Enraptured

Chapter 2

I rubbed my small towel against my forehead, wiping off all the sweat accumulated from my morning workout. Panting as I tried to catch my breath, I glanced at the clock above my gym.

6:30 AM

Hmm, I still have an hour left before I need to start heading to work.

I scrolled through my calendar on my phone, double-checking my schedule. From what I remembered, I should've already finished all the paperwork that needed my attention this week, and I didn't seem to have many meetings for today. Lukas, my PA of 5 years, must've cleared today's schedule for Ms. Caddel's arrival.

I tossed my towel into a laundry bin and walked over to my bathroom to take a quick shower. After all, this entire floor was my residence.

I lived in the penthouse of one of the luxury apartment buildings I owned. I was one of the few permanent residents in this building since it was usually only rented out to business directors, usually only people that worked for me, for a few months at a time as they traveled between cities for work. Since they only lived in this building for work purposes, I rarely had any trouble with the tenants, keeping the building wonderfully quiet for me.

When I stepped out of the shower, I tousled my hair with a bit of gel and changed into one of my suits, cuffings the ends of my sleeves as I draped my jacket over my arm. I glanced at my watch.

7:00 AM

I guess I have a bit of time to make myself some breakfast. I threw together a simple omelet with the very few ingredients that I had lying around my fridge and toasted a few slices of bread as I waited for my coffee.

I didn't have much in my apartment because I never spent much time at home. I had never been able to sleep well, waking up crazy early and not feeling sleepy until late at night, so I had always just stayed at my office to keep myself occupied. At least it would be a good use of my time.

I usually sped out of my apartment every morning at 6:30 AM to my office to get a head start on my paperwork and prepare for a day's worth of back-to-back meetings. As such, I rarely had much time to have breakfast in the morning and relied solely on the coffee that Lukas would bring me halfway through my morning.

To add on, I almost never returned home until 10 PM at night. My meetings usually dragged on to at least 8 PM by which all sorts of new paperwork popping up along the way that needed to be handled ASAP. Thus, I usually just called take-out for dinner in my office if I remembered eating or just simply skip the meal altogether. It probably wasn't a very healthy lifestyle, but it was what I was used to.

I chomped down on my bland breakfast as I scrolled through today's news and updates on the stock market. It was nothing all that surprising. All within range of my finance department's predictions.

Noting the time, I grabbed my coffee and made my way out of my apartment. I stepped into the elevator as I impatiently waited for it to descend down 76 floors.

Once I reached the garage floor of my building, I found Lukas already waiting for me outside the elevator.

"Good morning, sir," he greeted me as he opened the car door.

I nodded in acknowledgment of his greeting and stepped into the car. I waited for him to sit in the driver's seat and start the car before asking, "The current itinerary on my calendar is the most up-to-date schedule for today?"

"Yes." He spun the wheel as we turned into the streets of New York. "I know it looks a bit empty, but Mr. Harlow told me that you are still in phase 1 of planning and haven't even figured out the location for your expanded headquarters yet, so I figured you would need some extra time to straighten out the plans with Ms. Caddel."