(NFTMB)Chapter 48
Alessandro
(Tug Of War)
“Mr. Rossi, so nice of you to finally remember that we are all gathered here and waiting for you”. That dumb fuck Bernard Castleford said as soon as I walked into the board room.
“Well, I am Alessandro Rossi so that name alone means you have to wait on me. I’m not late I am just on the right time for a boss”
“That’s unprofessional, Mr Rossi”. “Gentlemen, I believe we all have better things to do with our time than to sit on our behinds and wait on him like a king”. He asked the board members.
I looked around the board room waiting for any of them to say anything in support of Castleford but they all kept their heads low and shut their stupid months.
At least they all know who is the boss around here.
“Well, I guess their silence is enough proof that they have no problem with waiting on me. If there is no further distraction and unwarranted delay with unnecessary conversations, I would like to declare the meeting open”
Bernard was so embarrassed and mad that he balled his hands into fists as he sat down in anger eyeing the board members in irritation.
The meeting was in full swing as ideas for a new hotel were being thrown around.
“No, Phantom Hotels is already a great success as it is. It has gone far beyond what we all have expected, if we are being honest with ourselves”
“Phantom Hotels is a massive success and the best and highest ranked hotel in the world, yes, but then saying we all didn’t expect it to be that successful and massive sounds pretty much conceited”
“Yes, Bill is right. We spent countless hours on that project. Brainstormed for endless months on end and worked long ass hours to make phantom hotels what it is.
I would say the success shouldn’t be a surprise but actually sort of like more likely than unlikely. Let’s give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done”
“If we did it before with Phantom Hotels then we can do it once more with Pyramid Heights, isn’t that right, gentlemen?”
“Of course”
“Definitely”
“Yes”
“We’ve got this”
“Yeah, that’s correct”
“We can do it”
“This new project of yours, Rossi. What do you have in mind? Another top celebrity secret hideout? Isn’t that getting old and perhaps boring?”
All eyes turned to Bernard Castleford because of the stupid statement he just vomited.
Give me a minute with you alone and outside of these walls and you will be six feet under soon.
Motherfucker.
“Care to expantiate on that lousy comment, Mr. Castleford?”
“Oh sorry. I forgot I’ll always be seen as an outsider even though I originally own the company. Isn’t that right, Alessandro?”
“It’s mine now. If you wish to whine, you can head back to your company, not here in mine!”
“I am a shareholder of this company and I have the right to be here and to speak my mind freely”
“Then speak it with wisdom and stop trying to bring down the morale of the workers!”
“I am doing no such thing! Redundancy is synonymous to mediocrity which you and Phantom Hotels as a whole are fast becoming privy to!
Don’t waste our company’s resources on the same old shit. We have the potential of doing so much more than that!
Phantom Hotels can become a sister group to more lucrative, diverse and different businesses, so why repeat the same thing a million times?!”
“Don’t raise your voice at me in my damn company, Castleford! If you don’t like the way I run my business then you’re more than welcome to get the hell out! You’re not even needed here!”
“Well, I’m not leaving until I get my company back from you! You’ve taken so much already from me that I can’t stand back anymore and watch you do it again!”
I leaned back in my seat and laughed for the first time today. Like a real hearty laughter.
I laughed at how pathetic he sounded.
“Are we still talking about work, Castleford?”. I arched my brow at him knowing fully well that we had tiptoed out of the professional zone and into private affairs.
The clueless board members looked among themselves in confusion as they were obviously lost in the conversation.
“You know damn right what I’m talking about!”. He shouted while pointing a finger directly in my direction.
“Gentlemen, please. Let’s not do this now. This is a board meeting where we are meant to brainstorm and produce reasonable ideas and—”
“Enough!”
I silenced him with a raise of my hand as I was very interested in the direction that Castleford was taking this conversation to.
“Castleford, are we talking about the fact that I did what you couldn’t do or rather what you weren’t good at doing? That I screwed your wife over and over and over again and eventually screwed her nuts loose?
That she literally ran after me like a dog? It’s not my fault that your lunatic of a wife couldn’t look away from this!”
“Rossi, you bastard!”
“Let’s not embarrass you further than you’ve already humiliated yourself, Castleford. I already get strong second hand embarrassment from the way you’re being painted in the tabloids of late”. I said as I took a sip of my coffee before facing a boiling red Bernard.
“What?”. I asked him as I shrugged my shoulders . “Haven’t you seen the tabloids? The messy details of your life? The humiliating actions of your insane wife?. Good grief, Bernard, get a grip of yourself. Don’t pile more juicy details of your life and family on the paparazzi’s plate”.
“And whose fault is it that Margaret ended up that way, huh?! It’s all your fault you disrespectful scum!”
I chuckled to myself as I watched him rage on about an incident that happened many years ago.
“Come on, Castleford! You can’t blame me for that. You should have been good enough to keep your woman grounded, it’s such a pity that you are lacking in that department.
It’s not my fault that she found me irresistibly intoxicating. You know what I mean”. I said with a wicked glint.
“I promise you today that I will one day make you pay, Rossi and that’s a promise!”
“Gentlemen, please this is really not the time or place for this there are—”
“And what are you going to do to me? The same thing I did to Margaret? You can try! I must warn you though, I’m as straight as the word straight.
You can’t get a man to seduce me, you will only successfully lead him to his early grave!”. I grinned so wide at his facial expression and the mortified looks on the faces of the men present here.
“There are more than a thousand ways to deal with you, Rossi. You’re not immortal and neither are you a god. I will have my pound of flesh”
“I hope there’s some left to pound when she returns from the psych ward though if there isn’t then say hello to Vera for me, I’ve been dying to get to know her more intimately”
I knew just how to push Bernard Castleford’s buttons and I just loved doing it.
Right now he looked composed and put together except for the folding and unfolding of his arms which was the dead giveaway of his temper that was flying over the roof.
“I will definitely send your regards to Vera but also do well to tell Victoria how sexy she looks now that she is pregnant with your child”
That was it.
He really did it now. He just hit a raw nerve.
He deserves an applause for striking at my sore spot. He really hit where it hurts.
“Who told you that?”
“Told me? That’s very silly coming from you, Alessandro. We are practically next door neighbors, remember?”
“Indeed we are”. I said in deep thought.
“So, gentlemen, where were we?”. I asked the board members as there was a collective sigh in the room possibly due to relief.
“Pyramid Heights, Mr Rossi”. Bill answered immediately.
“Correct. Pyramid Heights will follow exactly in the steps of its predecessor. Anyone who doesn’t like the idea is free to leave and never return”. I said while looking straight at Bernard.
I’m very sure that he got the message.
“So, tell me, where are we launching this new impenetrable hell resort this time around?”. Bernard asked.
“There has been no concrete or solid location for now. Nothing has been set in stone yet. We are maybe–”
“Paris!”
“Excuse me, sir?”
“Paris?”
“Yes, Paris. That’s where Pyramid Heights will be constructed”. I said with a tone of finality.
“Wow, you really have gone nuts!”. Bernard said with laughter lacing his voice. “A shield for rich bullies in the city of love?”. He spoke in amusement like I had just said the funniest thing ever.
I am starting to think that the state of lunacy that his wife put herself in has slowly begun to infect him as well.
“The world isn’t a bed of roses for the less privileged, Bernard, that’s why the rich like me and sadly like you too oppress them over and over again until they decide to take a stand and eventually turn their lives around for good.
Make no mistakes to think that they wouldn’t get back on another less privileged when they climb up the ladder of success. That is the full circle moment for them or you can even call it an, I made it moment for them.
It’s rather too late for you now to play the poor folks’ messiah, don’t you think?”. I asked him as I looked him straight in the eyes. “Besides, that would seem mediocre even for you”. I threw his words right back at him.
“I think Mr Rossi is correct. Pyramid Heights will generate more income for us especially among the tourists there. Paris is known as one of the places on earth with the largest number of tourists swarming in on a yearly basis. It is a constant on every traveler’s bucket list”
“Yes. With the proper promotion and publicity, I believe it will become nothing short of a tourist spot in Paris and even France as a whole”.
“If we can get endorsers or maybe even influencers and famous celebrities to endorse the hotel thereby introducing us to their fanbase and then getting the attention of their fan base and even penetrating their friend group alone then Pyramid Heights is considered a done deal!”
“But then it seems as if we are missing the point here. Phantom Hotels is only for the elite and the rich. Built for the comfort and confidentiality of the one percent of the one percent.
If we start off Pyramid Heights by allowing these so called influencers and the likes of them to handle our advertising and publicity and present it to their audience which will definitely involve locals and fans of the celebrities we aim to pull in.
Doesn’t that mean that the confidentiality we are known for will now seem like a tale of the past? Imagine a top celebrity staying on the same floor with a super fan? That will be an absolute disaster”.
“You just spoke my mind, Bill. That isn’t what we are known for”.
The points that he raised were exactly the things in my head. The old board directors are beginning to lose sight of what we are known for.
“What exactly are you known for?”