The Bodyguard's Duty ✅

Chapter 3 - First Impressions

Thomas settled into his new home quite quickly. Dropping his suitcase off by the door, he took a quick tour around the apartment.

It was modestly small, but it was big enough for the bodyguard to live in for the next 2 weeks.

The accomodation was better than what he was used to, especially compared to the last job where he had a single mattress on a cold floor.

This apartment had a king size bed, with a functioning kitchen and bathroom too. Even though the apartment was barely furnished, Thomas was happy.

It was around 6pm when Thomas left his new temporary home. Using the car given to him by Javier, Thomas entered the Shelton building's address into the navigation system.

Driving to the Shelton building gave Thomas some time to assess the situation. Given that Ethan didn't even know he had a bodyguard, Thomas thought it would be better to ease the guy into the idea of it.

Thomas was honest to himself when he didn't think he would like the kind of person Javier described his son as. Ethan sounded a bit too cocky for Thomas' liking, the guy had a history of acting before thinking, and apparently Ethan is very spontaneous.

Thomas on the other hand always found himself to be humble no matter what. He enjoyed having structure and routine in his life, and Thomas would identify himself as slightly introverted compared to Ethan.

But their opposite personalities had to be ignored, because Thomas was here for a job. He decided to forget his initial assessment of the guy, and meet Ethan in person - to determine the kind of man Ethan Shelton really was.

'I should give the guy some credit and not automatically dislike him - maybe he will surprise me.'

Parking his car in one of the spacious reserved areas, Thomas made his way into the Shelton lobby. On the outside the building looked intimidating, with the building being a skyscraper that overflowed power and status amongst the smaller surrounding buildings.

Thomas already knew the floor where Ethan's office was located at. He used the master lanyard key given by Javier to access the elevator, and he listened to the elevator music as he watched the numbers on the panel glow as it rises.

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Ethan had already tossed his suit jacket onto his chair as he was ready to pull his hair out. His tie was disheveled and his crisp white shirt was now all wrinkled up.

Files, reports, texture samples, and test products were scattered on his desk as Ethan tried his best to organise his thoughts onto the mess in front of him.

Ethan pressed down on the speaker phone to call the general secretary. "Tamsen? Is everyone down there yet?"

A high pitched voice came from the speaker phone as Tamsen answered her boss. "Not yet Ethan. The photographer went to the wrong building, the people sorting out the lights forgot half of their equipment, and most of the models have gone AWOL, and are wandering around the building somewhere."

Ethan heavily sighed as he rubbed his face tiredly. "This practice show needs to go down well. I have a lot of things I need to be doing right now, and that doesn't include babysitting half of the people in the building!"

"We'll get right on it!" Tamsen responded as she ended the call.

As Ethan disconnected the phone call with Tamsen, his eyes looked up at the man standing in his doorway. "Are you lost?"

Ethan studied the guy's features, and processed them in his mind. The tall guy stood in front of him had broad shoulders underneath the pressed, sharp suit. He was clean shaven which highlighted his chiseled jaw, and the brown eyes looking back at him looked dark and alluring.