Zoe drove Dave to a nearby restaurant. The restaurant was chic. It was made entirely out of wood, where large wooden pillars supported a high ceiling. There was a circular bar in the middle of the restaurant where the waiters moved from and to as they took the customer"s orders. A platform would then rise from inside the circular bar with a variety of food for the hungry.
The restaurant was almost full, but thanks to Zoe"s wide network of connections, a waiter came and rapidly managed for them a good spot to sit at and enjoy their food near a large window.
Dave noticed several gazes looking at their table. Notably, Zoe was an eye-candy. She was beautiful enough that Dave had repeatedly asked himself what kind of great good he ever did in his life (or past lives) to be sitting next to such a lovely person.
But he then realized that most of the gazes remained on Zoe for a fraction of the time they did as they gazed upon him. He was the center of attention in a place where he knew no one.
It felt awkward for a moment until all was clarified soon.
No one knew who spoke first, but someone muttered, "Mr. Skeletal," and suddenly, the whole restaurant rose in an uproar. The person who spoke had confirmed their doubts, and after glancing another time, the people inside the restaurant were certain that the young man was the famous Mr. Skeletal. The world"s rising star!
The customers no longer bothered with their food and grouped around Dave and Zoe, asking for autographs and pictures to update their social media biography.
Dave was shaken for a moment. He was never used to attention. At least behind the mask of Kis"Shtiengbrah, he could do whatever he wanted, and all would be related to the legendary undead character that shook conquest upside down.
But the burst of attention in real life came too fast for Dave to act. He could only utter incoherent words of thanks and forced smiles to take pictures, all at the expense of Zoe, who was barely holding her laughter at Dave"s predicament.
Soon, the manager came and calmed the horde, asking them to go back and enjoy their food and leave the client to their food. The clients reluctantly complied and went back to their placing, but they still stole several glances at Dave and. He was certain that whatever discussion they had before were now fully turned to discussions about him.
"How do you like it?" Zoe asked.
"The steaks are fine, not too chewy, quite decent," Dave said absentmindedly.
"No, I"m not talking about the food," Zoe smiled, "The fame. What do you think about it?"
"Not gonna lie, a bit scary. I might as well start wearing caps and shades if I go out," Dave ruefully smiled.
"Yes, everything has its price, but don"t worry. It"s only like this on the first days. Afterwards they will calm down." Zoe said.
"Yeah, hopefully," Dave said.
The two continued chatting as they ate their food. After an hour, they left the restaurant while Zoe left a nice tip for the waiter and thanked the manager for their earlier gesture.
The two rode back to Dave"s penthouse, and Zoe stopped the car right in front of the door.
Dave looked up to the highest floor from the street, then turned to Zoe and said," Wanna go up?"
Zoe smiled and said, " I"d love to, but I have to go. I promised dad I"ll be back home early, and it"s already late. Next time," Zoe said.
Dave didn"t take it to heart and smiled back, saying, yeah, next time.
"Oh, right, I forgot. Uncle had finished up with the Webbs."
"That"s fast," Dave replied.
"Yeah. He said that the trial was a piece of cake; the evidence on the Webbs were so concrete that they couldn"t even ask for an appeal. John Webb managed to get out of jail time by bail. But the company is fully under your control now, Davey." Zoe said.
"Holy smokes, your uncle is d.a.m.n scary," Dave said.
"Nah, he is the best. Anyway, tomorrow, he will send you a few doc.u.ments to sign, and you can officially claim the CEO seat of Sigma-Electronics. Oh, by the way, did you decide on a name?" Zoe asked.
"Yeah, I did," Dave said.
"What is it?" Zoe asked.
Dave smiled and replied with one word, "Secret."
Zoe shook her head at Dave and bid him goodbye then left, the usual Zoe way—pedals pressed hard, and wheels smoking on the asphalt.
Dave turned to the hotel and got inside. As he went in, he saw the woman in black from the morning getting on the elevator. Yet somehow, she looked exhausted. Her face looked ten years older.
Dave hurriedly walked in, and she stopped the elevator for him.
"Thanks," Dave said.
The woman kept silent and pressed on her floor number.
After a few seconds, she spoke, "Guess you didn"t need the cologne after all."
Dave snorted a laugh and said, "Yeah. Guess I didn"t. You don"t look alright, you okay?" Dave asked.
The woman sighed and said, "Problems at work, she said." just as she finished her words, the elevator shuddered and stopped.
The lights turned off, and the emergency light went on.
"f.u.c.king perfect!" the woman swore, her elegance and her cool att.i.tude disappeared completely.
Dave didn"t know if he should laugh or get scared.
She pressed on the help b.u.t.ton, and after a moment, a person replied through the speakers on the elevator.
"We"re sorry for the inconvenience. The elevator should be back online soon."
"What"s going on?" the woman asked."
"Some rats bit into the electricity cables, and the whole hotel is without electricity now." The man on the other side said.
"G.o.d d.a.m.n it, I don"t pay 10,000 dollars a month for this kind of c.r.a.p!" the woman swore once again and slumped down.
She sat on the elevator floor, her hand holding her chin and puffed a long sigh.
"Bad day?" Dave said.
"Yeah, s.h.i.+ttiest one yet. At least you got to enjoy your date. I got my a.s.s handed to me this morning, G.o.d d.a.m.n p.r.i.c.ks."
Dave sat down and spoke, "I don"t want to pry, but what happened."
"You wouldn"t understand," the woman said and ignored Dave.
Dave shrugged and kept silent.
But apparently the woman was bothered enough that she spoke on her own, "I just got back from my vacation. All was d.a.m.n good and dandy, and I had a promotion in line. Then suddenly some idiot at the company ruined everything, and we are now going under."
"What do you mean?" Dave asked.
"Total bankruptcy, someone bought our company, and by tomorrow I don"t know if I would keep my job or not. s.h.i.+t, I won"t be able to pay for this demand apartment any longer."
"If a company changes hands, it doesn"t necessarily mean the full layoff of its employees," Dave said.
"Yeah, but like I said, you don"t get it. When you see me what do you see?" She asked.
"I see a woman stuck in an elevator with a random dude she doesn"t know," Dave said, smiling.
His remark made her smirk, and she said, "My name is Ophidia Dian,"
"I"m David Ruster," Dave replied and said, "as to your earlier question. I think I know what you mean." Dave said.
"You do?" She asked.
"Yeah, new employer means you"ll have to start a.s.s-kissing to keep your job. Probably worse."
"HA! Someone finally gets it, and imagine if it"s some old wrinkled perverted f.u.c.k, s.h.i.+t. I hate my life. I won"t mind if this d.a.m.n elevator drops down."
"Hold it there. I"m not a fan of double suicide. Bad image." Dave said, holding both hands in front of him.
"Yeah, right. Your girlfriend won"t like it if she sees you dead with another woman."
"Yeah or stuck with another woman in an elevator,"
Ophidian laughed again and said, "Tomorrow might be my last day at work, still nice to meet you, David Ruster. Hmm, strange, your name sounds familiar." She said.
"It"s a common name," Dave smiled back.
"Right. David Ruster. Seeing we"re gonna be stuck here for a while, tell me, what do you do for a living. I mean to afford living here, and having that fine girl as a girlfriend means you have some buck under you," she said.
"I work in entertainment," he replied.
"Huh, playing the "mysterious" card. Well, doesn"t matter, this might probably be the last day we see each other. Hang on to that girlfriend of yours, heck even your buiz whatever it is. For us woman, it"s either a.s.s-kissing or getting booted,"
"Yeah, real-world sucks."
Ophidian smiled and said, "Yeah, it sucks harder than a Sat.u.r.day night wh.o.r.e."
The two laughed for a while, and then the light went back on.
"Sorry for the trouble, the elevator is back on," the same man from earlier spoke through the elevator speakers.
Ophidia stood up and pressed again on her floor level that was only a couple of stories away.
"Best of luck," Dave said to Ophidia.
"Yeah, thanks. I"ll need it. Otherwise, I"m gonna have to blow someone tomorrow, d.a.m.n I hope it"s not an old dude," Ophidia said in a smile and left Dave alone on the elevator.
Dave shook his head and pressed his floor level. He got inside took a quick shower, and slept for the night.
Dave woke up to his phone ringing. It was from Samuel Silvana.
"Good morning Sam," Dave said.
"Good morning David, you"ll have to come over quickly," Samuel said.
"Where?" Dave asked as he got up from his bed.
"The company, I made a full staff meeting. You"ll need to come here; we have some stuff to do and doc.u.ments to sign. It shouldn"t take you more than half an hour. I called a full staff meeting people are waiting to see their new employer." Sam said.
"Right, I"ll be there in a jiffy," Dave said.
He wore his clothes and went out. He took the elevator down and got all the way to the bottom floor and saw Ophidia waiting outside for a taxi.
Dave felt a bit sad for the woman. She was quite interesting, behind the pretense of appearance hid a person with an amazing personality. Dave likes her kind of people; she was true and honest around even a strange. This gave him a favorable expression on the girl.
A thought crossed Dave"s mind if she was looking for a job. She could probably work for his company. He didn"t want to see a woman like her being abused or molested by as she said before, wrinkled old dudes.
Dave hurriedly walked out, but he was a second too late to speak to her. A taxi had stopped for Ophidia, and she turned to see Dave walking out, she smiled at him and made the "blow-job" gesture then got in.
Dave shook his head. The poor girl was gonna have a terrible day.
Dave called another cab and gave him the address to Sigma-Electronics. He also made a note to himself to help the girl once he is back home.
As Dave rode through the city streets, an electric car caught fire and stopped the circulation. Dave sighed and relaxed back on the backseat. He started a conversation with the driver about random stuff until help came and removed the car from the street easing the vehicles on their way.
After a bit more than half an hour, Dave arrived at the building. He got off and paid the taxi driver with an extra tip for the enjoyable conversation.
He walked through the front door, and the security was about to stop him, but when he realized that it was David Ruster, he backed away and let him in with a smile.
Dave smiled back and asked, "There should be a staff meeting here. You know which floor?" Dave asked.
"Yes, seventh floor is for the meeting. You should go up. Everyone"s been waiting for an hour now," the security man said.
"Right, thanks." Dave smiled, but unlike the man"s advice, he slowly made his way up.
He remembered when Samuel Silvana told him as they went against Conquest"s staff that he had the luxury of time. And the CEO has the right to be late.
Dave got to the right floor and walked through the cubicles with a leisure mood.
The employees working in the cubicles noticed Dave. He was hard to miss. Among everyone who was wearing formal wears, he was dressed casually and looked entirely out of the picture.
Dave ignored most of their gazes as he continued through the cubicles and to the furthest halls. He saw several doors lining the wall and was confused about which of them was the one where the meeting was held.
Dave stopped and went back to one of the cubicles. A young woman was furiously typing some random numbers and letters on her holographic keyboard.
"You know where the staff meeting is?" Dave asked.
The girl didn"t even look at Dave and pointed down the hall where he had just gone through earlier and said, "Third door from the left." Then she resumed typing.
Dave thanked the woman and turned to the door she pointed at.
Dave didn"t nock and opened the door.
A few dozen men and women dressed in suits were sitting along a table. Samuel Silvana was sitting on one of the seats and was relaxed on his chair. When he saw Dave coming he smiled, "Welcome David, you"re here late."
"Yeah, there was an accident-" but Dave"s words were cut short. His eyes met a familiar person that was looking at him in a shocked expression.
Dave grinned, he was also surprised but apparently wasn"t as surprised as the woman, clearly stated by her next words," Holy cow, now that"s a blow-job I wouldn"t mind giving."
All the eyes turned at the woman who just spoke, and as if she just realized that her words were spoked out loud, she slapped both hands over her mouth in shock.
"And here I thought this meeting would be boring. I guess you already know each other," Samuel said. Dave didn"t know if the man was speaking sarcastically or hinting that he was gonna tell on Dave.