Chapter 2 The Offer

ALEXANDER'S POV

I finally got to work at about 10 minutes to 9, walked into the building, and took the elevator up to the penthouse where my office was. I walked past a couple of staff and they all greeted me but I was in no mood for unsolicited greetings because there was absolutely nothing good about my morning!

Got into my office and just stopped for a while. I took a glance around the room, walked towards my desk, and for a moment I just stood there and romanticized the slate engraved with my name and position on it. At that moment it all hit me again.

I can't afford to lose all of these, hell no I can't! I've worked so hard to get this far and no one has the right to take it all away from me!, but for that not to happen, I knew I needed a plan, and fast!

I went around the table, pulled out my chair and just buried myself into it. A million thoughts were running through my mind. I knew I needed to act fast but somehow I remained blank because, marriage?, has never even been on the table for me, but now I'm being coerced to do it within a month.

I leaned back into my chair, my hands clenched into a fist, my eyes surveying the vast cityscape outside the floor-to-ceiling window, with my mind consumed by the impending crisis that threatened to dismantle my entire empire. The weather was pretty nice for such a shitty day, I sighed.

I took a deep breath as my mind still paced back and forth, thinking of who on earth I was supposed to get married to. I scoffed at the absurdity of it all, as I replayed the words of the lawyer in my head.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. "Come in," I said. It was my secretary, Emma Davis. At that moment it all pieced together!, Yes!, Her!, I thought to myself, with my blue eyes gleaming so brightly. She's the perfect fit! Emma and I have worked together for the past 4 years, she's the one person who has had a constant presence in my life.

There was a little ray of hope now, but I knew full well it was going to be no easy task convincing her to agree to contract marriage, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Mr Alex" Emma called out and I snapped back into reality. "Forgive me, I was caught up in a web of my thoughts for a moment," I said. "That's alright, you have a board meeting in 10 minutes sir," she said. "Alright, thank you," I said as she walked out of my office. I needed to get myself together, I couldn't afford to be caught engrossed in my thoughts during the board meeting.

I walked over to the coffee machine and made myself a cup of coffee. I needed the caffeine to wake me up and give me that boost I needed and it worked. I went off to the meeting and in no time, we were done. On my way out of the conference room, I asked Miss Emma to see me in my office after she was done.

I got back into my office, took off my suit jacket, and swung it around my leather chair as I sat down. A couple of minutes later, Emma walked into my office. I felt my feet and fingers go numb as it was time to let the cat out of the bag.

"You asked to see me, sir," she said. "Yes Emma, I did. I have a proposal for you" I replied. She stood there across the table with so much confusion in her eyes as she asked "A proposal?".

I got up, hands folded behind my back, as I paced back and forth the length of my office, pondering on how to break it to her. "Yes, a proposal ", I finally answered breaking the silence. At this point, I stopped pacing, turned in her direction, and just blurted out " I want us to get married".

The shock on her face was unexplainable. I could see her fingers fidgeting even from a distance. "Us? get married?" she answered shakingly. I moved closer as I began to explain the situation and the content of my father's will to her.

"I need time to process all of this" she replied still fidgeting. "That's alright, I understand Emma," I said. "Thank you, and good day sir," she said as she hurriedly walked out of the room.

EMMA'S POV

"Such a silly dream!"I giggled. This is a dream yeah?, it has to be a dream, I thought to myself as I walked over to my tiny desk, almost missing my steps. I grabbed my phone, called my roommate Sarah, and asked to meet up at our usual spot since it was only a few minutes before my closing hour.

I clumsily arranged the files on my desk, wrote out my boss's schedule for tomorrow, and rounded up work for the day. It was half past 5 already, so I took the elevator down to the last floor and got a taxi headed to Cheers, a bar where I and Sarah always met after work.

"A glass of cold beer," I said to the waiter as I settled into the chair. Sarah hadn't arrived yet, as usual, a classical latecomer, she was never on time for anything. I buried my head in my hands as I replayed the words of my boss in my head. I scoffed at the absurdity of it all.

A thud on the table interrupted my train of thought, it was Sarah. "Hi babes," she said as she grinned so widely. "Took you forever," I said as I rolled my eyes at her. "How was work, you look like you got run over by a train, you good?" Sarah asked. "Hell no, I'm not good. The craziest shit happened at work today" I replied.

"Well, what's with the suspense, fill me in!" she said. The waiter interrupted our conversation for a moment as she brought our drinks, I ordered one for Sarah already, cause I knew she was going to be late as usual.

"My boss asked us to get married," I said. She spat out the drink stuffed in her mouth in shock. "Crap!, you've got beer all over the place now" I shouted. "Sorry babes, but you just dropped a bomb, what were you expecting," she said and once again, I rolled my eyes at her.

"Is this a joke?" She asked. "Damn, I wish it was" I replied. I explained the content of the will to her and she was dumbfounded. "So you're getting married to your boss" she teased me with a smirk on her face.

"Can we just skip that, I've had one hell of a day" I said. We chatted a little more, and after a couple more drinks we called it a day and headed home together.