Tied To You

Mm

The Gilded Dragon

"Ava Montenegro-Solis" she repeated to herself as she walked through the hall of Montenegro Enterprises. The top floor where all the executive offices are, was very quiet unlike the other floors where all the department heads and their team were running around trying to meet deadlines and what not. It was quiet, a good kind of quiet, that Ava longed for. She calmly slipped into the only restroom on that floor. Inside, the marble floors accentuated all too well with the black granite countertops, charcoal gray walls and gold sink it gave Ava an inner peace. Peace from everything happening. She looked at herself In the wall sized mirror. She felt different, she saw a confident young lady,with a fierce attitude. She felt alive, in the sense that a new woman has emerged.

She walked out of the bathroom into the empty hall of the executives floor. It was half past noon and everyone was out for lunch. Even her father was out because the light on top of his door was off. She navigated her way to elevators and headed for the 7th floor where all the company directors had their offices. She wanted to visit her mother to start her training.

A loud "ting" rang on the elevator signaling that Ava had arrived to the designated floor. Like the very top floor of Montenegro Enterprises, the hall was quiet until she saw a familiar face walking in, it was her Tita Lynette her godmother. She was holding a a to-go order of Jollibee  making Ava hungry.

"Tita Lynette!" She called out to her Tita as she was busy sipping her Buko Pandan shake and mindlessly looking at her phone. Ava called once more and her tita looked her smiling back.

"Ava! It's good to see you, what are you doing here?" She asked shuffling her keys to find the key to her office.

"Came to see if Mama is here, I wanted to take her out for lunch." She smiled as she helped Lynette with her food.

"Your Mama just arrived an hour ago, she's probably in her office eating. You know her she only talks to people if she has too. For someone who's Head Marketing Director for this company she is pretty shy. She hasn't changed a bit." The two giggled. "I can see where I get my shy side from." Ava added.

"I would ask you to join me in my office to talk more, but I have a deadline to meet and the project my team is working on doesn't meet your dad's high expectations. So I need to revise the entire thing. It was good ruining into you though! Hopefully when my schedule isn't busy we can have lunch and catch up!" Ava smiled and greeted her godmother a farewell.

She calmly walked to her mother's office, where the door was slightly open and the sound of her soft laughter could be heard. Ava was super surprised hearing her mother laugh. She rarely heard her laugh at home and for sure she doesn't hear it when she's in the office. She is so use to her mother's quiet demeanor. She lightly tapped on the door waiting for an approval to enter. Her mothers' soft voice welcomed her in. Ava finally knew the source of her mothers' laughter. It was her brother, Karlie, and her niece Ellie who was on the couch sitting. Her chubby self trying to hold herself up on the couch was definitely cute and funny.

"Ava what brings you here?" Her mother asked with a big smile on her face. It was rare to see Ava visit the office because before it was only to wait for the family driver to pick her up. Now that she's going to be running the whole family company she's going to be seeing more of her daughter which made Elena smile with happiness.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to get lunch. I asked daddy but he has back-to-back meetings today until 3pm." Her mothers smile changed to a bit of confusion. She didn't know her husband had back-to-back meetings, usually everything on his agenda goes through her first so this was quite a surprise.

"Well before you came in, your Kuya was just talking about getting lunch also. So since we're all hungry let's go get something to eat at Gilded Dragon." Ava couldn't hold in her excitement. It was her favorite restaurant. For some people making a reservation is difficult but her because the owner is a good friend of her father she is able to get in without having to put her name on the waitlist. Whenever she had early release at school her and Vince would go there. That was where they had their first date and many good memories with him and her family.

It had been months since Ava at Gilded Dragon, with her debut practice she had been stuck to eating an all paleo-diet and now that she's no longer watching her weight she could eat whatever her heart desires and Gilded Dragon was the perfect place to grub especially now that she's of legal age to consume alcohol.

The five arrived to the Gilded Dragon where they were met with a new hostess who was denying them access. "I'm sorry ma'am but we're not letting anyone in because there's a private meeting happening." Ava glared at the hostess who was still persistent in not letting anyone in.