Chapter 7

—On the other side of the country—

James Allen III, the heir and CEO of JA Industries, was reading through his morning emails. His jade green eyes were scanning through to determine what was a priority and what was trash. He looked at an email that had an update about his rival company, Donovan Global.

He clicked the email and read a report about some charity that they donated to. There was a link in the email to a video on a news website. 'Why not?' he thought. He clicked the link and played the video.

He watched, amused by his rival's demeanor. This was obviously something he was doing to keep up appearances and not something that Nathaniel Donovan actually cared about. It was kind of nice knowing that someone else had to go through similar situations, even though this person was basically his arch nemesis. They were always fighting for the same deals and competing with each other for everything.

He continued watching the video and watched as Nathaniel had a hint of a smile on his face as a young woman walked to the podium. He rewound the video to make sure. He played the video to the end. He watched the interaction with his rival and the young woman again and again.

He forwarded the email to his private investigator that he had on the payroll and in the body wrote: FIND ALL THE INFORMATION YOU CAN ON THIS SHELTER AND ITS DIRECTOR AND SEND IT TO ME IMMEDIATELY

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Nathaniel was seated in the Escalade, reading the quarterly update for the next meeting he needed to attend. It was an all staff meeting and he would be letting everyone at his multibillion dollar company know how they were doing. Luckily, they were doing well. Donovan Global was up 2 percent more than anticipated. His mind, however, kept drifting towards a certain curly haired woman that he left behind.

He scrolled to his text app and looked at it. Nothing from Paige. He threw the phone on the seat. He grabbed the phone again and texted Rhonda, asking when his doctor's appointment was. 'After the quarterly update. Please be in your office for a video visit. Jamal will remind and escort you' she replied.

The Escalade brought Nathaniel to the front of a skyscraper. Nathaniel's door was opened by a valet and he exited the vehicle. There were footsteps behind him; he could tell that it was Jamal and Rhonda by the sound of Rhonda's shoes. They walked into the building and took an elevator to the top floor.

Jamal and Rhonda followed Nathaniel off the elevator and took a seat at their desks. The layout of the entrance to Nathaniel's office was a hallway with chairs, as if it were a lobby, with 3 doors toward the back and one door by the elevator. The doors were glass. The two desks were in front of the doors towards the back on either side of the hall. The door by the elevator led to a restroom and break room. The doors towards the back were all Nathaniel's rooms. The left door was his conference room, the right door was his break room and the back door was his office. Each room was enormous and filled with modern furniture and decorated in a minimalist fashion. Nathaniel strolled to his conference room. His top executives were seated there. Nathaniel sat at the head of the table.

His executives did most of the presentation. Nathaniel gave some words at the beginning and at the end that basically amounted to: "you did well, let's continue this pattern for next quarter." He continued his cold demeanor at work. His employees had no cause for complaint, though. They had great benefits and pay, Nathaniel made sure of that. He encouraged time off and made sure that the department heads were making sure that people were taking their vacation time each year. The meeting ended and Nathaniel walked out of his conference room into his office. He watched as his executives left the conference room while he loaded the physician's video visit.

He reviewed his symptoms with his physician. The physician had him do jumping jacks and do an ECG on his watch. Nathaniel's heart rate was normal. The physician said that from his labs and tests a week earlier, he had no signs of an illness but that Nathaniel was welcome to come and repeat the tests. Nathaniel ended the visit and sighed.

He grabbed his phone and dialed a number.

"Nate?" a woman's voice questioned from his phone.

"Yes, mother. I wanted to see how Ibiza was treating you. How are you?" he asked.

"It's fine, darling. But what's wrong? You don't usually call me on Mondays. You've had me on a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday schedule since you took over your father's company," she said in a concerned voice.

Nathaniel sighed. "Mother, I am having some strange symptoms. I phoned the doctor and he said I'm fine, essentially, but I can repeat tests if I would like."

"What kind of symptoms?" his mother asked, growing more concerned the more she heard.

"Well, it started this morning at a press conference for this charity I donated to.

I was getting out of the car and I felt like I couldn't breathe for a second and my heart was beating rapidly. I went to meet the director of the charity and my legs were shaking as I walked. Also, I was sort of on autopilot. Then, periodically I would blurt out things that you don't just say to a stranger to her—" he rambled but his mother cut him off.

"Darling, I was worried until you mentioned that the director is a woman. Is she pretty?" his mother said with a chuckle.

"I can't deny that she has a certain aesthetic that I find appealing," Nathaniel mumbled.

"Have you thought about her since you met her?"

"Yes, my thoughts have periodically strayed in her direction when they aren't occupied with something," he voiced slightly exasperated. He could tell his mother was amused but he was not.

"Nate, you're very intelligent and I love you, but sometimes you have no sense at all," his mother mused.

"Mother, I am not amused by this. I told a stranger to call me 'Nate' and had a small fit over it when she refused!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, my dear boy, I'm sad your father isn't alive to see this. See her again and if this only occurs with her, then you have your answer. The rest is for you to figure out. I love you so much. Kiss kiss," she said and hung up.

Nathaniel was very annoyed. He looked at his phone and there was a message from Paige. His heart skipped a beat as he hurriedly click on it.

'How long are you available for during our dinner meeting? I just want to accurately time my presentation,' she wrote.

'I am available for as long as you need me to be. No plans after our dinner,' he wrote back. He would stay up all night with her, if needed. However, listening to a presentation all night was not really how he wanted to spend time with her. His phone alerted him to another message from Paige.

'Thank you again for making some time for me and my shelter. I won't present too long but I will have all data included for you,' Paige wrote.

Nathaniel smiled to himself. He just thought of a plan to help keep his conversation light with Paige so that maybe she'd loosen up a little more tonight. All he had to do was get through his work day and get home.