My contract love story

The next day at a private law firm, Adrian Cagliari stood in a private lounge provided to him by his lawyer.

The room was moderately sized and had been moderately furnished; with a window that stretched from one wall to another with a view of the gate, one could see who was entering and leaving but someone standing outside couldn’t see in.

Adrian stood at the window wearing a blue coloured suit with a black shirt, his hair slicked back gel and he had a chilly aura around him. This devilishly handsome man peered at the window, sipping the coffee in his hands slowly.

“Boss, I just spoke with the driver you sent, he mentioned that Miss Ashleigh refused taking the car and said she will make her way here by herself” Turner reported and Adrian glanced at his watch, frowning deeply as Ashleigh was already an hour late .

Adrian’s major pet peeve was lateness and people who came late; he was of the opinion that everything had a particular time at which it should happen, this makes the outcome of each action precise and accurate but doing things later does not give the required result.

Moreover, Adrian knew his time is worth a lot of money, the Cagliari group of companies produces a total revenue of ten trillion dollars a year which was four hundred and fifty seven million an hour generated by him alone. His time is so precious that he feels that he should use it on something that made more value, not waiting for someone.

He raised his eyes, he saw Ashleigh with her aunt walking in through the security stop and he loosened his demeanour a bit. She wore a pair of high waist pants with a white coloured blouse and a pair of matching shoes.

Her hair was parted in the centre fell around and framed her face and she had a small bag hung across her body. She smiled curtly as she passed through the check in, her smile stopping as she stood still and stared up straight at him, she could sense someone standing up looking at her.

“Turner, go and welcome them in” he said, staring at her squinting eyes and Turner left immediately.

She soon looked ahead to see Turner and she walked into the building with his close guidance. The door was opened and both of them walked in with Turner , Adrian stretched the cup which turner collected and left, leaving the three of them in the room. Mrs smith walked up to Adrian greeting him warmly and they exchanged a few pleasantries with each other while Ashleigh stood behind them watching their exchange. He then moved to stand in front of Ashleigh and coldly stated.

“You’re an hour late. I need you to understand that my time is very valuable to me and when i say you should be here at a certain time, you keep to the time” he continued coldly, looking her up and down.

“Mr. Cagliari, I do not know how you do things with your employees, but take note that things would have to change with me here now. So talk to me nicely, or don’t talk at all”

Ashleigh countered, moving to return his gaze with more fire.

The environment became tense with the their friction, Mrs Smith stood behind confused on what to do and this was the scene Turner and the lawyer met on walking into the room.

Adrian and Ashleigh currently sat besides each other on a couch in the lounge, the air between them frigid as they stared at the marriage certificate form placed in front of them. Mrs Smith sat opposite Ashleigh while Mr turner stood behind Adrian and his lawyer sat across. They had both not said a word to each other since the little face off earlier and Ashleigh preferred it that way; she could at least tolerate his face when his lips had nothing coming out of them.

“Mrs Cagliari, I hope you brought the required documents” the lawyer started, Ashleigh glanced at her aunt who brought out her birth certificate, adoption papers and passport photographs.

“This will be okay. I’ll bring a single status declaration form for you to sign so fill this in first. Also, while we waited for you, Mr Cagliari had already filled his part of the certificate and processed everything. You only have to fill in your details and hand it over to me” he explained, handing her a pen to fill in the form. She filled it quietly and handed it over to him. He then left to complete the formalities and came back with two copies of the marriage certificate in fine print.

“Congratulations to both of you, as of this instant you are officially a married couple” he congratulated, handing each of them a copy. Mrs Smith and Mr turner smiled warmly, congratulating them as well. Adrian faced Ashleigh with a deep look in his eyes.

“Congratulations once again Mrs. Cagliari” he said and his wife just let out a silent ‘you too’, brooding as she stared at the marriage certificate. Adrian stood up, grabbing Ashleigh who was deep in thought to stand up too.

Ashleigh who was not ready whatsoever had slipped due to sudden contact between their hands but Adrian was quick to place his other arm around her waist to support her to stand firmly. He was bent slightly towards her direction and their eyes met as he pulled back, making her heart run two times faster. This was not missed by Mrs Smith who was at first surprised, later smiling on seeing her niece’s reaction.

“I want us to take a picture together, after all it’s a memorable event” he explained to her, and signalled to Turner who brought a photographer into the room.

“Next time ask me before grabbing my hand so suddenly, I was startled” she stuttered silently, coughing to let out the anxiety as she faced the camera. Adrian faced the camera as well and they then took pictures together with the lawyer, Mrs Smith and Mr Turner.

The next pictures were of the couples alone so the rest stood behind the photographer, the first set of pictures were taken but the photographer was unsatisfied looking at them. He glimpsed at Ashleigh and Adrian in front of him and in the camera roll, they were a good pair but there was a very obvious friction between the couple.

“Sir and madam, you are the couple of the moment so your pictures should look the best. I observed that there is no closeness between the loving couple so the pictures are off. Could you two move more closer ” the photographer suggested, and they both looked at each other wearily before drawing closer a bit.

Adrian stretched his hands slowly to hold her closely and the photographer smiled in satisfaction as he took the pictures. Looking at the camera, he nodded happily and told them the pictures were okay, Ashleigh quickly removed herself from his grasp and gave a good distance.

“I would like to invite you aunt for a celebratory lunch if you don’t mind?” He asked and Mrs Smith nodded in response.

“Mr. Reynolds my secretary will keep in touch concerning the fees. He’ll be sure to add a bonus for your good work as well” the lawyer’s face lit up like a child on Christmas and thanked him graciously as he turned to leave; visualizing his bank account at the moment.

To Mr Reynolds it is an honour to work closely with such a reputable man like Adrian, he had a lot of rules but rewarded greatly if you do his work accordingly. He was already envied by his fellow colleagues, with this commend they will turn green and he couldn’t wait.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Mr turner led the way to the underground parking lot with the new couple following behind and Mrs Smith trailing at the back. Once they arrived a group of slick black cars waited for them at the entrance and Turner opened the door for Ashleigh to enter while Adrian walked to other side and entered as well. He then stood back besides Mrs Smith and signalled for the driver to move which made Ashleigh panic, facing him.

“My aunt hasn’t entered, yet your secretary is telling us to leave?” the driver steered into the street smoothly and immediately shifted the gears of the car, and then took off. Adrian who was already working on his phone raised his face to meet hers.

“Your aunt will follow closely behind us, no need to panic” his cool voice rang through the silent car, silencing Ashleigh temporarily.

She felt tingles radiate through her body from the sound of his voice and her ears rung slightly and she couldn’t understand why, so she decided on staying quiet during the trip and only react when necessary.

She directed her attention to the car’s interior, it looked it was made with exquisite leather, it had automated driving system and state of the art navigation system that the driver used while driving. Even though she didn’t know other abilities of the car and side attractions, she was a 100% sure it costs a fortune to customizer this car as well as others.

“just how wealthy was this man?” Ashleigh wondered to herself, she finds out something new everyday.

Before they knew it they were in the other side of the city and the landscape changed vastly to an upper class setting. The driver moved into a restaurant which was all to familiar to Ashleigh, and her eyes brightened as she looked at the signboard stating the name ‘Le monde’ in cursive font.

Le monde is an elegant restaurant that offers the best dining experience, it catered to the high in society and reservations here were the one of the hardest to make and those who were able to had already done so months ago due, the chefs that worked here were the best in the world and offered food that took you to the historic city where it was from. Le monde was not just a restaurant, it was an experience for those who were able to dine here, and she knew this from the videos people who had been here made talking about their dining experience.

The cars parked in the underground parking lot and both came out, walking to where Mrs Smith stood.

“Shall we move in?” He spoke up, leading the way into the restaurant while the secretary waited behind in the car.

Two burly men followed behind them as they made their way into the building and after confirming their reservation and other things they were led by a waiter to a private room.

The ambience was mellow; the room was spacious and decorated with antiques on the shelves on the walls and had natural light coming in from the French window at the end of the room.

The table was round and made of marble, with properly folded napkins and cutlery placed properly for each guest. They settled in, with Adrian holding her aunt’s chair as she sat down before coming to sit besides her.

The chairs were arranged for the new couple to sit besides each other while Mrs Smith sat facing them. There was silence as Adrian ordered for lunch and after the waiter left, he addressed them.