Remy
“Okay, Jeffrey. Run me through my schedule for the day,” I looked out my window, pleased with the action going on downstairs. The materials I needed for my new project had just arrived all the way from Vietnam. I saw Jeffrey fiddling with his glasses in his reflection and wondered how he was still nervous around me after almost three years of working with me. He was the only assistant who had ever lasted that long.
Maybe it was because of the rumours going on about me in the tabloids. People were speculating that I could be gay because to them, why else was the most eligible bachelor in Trinity, North Carolina still single? Even my half-brother whom I could not stand was married to his childhood friend, Marie.
“Jeffrey. Schedule. Now.”
“Yes, yes, sir!” he bobbed his head like a mechanical doll and flipped through the notepad in his hands. I bought him a tablet for that same purpose but he rarely used it, preferring to scribble in his notebook like a spider.
“By noon, sir, you have a meeting with Mr Matthew Dummel. It’s about that bank issue, sir.”
Yeah, that. It was nice to know that soon, I would be driving by the new signpost near that bank. It would no longer say LiteBank but Lite & Palmer Bank. They had been unable to pay back the loan I had granted them a year ago so according to the contract their representative signed, I now owned two-thirds of the bank.
“By two pm, you have a media interview with a journalist from Carrick News and—”
“Wait,” I held up a hand, briefly researching Carrick News. They were legit, I discovered and not related to any of those sleazy tabloids. “Is the journalist male or female?”
Jeffrey was silent until I turned around to face him. “It’s a woman, sir but —”
“Call Robert and have him speak with her instead when she gets here.” Robert Schalke was my media personnel and knew just how to handle my publicity issues. “Next.”
“Okay, sir. I’ll call Robert immediately I get downstairs. You have a movie opening to grace at 4pm,” he squinted at the paper through his glasses. “You promised Miss Zoe that you would be there for the red carpet photos.”
I didn’t exactly promise her I would be there. Zoe was the friend of one of my business partners and I had met her at a dinner party. She was well traveled yet still preserved her refreshing Southern accent. But I knew that she had her eyes on my billions instead and would probably kill to get my ring on her finger.
“Send her some flowers from me and make sure to add a note, expressing my deepest regrets. I will not be attending the opening night.”
“What should I write in the note, sir?” Sometimes, Jeffrey could so clueless for a man of his age and experience.
“Come up with something creative but don’t be too sappy. I'm not sappy. Next.
Jeffrey nodded again, jotting down my instructions quickly. I leaned off the big ass window and returned to my swivel chair. It was a good thing I had done that ahead of the news Jeffrey was about to drop.
“You have dinner by six at the mansion with your parents.”
I stopped spinning my ballpoint pen suddenly and it flew across the room. Jeffrey went to fetch it while I digested the information he had just dropped. I was having dinner with my parents?
“How am I just finding out about this dinner?” I raised my voice without meaning to and Jeffrey shrank into his suit out of fear. He was so slim that his jacket barely hung on his scrawny shoulders and his blonde hair was like a bleached mop.
“Y-you asked me to put it on your schedule for this week, sir. Last week, you paid a visit to your father in his company, remember? When he asked when next he and your mother would be seeing you, you asked me to pen it down in your schedule.”
“I didn’t mean it!” Gosh, what was wrong with Jeffrey? “I just said that to get him off my back, you dolt!”
By that time, Jeffrey was shaking like a leaf exposed to winter, sweating profusely although he was surrounded by air conditioning.
“I am so s-sorry, sir. I. . .I didn't know. . .I thought —”
“Call me when it's fifteen minutes before noon. Other than that, get out of my office!”
***
“Who is this and what do you want?”I said into my phone, the device pressed against my ear. It had been ringing for a while now and the only reason I did not take the call earlier was because I did not know who the caller was. The number was unknown and I did not have time for con men. However, the caller was insistent, forcing me to take the call in the end.
“It’s me, Daniel,” the caller whispered in a low voice and I wanted to smash my phone against the wall. I should have known that it would be Daniel Otis. Only my best friend knew my number by heart and would call at a time he knew I was very busy. He always said he had immunity because we were friends but I was not sure about that anymore.
I saved the file I was proofreading on my laptop and walked to the window in my office. There was no use looking down because I knew what I would see. Besides, I had only stood up because I wanted to move around. I had been sitting at my desk for hours and my assistant, Jeffrey regarded it as a dangerous habit to my spine.
“Remy, are you there?”
“Yes, I am. What do you want? I am kind of busy with work and you know better than to call me when I am at work.“
“Remy. . .” he whined and I could almost see that stupid pout forming on his lips. “But I really need your help. I’m in big trouble.“
Of course because Daniel Otis did not know how to get himself into little trouble. Didn't he know that I had my own problems to solve? I pinched the bridge of my nose, kicking out my legs to stretch them out. Something in my lower back reset and the relief made me moan unexpectedly into the phone.
“Woah, Remy. Are you. . .do you have company? Because I can let you be if you do. I mean, I—”
“Shut up, Otis. I don’t have company so get your head out of the gutters. Look, I don't have time for you. I have my own problems as it is.”
I heard a crashing sound on the other side of the phone and Daniel swore under his breath. Now I was getting worried.
“Daniel, where exactly are you?”
“I told you. I'm in some trouble. So I took this girl to a hotel after a party and we fucked like bunnies. Now, it's morning and I wake up to find her gone. I wasn't bothered until I found out that she took my wallet too. She's got everything: my cash, my credit cards, my phone, all my shit, man. I am calling you from the room phone because if I can't find a way to pay, the hotel manager is threatening to splash my pictures all over the web.”
The manager was definitely bluffing but an airhead like Daniel would not realize. How did I even end up with an idiot like him as a friend? Daniel and I had nothing in common. Sure, we both came from wealthy homes but that was where our similarities ended. He was childish, impulsive and extravagant while I tried to uphold my family name at all cost.
“You said you have problems, right? Okay, so why don't you help me and I'll see how I can help you?”
Daniel was a playboy but he knew how to break the ice in social gatherings. He could be of help during my dinner with my parents.
“Deal. Send me the name and location of the hotel you’re in.”
