“Sir.” Ashley was at the door, her expression was not looking good, and she interrupted Joshua’s thoughts.
“What is it?” Joshua was sitting quietly in his chair, he looked like a statue, but his voice was as sharp as ever.
“Your Arabic partners are asking for a phone conference.”
“Connect them.” He pressed a button on the side, and behind him on the screen appeared a big face.
“Mister Caunter, this situation is a little complicated.” The person in charge stood from his chair respectively after seeing Joshua, he didn’t look very good, “Our initial talk was actually pretty good, but these days, another person has entered the field, and they are offering five times the money than us. The Arabs are now leaning towards their offer, and this, is really complicated.”
Joshua’s face was already darkened, and now it was getting even worse, his eyebrows are knitted tightly, and the hand that was resting on the table was now clenched into fists.
“Five times as much? They don’t want to profit from this?”
“I am sorry, the man behind this group is hidden pretty well, he has never even showed his face, and never talked to them directly, we have tried our best to find out who it is, but without results. Only…”
“Only what?” Joshua was annoyed, and his person in charge clearly was afraid of him, even through the screen, he could feel the dominant attitude of Joshua.
“They have contacted us, and said that their boss will send you an invitation these days, to talk about the business.”
“An invitation?” Joshua’s brows raised, and he looked at the trash bin, in there was a red envelope with an invitation, Bill Clinton? It was him?
“Sir?” Joshua didn’t speak, and the representative had to interrupt his thoughts.
“You don’t have to worry about this anymore, since their boss wants to see me, I will talk to him about it in person!”
He hung up the call, and went silent, the air in his office froze, while he was thinking about the chat just now, then he dialed a number and said, “Ashley, I have a meeting in the afternoon, cancel everything else on the schedule.”
He sat back in his leather chair, and turned the chair to look out of the french window.
His long fingers were crossed on his stomach, and while he was putting force on them, the knuckles started showing, the skin turning white, “Bill Clinton, you wanna play, then I will play along.”
The AC in the building was blowing cold air out, the rooms were so cold that it was almost freezing, and Abigail couldn’t help but to hold her naked arms, then looked towards Mrs. Caunter.
She was sitting with Bill, arm in arm, and they were talking, once in a while she could hear Mrs. Caunter laugh as well.
Abigail didn’t even want to listen to what they were talking about, her little heart was hanging in the air, not allowing it to fall.
Her hand was pulling on her clothes, and her head was lowered, her face was pale, as if she was sick.
She was taking a walk with Mrs. Caunter before, when Bill came along and waved towards them, then he came out with Mrs. Caunter, Abigail had tried to convince her, but she wouldn’t go back inside. She hugged Bill like he was family, she seemed to like him even more than Joshua or herself!
Bill said he was here to pick them up to take them somewhere, and Mrs. Caunter didn’t even think about it before she got in his car. Abigail was afraid something will happen to her, so she didn’t have a choice but to go along.
On the way Bill was looking at her all the time, his eyes filled with emotions, it was so obvious that even Mrs. Caunter noticed it.
“Bill, you know this is my granddaughter in law, I cannot give her to you!” Mrs. Caunter took Abigail by her shoulders, and said to him.
Bill smiled and said laughingly to Mrs. Caunter, “Granny, am I not your grandson? This really makes me sad.”
He really played his role well, even Mrs. Caunter nodded her head and replied, “Sure, sure, you are!”
“That’s right!” Bill looked at her happily.
Abigail hasn’t said a word the whole time, she didn’t want to have too much confrontation with Bill. Some of her relationships have already brought her so much trouble, especially Stacy, who was always behind her, ready to beat the shit out of her, so she wanted to go out of their way, and all she wanted to do was to pay her debt back, and protect herself.
And love…
Her sight landed on Bill, he was this tall, handsome boy coming from a wealthy family, and he was also a playboy, who she never wanted to get in touch with.
Abigail lowered her eyes again, she was playing with her fingers, mainly to escape Bill’s gaze that he would shoot her once in a while.
Now, they were sitting there, but Bill didn’t show any urge to start the meal at all, who was he waiting for, why did he ask for them to join him?
Abigail had a lot of questions, but no answers to them, so she just kept playing with her fingers, trying to pass time.
“What is it? Does our Miss Abigail have honey on her hands?”
Bill stopped his conversation with Mrs. Caunter, and took Abigail’s hands into his, then he held them into the light to take a closer look.
“Hey, what…” This gesture was so sudden, that Abigail tried to get her hands back, but Bill was prepared, he held on tight, but without hurting her, only so she couldn’t pull back.
Then, he turned and pulled Abigail into his arms, and laid his head on hers, looking at Mrs. Caunter, “Granny, do you think we look like a couple?”
“Not even a tiny bit.”
Someone answered for Mrs. Caunter, and all the eyes moved to where the voice was coming from, the door, behind Lambert was Joshua, who was just as serious and cold as ever.
He was the one who spoke.
He walked into the room with big steps, and with him he took the warm air from outside, but it was not even close to enough for Abigail to warm up.
Joshua was too cold, so any air around him would cool down, and all he was taking into the room was freezing temperatures. His eyes were locked on Abigail, and the arm that was wrapped around her waist, his eyes were angry.
Abigail started to tremble.
“Joshua!” Granny was happy to see him, and greeted him, her face was covered with wrinkles, and they turned into a big smile.
Granny’s mood was really good.
Joshua moved his sight off Abigail, and towards Mrs. Caunter, his eyes softened.
“Granny, what are you doing here?” He walked to her, and took her into his arms, his voice was soft, the cold expression on his face was vanished.
Abigail tried to move her body away from Bill, she was feeling awkward with everyone seeing it, then she found a place that was far away from Joshua, and sat down.
Bill didn’t trouble her any more, and sat down on the other side of Mrs. Caunter, Lambert was standing next to Joshua.
“Granny, what do you want to eat?” Bill asked her, his voice equaled the one of a little child.
“Barbecue chicken.” Mrs. Caunter said after thinking for a while.
“No, Granny, that’s not something you should eat.” Abigail said to her.
Everyone’s eyes left Mrs. Caunter, and looked at Abigail, she swallowed hard, and her eyes were flashing. Bill was looking at her with soft eyes, questioning her, while Joshua’s eyes were blaming, sharp, and Mrs. Caunter, was looking at her pitiful.
Abigail lowered her head and said in a low voice, “Granny, your stomach is not very well, you shouldn’t eat this kind of stuff, it might make you feel sick. There is too much oil in it, and your blood pressure will rise, why don’t we eat something else”
She was moving back and forth on her chair as if she was waiting for everyone to decide on her fate, she nodded slightly to Mrs. Caunter, hoping she might help her with this.
“Granny, how about that, I will order some dishes for you, I am sure you are going to like them.” Bill saw that Abigail wasn’t comfortable, so he took the menu on the table and started ordering.
“Yes, yes, I like all these.” Mrs. Caunter was happy again, and she took Bill’s hand, praising him.
Joshua was leaning his body into the chair, his chin raised. His fingers were crossed in front of him, and he started talking, “I am sure you didn’t invite me to come here just to spend some time with Granny, she already has people who are with her all day, you don’t need to worry about that.”
His cold eyes landed on Abigail again, telling her silently that she didn’t do her work properly.
“I….” Abigail looked at Mrs. Caunter who was sitting between the two men, and didn’t know what to do.
“This is only one of the goals.” Bill nodded towards Abigail, tell her she should bring Mrs. Caunter over there. Abigail did as she was told, and stood up quickly. “Granny, let’s go and sit over there.” She pointed to the side, where they were sitting before, and Mrs. Caunter agreed.
Bill sat up straight, and put his hands on the table naturally, “I owe Granny, isn’t it only normal for me to spend time with her?”
Bill’s words only earned a humph from Joshua, he looked at him in despair, as if he was the biggest enemy on earth.
He closed his eyes, and changed the topic, “The thing with the Arabs, it was you wasn’t it.”
Bill thought for a while, then he nodded.
Abigail was happy that she got away from those two, and she could put all of her attention on Mrs. Caunter. The food was served pretty quickly, so Abigail took this as an excuse to get away from them, and didn’t pay attention to their conversation either.
“What do you want for you to back off?” Joshua didn’t even talk around, and got straight to the chase.
“It’s that important to you?” Bill didn’t answer his question directly, and asked him another one.
“Of course.” Both of them looked at each other, and there was fire in the air between them, as if war is about to break. Joshua nodded his head, and reached out to fish out a pack of cigarettes, then he saw Mrs. Caunter on the side, and put it back in his pocket again.
“Joshua, there are too many misunderstandings between us that need to be talked about.” Bill blinked his eyes, and ended the eye contact between them. His sight was deep, and he feel into memories. “We grew up together, we have been through so much, and we were both raised by Granny, and we have been…”
“Shut up!” Joshua said as if he was burned, and jumped up, his voice interrupted Bill’s words. His eyes were filled with hate, and he shot it all towards Bill, he didn’t want to solve any problems, that, he was sure of.
“She is my grandmother, she has nothing to do with you.” He said heartlessly.
Abigail didn’t really listen to their conversation, but the raised voice still entered her ears, and she understood, that they two of them had been through a lot together, they used to be really good friends. But what happened that they are the way now?
“Bro….” Bill reached out his hand, and wanted to grab Joshua’s shoulder, but he backed away from him.
“Tell me, what is it that you want to back out of the business with the Arabs?” Joshua raised the hand with his watch on it, showing that he didn’t want to waste too much time on this lunch.
Bill bit his lips, and thought for a while, then he put his hands in front of him, leaned into his chair, and said, “Okay.”
He finally got to the topic. “My requirements are simple. Give me this woman, everything she owes you is done.”