Chapter 3 New ownership

"Effective immediately, this company is under new ownership-Steele International."

HR-.

I stare at the email. I click over and over again in an attempt to Refresh and refresh.

Surprise!

Nothing changed.

"The Xavier Steele?" Sophie leans over whispering conspiratorially.

Today she was dressed in a pencil brown skirt that hit just above her knee, a monochrome blouse and a gold chain belt that sat carelessly across her hips, no jacket, but I didn't need it anyway.

"Xavier Steele?"

"You don't know Xavier Steele?!" Sophie screams causing eyes to turn to us.

Raven's eyes meet with mine and we break eye-contact instantly.

Dave's reprimand has not made her any nicer to me but she has not specially gone out of her way to make my life terrible.

For that, I'm grateful, since I'm no longer in my self-destruct mode.

"Is he someone important?"

"S0meone important?" Sophie looks at me with incredulous eyes.

"Like a NEPO baby, you know?" I say.

"How on earth did I think you were better than me?." Sophie scoffs.

I brush the brunt of her backhanded insult, "Are you going to talk about Mr. Xavier Steele or not?"

"Keep the Mr. out of your mouth Hazel, because Xavier's a treat!"

"So like a pretty Nepo baby?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Shut up. He's better than that. You should be tied to the stake for speaking about Xavier Steele this way." Sophie replies shaking her head at me.

"Whatever. I'll look him up online." I grab my phone.

"Don't!" Sophie holds her palm out in an attempt to stop me.

I roll my eyes in response.

"Honestly. This man should be described to you, not just by seeing. It's like chocolate fudge caramel cake. The sight is beauty but the taste describes heaven."

I sigh. Sophie's crazy. Plus I don't really think chocolate fudge caramel cake tastes like heaven.

"The first thing you should know is that Xavier Steele is a crazy man. By your standards and every other person's standards about his background, then yes, he qualifies as a Nepo baby. BUT! He's not your random trust fund baby."

"I'm following you Sophie. Go straight to his business mannerisms. How is he like?"

"I'm getting there, chill the fuck out. So, his first business was in real estate when he turned 17 years old. he expanded into the construction industry with the profits from real estate but after a year, he sold the company. Mind you, the construction company was also successful. He said he sold it because he didn't feel called to solve the problem of the construction industry." Sophie raises her index finger up.

"It sounds like he's great with business." I say flippantly.

"It's greater than great. Since the construction, he's built a conglomerate of businesses in Fashion, Tech and Electronics. Recently, during an interview, he declared his interest in Cars and buying a company."

"Buying not building?"

"Asking the right questions." Sophie smiles and I'm mesmerized by a fraction of a second on how beautiful her smile is.

"Xavier Steele is not just respected but also feared in the business world. Why is that?" Sophie picks up her pencil and starts drawing invisible circles on our shared desk.

"How would I know? I don't even know the guy, how much more why he's feared." I frown.

Sophie giggles, throwing her hands up in the air, "That's because he's deeply invested in M&A."

"Buying and Selling of companies?"

"Yup. He acquires them, folds them out, squeeze out every last penny and sells them for bits, all without running any loss on them. I tell you Hazel, all business venture this man has gone into has only been a success."

"So he's great at what he does."

"That's not it alone. His face looks like -------------------"

"I see. But if he's majoring in acquisition and sales of companies, doesn't that mean he's going to sell our company as well?" I interrupt her.

Sophie pauses then shrugs, "He doesn't really sell companies that are in his major nicheee. You get?" she says drawing out the word niche.

"Nope. I don't understand."

"Goodness, you're terrible at this."she rolls her eyes at me.

"Gossip, maybe." I respond with a half-hearted shrug.

"We deal in electronics and he has Electronics as one of his major business activities. So, he's probably just going to acquire and merge."

"That goes against normal business laws. He's supposed to expand his market and move into different industries."

"Probably removing the competition. I thought you weren't concerned. Why are you asking?" Sophie regards me curiously.

"I'm concerned. People have been known to lose their jobs after a merger or acquisition."

Sophie rolls her eyes at me, "Xavier Steele wouldn't even have time for your bullshit. He's the one who founded Zerf-AI."

"He founded Zerf?!"

"Welcome to the real world" she snorts.

"Wow, so he's that good. What will then happen to our CEO and board of directors?"

"What the fuck is your business with caring for people who don't give a shit about you?" Sophie snaps.

"All I know is that, I'm not concerned about people that do not pay me the same salary as they collect. Plus, they settled this without informing us."

I shrug. I could see Sophie's point, and although I didn't agree with her, it'd be a crazy thing for me to try argue with her.

"Oh, here is his picture. Isn't he so yummy?" she shoves her phone in my face and I'm forced to suddenly lean back to get my eye focus back.

"I told ya!. You're fucking speechless. This man is so fine." she giggles, punching me in the shoulder with her free hand.

"It's not that." I whisper, my eyes glued to the phone.

"Then what?"

I pause staring at phone and then her and then the phone.

How do I say I made the biggest mistake of my life this week?

Because my eyes are currently staring into green eyes belonging to the bastard who spilt his coffee on me.

Correction.

Handsome Greek god/Coffee bastard is about to be my boss.