Chapter 84: Chapter 84

(Dmitri’s Thoughts)

Unending calls from my sister Heather wakes me up. The vibration from my phone just won’t stop.

So I answer it for the first time in a week, “Don’t you have a life?”

I can imagine her face with just her voice, she scoffs and says, “Well, if you had just come home few days ago, I wouldn’t end up wasting my life calling you, Dmitri. You told me you’ll come home after your restaurant’s opening?”

Blah, blah! I let her nag all she wants, “I had to take care of some things. What do you want? The Vice-CEO is there. He can do all the task.”

“Remember, you promised Dad you’ll do better, don’t let thi-”

“I know how to handle my company, Heat. So give it a rest. I can’t come home, I’ll be in Germany next week. I’ll stay home for awhile. I haven’t paid Manor Sullivan a visit for a while now,” I straighforwardly express my annoyance.

And I hang up.

I sigh and massage my temple, “Damn it! Can’t I take a rest? As if the company will shut down without me.”

***

I decide to pay my restaurant a visit before I leave. To be honest, I avoid going there after our argument. Because if I do, I’ll find myself going to the museum, and I know, she won’t like it.

And besides, they will install the paintings I just bought, so I guess they’re going to need my approval for that. I quickly take a shower and visit while the business hours hasn’t started yet.

Our business hours usually starts around five until two in the morning. We prefer it this way since our market consists of professionals and workers who get out of work late.

When I arrive at the restaurant, some museum staff are already talking to the restaurant’s manager while the others are carefully carrying each painting inside.

The interior designer hired by my manager is busy instructing the handlers where to put the paintings.

My flat is just three blocks away from here. So I won’t need to drive. That’s the beauty of European country I guess, there’s a place and a busy street like this wherein you don’t have to drive at all.

That’s what I hate the most about the States.

When the manager lays her eyes on me, she approaches me and greets me, “Good afternoon, sir. You should have told us you were coming.”

“No, it’s fine. Well, I have to fly out to Germany next week, so I, at least want to check everything before I go. So how’s it going?” I ask her.

“It has been great, sir. A lot of people heart about what you did for the couple in our opening night, and they are thrilled, so a lot of people visited, then, it has been…” she’s still babbling about things but my sense of hearing already stopped when she said couple.

I don’t even know if I would be happy or not. But I try to break a gentle smile. “Uh, I guess, it’s great. So, what can you say about the paintings?”

I divert the topic and point it to the paintings, when I see they’re installing the last one.

She looks at them from the window glass and express her admiration, “You really have good taste, sir. It really suits our theme and they are beautiful to look at.”

“Thanks, so shall we? I’d like to see it up-close,” I ask her to lead the way.

As they progress with the installation and re-organization of the interior design, I go to the manager’s office and borrow it for a while. Since I won’t be staying here all the time, there’s no need for me to have an office here.

Instead, I ask them to make space for the employee’s lounge where they can take a rest when things aren’t that busy. That’s one of my principles, always give your best treatment to your employees.

I review all the reports they have since last week, the flow of supplies, inventories, tracking of expenses, and the foresight of our Return of Investment.

For years, I only focus on hotels and giving accommodations, this will be the first time to open my own restaurant so I want to be hands-on with this.

After scanning all the reports, I go inside the kitchen to check them out. It is already three in the afternoon, so the head chef, sous chef, and the kitchen staff are running like horses preparing things.

“Good afternoon,” I announce my arrival.

They all look at me and stand before me in a straight line. Then the head chef comes over and shakes my hand, “We didn’t know you’ll come by. Sorry, it was a bit of a mess here,” he shyly explains the situation.

I try to ease up the tense, by patting him on his shoulder and saying, “Well, a busy kitchen is a messy one. And in this business, I always prefer a messy one.”

All laugh at my remark and I send them back to work.

Everything’s running smoothly. I just wish this isn’t only a beginner’s luck. Now, I can finally go to Germany without any problems.

I go back to the manager’s office to take a rest for a while. I fall asleep for about two hours. After I wake up, I ask the chef to prepare something for me.

I am preparing to leave when I take a glimpse of Avery and Jeff at the door. Upon seeing the paintings, I see how her mood changes. Her eyes are bewildered by the fact.

I massage my nose bridge, “Uh, yeah, I forgot to mention to her which one is my hotel.”

She tries to act cool, but I can see her looking around, so I make sure she doesn’t see me. She must not really want to see me, or even let Jeff know about me.

My heart aches to see Jeff standing beside her, “It should have been me, but I mess up,” I blame myself again.

She seems restless and tensed. So I think not showing myself will give her peace of mind.

“Do you really not want to see me ever again Avery?” My heart cries. But what else can I do. How can I get her back if she doesn’t even give me a chance.

I stare at her. I look at her from a distance, admiring her from afar. She then, stands up and speaks to the receptionist assigned to them.

“Oh shit, she’s probably looking for the restroom. Oh, she’s walking to this direction,” so I hide behind the thick beam and the corner of the wall.

It takes some time before she goes out of the bathroom, she’s probably sulking inside, or worse, cursing and talking to herself. I smile remembering how she was.

She was always jealous with other women, and she used to sulk all the time, and I found it very cute.

While waiting for her to go out, I accidentally eavesdrop to two waitress gossiping just outside the bathroom door, and the topic, the proposal.

“Hey, did you see the couple at the corner? They came back. And that proposal was really cool,” says the black-haired woman. They both giggled.

“Yeah, it was really heart-warming and you can feel the guy’s sincerity,” said the blonde-haired one. I twitch when I heard what she said.

I am about to confront them for gossiping when the bathroom door swings wide open, and there is Avery.

But the two continue to gossip loud enough for her to hear. She stops and listens.

“Oh, but Sir Sullivan, isn’t he generous? Imagine, he gave them the best proposal gift ever? Free and all?” says the one. While the other giggles.

This time, Avery face them and they recognize her right away. I put my palm on my face, “Oh, damn, she isn’t supposed to know that!”

“Oh, miss. Hi. We were just talking about you and your boyfriend,” black-haired girl says.

“That was an epic proposal. We were so touched,” the blonde-haired girl seconds.

But Avery’s eyes, are now covered in tears. I hate to see her cry. Ironically, I am the very reason of her cries. I want to comfort her, or explain to her. But I shouldn’t!

So I watch silently, in pain. I hear her talk,

“M-miss, could you say it once again?” she says with her voice breaking.

“Miss? Which one?” they ask her.

“Y-your boss? D-dmitri Sullivan? What did he do again?” her voice quirks as she tries to hold every emotion she has right now. Her body begins to tremble.

“Do you know him, miss?” they ask.

“Yes, very well,” she answers shortly with her sad melancholic eyes.

The two clueless ladies go and celebrate the fact, unable to see how tense she is right now. They continue to drop the bombs of truth to them.

“Woah! Maybe that’s why he was so generous. Our manager told this, when she saw your names on the log that first day, he gave up the spot he reserved for himself,”

“The window seat-” she sighs.

“Yes, you’re right, and when he hears about the proposal, he immediately instructed us to give the best music performer we could find, to make the proposal a successful and epic one, he said it was the best he could give to you two.”

The girls giggle while Avery tries to compose herself. She leans her body to the sink behind her, and she touches her chest and massages it a bit.

My legs are walking towards her, but I tried to stop them. I must not go near her.

“That n-night, w-was he here?” she inquiries. Avery, why do you ask?

“Well, yeah. He’s been watching you the whole time, he was hiding, though, don’t know why,” says the other.

And right after she says it, I see the tear drops from her left eye, which she immediately wipes. She sniffs and avoids eye contact.

“Avery, are you hurting? Were you hurt by the fact that I was here? Or, because I didn’t stop you?” my mind succumbs to a series of questions.

She clears her throat, and continues with her queries, “A-and the wine and truffles? They’re his doings right?”

The two look at each other and they smile widely, “Exactly. He wants you to receive it. He specifically asked for it, the specific brand and flavor.”

Avery completely bows her head, “I see. Thank you. One last question, did he say why he didn’t greet or meet us?” She embraces her arms, still looking down.

But the two shake their heads, “Well, we don’t really know. All we know is, he left after he heard you said, yes.”

She doesn’t say or ask anything else, but I saw her bite her lips really hard. She says thank you afterward and goes back to her place.

I watch her the whole night, and to me, she seems not herself.

“Avery Anderson, if I had stopped you that night, would you return by my side?” a question pops into my mind, a question that probably can no longer be answered.