23 The Ice Sculpture
Mill Neck, New York
Page mansion
At midday, Gabriel spent the rest of his time in his room; not caring to come out from his room at all as he spent his time, working. Completely focused on the work at hand, he paid no attention to the knocking on his bedroom door, until it got louder. He stopped working and looked at the door
"Come in" he said in a clear, calm voice
Butler Frank entered inside the room with a hot cup of black coffee. Gabriel's look of surprise was enough to tell Butler Frank that he wasn't expecting him.
"It seems you've already adapted to Miss Maria and Miss Helen, Mr Gabriel" Butler Frank said as he dropped
"Well, their personality is pretty predictable, Frank" Gabriel said as Butler Frank dropped the cup of coffee beside him "Helen would have been the one to be knocking on my door like that. She's rather rude so I thought she'd be knocking on the door to finally give up on taking over as one of my directors"
"I see" Butler Frank said "Actually, I'm here to deliver a message from Miss Maria"
"She left the house?"
"She simply stepped out with Miss Helen for a couple of hours" Butler Frank said "She has already put the kids to sleep and asked that you eat lunch with them around three but leave the baby to sleep since she overfed. She also asked that you make sure they take a bath and brush their teeth"
"You told me a couple of hours. Isn't that pretty much the whole day?" Gabriel asked "She scheduled their bath time to seven thirty. What is she doing going out with that reckless friend of hers and coming back so late?"
"She said she knew you'd ask this and told me to tell you....They'll be meeting with a friend of theirs to settle some matters before tomorrow"
"Tomorrow?" Gabriel mumbled before remembering "I can't believe that tomorrow is the day that savage enters my company as a director. I completely forgot about that" he pinched between his brows "So, they went to New York City?"
"Yes, Mr Gabriel"
"Leave me. I have a headache" Gabriel said and Butler Frank bowed his head before leaving. Gabriel stared at his computer and sighed "Just who are these two women you found, Mark?"
******
New York City, New York
Là Cafe
One fifteen
Maria and Helen walked in through the front door and the bell chimed their entry. Seeing Maria and Helen walking through the front door in luxurious clothes instead of the cafe's uniform, came as a surprise to many of the regulars
"Can you call out the manager?" Maria asked one of the male attendees. The guy blushed before running in to call out the manager
"Let's just take a seat. Standing hurts my back" Helen said while Maria giggled as they walked up to an empty table and sat there
The male attendee soon came out with the manager and the women greeted him with respect. The manager went by the name Pancho Mayer. He was pretty average in appearance; not short or tall, not slim or fat. He did of course have short dark mahogany brown hair with a beard, equally brown eyes and warm-beige colored skin.
"Maria, Helen, oh how much I've missed you two" Pancho said as he sat at the table with them before addressing the male attendee "Get us three cups of tea and three slices of meat pie" he said and the attendant got to it
"Manager, it's been a while" Maria said
"A week and some days at most" Pancho brushed it off "I can see you two have been well. When you suddenly handed in your resignation letters, I almost started crying in my office. You both shouldn't be giving a forty three year old man like myself that type of shock"
"Sorry, but you might be in for more shock" Helen said as the male attendee served their cups of tea
"Did something happen?" Pancho asked "Are your new bosses mistreating you two? Let me know if I should go over and punch their faces in"
"If you did that, they'd send you to prison" Helen said "They're pretty powerful in this country"
"Who?" Pancho asked as the male attendee brought the pies over
"The Wayne family and the Page family" Maria replied back and Pancho went silent while she took a bite from her pie and smiled
"Does it matter? Are they mistreating you two?" Pancho asked
"Mark is a very nice boss. He treats all his workers as family" Maria said
"His friend, the ice sculpture....I mean Gabriel, is a tyrant and we both hate each other" Helen said while taking a bite from her pie "He promised to make my first day at work, hell. All of the other directors are going to be against me...and that's why I'm here in the first place"
"We came to ask for your help" Maria said
"My help? What can I do?" Pancho said "As you can see, business is failing. When you two left, many customers stop coming all together. The person I rented this shop from is trying to kick me out"
"I could tell this would happen sooner or later" Maria said "Have you ever thought of moving to the business district"
"I might as well sell one of my arms to get a place there" Pancho joked "Annalise once worked at Wayne Corp so she has the money to buy a shop there. My relationship with her might be good but, I don't have the money to take care of her and her brats. So..."
"That's exactly why we're here" Helen interrupted Pancho after drinking all her tea "We bought a shop for both you and Annalise. I spoke to her last night and the thought of both shops combining sounded really good to her"
"You got me a shop in the business district?" Pancho shouted excitedly and everyone in the shop turned to look at him while Maria quietly finished her tea
"Helen thought it was a good idea and I helped invest in her endeavors" Maria said "But you need to be calmer about this"
"Sorry" Pancho said before drinking every last drop of tea
"Well, I bought the shop yesterday and once Annalise agreed to it, I hired some people to start working on the place to match both your tastes" Helen said while Maria finished her pie "I remember how you both used to go on and on about how your dream shop together would be like so, I thought it would be nice to built it according to that"
"The fashion department at Wayne Corp, the department Helen's the new director of, will be making good use of your new shop starting tomorrow" Maria said "They haven't been able to eat well at the company cafeteria due to discrimination caused by a stigma left by their previous director. Security, Transport, Meals, a lot of things were cut off and their directors refuse to properly fund the department"
"I can see your boss is already making hell for you, Helen" Pancho said
"He thinks this is the best way to keep me away from the company" Helen said "I need to prove him wrong and make him acknowledge my efforts. I've been busy throughout the night because of this"
"So, what do you say?" Maria asked
"Let's go take a look at this shop. Shall we?" Pancho asked and the women smiled
******
Business District
One fifty three
A taxi stopped in front of large shop which was going through some major reconstruction. Pancho, Maria and Helen got off the taxi but Pancho remained in place as he stared at the the building.
The building was painted in dark mahogany brown with a couple of caramel streaks going around it. The glass windows were transparent and neatly held in place by black window frames. It had two floors with the name he ands Annalise had decided on if they ever opened a shop together. The letters written in cursive on the billboard, read [P & A's Café].
"Ah. I don't even know what to say" Pancho said
"How about starting with thank you" Helen said
"Sure. Thanks" Pancho said while a bit lost as the women lead him into the shop
"It was pretty much move in ready. All they needed to do was paint, set up the furniture and they're done" Maria said but then she pushed when she noticed a woman staring in awe
"Maria" the woman said when she spotted Maria
"Annalise, what are you two doing here, where's the kids?" Pancho asked
"The kids are at school and is it so wrong for me to take a look at the shop we'll be running together?" Annalise asked. She had slightly dark skin, with reddish blonde hair and green eyes to pair with her full lips. "Damn, I wasn't expecting the place to look so good" she said before looking at Helen "To think you'd take up Regina's job. Though, the position does suit someone of your expertise, Mr Wayne doesn't allow anyone without a degree and who hadn't graduated with honors, to work at his company"
"As expected of that ice sculpture" Helen said
"Helen, watch your language" Maria said
"What? If Mark hadn't hired me, do you think the ice sculpture would?" Helen asked
"Well, Gabriel does have a bad attitude. But, so do you" Maria said "That's why you're both clashing whenever you meet"
"Since when did you start addressing Mr Wayne and Mr Page like that?" Annalise asked
"The ice sculpture is living with Maria at the Page mansion, currently and Mark asked all of us to get along" Helen said casually
"Helen" Maria shouted and Helen made the gesture of her zipping her mouth before leaving them to talk
"You're living with Mr Wayne?" Pancho asked in surprise
"Pretty much" Maria said "Gabriel just so happens to be Mark's kids' godfather while I'm their nanny. Mark went on a trip with his wife and all of the staff, yesterday. Gabriel, heard about it when he came to visit and then, he refused to leave. Though, his presence has been quite helpful since I dislocated my wrist" she said as she showed them the bandages
"Oh" Annalise and Pancho let out at the same time
"I'm back" Helen said as she walked towards them "The tables and chairs have arrived. We can start moving in the stuff from the other shops around four"
"Which means we'll be able to open up by tomorrow" Annalise said as she hugged Pancho and he hugged her back
"Maria, will you be able to carry stuff?" Helen asked
"That's a no on my part" Maria said while pulling her sleeves down "If I carry stuff, I won't be able to bath Kali this night nor will I be able to cook dinner"
"You two don't need to worry about that. You've both done enough already" Pancho said "We'll take over from here"
"Yeah. Maria, you have brats to take care of and Helen, the directors will be after you, since you never attended university and took up such an important position at the company" Annalise said "You've got to show them that you aren't someone they can step on and you deserve your position"
"I know. Thanks" Helen said "I wish you two luck"
"Have a good night" Maria said as she and Helen left the new cafe. They hailed a taxi, and returned to Mill Neck.
******
Mill Neck, New York
Page mansion
Three thirty
A taxi pulled up in front of the Page mansion gates. Maria got out of the car, said her goodbyes to Helen and passed through the gates while the taxi drove away from the mansion.
Maria took her time as she walked towards the mansion. She didn't have much to do and decided to take a walk. Since the sun was still up, she decided to take a walk through the maze. She found her way through the maze to the center and up to the garden when she sat on a chair under the canopy. Without her knowledge, she shut her eyes and dozed off.
Butler Frank had been cleaning the mansion for a while now and he was even preparing to start cooking dinner when he spotted Maria through the French windows.
"Oh my" Butler Frank left out "She'll catch a cold if she sleeps there without any coverage"
"Who'll catch a cold?" Gabriel asked from behind him and Butler Frank simply stepped aside for him. As soon as Gabriel saw her sleeping there, he sighed, opened the French windows and went to the canopy. He carried Maria in his arms, being very careful not to wake her up before carrying her inside. He took her straight to her room and dropped her on the bed, before covering her with the duvet, and leaving.