Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"As much as I love hearing your voice Loretta, I need to speak first" Nathaniel cut me off instantly when I started to say something.

I sighed but let him speak. "I need to apologise for what I said to you that day. I won't make any excuses, I just made a bad judgement and my past experiences with women got the better of me. I'm so sorry Loretta"

I breathed in deeply. I shouldn't fight him on this, I should let him apologise so we can move on and carry on as if we didn't know each other.

"thank you, I understand that there are some interesting women out there, but you shouldn't label all women as that Nathaniel it's not fair" every woman deserves a chance.

He nods his head. "I will be sure to not judge so quickly in the future"

"I should really thank you for what you did for me and my family. You really didn't have to do that, and I promise to repay the debt" Nathaniel narrowed his eyes.

"I don't need you to repay anything. I didn't give you money I just asked others to instead" he shrugs his shoulders.

Still, I would like to repay him.

"what you can do instead is let me treat you for dinner" Dinner? Oh no that is out of the question.

"it's just food Loretta," he says smiling at me.

"fine but I'm paying" I reply back. Maybe this is a small way to repay him.

"Alright have it your way, we should probably join your parents in the other room," he says checking his watch.

I guess we have been in here for quite a while. Nathaniel slowly guides me out of his office. I felt very shy as we walked down the hallway with many of his employees staring at us.

"in here," he says pushing open a door.

He lets me in first, I find my parents standing in the middle of the room wearing VR headgear as a man talks to them.

"I hope you like the layout Jason," Nathaniel says as he announces his return.

Dad removes the headgear beaming. "oh, Nate this is amazing, I never thought the hotel could look like that" he says amazed.

"it's not real though" I mumble hoping that I wasn't heard.

Nathaniel stepped forward; I could see my father looking at me shocked. "why don't you have a look yourself" Nathaniel says stepping towards me with the headgear.

I nodded. Nathaniel helped me with putting the gear on. "you can hold onto me if you like, it's always weird the first time "he whispers.

I rolled my eyes under the headgear. "I'm fine"

I heard him chuckle at my response.

The minute the tech started to work I reached out and grabbed onto his arm. I was pleased that I couldn't see the look on his face right now.

"as you can see this is what we could see your entrance looking like. With your preference, we would be able to add big chandeliers now with the much bigger entrance after knocking down these walls" Nathaniel spoke to me as the room transformed before my eyes.

I was speechless. "omg, it doesn't even look like our hotel," I said glancing around.

"it's astonishing at what little changes can do to a space like this" My father commented.

"We could also see the number of rooms increase quite significantly if we make the rooms smaller for the single rooms. You're using quite a lot of space that you don't need. So, if we just make these rooms smaller there's a lot more room for more" I gasped when the hallway transformed with many more rooms added.

I felt Nate vibrate against me. I knew I was feeding his ego right now, but I didn't care. He was seriously talented if he could actually pull this off.

"I think that's enough," Nate said his hands reaching to the headset. "no!" I reached up and stopped him. My hands covering his own hands. Instantly I snapped my hand back to my sides.

"I mean, I just want to look at it for one more minute" Nate gradually let go.

"only if you let me pay for dinner tonight," he said quietly. But he knew exactly what he was doing because both of my parents heard him.

"wait what" my mother exclaimed.

Damn you Nate damn you.

I nervously followed Nate out of his office as my parents spoke with Sergei enthusiastically about the renovations. Nate was keeping very quiet which on one hand helped me relax but on the other hand, made me tense.

"I'll see you tomorrow for lunch sweetie," my dad said just as he was about to get into his car. I refused to even look at him. Not after his comment in there just now about this dinner being a date.

"I'm busy," I said kissing Eaton on the cheek. Only family member, I can trust around here. I heard Nate chuckle.

Dad shook his head as he got into the driver's seat. Mom followed in after she put Eaton in the car seat.

"Isn't it a little early for dinner, I'm sure you have many meetings?" I said checking the time on my phone. I also saw that I had messages from Tammy.

How did it go?

Everything okay Loretta

You dead??????

Honestly, that girl.

"I like to finish early on Fridays, gives me a night off, "he says smiling.

There was my excuse out of the question. I had to just face the fact that I was going to have this dinner whether I liked it or not.

"C'mon Loretta I promise I'm much more interesting when you get to know me" I grumbled; I'm finding that hard to believe. Nate led me to his car in the private car park.

The car he had was a big Mercedes Benz that made my range rover look like a mini. He helped me inside, give me his arm to hold onto as I climbed in.

"can't you have a normal-sized car like us regular people" I grunted as I finally got inside.

"Nothing about you is normal Loretta," he said smoothly as he closed the door.

My cheeks heated up as I watched him run around to the other side. he can't just say things like that and then disappear.

Nate drove us 15 minutes across the city before parking in a carpark in front of this restaurant. I wasn't at all surprised when he pulled up at a fancy restaurant. He probably doesn't eat at anything but fancy places.

I jumped out of his car and started walking to the door. Only for Nate to grab my arm.

"where do you think you're going?" he asks, a smirk on his face.

I pointed at the restaurant, but he shook his head. We're going to this one Loretta, don't judge me so easily" he said smirking at me.

Did he just use my own words against me?

The restaurant he pointed out to be a small cosy restaurant called Maggie's. He walked us into the restaurant and instantly crept behind an elderly lady who was serving a customer.

"Mother of god boy don't scare your grandmother like that," the women said after Nate made her jump. I laughed as she whacked his round the shoulder. "do you want me to die, good god" she said after.

He continued to grin at her. "I like to keep you on your toes. Have you got room for me and my friend" he angled his head back at me?

Nervously I waved over. "of course, I do my boy. Hello, sweetie, my name's Maggie welcome to my Lil restaurant, would you like the booth or somewhere else" she asked hesitantly as she looked up at Nate.

I watched as Nate thought about this for a moment. "the booth today if that's alright" Nate said his mood dropping for a brief moment.

Maggie perked up. "Okay let me set it up, oh my boy I wish you came more often," she says before sprinting off in a hurry.

Nate stepped back in line with me. "is she your grandmother" I asked him. He nodded as we watched her place menus down on the booth.

"Yeah, she is, crazy old woman" he mutters.

When she finished, she hurried us over? We both slid into the booth.

I turned to check my phone when I heard Maggies speak in Italian "Mio Dio, sembri così magro. che cosa ti sei nutrito, stupido Ragazzo? (My god, you look so skinny. what have you been feeding your-self, you stupid boy?)

The only words I understood were stupid Ragazzo. I saw Nate roll his eyes. He replied something in fluent Italian. He was so fast that I barely caught a word only the mention of my name.

Maggie turned to me. "I am sorry dear, please forgive me. I just can't believe how skinny my grandson is" she shakes her head.

"It's okay. Your language is beautiful I enjoy hearing you speak it." I say to her. I won't tell her that I especially love hearing it come from Nate's mouth too.

Italian is darn right sexy.

"you picked well Ragazzo" she mumbled as she was called by another customer. She left me and Nate alone finally.

"She likes you" Nate stated. I lifted my head. "who wouldn't" I said sarcastically.

Nate stared at me, a smile slowly appearing.

"did you know that we met before when we were younger," I asked him. The thought had been on my mind for a while.

Nate looked at me with confusion. "we did?"

I nodded. "when we were younger since my father worked in your company when your dad was the CEO, we would often see each other. But I don't remember it at all" I explained to him.

"It would make sense, but I don't remember either, I guess we were too young," he says. Well, I am kind of glad that we both don't remember it.

"You're younger than me so it would have been big age difference too, right?" he said.

"I'm 23 so probably."

He nodded. "I'm 5 years older than you. You probably were as small as Eaton then" he stated. He was right, I definitely would have been. I don't expect a boy to remember every drooling baby they meet.

"Okay you two I have two orders of calzone pizza and freshly made churros too, my treat," Maggie said placing the food down.

It smelt amazing.

"Maggie these look amazing, if you were my grandmother, I would be so fat," I said taking in the delicious food.

She seemed happy with my comment. "enjoy" she said grinning.

"don't feed her ego" Nate mumbled as she leaves.

"I think she deserves it don't you," I say.

Nate grins. "You're right she does deserve it"

Nate doesn't say anything more and we eat in peace. That was until Maggie comes rushing over clearly panicked about something.

" Nonna, Cosa e successo? Nate asks worriedly.

She shakes her head.

"so many cameramen outside, I don't know how to stop them from coming in and they are leading away from my customers," she says sadly.

Nate sighs. "Nate c'mon let's go, we are practically finished anyway," I said placing my hand on his arm. It pains me to see Maggie like this.

"Alright, we will go. Just stay close to me Loretta" he tells me. I nod my head and rush for my bag.

The minute we get to the door Nate pulls me into his chest. "I mean it Loretta, stay this close"

I could only nod. I knew he was right. All I had to do was try not to fall over from the tingling sensation his command just gave me.

Get it together Reeves.