"How the fuck did the man even get away with breaking the traffic rules." I later found out that he was arrested for breaking traffic rules, and regulations.
"Shit shit," I shouted, bringing out my phone and turning it on to check the time. There was no way in hell I was going to make it in time. The thing about me was that I was never late to appointments, but Manhattan traffic just had to choose today of all days to fuck me over.
Why did it have to do me like this when I had something important for today. It could have happened on any other day. Why today? I felt like crying, but I didn't cry. Big girls never cried.
I was supposed to meet up with Derek Payton by 9:00am, but it was already 9:30am. My God, I was getting anxious and I didn't like it when anxiety got the best of me because I couldn't focus. Once I was able to get a grip on myself. I continued driving.
"He better be used to late appointments. " I shrugged as I changed lanes and drove into a street. It was time to get started.
I'd never been to the restaurant, but I'd heard so many good things about it, so I suggested we meet there. It was suitable for a billionaire like him, and once in a while, I liked to get a taste of luxury since I wasn't rich, but from time to time, I could afford these things. I actually didn't know the directions. Google Map was what aided me.
The name of the restaurant was quite unusual though it sounded like it was going to be expensive, it sounded Italian, to be honest, that was the last thing I cared about. "BUON CIBO" which means good food in Italian.
I actually assumed that there was going to be paparazzi out there so I didn't dress too flashy, except I wanted the entertainment news to read .BILLIONAIRE , DEREK PAYTON WAS SEEN WITH A BLONDE IN MANHATTAN, NEW YORK.
I was a natural blonde and for the twenty-five years of my life, I had maintained being a blonde. Sometimes I would keep my look official during workdays and other times I would look like a badass while other times I would just look like typical Kalani–you know, the sweatpants, and hoodie with rough bun kinda vibe.
I was wearing a Grey sweater that was a little bit baggy, black jeans and black Chelsea boots. It wasn't official and that was what I was comfortable in. A slight touch of makeup was applied. I just went about with my normal skincare routine, put on some foundation, concealer, blush, and mascare. That was literally all. If anyone saw me, he'd or she would think I was the lead female in an action movie. It was just so cool to me.
...
BUON CIBO was all the words to describe classy, and pricey. It wasn't cut out for everyone. It had this vintage vibe going on with it coupled along with glass walls, and some things I could describe verbally, and mentally. The average person would break the bank if he or she visited here for seven days straight. Getting a bottle of water here was literally luxury. Talk more about getting a full meal. I was looking forward to having a taste.
A lot of people complained. Some said that they could go to a less expensive place and get better food. A lot of people had bad comments about the restaurant hence the three point five out of five star rating.
Derek parked his Maybach at an unnoticeable corner of the parking lot but everybody would have been quick to notice that the car was a fucking Maybach.
In his opinion, he wasn't wearing anything classy and he had his reasons. He was trying to avoid the paparazzi. He just wore a simple tee-shirt with black jeans and low biker boots that fit perfectly on him.
Anything he wore fit him perfectly.
He tried to dress lowkey to avoid hungry and desperate media houses taking pictures of him but passers-by did not fail to react, although he was able to hide his identity. He had the jaws of ladies and young women dropping.
They could not help but adore his six feet, seven inches figure and his hazel-colored hair that looked like he had run his hands through it multiple times. His square jawline couldn't also be excluded from his desirable features.
It was some minutes after nine when he arrived at the restaurant and had already waited over forty minutes for the supposed person that should have been there already. He called his assistant to find out if it was the right person she had spoken with.
He was getting pissed, people didn't usually waste his time rather it was the other way round. In his opinion, Kalani was acting like she was doing him a favor when it was the other way round.
"Where in the hell could this lady be?" He muttered staring at his expensive Patek watch on his wrist, already losing the little ounce of patience that was left in him. He could snap in no time.
The appointment was scheduled for nine and it was already nine forty-two already and the lady wasn't yet around.
He had ordered two bottles of water and had already downed them. He didn't want to find himself drinking in the daytime at a restaurant and in a city he knew little or nothing about.
He was about to order a third bottle of water when he saw a woman that was a little above five feet, curvy, blonde hair, and very attractive walk into the restaurant with a laptop bag and a handbag, each occupying one hand. She had to be his agent, she looked like what he saw on the media but even hotter in person.
Her curves on their own were a killer, she was short but she had the body to complement her height and she was so fucking pretty. Her style was simple and she still looked good, she didn't need to put in any effort to look good but he wasn't going to believe that she hadn't enhanced her body surgically, her mad curves evident of that.
He tried to take his mind away from thinking about her body, she was fucking late to the appointment and he was angry about it. He was as angry and at the same time couldn't stop looking at her body, he hadn't even noticed that she was already seated on one of the empty chairs by his table.
"Hello, I'm agent Kalani Monroe," She said as she opened the zip of her laptop bag that was already placed on the table.
There was barely anybody in the restaurant, just the waiter, the both of them, and a couple sitting by the other end of the restaurant.
"Are you always late to appointments?" He wasn't going to give room for any formalities and he needed to know why she was late? He had chosen to come to New York himself and he didn't even go with security to the restaurant, his personal assistant was back at their hotel working. He didn't take his time to come to the restaurant only to be taken for a joke.
He had a very terrible approach to people whenever he was very angry and he wouldn't even hold back what was in his mind.
Lani could see the anger in his eyes but it was definitely not her fault, she tried to make it early but the traffic just seemed to fuck everything up.
He could be mad for all she cared, she didn't have any control over traffic.
"Excuse me," she asked, pretending not to hear what he said.
Because he was some rich-ass billionaire didn't mean he could treat her like that on their first encounter, fuck him. He could shove his dumb contract up his
ass for all she cared. She didn't mean that though.
"I asked a question because I didn't come here to be taken for a joke" The anger in his eyes became more evident, he could break a table in no time.
"How is that supposed to be my fault?" She snapped back angrily. She wasn't going to take insults, she was late but at least he should have given her a chance to explain. He simply just exploded on her arrival.
"As you know I'm a very busy person and I don't appreciate when I'm not taken seriously"
"Tell me about it," she remarked sarcastically, raising her two eyebrows.
A simple I'm sorry could have fixed everything but that just didn't seem to happen when there were two proud people in a place.
If he was going to be an oik about it then she was ready to also be a bitch about it.
"Is that how your agency treats their clients, then if so I wonder who still goes there. You know, I could make the agency crumble within the blink of an eye" He remarked smiling. The waiter had been standing behind the counter observing the both of them, he didn't want to interrupt because there was a possibility that they were both going to insult him and drag him into the situation. He hadn't figured out that it was Derek yet.
"There's nothing you can do" Lani wasn't quite sure about her statement, she knew he could do anything and everything to make sure the agency crumbled but there was no way he was going to hurt her pride.
"If you think so" He smirked wickedly.
"If you're such an amazing agent then why haven't I heard about you anywhere. Don't tell me that all this pride is just for show"
Lani had already had enough, she wasn't sure she could take any of it any longer. She was going to end up doing something stupid and something she regretted.
" Tell you what, I'm done. Go find yourself a good agent that's going to take all your bullshit and stupid rantings because I'm as good as done here" She picked up her bags and got up to leave.
"Your bad. Your company is going to spend a lifetime searching" she yelled as she approached the door causing the couple that were at the other end to shift their gaze to her.
Derek was astonished and at the same time didn't give a flying fuck.
...
Lani was as angry as a raging beast when she arrived home. Derek had totally ruined her day, if he thought everybody was going to lick his feet because he had so much money the he definitely had to be wrong.
The look of frustration and anger surged on her face. She knew her boss was going to be mad, He would snap on the spot. What had happened could even trigger a job loss as the agency always took it's clients first no matter what went down. He was definitely not going to listen to her and hear her side of the story, she already knew her boss too well.
She had always tried to avoid such encounters with clients and it wasn't even an official appointment and if Artem found out it was going to increase the chances of her getting fired.
Fuck Derek, an unofficial appointment could make her loose her job.
She had worked so hard for every single thing, to give her a shot at the top but everything would end up ruined because of a silly appointment.
She had serious anger issues,if she was locked in a neat apartment and she was angry after her phase the apartment wouldn't be close to being recognizable.
She had the problem since she was little, sometimes people even said she had bipolar disorder.
She knew Anna-Leigh was going to call soon to ask how the appointment went but she wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone so she switched off her phone.
Her problematic mom too might have wanted to call. She wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone.
Annie was the only person she told about it. She didn't tell Danica, Camari and Gia, her other girlfriends. They would have gone bonkers on her. It wasn't like she wasn't going to tell them eventually but Anna-Leigh was the only one likely to keep her mouth shut, not like they weren't all blabbermouths though.
She wasn't prepared to lose her job, Artem wouldn't even take it lightly with her,that would have been one of the company 's biggest clients.
She found it hard to think and could not even think straight because Artem wasn't going to listen to the shit she had to say. It was not her fault, if he hadn't been so rude nothing would have happened. She didn't regret anything she did. maybe she regretted it a tiny bit because she was going to lose her job but damn.
She walked to the fridge to get herself a drink.
She needed it badly.
...
Maybe he had been wrong about the whole thing, there might have been a reason but from their first encounter he could tell that she was as proud as he was.
Derek sat on the bed, his hair was roughled with water trickling down his head.
He was downing a bottle of 1942 tequila. Alcohol was going to solve the problem for the moment.
He was going to make sure she lost her job and even if she did not get fired, he was going to make life hard for her.
Nobody had gotten on his nerves in a long time.
Even after his crazy thoughts he could not stop thinking about how pretty she was.
He was already getting a bit high. He sprawled across the bed and didn't even know when he slept off.
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A Night In Manhattan 
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