Rendezvous À Paris

Part One: Barry Ananda

"I need a date? Why?"

I threw the question at my assistant, Carter, who is now panicking in search of an answer. He insisted on me finding a date for the event that I have tomorrow night, and I just could not understand the reason why.

"You'll need to have a plus one, sir. It says here that it's required," he said apologetically while looking at his iPad. I shake my head in disbelief at him. I wasn't told to have one, not until I landed in Paris just a few hours ago, and this got me wondering to my wits' end.

"Says who? And why is it at the very last minute? What is this event for, again?" I asked him, continuously, puzzled by the sudden request made by the host of the event. "I don't understand why there's a need for me to have a plus one, and why did I even agree to this in the first place?" I rubbed the end of my eyebrow with my fingertip, growing restless over the conversation with my assistant that wasn't going anywhere but this hotel suite. "It's so unnecessary of them, and I flew out here for an event that asked me to bring along a date at the last minute?" My frustrations are starting to rise tremendously. "That's stupid."

I looked at Carter, who then looked back at me, now clueless without a single response. He then showed me the iPad screen which he was holding, where a message that was sent to remind all VIP attendees to attend with a plus one, can be seen clearly.

"I thought everyone knew that I'm single? Wasn't I known to be one of the most eligible bachelors in Asia? How would they expect me to come with a partner on my arm if I don't even have a partner in the first place? That's ridiculous," I went on and on, throwing my frustrations onto Carter. It's his fault that he didn't read the notice earlier, otherwise, I would've easily bailed for sure, and I would certainly not be here.

Not that I am blindly putting the blame entirely on the man, but you get it.

He's one of the causes for sure.

I mean, it is his fault that I'm here.

"But sir, you're now in Paris, not in Thailand. I don't think they know that you don't have a partner," I looked at him straight in the eye. Is he for real?

Carter quickly turned his face away and continued to appear busy on his iPad once again, for God knows doing what, - probably scrolling for gold trying to avoid my gaze.

He may be a good assistant to me, but he's never great at pretending, and that's what I like best about him; that he can't lie, no matter the reason why. One look at his face and you'll know that he's bluffing.

However, with Carter being a good liar or not, this plus one thing is starting to piss me off by the minute and I am getting very, very annoyed.

"Well, can't they look me up? Google me at most, maybe? It takes one click to see that I'm single and they can't even do that."

"But sir..."

"What now?" I asked. I sat on the chair that was facing the balcony, where I could see the view peeking through the thin blinds in front of me.

"They're one of your biggest investors, sir. And I know you might be thinking that it's ridiculous, but it's very important for you to be there, sir. Even your father had kept a solid relationship with them over the years, and he had attended every one of their events before you came along into the business. This is one of their exclusive private events where there's not a lot of people who got invited, and you, sir, were..." I stared blankly at the enclosed balcony while I listened to his dreadful thread of words, simply in one ear and out the other.

Shit, now he's nagging at me.

I turned and looked at Carter who kept on going with his yapping.

Although I do appreciate him constantly looking out for me and being my full-time advisor, sometimes I feel like his younger brother who is being lectured for something that my mom asked me to do which I refuse. No hard feelings though, I do appreciate him and I pay him up to par with whatever his abilities are, but sometimes it does feel that way to me. Especially more so when he has been my assistant ever since I took over Father's company a few years ago. He's been like a good brother to me, but very much well paid.