Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
“A picnic?”
“Yes, at the park.”
“I didn’t think a busy man like you had time for a picnic in the park.”
“I make time for these kinds of things.” He held his arm out to her. “It’s a glorious summer afternoon. Work starts tomorrow, and I know it’s going to get stressful.”
Abigail smiled, and she followed him out of her apartment, grabbing a cardigan on the way out. She locked the door, and Roman took the key from her and slid it into his pocket. She didn’t bother with her cell phone, because she was with her boss. If he needed her, he could just tell her.
They rode the elevator down toward the ground floor. No one else got on the elevator. Once they were at the ground floor, they made their way out of the building. She expected to see a car waiting for him, but there was none, and they were walking to the park.
She lived a twenty-minute walk from the park. When she first moved in, she would make time to go for a walk each weekend. Once winter hit, life with Roman got so hectic that taking the walk was just too exhausting.
Brad always refused to go with her.
Sundays were usually stressful. They walked all the way to the park, talking about everything and nothing. They found a private spot that hadn’t been taken by a family. She helped Roman get set up, laying down the blanket. She had seen a life hack in keeping bees and insects away, and she put a small jar several inches away with a bit of honey. She couldn’t stand when bees flew all around her, or threatened to sting.
With the blanket set up, Roman pulled out several items like pasta salad, sandwiches, and a few other things. They all looked so delicious, and handmade.
“How do you find these places?” she asked.
“I love home-cooked food, but I don’t cook. I find places that offer me what I need, and I’m happy to pay.”
“You love home-cooked food?”
“Yep. My grandma was the best cook around. My mom, not so much, but she tried.”
“I don’t know much about your family life,” Abigail said.
“Not much to tell. My grandfather started this business in advertising. My father, who was an outsider, and in all honesty, a gold digger, didn’t know what he was doing. My mother was never interested in business, she just liked spending money, not making it. My dad ran the business until there was nothing left. My grandfather, seeing what was happening, removed my dad from his seat, at eighteen he put me in the seat, and from there, he taught me everything about the company. I rescued it with my grandfather’s help.”
“Wow,” Abigail said. “I have never met your parents.”
“My grandparents died many years ago, old age. My parents died in a car accident. My dad had been drinking, and he thought he was still capable to drive him and my mom home. They died instantly.”
“Wow,” Abigail said.
“Yeah, wow. They died before my grandparents. I know it’s strange, but I feel like my grandparents waited until they knew I could make it on my own, you know?”
Abigail nodded. “Yeah, I get it.”
“What about you?” he asked.
“Oh, wow. My mom left me and my dad when I was fifteen. He worked two jobs, and ended up having an accident at work that killed him,” Abigail said.
“Okay, wow,” Roman said.
Abigail nodded at him. “Yeah, it was really strange, because the company was actually in the wrong. They had cut corners, and in doing that, killed my father. If it wasn’t for a lawyer who was determined to make this company pay, I would have ended up on the streets. My dad still had a mortgage. Anyway, he won the case, and I got a settlement out of it—quite a bit of money—and I sold the house and moved to the city. Not to my place now. I got a job at your company when I was twenty-one years old. Nine years ago.”
“You were the mail girl,” he said.
She smiled. “You remembered?”
“Kind of hard to forget the woman that made my advertising manager look incompetent.”
Abigail had forgotten all about that. Six months into the job. She had never seen Roman before, and she’d been on the elevator, when the lamest commercial idea was thrown out. She didn’t have much of a filter and hadn’t really thought about her working environment, and spoke her mind. Less than a year later, her idea was playing on television, the advertising manager was fired, and she was promoted. That one idea helped make the company millions of dollars.
From advertising, to finance, in the last nine years she had worked in pretty much every department for Roman. He wasn’t just into advertising, he had his hands in so many different pockets. The main building had one floor for each of his companies, and he oversaw it all. There were other buildings spread throughout the country, but the main one was the base of operations.