ALWAYS AND FOREVER

Cross PovConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Sir,”

“Yes?”

“You have a dinner party with the executives this evening, Mr. Andrew’s party, it is already past six pm, I was wondering if you forgot, you have to be there by at least seven pm, the party starts at six pm which means you are already running late,”

“Oh, my bad, I did forget, I didn’t even remember it was today, thanks for reminding, could you get me a change of clothes while I freshen up?”

“Sure sir,”

She said and left, I quickly drop the file I had been working on and closed my laptop, moving over to the restroom in my office, I took a cold shower, by the time I was done, she was back with the clothes I needed for the party, it was more of a small get together and meet up, like I hoped she made the best choice, not to brag, I had a whole ass wardrobe in my office and it comes in handy in times like this when I forget an important event, not like this was really important, it was just the executives, I would give anything not to be there, but sadly I had to.

“You can go home, I will go alone,”

I told my assistant, sometimes she comes with me and sits and wait until I am done but I didn’t want her to go through that stress again.

“Yes, sir,”

“Alright, thank you, goodnight,”

I said as I made my way out of the office.

I don’t fancy meeting with executives, they are just a bunch of old ass men eating off my hard works, but they were already shareholders even before I entered high school, some were there before I was born, so I had to respect them although they gave me many reasons to dislike them, I have never missed out a dinner meeting with them, except the one they did when I was in Arizona, for my wedding, some of them did show up for my wedding, those men, they never show up for shareholders meeting in the office and expecting me to brief them on what’s up with the company at each meeting if not that, they want me to meet up with their marriage-age daughters and I have turned down quite a few.

The last time I had a meet up with the executives, was about eight months ago and one of the old men had talked about hooking me up with his daughter, the said daughter was a model who was on the news almost every week for the wrong reasons and I had politely but firmly said no to his offer if my dad would only let me buy off the shares they have, but my old man valued loyalty, I already know they were going to bug me about going ahead to get married after turning down their many offers and I am just gonna tell them to have it out with my dad because I married the lady they choose.

Every time, one of the men throw a party and they are all invited including me, they call themselves the elites and since my dad was more or less one of them, I had to be dragged along because he couldn’t make it, the first few parties had been hellish but I got used to it real quick, now going to such parties, I already had a pattern, I go there, throw a few toasts, tell them how the company is doing and excuse myself, I didn’t want to go to today’s party one because I didn’t tell Katherine I will be going somewhere and two because I wasn’t feeling good about it, but I had no choice, it would be disrespectful to decline, according to my dad, he holds the men on such high regards that I wonder why they fall so short of my expectations.

I made my way to my car, dialing Katherine’s number, but like always the crazy woman didn’t pick up, she had the habit of not taking her calls, even when I have told her a hell of a lot of times to keep her phone close to her, it was only after six and she would not be asleep yet so that she is not picking will be either she is studying or watching a movie with her phone abandoned somewhere.

I called her cell a few more times before giving up, I am going to give her an ear full when I get home later.

I entered the hotel and went straight up to where the dinner usually takes places when Andrew is hosting, I have been here so much the past ten years that the hotel management and staffs were familiar with me, of course, it was a five-star hotel, these men would do nothing less, the dinner party was more like a gathering to show off just how much money they have made over each other, not like some kind of friendly get together, they call themselves friends but I don’t see them like that, they were more like rivals disguised as friends.

I wish I could turn it down but even though I am the head here my dad still owned the company, if he says they stay then they stay, I honestly wanna leave my own life sometimes, be like Max, who doesn’t care about the family’s business, but I couldn’t, I already chose to carry this cross and I have to carry it to the end when my dad had asked me if I could take over the running of the New York branch, he had given me enough time to think about it, I had only been twenty then and freshly out of business school, but when they break up with Ginna had happened I took the offer and ran to New York to restart life.

“Gentlemen,”

I greeted when I entered, they all stopped talking to welcome me, we exchanged greetings, there was something different about today, there were younger people, about four of them, I know two, one was the son of Gary who is one of our biggest holders and the other is son in-law of Jonas, who is currently the managing director of his father’s company like me, I have met him a couple of times but I can’t say we are friends because I didn’t like people like him, who was too arrogant and noisey for my liking, but I do say hi to him when we meet, I didn’t get why he was here though, because his father in-law was the one I had business with, he didn’t work for his father in-law, he came from an elite family and was the sole heir which made even more arrogant, the last time I had seen him, he was been thrown out if the club for molesting a lady, he was a flirt even though he had a wife and kids, another reason I disliked him.

Anyway, the other two men in the room were faces I haven’t seen before and they both look about my age.

“We thought you weren’t going to show up today,”

Gary said, he looked drunk already, the long table was filled with different expensive drinks that if when sold would feed a family of ten throughout their life, did I forget to mention the dinner party wasn’t necessarily a dinner party but drinking gets together, these men had money and don’t think twice before spending, I may have been born into wealth but dad thought me how to value money which none of the men here had, I wondered how my dad got close to them but then, according they put a lot of money when he started the company, my dad was different from them, a lot different, apart from the four younger guys the others were well over fifty, some in their late sixties yet they partied like they were teenagers, I had no right to judge their lifestyle but they give me no reason to.

After exchanging greetings, we talked about business, they praised the way I have been handling the company and how far I have brought it and talked about my marriage which they said was a disappointment since according it would have been better if my dad had let me marry one of their daughters, I just laughed it off. I got to know who the other two young men were they were new billionaires who were mixing up with the old money to seal up their state as billionaires, funny right? Yeah, I found it funny too, like why would they choose to mingle with these men, when I am looking for ways to stop seeing them.

“Okay, gentlemen, the main highlights of today’s event just arrived,”

Andrew announced and I wondered what that might be, looking around, I was shocked when a punch of ladies entered, okay that’s new, we have never had ladies around during these parties so why the sudden change.

“Gary? What’s going?”

I asked Gary who was sitting closest to me.

“This is for you Cross since you are now off the market and have to stick to one woman, we thought we might help you get off tonight with a change, you know eating one particular food can be boring,”

He said and I couldn’t believe my ears, I looked around and the ladies were all young women in the twenties or early thirties, I looked away in disgust before looking back again, the lady in black looked familiar, no, there is no way it would be her, no, it can never be. “Ginna?”

I called getting up from my sitting, she looked at me before looking away, I doubt if it were her but there was no way I would miss her up with someone else, even though she looked more mature and had on heavy makeup, could still recognize her.

She sat with Andrew who placed his hands on her lap, I saw red and wanted to go over there and punch him hard but then I remembered Ginna wasn’t mine anymore, in fact, she hasn’t been mine for a long long time, I took the drink that had been sitting in front of me and downed it, I filled the glass again and drank it all, before long I was in my fourth and then fifth, one of the ladies sat close to me and placed her hands on my laps, I removed it and gave her a disgusted look, she shifted away and threw her attention to the other young man whose name I had forgotten, I downed a couple of glasses more, I needed to stop, but watching Andrew play with Ginna made me sick, what happened to her? How did she become a hooker, I have imagined her in different scenarios but never once as a hooker, she had been going off to college when we last saw each other so why was she here now as a call girl.

“I see you got your eyes on that one,”

Gary said to me pointing at Ginna, I realized then that I have been looking at her, I looked away and shook my head no.

“I need to leave Gary, it was nice meeting with you guys,”

I said, drank the drink in my glass, and stood up to leave.

“No, no, you are in no condition to drive, you are drunk, and you can’t leave all these beautiful ladies, we prepared a room here for you, you can rest there,”

Andrew said.

“How do you want him to stay when you got the girl he wants,”

Gary put in.

“No, I don’t want her, I just want to go home, you guys can have all of them,”

I said.

“Alright, you can have her,”

I heard Andrew say but my head was spinning, I remembered I hadn’t eaten since breakfast which was over twelve hours ago, drinking on an empty stomach bad idea, the room was spinning and all I remembered was the men talking about me going to a room.

I woke up the next morning to a banging headache.

“Katherine, could you get me water?”

I asked, with my eyes still close, I tried to reach out for her but she wasn’t there, maybe she was already awake.

“Whoever Katherine is, she is not here,”

A voice that didn’t belong to Katherine but which I knew since it has been engraved in my heart for so long said.

I opened my eyes and she sat there just staring at me.

“Ginna? Why are you in my room?”