OH MY GOD! You guys have no idea how happy I am. After uploading the first chapter, my computer had crashed and I didn't have any money to either fix it or buy a new one. It took long five weeks to finally save enough money to buy a new one. I was also able to get the hardware fixed and get all my work back. Thank you so much for your patience.
.
DISCLAIMER: Fifty shades of Grey or its characters do NOT belong to me. I own the plot and more than a few characters though. I would like to remind you that this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or places is accidental.
Thanks so much to my awesome Beta, Ninkita
.
*Information:*
Ana and her friends = 24 years old
Christian = 28 years old
Mia = 22 years old
Elliot = 30 years old
.
Previously:
"This is Andrea Parker speaking from Grey Enterprise Holdings, the new owner of Seattle Independent Publications. I regret to inform that our owner was not impressed with your proposal. So, he has decided not to go ahead with your offer."
"Thank you for letting me know."
"No problem. Have good day," the woman replied, and hung up.
"Um… can you excuse me for a moment?" Ana smiled at her customers before she headed to the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she screamed, "SON OF A BITCH!"
.
.
Chapter -2:
.
.
Hearing her scream, Caleb and Liam rushed to the washroom. "Ana! Are you alright in there?" Caleb asked knocking on the door.
"I'm not alright. I'm frustrated," Ana answered from inside.
"Can we come inside to have this conversation?" Liam requested.
"Come in," she muttered, pouting.
Opening the door, they entered the washroom. Ana was leaning against the vanity and sulking. "You scared a few of the customers. What happened?" Caleb asked, patiently.
"Remember that publication house Kate and I went to?" At the boys' nod, she continued, "They just called to inform me that their company has been sold to another and the new owner was not interested in our proposal. I mean why the fuck not? It's a damn good proposal. Five big publications are making huge amount of profits due to this proposal. What makes this new owner so special that they don't want to do business with us?" she growled.
"I think since he or she didn't personally see the proposal, they might not have all the information. Why don't you take this proposal to the new owner? Show them the presentation. Maybe they will like it and change their minds?" Liam suggested.
"I agree with him. Call Kate and discuss it with her. Send the proposal to the new owner and let's wait and see what happens," Caleb added.
"Thanks, guys. Did I really scare the customers?" Ana asked, sheepishly.
"I might've been exaggerating a little. Come on! Let's get out of here," Caleb said, affectionately.
The group gathered in the café on the third floor for lunch. Kate joined them. Ana was still pouting. "It's only one publication house, Ana. There are more. In fact, there are two big publication houses in LA that are really interested in our proposal. We just need to have a face to face meeting with them to sign the contract," Kate said with a huge smile.
"It's not about having more publication houses. It's how they rejected us without even listening to our proposal… Like we're not good enough," Ana moped. Her friends were stunned. Ana was always cheerful and full of life. She rarely got upset. This matter seemed to have hurt her self-esteem more than anything.
"We're the best in our field," Liam said sternly, "If they don't want to work with us, then it's their loss, not ours."
"Why don't you take the day off? Go to that creamery near Pike Place Market you love so much. Have as much ice-cream as you want. You'll feel good and you'll also forget about that Asshole new owner of that Asshole Company," Jose stated firmly.
Ana lifted her head from the table and smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like heaven."
.
Ana's trip to the creamery was a success. She was in her happy place, eating ice-cream. After a long time she had worn her favorite outfit; white high waist knee length pleated skirt with purple flower prints on it and a matching purple off-shoulder crop top. She had accessorized her outfit with her $3,213 purple Chanel purse and her $500 Christian Louboutin purple platform pumps. She had bought the purse last year on her birthday, and the shoes were a gift from her friends. Ana usually didn't wear her expensive designer shoes outside, but she needed cheering up today. Taking one last cone to go, Ana walked out of the creamery with a smile on her face. She was so busy enjoying her ice-cream that she didn't notice that someone was heading right at her with his eyes on his phone. A moment later, they bumped into each other causing Ana to let go of her ice-cream. It fell on her purple high heels making her gasp in horror.
"NO!" she moaned as tears filled her eyes. "My Louboutins! This pair was real and not the dupes I usually wear. Why didn't I wear those dupes today?" she said to herself as she stared at her shoes in dismay.
"It wouldn't have happened if you were looking where you were going," the person who had bumped into her said snidely
Ana was going to apologize to that person, but as soon as he opened his mouth, she got pissed instead. "Really?! You ruined my $500 shoes and instead of apologizing, you act like an asshole?! You weren't looking where you were going too. Either that, or you purposefully bumped into me," Ana accused, her eyes flashing in anger.
The man was tall, had a lean body. His copper hair, grey eyes and chiseled face created perfection. At the moment, however, those eyes were filled with annoyance. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Look! I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going, but it's your fault too. Why did you think it was a good idea to walk around with food when you're wearing expensive stuff?" he snarled.
"You… You… MALE!" Ana exclaimed.
Her unique insult bewildered the man in front of her. "W-what?!" he stuttered.
Another man dressed in plain black suit joined them. "Sir?" he questioned.
"Freaking asshole!" Ana grumbled loudly before kneeling down and starting to wipe at her shoe, disgruntled.
"Listen, you…" the first man started saying something when the second man stopped him.
"Sir, you're getting late for the meeting," he reminded.
Christian pulled out his wallet and pulled out five hundred dollar bills. Kneeling in front of Ana, he grabbed her hand and placed the money there. "Here… Buy another pair," he said arrogantly before getting on his feet.
Ana felt like steam would start coming out of her ears any moment now. Grabbing a handful of ice-cream from the fallen cone, she got up and smashed it on Christian's suit, shocking him. Grabbing the money he had just handed her, Ana added another hundred dollar bill from her purse. "Here… for dry cleaning," she said sarcastically as she grabbed his hand and slammed the money there. Taking her bag, she turned and stormed away from there.
"Did she just… did she just smash… ice-cream on my suit?!" Christian exclaimed in disbelief.
Taylor, his security head stared at his boss's $2000 three piece suit in horror. "Um… you might want to clean it up… you have that meeting…" he trailed off.
Gritting his teeth in anger, Christian shrugged off the jacket and handed it to Taylor. "Take it to the nearest dry cleaners. I'll be in the meeting," he said before glancing up at the retreating figure of that damn girl. "I hope for her sake that she never comes in front of me again," he muttered furiously.
.
.
Somehow, Christian managed to suppress his anger sufficiently to attend his meeting. If it hadn't been important for his current acquisition, he would've canceled it. Christian Grey was the youngest billionaire, who was the founder and CEO of Grey Enterprise Holdings, Inc. Christian had been born in a happy home. His father, Charles Grey was a lawyer and ran a law firm with his brother, Carrick Grey. Christian's mom, Emily Grey was a stay-at-home mom. They were happy. Christian was only 4 years old when he had lost both of his parents. After that, his uncle and aunt, Carrick and Grace adopted him as their own. He led a relatively normal childhood after that. He was in the second year in college when he decided he knew more business than his teacher, so he dropped out of Harvard. Carrick was pissed at him for that and refused to give him the start-up money he needed to start his business. Tenaciously, Christian contacted his biological father's lawyer and got his hands on the money his biological parents had left him in their will. This resulted in another huge fight between Carrick and Christian. Father and son stopped talking after that. It took Christian only one year to start making a profit. It took a few more years for the father-son pair to start warming up again.
His adopted mother, Grace was the one who supported him the whole time. He was the apple of her eyes. Grace and Emily had been best friends. For Grace, Christian was the last link to her best friend. Carrick and Grace didn't have any biological children of their own, so they had adopted a boy, Elliot, a year before adopting Christian. Elliot was 2 years older than Christian. Since they grew up together, they were brothers/best friends. Elliot was 8 and Christian was 6 years old when the Greys adopted Mia. She was only a few months old at the time. Both boys loved their new sister, and it hadn't changed even after 22 years. They were really protective of their younger sister… even now that Mia was 22 years old and an adult. Mia loved her brothers and their protectiveness for her.
By the time Christian walked out of the restaurant, Taylor was waiting for him with the car. Taylor opened the door and waited as Christian bid his clients goodbye. Offering one last polite smile, Christian slid into his car. "What a day!" he muttered rubbing his forehead.
"Where to, sir?" Taylor inquired sliding into the driver's seat.
"Back to GEH, Taylor," Christian replied with a sigh. "This day has been going bad to worse," he groaned.
They arrived at GEH in half an hour. The whole drive Christian thought about that ungrateful woman. Her big blue eyes, delicate features, upturned nose, pale skin, long brown hair, and petite size … after bumping into her, Christian had been stunned. He had never seen such a beautiful woman before. He was attracted to her instantly, but all that changed as soon as she opened her mouth. He knew he was at fault too. He hadn't meant to insult her. He shouldn't have snapped at her. He felt bad for her and that's why he had handed her the money. 'Who knew it would piss her off more!'
Reaching GEH, Christian headed straight to the executive floor where his office was. Seeing him approach, his PA, Andrea stood up to greet him. "Andrea, join me," he said before entering his office. "Anything new?" he asked.
"Yes, sir. I canceled all the upcoming proposals of SIP like you ordered," Andrea informed.
"We need to reconstruct the whole structure of this company from the inside. Get me those proposal files. Let's see if any of them is worthy of reconsideration," Christian ordered.
"Certainly, sir," Andrea returned with a bunch of thick files.
One by one Christian started going through each of the proposals. None of them were really interesting enough until he reached the last one; the contract of 'The Steele House'.With a slight frown, Christian opened the file. This file had what he was looking for. This proposal was perfect. It would make tons of profits for the publication house. "I want this contract. Did you cancel this one too?" Christian questioned.
"I called to tell them this morning, Mr. Grey,"
"Call them back and tell them that I changed my mind and would like to have a face to face meeting with the owner."
"Certainly, sir," and she left.
Christian went back to work. He was lost in his work when he was startled by his phone ringing. It was Elliot.
"Hello, little brother," Elliot greeted as soon as Christian answered the phone.
"Hey, Elliot," he replied tiredly.
"What's with that tone? Are you okay?" Elliot asked, concerned.
"It's been a hell of a day. First some clients of mine created some problems. I had to spend my morning solving that. Then, I had a meeting all the way across town. I had just gotten out of the car when I bumped into that hellcat," he spat.
"Hellcat? What?!" Elliot was puzzled. "You met a… cat?"
"Not a cat. A really beautiful young woman with really shitty attitude. She called me a 'Male'."
"So? You're a male… aren't you?"
"I am, but… she called me 'Male' like it was an insult and then she proceeded to smash her ice-cream on my two thousand dollar suit," he growled.
Elliot started laughing. "Okay, spill. What did you do? No girl would be angry just because you bumped into them."
"When we bumped into each other, she dropped her ice-cream on her expensive shoes. I might've said something that pissed her off," Christian confessed reluctantly.
"I knew it," Elliot laughed. "At least she didn't slap you," he added jokingly.
"Funny!" Christian snapped.
"Anyways, I wanted to ask if you wanted to join me tonight. I want to go clubbing."
"Can we do that tomorrow instead? I'm really tired today, and instead of going home early, I've got to put in some overtime," Christian replied.
"Come on, man. You need to relax a bit. You're too stressed out. A night out would be great for both of us."
"Both of us? What happened to you?"
"I have that one bitch of a client. At first, she said she wanted granite countertops. Today we were supposed to hand-over the keys when she claimed that she had wanted marble countertops and demanded that we change it by tonight," Elliot stated dryly.
"Yikes," Christian winced.
"Yes and this whole time her husband looked lost in thought. He didn't even say a word," Elliot grumbled.
"Wow. So, did you manage to do it?"
"Barely. The bitch acted like it was our fault. She kept grumbling under her breath," Elliot said, shaking his head in frustration.
"I agree. We both need to relax a little. Meet me at Escala around… 8 pm. We can grab dinner together before we go," Christian suggested.
"Thanks, bro. See you later then. Bye."
"Bye," and Christian hung up.
.
.
When Ana returned, she was angrier than before. The library had closed half an hour ago. Ana stormed up there and slammed her bag on one of the tables and sat down to remove her shoes.
"I thought ice-cream would calm you down, but it seems to have pissed you off more. What's up?" Bill asked taking a seat beside her. Ana just handed him her stained Louboutin shoes. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Bill screamed in horror.
"I was coming out of the creamery when I bumped into an asshole. My ice-cream fell and ruined my $500 dollar Louboutin pumps," Ana muttered with a pout. "Then, instead of saying 'sorry', he proceeded to insult me. Fucking jerk!" she added.
"We need to clean it… NOW! It's an emergency!" Bill shrieked before running off with her shoes.
Alyssa noticed Ana sitting alone at the table. "This day had been awful, huh?" she stated taking a seat beside her.
"You have no idea," Ana sulked.
"ANA!" Caleb suddenly came in, screaming in excitement.
"Why are YOU so excited?" Ana inquired curiously.
"Andrea Parker called from Grey Enterprise Holdings. She said her boss, the CEO of the company, read through our contract and liked it. He wants to have a face to face meeting tomorrow around 11 am to discuss it," Caleb informed eagerly.
"Really?" Ana asked in disbelief.
"Yes. I called Kate, we should celebrate. Nico and Tom are closing the restaurant early today."
"As much as we would love to celebrate with you guys, I think after the day she had, Ana deserves a girls' night out," Alyssa interrupted with a mischievous smirk.
"What?! Why?" Liam whined in protest. He had just joined the group. Caleb pointed at Liam and nodded in agreement.
"It's been a while we girls had a night out. You boys can babysit Jayden and hang out in my loft," Chloe offered as she joined them.
"Seriously?! You want to leave us behind," Caleb pouted.
"Okay, boys. If we get the contract tomorrow, we can go out together tomorrow night to celebrate," Ana pacified with a kind smile. She was excited. It had been a while since she had a girl's night out.
"I'm here. What's with those sad faces, boys?" Kate questioned as she joined.
"You girls are going on a girls' night out," Liam stated accusingly.
"Why can't we come along?" Nicolas asked hearing Liam as he joined the group with Tom.
"Bill and I are coming along, right?" Jose asked, hopefully.
"I said girl's night out. I didn't say girls and gays night out," Alyssa stated dryly.
"I'm not gay," Bill protested. "I'm a Drag queen," he added after a second.
"Let's go to Ana's loft. We can get ready there," Kate interrupted the pouting band of boys.
"I'll get the shoes and join you at Ana's," Alyssa added excitedly.
"At least let us have dinner together before you girls go out," Nicolas suggested.
"Close up down here then. Order Chinese and go to Chloe's loft. We'll join you boys in 4 hours," Kate stated with a smirk. Ana, Alyssa, and Chloe snickered at the boys' put out expression.
.
Ana got out of the bathroom after wearing her dress. She had worn a black sequined short dress. It had a deep V neckline with spaghetti straps. She had applied smokey eye makeup with bright fuchsia lipstick.
"Wow! Looking smoking hot, Steele," Kate whistled as Ana bent over to get her silver high heels on.
Ana looked over to her blonde friend with a smirk of her own. "You don't look bad yourself, Katie," she said. Kate had worn a gold drape-front short dress with gold high heels. She had applied bright red lipstick with brown and black smokey eyes.
"How do I look?" Alyssa inquired. She was wearing paper bag jeans shorts with a black off-shoulder top with deep V neckline tucked in her shorts. She had finished her look with a black choker and mid-cuff black velvet boots that she had designed herself. She had opted for smokey eye makeup with nude lipstick and low ponytail.
"Holy hell! That's hot. Your boobs looks great, woman," Kate stated with a smirk. Ana nodded in agreement.
"Where's Chloe?" Ana asked looking around.
"Sorry, I'm late. Jayden puked on my first outfit," Chloe explained shaking her head. She was still dressed in her jeans and t-shirt.
"That's okay. You took a shower after cleaning up?" Ana inquired taking the dress bag from Chloe.
"Yes. Otherwise I would've smelled like puke," Chloe chuckled.
"Let's help Chloe get dressed," Ana suggested. Kate and Alyssa nodded in agreement.
Soon, Chloe was dressed in a black shorts, grey off-shoulder top, and grey high heels. Ana straightened Chloe's hair and left it open. Kate applied dark brown lipstick with thick eyeliner on her. "Damn! We're a beautiful group of women!" Alyssa exclaimed with a grin, causing the others to laugh.
"Anyways, as much as we love Jayden, I don't think we want another baby in the group yet. So, I brought supplies," Kate announced with a smirk as she pulled out a strip of condoms from her bag. She handed each of her friends 2 condoms each.
"Yeah. I've never looked at children and thought to myself, 'I just really need to get me one of those'," Ana said with a chuckle. "Anyways, let's go. I'm hungry," she claimed.
The girls headed to Chloe's loft where all the boys were hanging out. Liam and Tom were entertaining Jayden. The others were taking turns singing with the karaoke machine. "You boys got the food?" Alyssa questioned.
"Finally, you're here. We're starving. Why does it take you girls, Bill, and Jose so much time to get ready?" Nicolas complained, groaning.
"Beauty takes time. Neanderthals like you won't understand that concept," Jose replied waving his hand dismissively. Bill nodded in agreement while the straight boys rolled their eyes. Everyone started with dinner after that. Around 10 pm, the girls left for the Mile High Club.
.
.
Christian and Elliot finished their dinner at Escala before heading out for Christian's club, 'The Mile High Club'. Christian wore a pair of slim fit light wash jeans, grey t-shirt, white sneakers, and black long jacket. Elliot wore slim fit medium wash jeans, white t-shirt, white sneakers, and light brown long jacket. The brothers went up to the second floor. There were 4 private rooms there, of which one was always reserved for the Grey family. The brothers went to their reserved room. All the private rooms had a clear view of the dance floor below. They started with brandy as they talked about their awful days. One hour had passed, when from the corner of his eyes, Christian noticed something. He looked down at the dance floor and felt his eyes widening. There was a group of girls dancing in the middle of the dance floor, but it was the girl in black sequin dress that caught his eyes. His eyes roamed over her curves as she moved her hips seductively with the beat.
'Can't read my, Can't read my
No, he can't read my poker face
(She's got me like nobody)
Can't read my, Can't read my
No, he can't read my poker face
(She's got me like nobody)
Po-po-po-poker face, po-po-poker face
(mum mum mum mah)
Po-po-po-poker face, po-po-poker face
(mum mum mum mah)'
Music kept blaring in the background as Christian observed the girl. He had a clear view of her cleavage as she danced with her girlfriends, but he couldn't see her face properly. A sudden urge to see her face made him get on his feet.
"Where are you going?" Elliot asked curiously before he followed his brother's gaze. "Oh! I think I'll join you. Which one of them has your attention?" he clarified.
"The black sequin dress," Christian muttered before heading downstairs. The brothers went downstairs and headed towards the dance floor. Christian stopped a few feet away from the dance floor as soon as he had a clear view of the girl. Those familiar big blue eyes that seemed almost too large for her face, those delicate features, upturned nose, pale skin, her long brown hair, and her petite size were all too familiar. After all, he had just met her this morning; the ice-cream girl. Christian had found her attractive from the moment they met, but he was having trouble articulating just how amazing she looked at that moment. Those thin straps didn't seem strong enough to keep the dress on her body. It'd take only a small tug to get that dress off of her. Christian shook his head to get rid of his lust filled thoughts. He stopped in his place. No matter how attractive he found her, he was not going to approach that rude girl. Determined, Christian took a place in a booth. He wanted to observe her from a distance.
As the song ended, the girl and her group of friends went back to their booth, laughing and joking amongst themselves. Elliot joined Christian in his booth with their drinks. "We're stalking the girl? Seriously?!" Elliot hissed.
"Why would I stalk someone? Girls are desperate for me. If I wanted a girl, I won't have to stalk them," Christian scoffed arrogantly, taking a sip of his whiskey.
"So, you won't mind if I decided to approach her?" Elliot inquired with a mischievous smirk.
"Why would I care?" Christian said, disinterestedly.
Laughing at his brother's reaction, Elliot got out of his seat and headed towards ice-cream girl's booth. Christian watched with bated breath and narrowed eyes as Elliot greeted the girls.
"Hello ladies," Elliot said to the girls in the booth.
"Hello there," Kate replied leaning forward with a seductive smile on her face.
Elliot's smirk widened as he observed the blonde woman in front of him. Her seductive smile had caused movement in his pants. "Would you care for a dance?" he asked her.
"With pleasure," Kate took his hand and they headed to the dance floor.
"Seems like Kate has found her prey," Ana said with a smirk.
"Let's find ours," Alyssa suggested.
"I'm feeling lazy tonight. Next time," Ana said sipping from her drink.
"It's been a while. I want to have some fun," Chloe said with a smirk.
"Cool. Let's go," Alyssa dragged Chloe with her.
Ana got up from her seat and headed towards the washrooms. Christian followed her with his eyes, when he noticed a few men following behind her. Curious, he got up from his seat and followed them; he assured himself it was not because he was worried for the girl, but because he was worried about his club's reputation.
When Ana got out of the washroom, she found 3 men standing against the opposite wall. From the smiles on their faces, she knew they were waiting for her. She gave them a pleasant smile, hiding her nervousness. She knew these kinds of men. They enjoyed fear and helplessness. She was not going to give them that chance. "Hey, guys. Is it my lucky night tonight or what?" she stated with a confident smirk on her face.
"Hey, beautiful. We were watching you for a while and wanted to spend some time with you," the leader of the three said stepping closer.
"Of course. Why not? I would love nothing more than to," Ana paused. Stepping up, she ran her finger over his chest, "spend time with you, but I have two little conditions," she added.
"What conditions?" another man asked, impatiently.
"I want all three of you… at the same time," she whispered the last part, "and without any barrier. I want to feel you guys," she smiled seductively. The smile on the men's faces grew. No girl had ever placed this kind of condition. This girl was amazing. She wanted to have a gangbang.
Someone else was also hearing the group talk and was pissed. Christian didn't know why he was angry though. If she wanted to have relations with 3 men at the same time, why was he having trouble with it? It's not like she was anything to him. Shaking his head in disgust at his own behavior, he left.
"Shall we go then?" the leader offered.
"Sure… oh!" Ana stopped, giving them a sheepish look. "I think I should tell you, but should I tell you?"
"What are you talking about?" one of the men asked.
"I got my yearly medical report this morning… I'm HIV positive," she said. "I hope that won't stop us from having fun, right?" she offered them a bright smile.
"What?!" the men exclaimed.
"Don't worry, it's just a small matter," Ana waved her hand flippantly.
"I'm out, dude. I don't want HIV," one of the men said in disgust before getting out of there.
"Me neither," other guy also left.
"Um… I … uh…" the leader started stammering.
"What spoilsports those two were! We can still have fun, right?" Ana grabbed onto the man's hand.
"I just remembered I need to call my mom. BYE," the man squeaked before running away from there.
"Phew. Thank God!" Ana whispered before getting out of the dark hallway and making her way to the booth.
"You didn't go with your lovers?" someone asked as she was passing by them.
"Excuse me?" Ana replied, before turning around to find a man. He seemed familiar somehow. "Do I know you?" she asked with a frown.
"Wow! You forgot me already?" Christian mocked. "You ruined my two thousand dollar suit today? Remember?" he asked.
"You?! Again?! Twice in one day? Seriously?!" Ana huffed in disbelief. "Wait a minute… what lovers? What are you talking about? And why are you talking to me like you know me?" she asked.
"I was passing by when I recognized you. I… uh… I saw you with those men…" he trailed off. He was feeling silly. Why the hell he was still lingering here, he didn't know. He should've gone back to his booth or his private room upstairs, but he hadn't. He had waited around for this stranger. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard her.
"What a creep!" Ana said, grimacing.
"How dare you!" Christian shouted, furious. "Do you know who you're calling a 'creep'?"
"Why? You don't know who you are?" she questioned back, tilting her head.
"Of course, I know who I am," he replied angrily.
"Then why are you asking me, you creep?" Ana snapped.
"What? No… wait," he tried to protest, but Ana interrupted.
"Whatever!" she hurriedly walked away, leaving a frustrated Christian behind.
After staying at the club for another hour, Kate left with Elliot, Alyssa left with some man she found, while Chloe and Ana left for their house.
.
.
Next morning, Kate rushed to Ana's loft to wake her up. She knew they would be late otherwise. Knocking on her door relentlessly, Kate called out, "ANA! WAKE UP! ANA! OPEN THE DOOR!"
After knocking for ten minutes straight, a very sleepy Ana opened the door. "What's wrong with you?" she whined.
"We have an important meeting today. We need to check and recheck our presentation and files before that," Kate said pushing Ana aside and heading inside the loft.
"It's only 6 in the morning," Ana whined.
"It'll take you at least 2 hours to get ready," Kate said, amused by her best friend's whining.
"You bitch!" Ana muttered before stomping up the stairs to her loft.
Laughing at her comment, Kate followed her. "I'm selecting your outfit today. The company that bought SIP is Grey Enterprise Holdings, Inc. It's a massive holding company that makes a shitload of money. I don't think going there in a maxi skirt will leave the right impression," she said, heading to Ana's custom built closet. Getting no reply from Ana, Kate yelled, "I swear to God, Ana, if you're asleep in the shower, I'll spank you."
"I-I'm up," Ana mumbled from the bathroom.
It was clear to Kate that she had actually fallen asleep in the shower. Shaking her head in disbelief she kept going through Ana's clothes. She chose a white slim cut shirt with black suit skirt and black high heels. Happy with her choice, Kate headed out of the closet and laid the outfit on Ana's bed.
Ana returned from the bathroom a few minutes later. "I'm not wearing that," she said pointing at the outfit on the bed.
"Why not?" Kate asked.
"That looks like the outfit the secretary would be wearing in a 'boss-secretary' porn," Ana replied with a smirk.
Kate burst into laughter at her explanation. "What in the hell are you talking about? It won't even show your cleavage," she protested half heartedly.
"That's how the storyline starts. Don't you watch porn?" Ana asked, heading towards her closet.
Kate rolled her eyes. "I wish I didn't know that you binge watch porn sometimes," she muttered. "Don't choose anything unprofessional," she reminded loudly.
"You're no fun," Ana whined from the closet. A few minutes later, she returned with a black mid thigh length short dress. It had short sleeves, boat neck, and was backless. She added a pair of bright red high heels with big bows on the side. "You approve?" she asked snarkily.
"The owner of the company will fall in love with you seeing you in that dress," Kate commented with a smirk.
"I don't care as long as he approves of my contract," Ana stated as she disrobed and started getting dressed. She applied bright red lipstick, eyeliner, and a thick layer of mascara. She curled the ends of her hair to finish the look. Donning a pair of sunglasses, she declared, "I'm ready." Kate smiled and they headed down stairs to have breakfast.
Kate and Ana arrived at GEH just before 11 am. The receptionist gave them visitor's ID cards before showing them to the elevator. The elevator whisked them with terminal velocity to the twentieth floor. The doors slid open to a large lobby of glass, steel, and white sandstone. A young blonde woman, dressed immaculately in black and white, rose to greet them.
"Ms. Steele, Ms. Kavanagh, could you wait here, please?" She pointed to a seating area of white leather chairs. Behind the leather chairs was a spacious glass-walled meeting room with an equally spacious dark wood table and at least twenty matching chairs around it. Beyond that, there was a floor-to-ceiling window with a view of the Seattle skyline that looked out through the city towards the Sound.
Ana and Kate sat down. Ana started playing games in her phone as Kate started going through the file once more. "I'm glad we revised the presentation this morning," Ana said softly so that only Kate could hear.
"You're welcome," Kate replied, smiling.
"I don't hate you for waking me up so early anymore," Ana added.
"Good to know," Kate snickered, still not looking up.
A few minutes later, another elegant, flawlessly dressed blonde woman came out of a large door to the right. "Ms. Steele?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"I'm Andrea Parker, Mr. Grey's PA. Mr. Grey will see you in a moment. Have you been offered any refreshment?" Andrea inquired politely.
"Um… no," Ana replied exchanging a look with Kate.
Andrea frowned and eyed the young woman at the desk. Turning around, she asked, "Would you ladies like some tea, coffee, or water?"
"Coffee would be nice," Ana answered.
"For me too," Kate added.
"Olivia, please fetch Ms. Steele and Ms. Kavanagh some coffee," Andrea said sternly. Olivia scooted up immediately and scurried to a door on the other side of the foyer.
"My apologies, Ms. Steele, Ms. Kavanagh. Olivia is our new intern. Please be seated. Mr. Grey will be another five minutes," Andrea said.
Olivia returned with a tray. "Here you go, Miss Steele, Ms. Kavanagh," she said placing the tray on the coffee table in front of them.
"Thank you," Ana and Kate said before each taking a mug. Andrea and Olivia returned to the large desk, and both continued with their work.
About 10 minutes later, the office door opened and a tall, elegantly dressed, attractive African-American man with short dreads exited. He turned and said through the door, "Golf, this week, Grey?" They couldn't hear the reply. Olivia jumped up and called the elevator. The man soon departed through the sliding door.
"Mr. Grey will see you now, Miss Steele, Ms. Kavanagh. Do go through," Andrea said addressing them. "You don't need to knock… just go in," she added politely.
Ana nodded at Andrea before pushing the door open. She entered the room to find a man was standing with his back facing the door. She observed that he was tall, dressed in a fine gray suit, white shirt, with unruly dark copper colored hair. By then Kate had also entered the room. The sound of the door closing caused the man to turn around. Ana couldn't stop the surprised gasp that left her.
"YOU?!" Christian and Ana exclaimed at the same time.
.
.
.
A/N: What do you think about Christian? Do you like Ana and Christian's interaction so far? If you think they will be instantly in love, then let me tell you, they won't be. Hahaha.