Chapter 3 The board meeting

Xavier arrived a bit late for the meeting, a man in a black suit holds the door open as he steps out. His presences at the King's oil company causes a sudden uproar. Light flashes on his face, every reporter trying their best to get him to speak. They asked questions after another,

"Mr. Xavier, how do you feel after securing a major deal with Saudi Aramco over the weekend?" one reporter asked.

Another reporter throws in another question,

"Mr. Xavier, what is next for King's Oil Company after such a massive success?"

Xavier ignores all questions thrown at him, a group of men in black suit clears the way for Xavier. The men in black suit obstructing the reporters and photographers from coming in contact with him. Xavier wakes gracefully into the company.

All staffs who saw him stood still out of respect for his position, all slightly bowing their heads to greet. Xavier takes very confident step, he walked pass all the staff that met his gaze. His presence at the company, sure does has an effect on all his staffs.

Some men in black suit trailed after him, they approached the elevator and Peter punched the buttons on the elevator. The elevator door opens and Xavier makes his way in with all his men who followed after him.

Putting both hands in his pockets, he stood unshaken with his gaze fixed on the door of the elevator. The doors opens up, letting everyone in the elevator out. He walked towards the conference room with one hand stuffed into his pocket. He uses the other hands to slightly glized through his short well slicked back hair. Peter his right hand man followed suit holding a file, he tries to keep up with him. Xavier pauses at the door, he proceeds to ask Peter to hand over the file, Peter does as told. He quickly scans through it and hand it back to Peter, one of his men holds the door open. The door closes after Peter, who got in alongside Xavier.

The meeting was ongoing with everyone voicing out their contribution, Xavier's presence caused them to halt, he takes his seat and urging them to continue. The meeting resumes with everyone discussing about the company gain in recent months. The projector shows a scale, indicating the increase rate of the purchases of the company's shell oil. Someone next to the projector changes the slide and explains what it meant.

Adrian leans in towards Xavier's ear, he whispers, "What took you so long?"

Xavier whispers back, "Nothing at all, something just came up."

Adrian gives him a stare, he looks clueless, as he thought of what could possibly come up. Xavier sees the look on his face and closes in on him. Telling him, "I'll give you a rundown later."

Throughout the meeting, every director tabled their questions and also contribution towards the issue discussed. Everyone participated one way or the other except from Xavier.

His eyes were fixated on the projector but his thought were elsewhere. The lady he saw few minutes ago, had captivated his mind. Questions steered up inside him, "Who is she?"

"Why can't I get my mind off her?" with one rhetorical question came another. Adrian notices his brother's absent-mindedness, his attitude at the meeting seems to be a bit off. The Xavier he knew, would want to be clarified on every single issue discussed. He always had some meaningful contribution or another, making their meeting taking longer than planned.

The meeting soon comes to an end, everyone sat eager to hear what Xavier had to say. Xavier notices their piercing stares, he adjusts himself to address them. His body in an upright posture, he places both hands on the table. He addresses them, "I think that was a lovely presentation," he said, commending them. "Let's do our best to keep it up, and a big thank you to everyone present," he further added.

He calls the meeting to an end, making his way out as Peter trailed along.

Xavier arrives at his office, a man in black suit held the door opened for him. The secretary stood up on seeing the CEO approaching, she greets him as he makes his way in. In the office Xavier takes his seat leaning into his chair, he rotates the chair. Peter takes his seat waiting for Xavier's instructions on what to do next.

"Sort the documents. I'll get back to you on what to do next," Xavier says, portioning out an order to him.

Peter stands to take his leave but is stopped by Xavier, "Make an arrangement for an artist that does good portraits," he said.

"Okay, sir. I'll do just that," Peter answered before exiting the office.

Xavier relaxes into his chair, he has flashbacks of Ava's face. Her beautiful eyes, they both had a troubled look to them. All he wanted was for her to be his forever, to turn that worried look to a cheerful one. He kept thinking of her for thirty minutes straight, ignoring the work that piled up on his desk.

This was indeed love at first sight, the harder he tried to brush it off, the stronger his feelings for her gets.