Amar tapped Tobias on the shoulder to wake him, then discreetly busied himself while Tobias woke Tris and began getting ready.
By seven o'clock Amar had the luggage in the car and was waiting at the hotel's front entrance when Tris and Tobias emerged ready for the day. He drove them to the airport's private terminal and right to a jet waiting with the steps down and a blue carpet rolled out in front of it.
"Oh my," Tris said, looking at the plane in awe. "I feel underdressed."
"You look beautiful," Tobias assured her.
Amar opened Tris' door and took her hand to help her out of the car. Tobias escorted her to the plane and up the stairs.
As Tris took in the plane's interior, a woman appeared and spoke to Tobias. "Mirëmëngjes, Tobias. Unë shoh që ju keni një mysafir."
"English please, Nita," Tobias instructed. "And yes, I do have a guest. This is my friend Miss Beatrice Prior. Miss Prior will be accompanying us to New York."
"Good morning," Tris said, prying her gaze from the plane's plush interior to greet the attendant. Nita wore a grey pencil skirt on her shapely body, and a pale blue button-down shirt that was open a button too far. Her dark hair was up in a perfect chignon, and she wore grey heels.
The flight attendant gave Tris and her skinny jeans, sneakers, and winter coat a disapproving once-over.
Tobias suggested that they sit side-by-side at the four-seater booth in the middle of the plane. Tris nodded, happy to let him lead.
"Nita, Miss Prior's coat?" Amar subtly scolded as he joined them.
The flight attendant gave Amar a scornful look and took Tris' coat. When she walked away carrying the garment as if it were infested, Tris pretended not to notice.
"I want the flight attendant replaced," Tobias said in a low but scathing tone to Amar. "She has been overly familiar with me and rude to you and Tris. I don't want her on another one of my flights."
"I'll take care of it," Amar said.
Nita reappeared, batting her overly made up eyes at Tobias. "Would you like a beverage?" she asked in heavily accented English.
"Coffee, please," Tobias said. Nita turned to leave when Tobias called her back. He said something to her in Albanian that was clearly scolding, but the only words Tris understood were "Prior" and "Amar."
Nita huffed softly and plastered on a fake smile before turning to Tris. "Miss Prior, can I get you anything?" she asked.
"I'll have coffee also, Nita. Thank you," Tris replied.
Amar asked for a bottle of water, and Nita returned quickly with the drinks before busying herself with her takeoff duties.
Once at cruising altitude, Tobias informed Tris that he and Amar had a teleconference scheduled with his associates in Albania. He asked if she would mind moving toward the front of the plane, where the chairs were wide and comfortable looking.
Tris agreed immediately, but before Tobias let her out of the booth, he made a motion to Amar. "I got you a little something for the trip," he confessed.
Amar pulled out a black case and slid it to Tris. She recognized the logo of a top audio equipment company. Unzipping the case, she pulled out a pair of rose pink wireless noise-canceling headphones.
"Now you can have peace when I have to work," Tobias said hopefully.
"These are amazing," Tris said, "and this rose pink is my favorite color. But you really need to stop buying me things. I would happily sit and read while you're working. I don't need fancy headphones."
"I feel bad that I've brought you as my guest and you're stuck listening to my meeting," Tobias said. "The headphones are really comfortable and have excellent sound. I have a pair myself."
"Pink?" Tris asked with a giggle.
"No," Tobias laughed. "Mine are black. I had Amar charge those for you so they're ready to go."
"It's time for the meeting," Amar said. "I'm sorry, Miss Tris."
"Please stop apologizing," Tris said as she slid out of the booth seat. "And thank you for the headphones."
Tobias kissed Tris' hand as she walked past them and took a seat near the cockpit.
All through his meeting, Tobias kept sneaking glances at Tris. She smiled shyly when she caught him staring, and he smiled back. At one point he got distracted watching her tap at her phone, and Amar had to bring his attention back to business. He was grateful when their meeting was finished and he could get back to the girl absorbing so much of his attention.
Tobias approached Tris, who was wearing her new headphones and engrossed in something on her phone. She didn't notice him at first, and it gave him a minute to observe her.
In the well-heeled circles Tobias had grown up in, he had been surrounded by beautiful people. Most of them proved to be skin-deep and completely artificial, only interested in designer fashion, expensive cars, spa treatments, or plastic surgery. Anything to project the desired image, and nothing that built real depth of character.
Tris was different. Tobias recognized that she was beautiful in a natural, girl next door way. She was also smart and strong. But what really made Tris stand out was her heart. She had zeal, a fiery passion, to help others. She was selfless to a fault, and unfailingly kind. When she was a teenager, she spent her summer in an unpaid internship to help people, and gave the only money she had to a stranger in need. When Nita snubbed her, Tris had treated the flight attendant with kindness. She always included Amar in their plans, and chatted with him as if he were a friend and not a member of the staff.
Tris was like no one he had ever met, and Tobias recognized in himself the base evolutionary desire to protect and provide for her. He was falling for her hard and fast, and going back to Albania was not going to be easy.
Tris startled when she looked up and realized that Tobias was right in front of her. She blushed furiously as she removed her headphones.
"The noise-canceling works well, doesn't it?" he teased.
"Too well," Tris said with a laugh as she quickly stashed her phone in her pocket.
.
Another black Mercedes was waiting on the tarmac when they landed in New York. Nita brought their coats and smiled her plastic smile as Tris and Tobias got off the plane. Amar, who usually went before them and held doors, stayed behind. No sooner had Tris' feet touched the blue carpet at the bottom of the stairs than she heard an angry screeching voice yelling in Albanian.
Tris startled, but Tobias chuckled. "You are lucky you don't understand Albanian," he said to Tris as he escorted her to the waiting car.
"Did he fire her?" Tris asked in shock.
Tobias nodded solemnly. "Nita does not work for me. She works for a service that provides our pilots and attendants when we need them. She was hired for this trip. She annoyed me all the way across the Atlantic, but the way she treated you and Amar was too much. He contacted her employer and requested a replacement. She will fly back to her home, and another stewardess will be with us next time."
"That's a lot of expense," Tris said. "Flying her back to Albania and flying another stewardess here."
"Her replacement will be American," Tobias explained. "The company works all over the world. They thought they were being kind when they sent an attendant who spoke Albanian, but I have stated before that I prefer English-speakers."
"Why?" Tris asked as they watched Amar get out of the aircraft and gather their luggage.
"Many of my business meetings are conducted in Albanian, and I don't need a stranger listening in. Besides, my English is fluent. An attendant who speaks only English would have no trouble with me, or Amar."
"Very true," Tris said. "I would have guessed that you were a native speaker if it weren't for your accent."
"I am a native speaker," Tobias said as Amar got in the car and began driving them toward the city. "Marcus insisted on speaking only English when I was a child. The nannies and other staff spoke Albanian, and my mother spoke Greek and English. She was from Greece and married my father without knowing Albanian."
"And how did your father come to pick English for the household?" Tris asked.
"English is the language of business, for the most part," Tobias explained. "It is also the language of my family heritage, and Marcus liked to impress people with his tenuous ties to English nobility.
"The first Tobias Marcus Eaton came to Albania in 1912 from England. He was in timber, and Albania declaring independence made him worry about his holdings. At the same time, he couldn't afford to maintain the family estate in England, so he followed the money and built up his timber empire and bank account in Albania with his English wife. He used his initials, so he was called T.M. Eaton.
"His son, my grandfather, was called Tobias, like me. He married a woman named Nora, who came from a notable Albanian family. Tobias the second took over some of her family assets and his own father's timber holdings, and he was the one who got us into the oil industry and made most of the family money. He was a workaholic, so Marcus was raised by his mother and the staff.
"Nora was a hard woman. I think that disappointment followed her all her life and made her the way she was. She was born noble, but not rich. She married money, but her husband had no time for her and had many mistresses. She wanted a large family, but was only able to have one child - my father, who went by Marcus. The communists changed Albania, and they had to live like they were not wealthy while her husband hid money in foreign accounts. She drove Marcus to be the best at everything and arranged his marriage to Evelyn, then hated her for the rest of her life. I barely remember her. Tobias the second died before I was born, and Nora lived with us until she died. I was still small then.
"Evelyn was from Greece, and her family was wealthy in the shipping business. Evelyn's father was friends with Aristotle Onasis, which I mention because you Americans know who was. Greece and Albania are neighbors, and the Eatons were old money with tenuous ties to British nobility, so her parents agreed to the match. I have few real memories with my mother. She was unhappy with Marcus and wasn't the nurturing type. I was raised by nannies and governesses, and Amar, of course.
"They spoke Albanian, so I speak Albanian. I also speak Greek because my mother made me learn it for when we visited her elderly parents. She died when I was nine years old, and I forgot a lot of my Greek until I got older and needed it again. So I speak three languages well, and a couple others not so well."
"What others?" Tris asked, awed by Tobias' knowledge of world languages.
"I speak some French because the French do not like to speak English, and some Mandarain because a lot of business is done in China now. I know tourist phrases in Italian and German from my travels. That's it."
"That's it?" Tris laughed. "I heard a joke once that I think you'll like. What word means someone who speaks three languages?"
"Um, trilingual?" Tobias said hesitantly.
"Right," Tris said. "And what is the word that means someone who speaks two languages?"
"Bilingual," Tobias said more confidently.
"Right," Tris said again. "And what word means someone who speaks only one language?"
"I don't know," Tobias said, wracking his brain for that particular word.
"American," Tris replied with a smirk.
Amar laughed loudly, and Tobias joined in. Tris smiled.
"I only speak English," Tris said sheepishly when the men stopped laughing. "I learned a little French in high school, but I only know a few words now."
"Do you know why Americans only speak English?" Tobias asked. "It's because your country is so big, and your neighbor, Canada, also speaks English. In the southern states that are close to Mexico, a lot of people speak Spanish, but generations of racism have even made that unpopular. Most business is done in English. All aviation is done in English. Americans learn another language in secondary school like a hobby, not because they need to. You have no need of another language, and no way to really practice unless you travel."
"Still," Tris argued. "We're not very good citizens of the world. We speak no other language, we're not on the metric system, and we use far more than our share of the world's resources."
"Do you know how that is going to change?" Tobias asked as they approached the hotel. "The only way that is going to change is if people like you and I decide that we are going to be different, and start a new trend.
"I looked at the generations of Eatons in Albania and decided I was going to be different. I put lumber workers to work planting trees instead of just tearing them down. I made sure that everyone who works for any part of my holdings is paid a fair wage. I put my voice and my money into fixing things that I thought were wrong. I did that because I saw that money hadn't made Marcus and Evelyn happy. It didn't make Tobias the second and Nora happy. It didn't make T.M. Eaton and Elizabeth happy. It made all of them miserable, and they all wasted their lives trying to get more money.
"When I die, I want Tobias Marcus Eaton the fifth, if God gives him to me, to be proud because I made the world a better place. I want him to be sad because he'll actually miss me. I want him to be strong because I loved him and raised him to be a good person. I don't want to build castles, Tris, I want to build a real life."
Tris choked back a sob and threw her arms around Tobias right there in front of the hotel, in the backseat of the Mercedes. He fiercely hugged her back, and Amar stepped out of the car before the hotel doorman could disturb their privacy.
"I'm so proud of you," Tris said. "You are a wonderful man, Tobias."
Tobias wept on Tris' shoulder. Those were words he'd craved all his life.
Amar and George cared for him, but as employer and employee there would always be a gap between them. Tris was the first person who really knew him for himself, and she was pleased with what she saw and proud of him. It was almost too much to believe, and he felt a lifetime of wounds beginning to heal.
"You made me who I am," Tobias choked out. "You showed me that I could be different, that I could be more. Your words gave me hope, and your friendship is the most precious gift I have ever been given."
"Tobias," Tris objected. "I'm not special. I'm just… I'm just nice."
"The world needs more nice people," Tobias said, smiling at Tris.
She smiled back shyly, then looked around. "Oh dear," she said. "I believe we've arrived at the hotel."
Tobias laughed as he wiped at his eyes. "Welcome to New York," he said to Tris. "We are going to have a great week."
.
The hotel suite at the Peninsula in New York was just as spectacular, though a bit smaller, than the one in Chicago. Because Tobias didn't plan to entertain business associates, he opted for a smaller suite in New York, though Tris thought it was still larger than her parents' whole house.
The suite was decorated in greys and black, but everything was plush, which kept it from feeling cold. The space included a living room with entertainment center and fireplace, a dining room, a study for Tobias to do his work, and two bedrooms, each with their own spectacular bathroom. Tobias insisted that Tris take the master bedroom. She resisted, but Amar backed him up and the two of them convinced her that they wouldn't be spending much time in their rooms anyway, and that she might actually use the big bathtub while Tobias would not.
It was lunchtime when they checked in, but since Tobias had an afternoon meeting, they decided to just order room service for their first meal in New York. Tris got Tobias to admit that Amar was also supposed to be involved in the meeting, though he kept trying to send his assistant with Tris shopping or sightseeing. Over lunch she convinced Tobias to keep Amar where he was needed, and planned to visit the Museum of Modern Art, just blocks from the hotel.
By the time they finished lunch, Amar had not only moved their luggage into their respective rooms, but had unpacked their bags and procured a pass to the museum for Tris.
She decided that the best thing for her to do was get out of the way and let Tobias and Amar focus on their business meeting. She grabbed her warm coat, purse, and hotel key, and caught the elevator back to the lobby.
On the flight Tris had downloaded an app on her phone to begin learning some Albanian. After their talk in the car, she was more determined than ever to pick up the strange language. She hoped that during their time in New York she could get Amar to help her practice, then surprise Tobias with her newfound skills. On the way to the museum, Tris listened to a few more phrases, practicing them in her head as she walked.
Tris enjoyed art, but modern art wasn't her favorite. MOMA had some strange things, but also recognizable classics. She spent hours wandering through the galleries. She even took a selfie in front of her favorite piece, Van Gogh's Starry Night.
She was in the museum store when Tobias texted.
4: I'm done working for today. Are you still at the museum?
T: I'm done looking at art and just wandering through the store.
4: Amar and I are coming to pick you up for dinner. Is that okay?
T: I'm in jeans.
4: Joe's Pizza won't care.
Tobias had clearly done his homework, or at least put his assistant on the job. Joe's was the quintessential New York pizzeria. And though it was nothing like the Malnati's she knew and loved, Tris had to admit that they made a good pie.
"What do you think?" Tobias asked when they finished eating.
"I think I'm biased," Tris replied. "What do you think?"
"I think New York pizza is more like Neapolitan pizza," Tobias said smugly.
"Neo-what?" Tris laughed. "Isn't that chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream in a container together?"
Tobias laughed. "Neapolitan - from Napoli. Or Naples, as you Americans say. It's the Italian city where pizza originated."
"And I suppose you've had pizza in Napoli," Tris teased.
"I have," Tobias said. "And someday I want to try it again, with you. There is pizza all over the world, Tris, we have lots of places to go before we've tried them all."
"We'll see how this trip goes first," Tris countered. "So far your private jet has made you look like a good traveling partner, but now I get to see what you're really like. Maybe you're a slob, or you snore."
She smirked at Tobias, and he threw his head back and laughed heartily. That Tris could joke about his wealth meant that she was getting more comfortable with their differences.
"You slept on the couch with me last night," Tobias said, "so you already know I don't snore. And I can't be a slob, because Amar follows me around and cleans up after me."
"Ah yes," Tris continued to tease, "your manservant. If we're going to travel the world just to eat pizza, we really ought to let him bring George along."
"George owns his own business," Tobias said. "I really doubt he'd leave his shop in his sister's hands just to eat pizza."
"What kind of shop?" Tris asked as she took a sip of her soda.
"Tattoos," Tobias said, and Tris nearly choked on her drink.
"Really?" she asked. "Tattoos? That is not what I expected!"
"Really," Tobias replied. "George and his sister Tori are talented artists."
"Do you have any ink?" Tris asked.
"I do," Tobias said.
"What? Where?" Tris asked eagerly.
"Not on the second pizza," Tobias said with a wink. "Too soon." They laughed for a moment, then Tobias offered to show Tris his tattoo later.
The weather was good, so they walked back to the hotel rather than call Amar to come get them. Along the way they took in the sights through Bryant Park and up Fifth Avenue.
Tobias had early meetings scheduled with European contacts and afternoon meetings scheduled in Manhattan, so they decided to end the day early. Tris and Tobias stood in the hallway between their bedrooms and looked at one another for a moment.
"Goodnight, Tobias," Tris said, breaking the silence. "I hope your business goes well in the morning."
"Thank you," Tobias said. "Amar is available for you tomorrow. Sleep as long as you want, then call him. He'll bring you breakfast and you can plan what you want to do after that."
"Will you be working all day?" Tris asked. "Can we have lunch together? Maybe I can ride along when Amar takes you to your meetings in the afternoon."
"I'd like that," Tobias replied, kissing Tris on the forehead before they parted for the night.
Because it was earlier in Chicago, Tris called her parents and told them all about Tobias' jet, the hotel suite, and her afternoon at MOMA. When she hung up, she texted with Christina for a bit, then went through some more Albanian lessons.
Snuggled in the big, luxurious bed, Tris had no trouble falling asleep.