CHAPTER 6: MORNING MEETING
Gina POV
Beep… beep …. Beep… my alarm clock goes off. I slam the snooze button and it almost falls on the floor. The time now is 6 am. "Nice. I only had about 3 hours of sleep and my head is pounding." I say to myself as I grab my head. I rarely wake up with a headache. Usually, that would only happen if I had gone out with Glenda the previous night to party. Not when a ghost wakes me up at 2 am.
After I woke up the second time, I struggled to fall back to sleep. I kept thinking about this ghost and what it wants exactly. I was also waiting to hear when it would make its next move but nothing happened and so eventually I was able to fall asleep again.
I get up and walk to the bathroom to do my morning routine then I get dressed and head downstairs to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. Usually, I make some breakfast as well but I won't be able to do that because I have a meeting at 8 am and I still have to go and check up on Tatiana.
I sit at my table and I drink my coffee while I quickly go through my emails. I see that the construction company that I am supposed to meet in LA had emailed me to ask if we could move up the meeting to this weekend. "Perfect timing. I will have to tell Glenda to make the arrangements then." I say. After I had my morning coffee I grab my purse and my laptop bag and I head out.
Stopping by the safehouse I see that Dax is already there. He had just climbed out of his car. "Morning boss. Whoa, you look like you had a rough night." Dax says as he looks at me. "Morning Dax. Yeah, I just couldn't sleep." I say as Dax and I walk up to the door. Sam opens the door for us. He must have heard us drive up.
"Morning boss. Mrs. Martins is still up in her room." Sam says and I nod at him before I head up the stairs. Tatiana had just finished getting dressed when I walked inside. "Hey, girl. How are you doing?" I ask her as I hug her. "I am fine Gina. I had a good night's rest for the first time in a long time. I didn't worry about him coming home drunk in the middle of the night and waking me up just to beat me." Tatiana says.
"I am glad about that. At least now you have peace of mind knowing that he is no longer in your life." I say to her. "I will get peace once he signs the divorce papers." Tatiana says. "Yes but first we need to get him behind bars. That is the most important thing. Also if you don't have a lawyer in mind yet then I can help you there as well. I know an excellent divorce lawyer." I tell and she nods at me.
"Anyway I have to go because I have a meeting at 8 am but I'll be back later okay. A doctor will come by later to check up on you okay." I tell her. "Thank you Gina." She says. "Oh don't thank me. I am glad that you walked back into my life and I promise I will help in any way that I can." I say to her.
"See ya." I say as I leave the room. Dax is in the kitchen making some breakfast for Tatiana. Joey and Sam had already left and they will be back later. "Call Dr. Stevens and ask him if he could come by later to treat Tatiana's wounds." I tell him. "You got it boss." He replies and I nod at him.
I get back in my car and I drive over to Rossi Designs. Our building is right in the middle of the city. It's already 20 minutes to 8 when I pull into my underground parking spot. I take the elevator up to the top floor where my office is. Glenda is already waiting in my office with my Starbucks breakfast. I had already texted her to arrange breakfast for me before I left the safehouse.
"Oh, you look bad. Did you have a rough night?" She asks me. Yeah, I know that I am not wearing makeup because I did not have time to put it on this morning. "Sort off. Lack of sleep is more like it." I reply. "Let me guess. You went out to a club, you met a guy and you went home with him? Am I right?" She says. She reaches into my desk drawer and she takes out the makeup bag that I keep in there in case I need it.
"Yes I did go to a club last night but it was not to party. I was spying on the new customer's husband. But that is not what kept me up all night." I say to her. "Oh no what happened?" She asks me.
"A ghost woke me up last night." I say as I look at her. "Twice I might add." I start eating the breakfast burger that she had gotten for me. "Really? Tell me more." Glenda says as she pulls a chair in front of me. She loves it when I tell her about the experiences I have with ghosts. She says it fascinates her and she wishes that she had the gift as well.
"The first time it woke me up I found one of my books on the floor and also my favorite vase was also thrown off my table. After I cleaned up the mess I went back to bed and I think about an hour later, I heard a screaming sound in my room. That was the second time the ghost or entity or whatever it was had woke me up." I tell her as I throw the empty brown bag in the trash along.
"Has that happened before? You know the ghost screaming and waking you up in the middle of the night?" Glenda asks. "No, and that's not the only thing. I asked it to show itself but nothing happened." I say. Glenda starts putting some makeup on my face.
"Okay, maybe it just couldn't do that. Maybe it will show itself to you one day." Glenda says. "Yeah well, I hope it is soon." I say.
Glenda is the only person that knows about my gift. She calls me the ghost whisperer.
She finishes doing my makeup. "There now you are set for the meeting with Walters Bridal Boutiques." She says as she puts everything away. I grab all of the documents that I would need for this meeting.
"The construction company in LA had emailed me this morning and asked if we could move up the meeting to this weekend instead of next weekend. I need you to email them back and say yes and I also need you to make the necessary living arrangements with the hotel. I will be in LA up until Tuesday and from there I will fly to Paris for the fashion week. Also, call Pavlo and set up a meeting with him as well." I say to her as I walk to the door. Glenda writes everything down on her notepad.
It is 5 minutes to 8 when I walk into our conference room. Glenda had already set up everything that we would need in there so now I just need to wait for my clients to come. My company is expanding into bridal wear, we have been selling our bridal dresses online and the meeting today is with a huge bridal company that is interested in signing a contract with us. After that, we will be selling our bridal and bridesmaid dresses in their stores worldwide.
Glenda knocks on the door. "Your 8 o'clock is here. Should I let them in?" She asks and I nod at her. She comes back a few seconds later with two women. "Welcome Mrs. Walters. I am Gina Rossi and I am the owner of Rossi Designs. I am so glad that you could meet with us today." I greet the older-looking woman. The other one looks way younger than her so presume that she is her assistant. "Wow, I didn't think that the CEO of such a large company is so young. You have an amazing talent, Miss Rossi. I'm glad that you could meet with us on such short notice." Mrs. Walters of Walters Bridal Boutiques says. "This is my assistant Gloria." She says as she introduces Gloria to me.
"Shall we get started?" I ask her and she nods at me. It took us about an hour to go through the whole contract. She was happy with everything that we had discussed and what my company had to offer so we both signed on the dotted lines. "You design your own clothes for your company right?" She asks me and I nod at her. "Yes, I do. I design each item myself. I have a team that helps me make them and I make sure that all of our items are in great condition before we ship them off to the buyers." I say.
"Well, I look forward to doing business with you Miss Rossi. You take care now." Mrs. Walters says as she leaves the conference room. I walk back to my office to start doing some other work and Glenda comes walking back in. "Your meeting with the construction company is set for 10 am on Saturday. I have scheduled your flight for tomorrow evening and you will be staying at the Freemont hotel. I also arranged a rental car for you." Glenda says.
"Thank you Glenda." I reply. "Also I called Pavlo and he said that he would like to meet you at this address." Glenda says as she hands me a piece of paper with the address written on it. "You know Pavlo is acting weird. He called me and asked me if I would help him with some case." I say.
"That's weird. Why would he do that?" Glenda asks.
"I don't know. I guess I will find out on Saturday." I reply. Glenda leaves my office to go and do her work. I spend the next few hours creating some designs for my new line that will be launched in the summer when Glenda walks back into my office with a brown bag in her hand. "I thought that you would like some lunch." She says as she puts the bag down on the coffee table.
I look at the time on my wristwatch and I see that it is already past 1 in the afternoon. "What would I do without you?" I ask her as I join her at the table. "You would live a boring life." She says as she walks over to the mini-fridge and she gets us both a glass of juice. "I got Tatiana's resume. Want to tell me why you are offering her a job here?" Glenda asks. "Because she is in desperate need of a new job and also I had to put her in the safehouse for now until we deal with that asshole of a husband of hers." I say.
"Wow is it that bad?" Glenda asks me. "Yeah, it's that bad. And you know what?" I ask. "What?" She asks me.
"Tatiana was one of my friends in high school." I tell her. "No way!" Glenda responds. "Yes, way. I didn't even recognize her until I met her at the restaurant last night. She looked so different now because of the abuse she went through with that asshole. He ruined her." I say.
"Oh, I know exactly the type of man that you are talking about. Remember my mom went through the same shit with my drunk of a father. Luckily Peter is nothing like that." Glenda says. An idea pops into my head when she mentions Peter's name.
"Peter is a divorce lawyer right?"
While Gina and Glenda are having lunch, the unidentifiable figure is back and watching them from the corner of the office.