Esmerelda the Flower

Chapter 9: Christopher

Monday came. Esme and I arrived at work together, I dropped her off and entered separately, not wanting to cause commotion among the workers. The weekend of bliss with her made me forget some of my work, which as a good thing actually since I tend to be a workaholic.

I entered my temporary office, a couple doors down from the empty room I allowed Esme to keep. I had lots of work to do, more conference calls, more investor meetings, and of course, dealing with Nathan.

I had assured he would have been dealt with as I had been working alongside the police, using my influence to get them to catch the asshole but for some reason it was taking them long. These idiots, how hard is it to catch some deluded pervert? The department was taking longer than I expected and it worried me since I had to visit another company site by the end of the week and that would mean Esme would have to go back to her place. Which I absolutely will not allow until the asshole is captured.

Sighing, I had only one last resort.

I picked up my phone, calling an old friend of mines.

"Hey man, it's been a while." I started.

"Cut the bullshit Bates, Whaddya need?"

I chuckled, "I'll send you his file right now."

I hung up and sent the information to Ace, the man I was talking to earlier and smiled in satisfaction.

That's one problem down, but there was still another.

I headed down to the laboratory wing, searching for Esme's supervisors office. Once I had found her room number, I knocked.

"Who is it?" A voice called.

"Christopher Bates."

There was silence and some shuffling as a mean looking woman opened the door.

"Oh Mr. Bates! What a pleasure seeing you here, what brings you to my office?" She smiled.

I could tell she didn't smile a lot, because it looked like the smile she had on was straining her, and I swear she aged by 10 years doing it.

"Oh nothing, just this: you are to treat Esmerelda Harris with respect and nothing but that from now on okay? One more complaint from her and your ass is out of this company, alright? Good talk."

I turned, leaving the woman in shock with her mouth agape.

I checked the time, it was lunch time and Esme had told me she would probably eat in the empty room today. I walked back towards my office, grabbing my own lunch as I headed towards the empty room and of course, Esme was already inside, eating her lunch.

Still chewing with food in her mouth, she looked up and me and sent me the sweetest, tooth melting grin ever. I smiled in response and sat down next to her, plopping a kiss on her cheek.

We discussed about everything and anything, still getting to know each other. Then, we got to the topic of the flower research.

"You know, working on the development of the flower was one of my favorite things this whole year. Im so glad you and your team came up with the idea."

I smiled at her. Yes, after doing personal research on the healing properties of many herbs and plants. I decided to come together with scientists and others who were all familiar with  natural treatments. With that, we were able to launch the company wide research and develop the beautiful healing flower.

In that moment I had just remembered the gala. We were less than 8 months away from the presentation and I realized that I didn't have a date. I still had time to find one but why ask when there was the perfect date right in front of me?