1 An invitation

I was only six years old when my mother decided to leave me and my father and live with another family. She was unhappy, she wished to lead a good life which my dad couldn´t provide because he was just a mere cook-in-training and despite working almost 24 hours a day he didn´t get much paid. My mom was a secretary at a large company and just gradually fell in love with her boss. She decided to be his mistress and leave us behind.

The day she got her things and told us she would leave us, she was sad... I guess but she also smiled in joyful expectation of her new life as a rich woman. Being loved and cherished by her husband who didn´t let her work because she now doesn´t have to. All she had to do is take care of the young master, the son of her new husband.

Meanwhile I led a rather simple life with my dad. After mom left he went to look for a few more part time jobs he could do in between his break or in his free time. He worked day and night just to prove to mom and himself that he could take care of his own family. I also tried to help him as much as possible. I learned to do the housework and to cook for my dad so that he can just rest when he gets home. When I got old enough I also started to look for part time jobs to help dad. I worked as a waiter at a couple restaurants and also learned some things from the cooks. When I turned 15 dad and I had saved up a huge amount of money. We decided to open a little restaurant. Everything went well. My dad had learned almost 10 years from a noodle master and finally mastered the family recipe from him. From then on it was like we had a lucky strike. His hard efforts finally paid off. Our business went so well that we slowly hired more workers and finally expanded. We first opened another bigger restaurant and soon a few more followed until a couple years later we had our own franchise and company. Dad is still working as a cook but now he is just responsible in testing and developing new recipes while I started to go to college and manage the business side.

Now I am 22 years old and we could say that our restaurant is worldwide known and loved. Our businesses all over the world are operating smoothly and I am now the CEO.

I looked down onto the street. The people are hurrying across the street and are flooding the street. From above they just seem like little insects crawling around. I sighed and pulled my gaze away from the window. I have a fear of heights but I still love to look out of the window from my office. It´s located in one of the highest buildings in the city and it became a trademark of the skyline.

I pulled myself together and walked back to my desk where stacks of paper and documents where littered all over it.

You only leave your desk for a few days and all the work is stacking on it. The worst thing is that it takes double the time to work through all that, I thought to myself.

I took a random document and had a look at it. The stock report was on it and I could see that our stock had risen a few points again. I hummed approvingly. As long as our stocks are stable that´s good. I also got some more investors to help us finishing our new project. Long ago I already planned to build new schools all around the country to help training new and talented chefs. They should get the opportunity to learn from the master chefs but don´t have to pay a whole fortune for that. To get everything financed I had to convince all these sponsors to help us and they might also leave some money for our charity projects.

While I was still contemplating what to do next a soft knock was heard.

"Yes come in." The door opened and I had a look at who was knocking on my door. I expected it to be my secretary but she had her break right now so that must be someone else.

A young man with glasses entered and quickly closed the door.

"Hello. How can I help you?" I asked him.

He looked at me and then bowed before me.

"Hello Miss Morgan. I am here in the name of Johnson Inc. Mister Johnson wishes to see you and have dinner with you."

"Interesting. Why does he want to eat with me so suddenly? And isn´t it more effective if he asked me that himself? I don´t just take on random invites from strangers even if it´s Mister Johnson. I am very busy and if he has something to say, he can ask for a meeting. No need to go out and invite me to dinner." With that I planned on ending the conversation with that man and continue with my work but I noticed that he didn´t make any move to leave. Instead he came a few steps forward and spoke up again.

"Miss Morgan please think this through one more time. Everyone can have a meeting with Mr Johnson but not everyone can eat with him. That is a rare chance and who knows maybe you can get some useful connections. What do you say?"

"I´m sorry but I have to decline the offer. Now if that´s all, you may leave." I gestured to the door.

The man still didn´t move an inch but instead firmly stood where he was and spoke up again.

"Miss Morgan please accept this offer. Mr Johnson tried so often to have a talk with you but he never had the chance to. At the last three events where you both were attending you always left before he could even find you. Please give him a chance. It doesn´t have to be long. Just two hours." The man was practically begging now.

"Please stop. That´s why I don´t like going to events and I hate talking to rich guys like your master. They are just bothersome and there is nothing I would want to talk about. And if it´s business then I am always ready to meet him here to discuss business. That´s all." I stated my point firmly and looked at the man.

He saw that he couldn´t win me over so he eventually gave up and left.

"I´m sorry for taking up your precious time. I hope you will think about it again. Here is my card. If you change your mind please call me." And with these last word he left the office.

I looked at the card and there was a name and phone number on it.

John Johnson -xxx xxxxx- Johnson Inc.