The Translator

Chapter four.

I woke up to my alarm going off. I rushed to get ready. I put my hair up in a ponytail. I settled on a short-sleeved, black dress that came just below my knees. I wore black nylons with a pair of small heels. I heard a knock at my hotel room door, Sebastian had come to pick me up. The rest of the team was in the lobby waiting. I was afraid that he would be cold with each interaction but he was surprisingly warm when he saw me. He acted as though nothing had transpired the night before, treating me like any other employee.
"Let's not keep them waiting Ms. Prince," He said in a serious tone.
"Of course. Lead the way, Mr. Knight" I responded in the same tone of voice
He turned around and started to walk to the elevator. I followed closely behind. He kept silent till we reached the team in the lobby. Sebastian gave instructions to the team to go into the taxi van that was outside waiting. We all piled in. Sebastian was quiet for the majority of the trip. He sat beside me but kept his hands on his lap, occasionally checking his phone. He gave me very little eye contact during the ride to Rostec. The taxi navigated through the downtown core passing by large buildings and sidewalks full of people. We stopped in front of a modern-looking skyscraper. We all piled out in front of the building. Sebastian looked over at me, studying my reaction as I looked up at the large building in front of us.
"Did you think that Russia was some old archaic country?" He said with a bit of condescension.
"It's not what I expected," I admitted.
"After you," He said to me as he opened the big glass door.
Sebastian and I went to the front desk to ask for directions to Rostec. I translated the information for him so that he could give instructions to the rest of the team. We made our way to the 26 floors, where our meeting would be held. Sebastian grabbed my hand.
"I need you with at the front with me, in case I need to interact with anyone," He said in a formal manner
"Ok" I obeyed
We were guided into a room with a large, long table. Each member of Sebastian's team sat down in a row on the opposite side of where four Russian men in suits were situated. The older man stood up to greet Sebastian. I stood up and introduced myself as the translator for Knight Enterprises. I translated for each member of Sebastian'steam with ease. I learned a great deal about the business that Knight enterprises did. I learned that Sebastian has special software that they wanted to use for their financial firm. They asked for Sebastian to do a demonstration. I stood up with Sebastian explaining the software in Russian to the four men. Each one of the Russian men watched intently as Sebastian gave an adept presentation of his software. He was so much more brilliant than I realized and it was sexy as hell. The meeting took 3 hours. Water was brought in for everyone to drink. We decided to break for lunch. Sebastian and his team left the office and made their way down to the lobby to find a restaurant for lunch.

"What would you like for lunch?" He asked me as we spilled out of the elevator
"I'm simple, I will eat anything that's around. I'm not picky. I would ask the team" I said
"Soup and Sandwich sounds good" suggested Ros
I ordered food for the team at the Sandwich bar inside the lobby of the office building. I felt lost in the conversation as I knew little about what business was going on. Ros, Clark, Matt, and Sebastian all got along like a bunch of old friends from High School. I stayed quiet while everyone else laughed and chatted about business. I felt that I had little to add, I barely knew anyone. I was only there to translate, I would be back in the filing room when I got home.

"So Aster, How do you know Sebastian?" Asked Ros
"I work in the filing department. He needed a translator, he asked me and I agreed to do it" I responded honestly
"Lucky you!" Matt chimed in "Is it your first time in Russia?"
"yes," I said "In fact, I have traveled very little in my life so this is quite the experience"
"I see" Matt nodded seemingly unimpressed
"Do you think that they will buy our software?" Sebastian said changing the subject
"I think that it's looking that way," I said "I could tell they were impressed by the way they were talking to me"
"Really!" Clark said sounding interested
"They were using friendly mannerisms and the tone implied that they were impressed" I answered