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CHAPTER 5

CHLOE DUARTE

I must admit, the son of a bitch can handle himself.

“That is very interesting!”

“If you know and understand wines, why did you waste my time explaining my suggestion?”, I hear a gasp and turn my head watching Jack cough as he finishes drinking a glass of water that was on the table.

“It is not a waste of time to hear new ideas, miss...”, he leans back into his chair, and we continue to face each other as in a duel.

I understand the enormous tension that emanates from Jack's body, James is very intimidating.

“Would you like me to change something?”, Jack finally pronounces nervous.

“Yes, consider Miss Duarte's suggestions...”

Feeling immense pride in myself I see him get up when his cell phone rings.

“Check the event reservations, close the budget, and make sure everything is as it should be, I also need you to contact Richard from Forbes and confirm our meeting for this afternoon.”, He asks Jack to wave obediently.

I watch him walk to the exit with firm and elegant steps, I get up behind him to also leave the room, but I am intrigued when the scent of his perfume reaches my nostrils.

That smell...sounds strangely familiar.

“Thank you for the suggestions, Miss Duarte...”, I nod my head watching him disappear into the immense corridor.

Before leaving the room, letting out a long sigh of relief from the intimidating James Colucci's exit, Jack turns off the projector from the panel and makes some notes.

“Mr. Michel, I am sorry to intrude and ruin your presentation in the presence of Mr. Colucci”, I take this opportunity to apologize to us for my behavior.

He fixes his glasses and raises his head to face me with a soft expression on his face.

“You didn't ruin anything, you just saved me from a major catastrophe.”

“What do you mean?”, I wonder.

“Organizing event menus is not my job if you haven't noticed, so you saved me by correcting the choice of wine, or Mr. Colucci would kill me if there was something wrong on the night of the benefit ball He smiles in shame.”

“Is there no one to take care of these kinds of preparations?”

“There was, it was the personal assistant of Mr. Colucci who kept that part, but unfortunately she resigned last week, so it was left to me...”

I'm tempted to ask why the woman quit, but I don't ask for fear of intruding further, but it must be for personal reasons since anyone would kill to work in a position like that.

Or maybe she couldn't handle working for Mr. Colucci.

“If you need, I can redo the menu accordingly, if it is to help you...”, I propose wanting to help since I caused a part of this problem.

“It's tempting, but that's not your job in the company, Miss Duarte.”

“No problem, I'm passionate about cooking that would do it smiling.”

He smiles at me lowering his glasses in thanks.

“Well, that would be lovely of you, it would help me a lot. But the problem is that the deadline for organizing all this is tomorrow.”

“I can! If I can, I can send you everything today.”, I propose smiling.

“Thank you very much, miss!”, he thanks smiling, I do the same thing and leave the room, leaving for my floor to do my work.

When I sit at my desk, I see Matt stretch his neck to look at me with a stupid smile on his face.

“What is it now?”, I ask leaving the folder near my bag, so I don't end up forgetting it at the end of the day.

“Little red riding hood got lost in the woods, and found a big bad wolf, princess?”

Again, with the big bad wolf?

Matt's dark, prying eyes fixate on the briefcase I was supposed to deliver, but before he can open his mouth to ask, Sam appears smiling.

“I just got out of a meeting with Adam, are we having lunch today?”

“Sure, Sam!”, I answer.

“Are you okay?”, She asks me, but Matt answers.

“Of course, it is, Chloe went for a walk in Colucci's lair…”, I took a pencil and Miro on her head.

“What?”, Sam widens his eyes and pushes Matt to be able to sit in his chair to get right in front of me.

“Yeah, she's still in shock from meeting Colucci's old man personally”, Matt says smiling, but I deny it with his head.

“None of this, he is not old, I think he has very a few years more than us.”, I tell the truth remembering how surprised I was to discover that the mighty James Colucci is young.

“Wait! Are you saying that billionaire James Colucci, the big fucking boss, is not some wrinkled old man who likes to look at the employees' asses?”, Matt asks with a shocked expression, I nod in agreement.

“Lie! How did all this happen and how is he?”, Sam asks wide-eyed.

“When I got here, Adam asked me for a favor, asked me to give this briefcase to Jack, but when I walked into the meeting room on the top floor there was another handsome man with him, but worst of all was that I committed a lot of stupid things in front of the boss and I'm surprised that my resignation has not yet come.”, Sigh of relief.

“What do you mean "did a lot of stupid things"?”, she asks inquisitively but gets up quickly when she sees Adam coming towards our department.

“Meet you in half an hour at the restaurant on the corner, you need to tell us the rest of this story young lady...”, says in a low tone pointing an accusatory finger in my direction which tears me a smile before she leaves us.

“I am very sad, princess…”, I raise my eyebrows I do not understand the meaning of my friend's phrase.

What?

“I am sad that you have found a guy who has left you more delighted than me...”, explains by blinking the long eyelashes that make a beautiful contrast with the rebellious strands of his brown hair.

“I'm not enchanted by anyone!”, I hit the offensive pretending to pay attention to my computer screen.

“I am sorry to inform you that yes, you are behaving strangely, and your eyes are almost blinding me with so much brightness!”

“It is that he is very intimidating...”, I say in a low tone.

“Is that all he is?”, Snitching on his shoulder before returning to work on the project in the cheerful company of my annoying best friend.

Half an hour later, we met at our favorite restaurant for lunch, of course, I can not eat or chew right since soon I am bombarded by Sam's questions.

“Come on, count it! Is Mr. Colucci that handsome?”

“You're the one who should know since you work at the front desk, a place where everyone goes, maybe you've seen it and forgotten.”, I say drinking my orange juice.

“Impossible! I'd remember a hot billionaire who owns the company I work for, but they say he gets there before everyone else, and he's always the last to leave the company at the end of the day.”

“Chloe, come on! Describe the man to me!”, I roll my eyes smiling before I start counting:

“Very tall, black hair cut and well aligned, blue eyes that seem to hypnotize you, never seen blue eyes like his before, his presence emanates pure authority and intimidation, not to mention that he is arrogant and likes to play with his emotions...”, angry snitch remembering James having fun with my nervousness in his presence.

“Shit, dark and blue-eyed, the guy must be pretty hot, right?”, I nod smiling as she jumps on the bouncy chair.

“Do you like to play with emotions? The guy did or said something that upset you, princess?”, Matt asks seriously and with a rigid and protective posture.

“No! He was polite, but he likes a challenge, I said things I shouldn't have said, and he only hit in the same measure.”

“Cursed him?”, Sam asks holding a laugh but denies it again.

“I got myself into a situation that I have nothing to do with and practically threw in his face that the lives of children with cancer were of no importance to him...”, I feel bad just remembering my words in that meeting room.

“Wow! I'm surprised the guy didn't fire you, princess...”, Matt comments chewing his meal.

“Yeah, he said I was wrong because he's been through the same pain and suffering as those children who are in the hospital...”

I tell the story from the beginning and very detail for total happiness of Samantha, at the end of our lunch hour, we return to our posts and focus on finishing the project.

I breathe relief when I finally get home after a long and exhausting day, I put the heavy paste on the kitchen counter very thoughtfully.

Before diving headlong into the menu project, I go to my mini cellar and serve myself a glass of white wine, take a sip of the drink before sitting on the couch with the folder in my lap.

I stretch my head seeing Mia sleeping serenely in her walk in the corner of the sofa, I realize that tonight unfortunately I will not have time to write and post a new chapter of my story.

I take another long sip of wine before leaving the glass on the coffee table, redo my bun by holding my hair high, remove my heels, and start flipping through the leaves realizing that I will have to redo almost everything on this menu.

When my eyes land on the name of the wine Jack chose, I remember the enigmatic blue eyes of Mr. Colucci, my God! What does this man have?

The worst part is that the bastard has everything a woman dreams of finding in a man...

Maybe his reason for being so reserved has to do with his past, I remember well hearing him mention that he had the same disease as those children in childhood.

I try to keep my thoughts about the boss out of my mind, focusing only on the project I have a few hours to finish.

Such adjustments in the menu are finished at four and a half in the morning, I forced myself to swallow liters of pure coffee to try the most not to fall asleep a project for which I showed so much interest, Or I could get another reason for Mr. Colucci to kill me if there was a glitch at the company's benefit.

Sigh of relief and fatigue when I send the menu properly revised to Mr. Michael who thanks in moments after sending it, my god, this man does not sleep, does he dedicate his life to work?

I leave this doubt there and run to take a shower and lie down before the alarm clock of the cell phone rings six in the morning, I have very few hours of sleep, and I'm sure that tomorrow I will be bad and with dark and deep dark circles, that will be the reason Matt's been pissing me off all day.

But when I lay my head on the pillow, a proud smile rises on my lips, it was worth the effort I had to face my superior, it was worth it because I had the wonderful chance to demonstrate and use my gastronomic knowledge in something.

When I hear the alarm clock ringing about the time, swearing in several different languages, I swear even since I am fluent in some languages, in addition to my maternal Portuguese, perfectly mastered English, French, and Italian. My family never had a very good financial condition, but I was always studious and used the few resources I had in my favor.

And I managed to fulfill my dreams, I sacrificed leaving all my family in Brazil to move to the United States where I entered and attended a renowned university where I won a scholarship.

Despite the work, I try to keep as much contact with my parents in Brazil, of course sometimes the longing is so much that makes me want to get on a plane and return to my maternal country, but I can not, I'm built part of my life here too.

When I lock the door to my apartment, I make sure I have taken my purse and cell phone before leaving for work, and as always, around eight o'clock in the morning, the streets and sidewalks of New York are fully crowded by drivers and hurried pedestrians.

Unfortunately, during my first month working at Colucci, I was surprised by a robbery when I left the Company, but nothing happened since Matt showed up and taught the bastard a lesson.

In addition to being a very annoying partner at work, Matt has been practicing Krav Maga since his adolescence and today is a teacher of the same martial art on weekends in a gym, I think it's very cool to defend himself, he even proposed to give some classes, but I have no vocation for it.

Half an hour later, I pass by the company hall where I see my best friend sitting working her function at the front desk.

“Good morning”, she makes a face when she sees the fatigue and few hours of sleep stamped on my face and dark circles that I tried to disguise with a concealer, but the face of my friend I see did not work very well.

“I know, I'm done! But I managed to send the whole menu to Jack within the deadline…”, I drag myself to a coffee maker that is in the reception and fill a cup of coffee.

“A long night's sleep solves your problem friend, at least yours has an easy solution...”, she grumbles straightening the blonde strands of a high bun.

“What happened now?”, I ask drinking a sip of coffee and approaching the counter.

“I made an appointment with a guy last night, the son of a bitch was handsome and very sexy, but when things got hot, everything went south…”, she snorts.

“He gave up?”, I ask trying to guess the problem.

“No! The guy was on fire, but I sent him away after he said he was into things...”

“What things?”

“I thought ass slapping was normal in sex, but I realized there was something wrong when he asked if he could tie me to the bed, I almost accepted it since some men have this kind of fetish, but I jumped out when I saw that he took a whip and other scary gadgets from inside the bag...”, the coffee goes down the wrong place and a wave of cough invades be accompanied by a loud laugh.

“Was he into sadomasochism?”, I ask trying to stop laughing.

“That was a sadist! How is it that people like that? Wow, you had to see the appearance of the whip, not to mention that he took a business this size from inside the bag, I said: No fucking way you're going to stick this in me, you pervert”, she measures the length of almost twenty centimeters with her hands increasing my laugh.

“Maybe he was kind of Christian Grey, you'd be strolling inside an Aston Martin right now if you'd take the whips and the giant rubber penis!”, Mocking him with a laugh.

“Believe me, Chloe, he was handsome, but he wouldn't stand at the feet of a Christian Grey, if only he came, I would accept the whip and the other things...”, she raises her eyebrows in a dirty expression.

I'm about to laugh again, but I bite my lip when I see Sam snort in disguise as I look behind me, I don't need to turn around to find that Camily's cow is nearby, her sickening scent sounds like a warning.

“Miss Duarte, your shift started a few minutes ago, you should be working and not disturbing the work of the other employees...”, I roll my eyes and turn around meeting the cow in person.

“Thanks for the warning, Miss Sparke, but I'm aware of that and I was already on my way to my floor.”, I murmur coldly hearing Sam's laugh behind me.

The slut looks at me with a disgusted expression, shows off the melons she carries glued to her bust and makes sure to show them off with a tight and open shirt.

“It is better to be very careful with the words you say to your superiors Miss Duarte, not everyone has the patience of Mr. Colucci...”, she completes with a wicked smile on her face full of Botox.

How does she know that?

I take a deep breath trying to keep control because I'm sure she wouldn't hesitate to ask Adam to fire me for just retorting since she's hated me since I joined this company.

I'm about to fake submission, but an authoritative voice prevents me:

“Is there a problem here?”, Adam appears next to us and faces us.

“No dear, I was just warning Miss Duarte to avoid as much as possible late at work…”, she says with a mellow voice passing her arm around Adam who starts to look at me.

I'm only a few minutes late! Five minutes to be exact, damn it!

“Sorry Mr. Smith, it won't happen again!”, I ask him to treat him formally before this cow thinks we're close, he thinks the same thing since he also treats me the same way.

“No problem, Miss Duarte, I owed you a favor about yesterday, so I won't scold you this time.”, I nod thanking them watching them distance themselves.

“I heard that you impressed Colucci with your performance yesterday, congratulations!”, he says smiling before entering the elevator.

Performance? Oh, shit!

Even he knows that I defied and ended up insulting the boss himself?

Two minutes later I'm at my desk on the fifteenth floor, and I snitch when I realize that even Matt didn't arrive, and the bitch is scolding me for a few minutes late, and he's up half an hour late and she says nothing.

I turn on the computer and enter the email seeing that we have one more project to start and with the deadline shorter than the other, I decide to start without Matt that for my unhappiness has not yet arrived.

“Do want to do my part too?”, Angry snitch hearing Matt whisper in my ear.

“Why did you arrive late? We have one more project to work on and the deadline is too short!”, exaggeration bearing a smile.

“Why are you like this? Oh, wait! It's in those days, isn't it? There should be a sign where women would put: Danger! Don't come near, I'm in PMS...”, I throw a rubber on his head as he sits on his desk laughing.

“Okay, why are you like that, princess?”, He's serious about using his cautious tone with me.

“Why does that woman hate me so much? I never did anything to her!”, I grumble angrily.

“Who? Camily?”, I nod positively watching my friend pull his chair close to mine and say in a loving tone:

“Because she is jealous of you, princess!”, he says as if it were obvious, but I laugh ironically.

“Envy? That slut has a deadly hatred for me for no reason...”

“Yes, because she envies you, and don't tell me that there's no reason for that because I know you very well, never looked in the princess mirror?”

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