was because his boss was extremely busy and had to delegate the task of preparation to others while only being available for the end result. Now, he was taking a personal interest in the shelter? Was this because he saw the good they were doing? She couldn't help but wonder if it was more to do with her face than what she had worked so hard for.
"Mr. Donovan-" she started but was interrupted.
"Nathan or Nate, please," he said with a slight tinge of some emotion she couldn't recognize.
"Sir, I-" she started again but he interrupted her once more.
"Please," he said in a low whisper, "call me Nathan or Nate." He desperately wanted her to say his name. He didn't know why. He tried not to think of her in bed with him, hopefully screaming it, because he was already having a difficult time with how aroused he was around Paige, but the thought did go through his mind before dismissing it.
She looked into his eyes and then saw the desperation in them. But, she couldn't find it within herself to call him anything other than 'sir' or 'Mr. Donovan', as they were professional acquaintances and they just met.
"We just met," she whispered back. That shocked the hell out of her. Why was she whispering, too?
Nathaniel smiled softly at her. "Can we compromise on 'Nathaniel'?"