Love Me? Like You Do.

Chapter 43

"Jack!" greeted Raul as he jumped up from behind his desk. He strode up to his boss and patted him on the shoulder patronizingly. "Welcome back old guy!"

"Thanks Raul. How's things at the office?" asked Jack settling onto a chair in front of Sebastion's desk.

"It's been better." said Sebastian from behind the computer screen. He hadn't even looked at Jack once. So much for licking your boss's boots, thought Jack, shaking his head.

"So, had fun in Frankfurt, huh?" said Raul wiggling his eyebrows. Jack shot him a dirty look.

"And I'll take that as a yes." said Raul hurriedly returning to his own desk.

"Tell me what's wrong with the company. Sebastian, give me a report." said Jack taking out his phone to take notes.

Sebastian emerged from behind his computer and took off his glasses before turning his face towards Jack. For someone with high myopia of both eyes, it was evident that Jack appeared as nothing more than a blur to him.

He really doesn't want to look at me, thought Jack. I didn't think he'd be this mad.

"You want a report of what's wrong?" said Sebastian sarcastically.

"Come on Seb, cut him some slack." called out Raul from afar.

"No, I will not. He needs to know how much damage his antics are doing to the company." said Sebastian grudgingly putting his glasses back on.

"You've got thinner. Your hair looks like its been bleached, you've got lines on your forehead, though you look kind of happy." commented Sebastian as he finally looked at Jack. "And you have dark circles."

"Thanks Seb, you're the reason I'm this grounded a billionaire." said Jack with a laugh. "Now tell me, what's wrong with Dixon Enterprises?"

"Well due to Miss Claire's declaration at the press conference last week, our share values have gone down tremendously. A lot rides on your image Jack, you can't be irresponsible like this." said Sebastian.

"But was he irresponsible?" cut in Raul. "I think Claire's a horrible woman, who cooked up this story."

"How do you explain the child? She looks so much like Jack it's uncanny." said Sebastian warily. "Anyway, his or not,Claire is making things difficult for us. If our losses keep rising like this, we'll have to let go of some of our employees. In this economical condition, issuing job termination letters is the last thing I want to do."

Just then, someone knocked at the door.

"Come in!" said Raul.

A nervous looking young man entered carrying a tray laden with large mugs of coffee and chocolate croissants.

"Thanks Jimmy." said Raul as he took his coffee. "You look extra handsome today, what did you change up?"

"I-I got my first paycheck yesterday---so I bought a new hair gel." said Jimmy shyly. He must have been all of nineteen years old.

"Cool." said Raul grinning at him. "Bye."

Jimmy walked out of the room, a new spring in his steps.

Jack looked very angry as he sipped his coffee and made a face. It was too bitter. "How bad are the losses?" he asked.

"We've lost close to thirty million. Most of the shares in Europe and the U.S. have suffered. Our clients in Asia are not so affected, since the Kormin brothers incident helped mask any ongoing bad press."

"That's going to affect over thirty thousand jobs. Jimmy got his first paycheck, I don't want it to be his last with Dixon. Sebastian, Raul we need to get into damage control mode. I need you both to believe that I did not impregnate Claire and leave her to fend for herself. We broke up three years ago because she was trying to steal my fortune, which I suppose she's trying to do now as well. So please, the both of you trust me and we'll get out this together, okay?"