Chapter Two

Maxwell hated how many things had gone wrong that Monday morning. First his driver had called in sick, and he found himself driving through the irritating morning traffic. Then his ever efficient assistant, Anna, had badly messed up his schedules and appointments, mumbling apologies between the misunderstandings that followed with his clients arriving. Her usual calm and confident demeanour was gone and Maxwell knew something was terribly wrong with her. So, he had given her the day off.

Now he sat in his office, looking at files, checking documents and making the occasional phone call and sending mail to some people. Already he had made the call to HR to have a new driver sent up when he was ready to close from work and possibly have a standby P.A. His hand paused on the keyboard as his mobile phone rang. A curse escaped his lips. He didn't want to talk to anyone at this time, particularly not with his mood. Suddenly, he wished he hadn't sent Anna home, at least she would have been the one to screen his calls and take messages for him. Which wasn’t much of a problem he thought. Only family and close friends had his personal line.

He glanced at the screen and calmed down as he picked it and at the voice that followed. “Anna.”

“Grandpa.”

“Should it be a good thing or a bad one, that today you are answering your phone?” The deep voice chuckled on the other end.

“Well, let’s say it's the latter. Anna has the day off. She's not feeling well.” Maxwell explained.

His grandfather mumbled something incoherent about personal assistants and sick leaves. After the usual talk on family and business, he cut straight to the chase.

“How busy are you this morning?”

Maxwell glanced at his notepad. “Quite.” He had a string of meetings to attend, discussions to be held and paperwork to look at. Suddenly, feeling drained, he thought of getting another cup of coffee made for him. He couldn’t afford to have low energy levels today. He heard the deep sigh on the other end.

“If possible during lunch when you are free, I would need some help with something here.”

“And what could be so urgent that you need my help with?” Maxwell laughed.

His grandfather was many things including elderly but certainly not helped less. Maxwell remembered the many occasions when people had failed to perform their duties and his grandfather had stepped in to handle things himself.

“It's about a client who needs my help but would be better off getting it from you. I have emailed the details to you. But I will need help to get started on some things here.”

Maxwell switched to his mail to check it and leaned back after reading the mail over and over again. His grandfather required his supervision over his personal charity initiative that supported and funded some humanitarian projects across the city of Delaware.

It wasn't the project funding that surprised him but his grandfather's request for his personal oversight and mentoring for a certain Fiona Williams. She was the manager of Oakland Community Project.

“Grandpa, if she's your client why don't you manage it yourself? And why do I have to be in charge of the funding now?” he asked.

His father had a team of staff, all skilled and able to perform various roles and functions that Maxwell could easily bet that there was a setup.

“Tammy resigned a month ago and I haven't found anyone suitable to do that for me. And with Ms. Williams, let's say I owe her one. If you have any questions, email them to me.” He said.

And before Maxwell could ask any questions, his grandfather hung up. Great. Just what he needed to make it more tasking for the day. He snapped his attention back to the mail which was still displayed on his screen. Most of the organisations listed on the first attachment in the mail were involved in fighting child poverty, illiteracy and poor health conditions. This was not what he had bargained for. He opened the second attachment to see the information it contained. Fiona Williams was a registered nurse, in charge of Oakland community projects and a very young lady at that. He looked closely at her face, which seemed no more than twenty-three.

A knock on the door interrupted him as he looked over the mail attachments. His best friend and partner, Gerald Hudson came striding into his office. As always he was impeccably dressed to the mines in a satin black suit with a gleaming red tie on a white shirt.

“What happened to Anna?” he said, jerking his head towards the door.

Maxwell gave the details as he sank further into his chair. His fingers tapping the arm of his chair.

“Someone’s not in a particularly good mood.”

“You wouldn't want to hear half of the story.” Maxwell said, rising from his chair and striding to the coffee table to get a drink. “Grandpa wants me to get some things done for him.”

“Like babysitting?” Gerald raised his brows.

“Actually, he wants me to mentor a lady out in downtown Delaware on financial and business management. And then help out with his humanitarian projects since his ever capable staff aren't up to the task.”

“And you aren't very excited about that?”

Maxwell nodded. He has so much on his plate to deal with that the funding oversight was one too much not to mention the issue with Miss Williams. His father had a pick of select men who could be called upon to handle this over there at a time.

Gerald suddenly smiled, then laughed which Maxwell found strange. He shot him a questioning look.

“Ok, you must forgive me but I don't know why I have a good feeling about this.”

“How? I have things to do that demand my attention and not to mention that Anna might not be back tomorrow or the day after and I still have to deal with the contracts we are pursuing.” He shot out his hands.

Gerald only smirked in that irritating way that made Maxwell want to claw his face.

“You haven’t been out on the dating scene in a while and you need to get back into it. Besides, what's wrong with moving away from the front desk to hands on stuff?

Maxwell swore furiously as Gerald raised his hand to continue, “And, I think you need to go back to why you chose to be an Investment Banker in the first place. To help small business owners with sound financial advice.”

“I don't need to be reminded. You think my grandfather wants me back in that role?”

His grandfather was many things Maxwell noted and not above making statements through really awkward situations. Gerald only shrugged and stood up.

“Will you be free for lunch? Isabel and I are meeting my parents today.” He asked.

As a family friend and close to Maxwell, Gerald was very much part of the Harold family. And more so since he had recently gotten married to Isabel, his longtime girlfriend and childhood friend.

Maxwell shook his head. “I need to meet this lady at that time.” He looked out of the large window behind him at the rising noon Delaware sky. It was summer now, with frequent showers falling in between. But the sky was an absolute clear blue. Hopefully, the weather wouldn’t pull off one of its tricks.

“Dinner then. Tonight?”

“Yeah. At Anthony’s house.” Maxwell was more comfortable with his grandparents than his parents. They didn't really exist when he was a kid, always flying around from one country to another. It was a pity Gerald also shared a similar fate, which was maybe the reason for their closeness.

Gerald stood up and walked to the door.

“Good luck with the meeting. I'm sure you are going to need it more than you think.” He said over his shoulder and he was out. Maxwell only shook head.