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“Always.”
The call ended. I adjusted my dress, applied more lip gloss and sprayed a little perfume I carried in my handbag. I was collected enough to face this meeting now.
Chapter13
Leon
Miguel and I hung out over the weekend. He told me that he had set up a meeting with Valentina Tuesday afternoon and that we would all meet to discuss the project. I agreed and told him to send me the time and location for the meeting when he had all the details sorted out.
Tuesday morning, I received a message from Miguel confirming and letting me know the location and time. As time approached, I found that I was excited about the meeting. I knew it was because of Valentina. I wanted to see her. A little laugh escaped me while I was in the car, Ramon driving me to the restaurant.
I was thinking of the last time I was excited to see a woman. It was sometime when I was fresh out of college. I had been speaking to an older, beautiful model on the internet, and the day we decided to meet, I was excited. We finally met, and she exclaimed at how young I was. She claimed that she wasn’t expecting me to be so young. I was 22 years old.
That was the last time I saw or heard from her because she blocked me immediately. The experience hurt so much at the time, but thinking about it now, it was funny. We arrived at the location and I got down from the car while Ramon went to park. I walked into the restaurant, and as I headed in, I saw familiar brunette hair.
Valentina was in the restaurant already. She was standing and scanning the room, probably in search of either Miguel or myself. I walked closer to her and in that instant, she turned around, crashing into me and almost falling. I quickly caught her, and we were really close to each other. In that moment, it felt like no one else was in the room with us, and we were just in our own world.
I wanted to lift her off that floor and kiss her passionately right there, in the middle of this room. She looked and smelled so good; it was impossible to let go of her. She slowly released herself from my hold as she noticed that I wasn’t willing to let her go and then she excused herself to the bathroom.
It took me a few minutes to recover from that experience. As I turned to head back to the welcome desk, I saw Miguel coming in. He spoke to them at the desk and we were led to our table. While we sat, he asked,
“You’re the first one here? That’s very odd.”
“You want to get something off your chest? You have something you want to say to me?” I joked.
“No, No. I just thought Valentina would be here by now.” Miguel laughed.
“Well, she is. She excused herself just before you arrived.”
“Oh, wonderful.”
He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when I saw Valentina walking over to our table. She had a bold walking step, and she looked amazing in her green dress, matching her eyes. My mind went back to how inviting her eyes were just a few minutes ago but I quickly put those thoughts down. This was a business meeting and I didn’t want to get myself all worked up.
She exchanged pleasantries with Miguel and said a quick hello to me before she sat down. Miguel spoke,
“I won’t want to waste anybody’s time as we’re all busy people, so let’s get right into it. I think we should order lunch first,” he said. He started signaling a waiter over to our table. Our orders were taken and when the waiter walked away, he continued.
“Valentina, the initial project plan was for you to make some art pieces for my office space but then, I was thinking we could do the whole building and maybe our smaller offices. Now, I understand how tedious and difficult this would be. What’s your plan?”
Valentina reached for her handbag and produced a small tablet device which she opened and started tapping on the screen, “Please give me a second,” she said. While she was tapping buttons, the waiter came back with our first round of drinks. They were non-alcoholic as we all had to return to work.
“Your food will be here shortly.” He said courteously and walked away. By the time he was gone, Valentina had handed her tablet to Miguel.
“That is a clear plan of how many paintings I intend to do, the cost, and how I’ll go about it. You may not have the time right now to go through it but I’ll make sure I email you a copy.”
Miguel perused the document and handed the tablet over to me while he focused his attention on her. She continued,
“You’ll need to tell me what theme you’re considering or if you’d want me to use my expertise. I obviously cannot do all the painting myself, and that means that I’d be contracting other painters, their pay and welfare are also included in there. These are all estimates for now until we get actual numbers of paintings, sizes, and themes from you.”
Miguel nodded. He looked impressed while I sat back and threw glances at Valentina. She was a brilliant woman. “I want you to use your expertise on these things. I really do not know much about artwork,” he said, laughing.
Valentina laughed too and took a sip from her drink, “That’s no problem. We need to set an inspection date then. A date when I’ll come and take a look at your office building and as many smaller offices as I can. From there, I’d know what theme to go with and then contact the artists I know will perform excellently. Towards the end of the document you’re looking at, I added a few suggestions and samples. You’ll need time to go through it all.”
Our food started arriving, and the conversation continued while the waiter served it. “Oh, that’s wonderful. I’ll take a look. Your inspection date will be arranged, it could even be this week. I’ll talk to my assistant. I want to say though, no matter how many painters you want to employ, I’d need you to personally do the paintings that would be at the front desk and my personal office.”
“It’s no problem, Miguel.” She nodded politely.
“Leon…” Miguel said as he noticed how quiet I had been.
