The Billionaire Wolff

Chapter 8: His Chance Encounter

By eight in the morning, I was already headed up to the top floor of my building where my office was situated.

“Good morning, Mr. Wolff.” The morning guard, Diego, greeted me as I quickly passed the ID entrance, not needing any identification or whatsoever from me as clearly, everyone already knew who I was.

I gave him a good morning back before making my way to the elevator, catching a glimpse of the front desk ladies staring at me with every step I took and their soft squeals filling my sense of hearing.

Sometimes, when I’m in the mood, I would reciprocate with a quick smile or a smirk. Other times I wouldn’t even bat an eyelid as I’d be too tired, but even though I was feeling drained today, I thought, why not?

Just before I disappeared in the area where all the elevators were situated, I turned to look to my right where all three girls were happily looking at me.

The second my eyes landed on theirs, their cheeks blushed and faces turned red as a tomato. With one quick smirk, they all simultaneously swooned right in front of me.

Women were easy creatures to please. Small gestures, compliments, you name it, I knew what would get any woman to beg for me. In fact, I could probably get anyone here, even a man, to date me if I wanted them to.

But of course, that was not a part of my plan. Not today, not ever. If I didn’t date outside the office, there was no way I would date anyone inside. That would complicate things to a higher level.

After my little morning entertainment, I continued my walk to the elevator.

Men and women of all ages passed by me, greeting me with a nervous smile as I looked at them briefly. Each one of them held a story, came from different backgrounds, and had different beliefs.

But the one thing they all had in common? They worked for me.

The group in front of me began to disperse the second they saw me nearing that side of the elevator they were waiting at, making sure to let me be the first one to get in. I gave them a quick and faint smile before checking the time on my three million dollar watch from Sweden.

Eight o’ nine in the morning, meaning in about twenty seconds, she will get here soon.

I lifted my hand up to the side, holding it out as if waiting for something to appear in it. Was it a magic trick wherein something comes out of my sleeves?

Five… the clock ticked.

Four… I let out a deep exhale.

Three… the all too familiar scent filled my sense of smell.

Two… the sound of stiletto heels on the tile.

One…

“Good morning, Mr. Wolff.” I turned to my side and saw my wide-eyed and ever ready secretary beside me, and the cup of coffee perfectly placed in my hand.

“Your usual, black coffee with two spoons of sugar.” She said with a bright smile and I thanked her for her good work as always.

Everyday from Monday to Friday, like a magic trick perhaps, Brianna always arrived at exactly eight o’ ten in the morning with my cup of coffee.

Time is money, and for all the years that she worked here, I was glad she got that concept. An important one that every employee in my company was required to not just know, but to live by.

“You only have one meeting today and this is via conference call with one of the Queen of England’s spokesperson, Mr. Wolff.”

“And, um-“ Brianna shuffled the mountain of files she was holding onto while simultaneously trying to step out of the elevator.

“Oh!” She squealed in shock and my senses immediately kicked in as my feet moved like the speed of lightning and my arms were already holding onto the file that had fallen from her hold before it could drop to the floor.

“Ah, thank you, Mr. Wolff.” She said with a sigh of relief as she hurriedly took the file and recomposed herself.

“What else were you saying?” I asked her before taking the last sip of my coffee.

No matter how hot the coffee I was given every morning, I always managed to finish it just as we were getting off the elevator.

“Well, um-“ Brianna placed the ton of papers she was holding onto to her desk before hurriedly walking her way to me.

“These are resumes for the secretary position and I’ve filtered most of them already.”

As Brianna was talking, I opened my office door and stepped inside, the smell of wood and fine leather taking over me and I inhaled deeply.

The automatic lights turned on just as the blinds began to open as well, revealing my view of New York City. Something I would never get used to. All these tall buildings, these people, these cars, they were all so small and so big at the same time.

It was so unlike back in the woods wherein there were just the right number of people, and there was no pollution, no mess, nothing so chaotic.

My two worlds were both polar opposites - chaos and serenity.

“Here. You can just pick some of them so I can contact and set up an interview, Mr. Wolff.” Brianna pulled me away from my thoughts as I turned my back from the window and back to her.

On my very expensive office table, she had placed what looked like thirty or more resumes and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t overwhelmed by just the looks of it.

Most of the time, I would easily be up for a challenge. In fact, I would be glad to do so. This was how I got myself at the top. I was not the type to give up. If I wanted it, I was going to get it, plain and simple.

But lately, I had been lacking the motivation I needed and just looking at the number of people I needed to check on made me feel even more tired.

Nonetheless, I had no choice. You couldn’t possibly have a CEO without a secretary, could you?

I hadn’t noticed how much Brianna had been talking about each of the people whose biodata were scattered on my table until I intently looked at her, eyes piercing into hers as if politely telling her to stop talking or else my head would explode.

In all the years that we had worked together, Brianna had caught the meanings of my looks and stared at her that it was almost as if we were sometimes using mind-link to talk.

Thank you, Brianna. You may go now. I said in my head and through my eyes and almost immediately, she caught my thoughts.

“Oh, oh! I’m so sorry, Mr. Wolff. I will let you get to it.” She replied flustered as she cleared her throat and excused herself out of my office.

Once she was gone, I closed my eyes for a few seconds, just taking in the quietness around me before my office day officially began, also known as the chaos to my serenity.

I let out a deep sigh as I opened my eyes, immediately staring at the pictures of different people on my table.

Once I sat on my fine and expensive chair, I took one of the papers and looked at it.

“Alessandra Vivi. Twenty three years old.” I squinted my eyes as it looked at the picture of a petite-looking girl, her dark brown hair up in a neat and formal bun while her stark brown eyes looked back at me.

“This looks promising.” I told myself as I began to read her credentials.

In general, they were all good. Graduated in a good university, relatively decent exposure from school clubs to outside school activities.

I put the resume back down to the table and began to scan the others around me. I quickly realized that most of these women were in fact almost the same as the other.

There was no doubt that they were attractive, smart, and socially capable amongst other things, but there was just something I couldn’t wrap my head around that wouldn’t get me to pick them as my next secretary.

“Ugh.” I let out a groan as I pushed myself from the table, the wheels of my office chair taking me away from the numerous papers I needed to get to no matter how much I didn’t want to.

I let out a deep sigh as I averted my gaze to my window, my eyes quickly spotting Grand Central Park and all its beautiful nature.

I then got a thought. It’s been quite some time since I was able to go for a run and seeing as the weather looked good enough, it wouldn’t be at all too bad to take a quick break.

“Running it is.” I got up off my chair and went straight to the bathroom.

In less than five minutes, I had changed from my all black suit to my twenty five hundred dollar limited edition black and white running set. Plus a jacket to make it seem as if I was cold during the season, but it was just for show.

“Mr. Wolff. Going for a run?” Brianna asked and I could see she was slightly confused because she was expecting me to give back my choices but instead, I was physically running away from it.

“Yes, I’ll be back before the meeting later. Also, would you mind just narrowing down the candidates to whom you think fits best? I’d highly appreciate that. Thank you, Brianna.” I gave her a smile, lightly tapping the sports bottle I was holding onto on her table.

“O-of course, Mr. Wolff.” She instantly smiled back, but the increased speed in her heartbeat said differently and I knew she felt quite pressured to pick someone for me.

Nonetheless, I needed to take this break. Running made me feel free, made me feel like I was just in my wolf form going miles and miles to the edge of the woods, caring about nothing but taking in the adrenalin rush all over my body.

Luckily, Grand Central Park was the perfect place to do that and I was only a few minutes away from it via walking it as it was right in front of my building.

Because the coldness of the weather had subtly subsided, there were more people out. Adults roaming around the park and others who were just sitting down by the benches. Either way, I made sure to never pay any attention to them.

Once I began to run, everything around me disappeared as if the world had just vanished and it was just me and my space. My feet were moving at just the right speed of how fast a normal human could go so no one could get suspicious and in a few minutes, I had already reached the inner area of the park.

Quiet, serene, and calm. I took a pause and inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of clean water, melting snow, and a strong, hypnotizing scent of-

Wait, what?

My eyes immediately opened when I smelled something different, something strong, something that made my heartbeat faster than it had ever done so.

“What is that?” I whispered to myself as I began to look left, right, and all around the park trying to find where it was.

Suddenly, a loud scream of a woman echoed and some birds flew away from the surprise. My head turned to the sound and with my vision, I saw a woman being entrapped by two men inside the tunnel.

My heart skipped a beat.

Was that where the scent was coming from? What or who was she? More importantly, what should I do?

Before I could fully comprehend my thoughts, my body had somehow gone into autopilot and my feet were moving towards the unknown woman, the strong scent becoming closer and closer.

I guess there was only one way to find out.