Chapter 2 Pompous

Third Person Pov

Dayton tech was a tech company–one could tell from its name, known worldwide and there was this mentality that devices that came from the company were for the rich, their products were quite expensive like some people said. Others said that it wasn't worth the money and they would rather get something cheaper and worth the money. An online survey was conducted to know what the majority of the public felt about Dayton tech.

About sixty percent of the public said it was excellent, twenty-five said it was good, while the rest had one thing or another to complain about which was very much normal. Every product, no matter how good, always had someone or something to complain about. It was just business. The reviews could never be a hundred percent no matter how good the devices were.

Dayton tech headquarters was located in Bath, England. A lot of branches were situated all around the world. A branch was located in New York already, in its capital city of Albany but stakeholders suggested that another branch be situated in an entirely different region of New York, hence the reason why Lucy Barrels contacted Kalani Monroe.

"When is my next appointment before the agent from Artem Gutler?" Derek asked, his eyes drilling into Aliya, his personal assistant's soul.

"Sir you currently do not have an appointment until Artem Gutler."

"Have I been referred to anyone?" He asked.

"Um, yes sir actually. I did my research and stumbled on this really good real estate agency in New York and they were rated about four and a half stars out of five so I think it's really good. I also consulted some of their past clients and they testified about the agency being very good. Aliya responded. "In fact, Lucy has spoken with one of the best from the agency, and the deal is in fact sealed, but I'm hoping to shed more light.

"What is the name of the agency? I would also like to do my research. I could suspend tonight's work." Derek asked.

" Artem Gutler agency, somewhere in downtown Manhattan." She responded.

"And may I know who my agent is? The way Derek was looking, it seemed as though someone had pissed the hell out of him. It wasn't new since he was rarely ever seen with a smile. One would have to work too hard to see those lips curve. The man was all work.

"She joined the agency about a year ago and had turned it from being good to even better." Aliya said, hoping those words would impress Derek, but no, it didn't. It felt as though she added fuel to the fire.

"Aliya this isn't new to you, you and I both know that most of those ratings are as good as shit. This is America, not England, you can't be too certain about anything. I've been referred to many groups here in Manhattan but I don't think their agencies here are good enough. If it gets worse then I think I'll have to find myself a private agent that doesn't work for any agency." He had this terrible habit of condemning things that weren't from England or things he generally wasn't used to. It wasn't tribalism. The man just needed to feel satisfied.

"Sir, I actually have evidence that the agency is very good, they started almost ten years ago," Aliya replied. Putting up with her boss's attitude for the past four years wasn't easy but since her paycheck had more zeros than a usual personal assistant, she had to put up with it. If she reacted, she'd get fired, and wouldn't earn so much any longer.

"How far are we from New York?" Derek asked.

"Umm, it's about ten hours fifty-five minutes so approximately eleven hours. We still have a long trip ahead." Aliya replied.

"That's a long flight, I need rest." He said, walking into his personal space on the plane. He took his jacket, and shoes off before stretching out his legs, and sleeping. In his sleep, he looked so peaceful, and if the man wasn't popular, one would mistake him for a kind gentleman.

...

After a long flight, they landed in New York, ready for an adventure.

"Mr Payton, the ride from the airport to the hotel is about fifty minutes and we've already taken care of the paparazzi issue, they are not likely to be there today and if they are then there's security." Aliya was trying to catch up with her boss, on the aircraft stairs. He was taking three steps at a time making it hard for her small figure to catch up with his large one. She was clearly out of breath.

"And how good is the hotel?" He asked using his fingers to run through his hazel-colored hair, he hadn't had a clean shave in almost a week because of work.

"It's rated five stars, sir and it's located around downtown in the city."

"I don't like to believe those ratings." He was walking towards his Maybach already parked in the airport with his driver standing next to it.

"I think it's really good." Aliya found it hard to breathe, she had been running and trying to catch up with her boss who's one step was almost two and a half of hers which made it very much impossible to catch up with him. Her hair had already been messed up.

"It doesn't seem too bad after all." He said as he looked around the luxury hotel driveway.

He had only been to New York once, when the company was opening a branch in the capital city of the state about two years ago and he didn't even spend up to a week there so he hardly knew anything about the state.

"What agent did you say I was meeting with again?"

" The agent you will be working with is Kalani Monroe. " Aliya responded, panting.

With that, Derek turned around and got into the hotel. Aliya clearly did not know what to do. She still followed his lead, anyway. It wasn't as though she was going to follow him to his room. It would be so absurd, and awkward.

It was late, and darkness had engulfed the surrounding, 9:00pm specifically, but Derek wasn't asleep, no. He'd kept Aliya up. They were on the lounge chair of the hotel by the pool.

"I hope it doesn't turn out to be another disappointment," he said, his British accent making it sound so sexy.

"Mr. Payton, it really would be useless to worry since I did an in-depth research. It isn't just anyone. Miss Monroe is good." Aliya nodded, sighing. It definitely was time for her to retire to her room, but she wasn't going anywhere until Derek told her to leave. She hoped it would be very soon.

Two hours later, Derek gave his secretary permission to go to bed. Aliya was so thankful because she needed to get some sleep. It was going to be a challenging week. Her fingers were sore as well after spending so much time typing.

Derek walked into his room, and the name that was in his head was Kalani Monroe. He'd thought about how she looked for as long as Aliya had told him about her. The name peeked his interest, and so he decided to look up his supposed real estate agent on social media, she definitely had to have social media since it was a requirement for most agents. He took his laptop and entered her name on social media. The suggestions were that many, so he went with the first one that appeared. Her profile picture didn't give too much detail about her. The total number of pictures on her profile amounted to three, and from the quality, Derek could tell that none of them was recent. He still couldn't help it. He clicked on it.

Those pictures were uploaded four years ago, and so much would have changed about her. Maybe she wasn't the social type. He was quick to notice her lush curves, and her shoulder length blonde hair–it was what stood out for him.

In one of the pictures, she was in a flower shop smiling. In the next one, she was at the beach, one of her hands on her waist while the other placed firmly on her hat. The last post was a picture of her toes.

Maybe a tiny part of him was looking forward to meeting her.

Derek spent his entire night on the internet and on social media. He wasn't really a media person but being so popular, rich, and also owning one of the world's largest tech companies, it was mandatory for him to have social media accounts. He hardly visited his profiles–he had a team specially for that, but he thought he might as well scroll some more since he'd already visited the apps.

After scrolling for a while, he found himself going back to Kalani's profile. He hated to do this when he hadn't even met her, but Derek couldn't help it. It wasn't this easy to catch his attention, but fuck if Kalani's pictures were doing it so easily. If she was truly the agent assigned to him then he was going to find it too hard to concentrate on anything she was saying. He wasn't one who really cared about women and their feelings. Getting into relationships wasn't just his thing, and he was never afraid to let them know.

It was so crazy that all he had to do was look at Kalani's pictures to get those thoughts rummaging through his head. Kalani fucking Monroe was a challenge.

Many women had thrown themselves at him because of his money and his good looks. Some women would even try to get pregnant for him so they could make something off his fortune but he had always been wise. He had worked hard since day one and wasn't going to allow any woman to wreck him because of sex. It was something he could get anywhere. He had all it took

In the past, American tech companies were always leading, but about six years ago when Dayton launched, it took over the tech industry. It was an insanely large name worldwide, and desperate women would do anything to have their names tied to Derek Payton.

...

It was a Sunday evening and Kalani came out of her cozy apartment to take some fresh air. It had been a while since she came to the beach at the back of her apartment. The sun was out, and it was so fucking hot.

She took her sunscreen, some food, her phone and laptop to reply to her emails, and a piece of cloth to lay on the floor. She had spent her whole one week break watching Netflix. Social media popped up in her head, and she remembered that she hadn't posted on those apps in ages. All she ever did was scroll through, and once she got tired, she'd go off for a long, long time. She was contemplating on posting today since it had been four years since any social media app had smelled her picture. She knew she was going to be having tons of notifications by the time she opened the apps.

Kalani set a ten seconds timer on her phone, and posed for as many pictures as she could. Once she got home, she planned on posting them. She took multiple selfies as well, making silly faces in some of them.

She was going to be returning to work the following day which was Monday, and would be insanely busy for the rest of the week and she knew she would not be having time to check her emails so she decided to chill out at the beach and check them.

"Holy fucking shit." The emails were so many, and it had just been a week. How in the hell did someone get so many of those in such a short period of time?

Turning off her phone, Kalani inhaled, and exhaled, preparing herself for what was to come.

Damn, there were a lot of messages. A lot of people needed a mortgage and some needed her to be their realtor for their houses but she was booked for the week. She had an appointment with Derek Payton and it wasn't a house, it was an official building and office buildings were always massive, so she knew the type of work she was in for during the week. She wasn't even mentally prepared.

Her eyes kept scanning as her hands kept scrolling until her eyes landed on an email from someone familiar.

"Jesus Christ. How many times will this lady email me?"

Derek Payton's secretary had emailed her so many fucking times within the course of seven days. She could remember telling her on the phone that she was taking the week off last Saturday.

She must have called her official number so many times. Too bad that number was switched off. That had been the case for about a week now.

She'd been catching up on her shows.

It was a normal thing for her during the weekends. She would binge-watch Netflix on Fridays and Saturdays and then her friends would come over on Sunday, or they would talk about anything and everything for hours. Then she would call her mother, and her mother would rant to her.

Very Typical of Kalani.

After responding to the email from Dayton tech, she packed her half eaten food, and all she brought along with her and went back into her apartment since it was getting too hot outside.

She turned on the phone she used for work, and went to her recent calls before dialing Lucy Bartels' number

It didn't even take a second for her to pick the call. It felt as though Kalani's call was one she'd been expecting for ages.

"Hello, Miss Monroe. I'm glad you finally picked," Lucy said with a sigh of relief. It seemed like she had been meaning to get something off her chest for days.

"Hello." Kalani said, running her hands through her hair.

"I hope there's no problem." She tried to seem concerned

"I've been getting a lot of calls and emails from my boss, he's said for me to arrange a nice restaurant where you guys could meet up on Tuesday as your official meeting would be on Thursday but he wants to know the type of group he's working with," Lucy said.

"His words, not mine." She chuckled.

Lani didn't find it funny, the lady was just laughing for stupid reasons and for reasons best known to her.

"I'm sorry but we do not arrange for unofficial meetings as such in Artem Gutler. If your boss needs to know me, he could search my profile on the group's website, everything he needs to know is stated there. " She stated.

"Alright then. I will get back to you later..."

She did not even finish the call before Kalani cut it. She had heard all the necessary things she had to hear. It was enough for one day.

She threw her phone on the couch before storming into the kitchen to make dinner. She had to turn the Air conditioner on because she was hot. The sun had set, but she was sweating.

A while later she got an email from an unknown user, she later got to know that it was from Derek Payton, he had personally emailed her himself stating that they met on Tuesday before the real job began.

"Goodness me, now the boss himself is emailing me. This is insane." In as much as she acted like she wasn't all that pleased at the news, her body betrayed her as butterflies formed in her belly.

She was able to exchange a couple of messages and she finally agreed to his unofficial outing. She picked the place though. If the deal was successful then she was going to be having a lot of zeros added to her account.

Once she was done making dinner, she edited her pictures, and posted them.

"Hola Mama," Kalani said, her mum calling again. The usual thing had happened with her best friend Anna-Leigh in the morning. Anna-leigh had to come over screaming at Lani to pick up her phone because Kalani's mother had called so many times.

"Hola Mama,"

{Translation: Hello Mum}

"Hola Lani, te he echado de menos." Her mother responded.

{ Hello Lani, I've missed you}

"Hola, pero ya hable contigo en. " Lani said to her angrily. Her mum was used to always calling her. Maybe she thought that since she was her daughter she should be speaking to her on a daily basis .

{Hey mum, but I already spoke to you}

"Lo sé, cariño, pero eso no es suficiente." Her mum sulked.

{I know how, but that's not enough}

"Mamá. Por favor, vaya directo al grano. No tengo tiempo" Lani said angrily, the anger in her tone became more obvious.

{Mum, please just go straight to the point, I do not have time}

"Lani quiero pasar más tiempo contigo"

{Lani I want to spend more time with you}

"Crei que tenias novio"

{I thought you had a boyfriend}

"Que rompimos al" she sobbed

{We broke up}

"Ohh okay so now you remember that you gave birth to me, huh? I would warn you about stupid men and you would still date them then come and report to me." She was quick to snap. Since her mother's divorce from her father, it had been from one man to another, and then when they broke up or something went wrong, she would call and start crying and expect Lani to abandon her work because of her. Sometimes she acted like a child.

"Almudena baby don't say that. " Her mum sulked. It was iconic how both of them would switch from Spanish to English within seconds.

"You know I love you regardless, I was just saying I needed to spend more time with you, I know you've been busy, but it would not be bad to come over to the states sometime soon," Nadine said.

"Mum, first of all, I've told you I do not like it when you always speak Spanish to me every time, yes, you're my mum and you're Puerto Rican, but dad is American. I know I have Puerto Rican heritage, but I don't really like to speak it. Second of all, you can't come ma'am. I've got a lot going on at work right now, new contracts and stuff, and having you over would just be more trouble and lastly, go fix your boy problems. I'm tired of hearing different names. It's Damien today, it's Arias tomorrow. Mum please I'm busy, I'll call you when I'm less busy." Lani said, She was damn too eager to end the call.

"Ok baby, but I still have a lot to talk to you about and I don't want you complaining so I'll talk to you later bye."

"Bye mum, love you." She cut the call and gave a heavy sigh of relief. She later sent a text to Anna-Leigh.

Lani:So my mum's called back again, usual boy drama

Anna-Leigh :😂😂What was wrong with this one this time, did he forget to give her some vitamin D

Annie could be such a bitch sometimes.

Lani:Shut up, you're not different from her😑

Anna-Leigh :At least my ass kept my nigga home😂😂😕

What's up babe, we've not talked real talk inna while

They had both been busy with work, Lani was busy being a real estate agent while Annie owned a boutique, well not so over the top but at least she could pay the bills.

Lani:Nothing, just the usuals, work, and stuff........ And ohh I forgot to tell you Dayton is setting up another structure here in Manhattan and i was assigned to be the company's agent😁😎😜... The damn secretary and personal assistant would not leave me be for the whole week, they kept ringing

Anna-Leigh :Ouuuuuu😳😳😳😳, Baby I'm prouda u😌

Lani:Why shouldn't you😝

Anna -Leigh:Omg I'm so proud ☺️😘❤️... I gotta go now I have work to do.... Byeee😍. FYI, I saw the picture you posted today, and trust me when I tell you that I celebrated when I saw it. I thought you were done with social media. 😉