A Gentleman's Affair (5 page)

I return to my office just minutes later,
handing her a set of papers. “Here is your copy of the contract. If
you have any questions before the start date, don’t hesitate to
call Patrice or myself.”

“I will. And thank you so much for this
opportunity, Donovan. I won’t let you down.“ I nod as she stands,
extending her hand to me. She has quite a firm grip for such a
petite woman. As our eyes meet, I notice the flecks of gold in her
eyes for the first time. I find myself mesmerized and unable to
look away. Perfect, now I am staring. I release her hand and take a
step back.

“It’s my pleasure, Scarlett. Allow me to
escort you out.” We leave my office and I suddenly find myself at
an uncomfortable loss for words. I lead her through the lobby then
to the large double glass doors at the entrance of the hotel. I
push one of the doors open, allowing her to walk through. 

 “Enjoy the rest of your day,
Scarlett.” I flash her a smile and watch her as she walks away…in
that dangerously sexy, curve-hugging pencil skirt.

Chapter Four

~Breaking ground~

The meeting with Miss Montgomery went very
well, and we are all extremely excited about the much-needed
facelift here at La Fuga. Now that I’ve accepted that Dad won’t be
returning to run the hotel, I feel that it needs to be a bit more
contemporary. Dad never did like change much. It’s bittersweet, but
after seven years, it is what it is.

Patrice is assisting me with a few
last-minute work-related issues before I leave for a two week trip
to Las Vegas. The groundbreaking ceremony for Pisa is tomorrow and
I need to be available there to help get everything up and running.
I also remind her to make sure that all of the arrangements for the
brunch following the ceremony are in order. 

Matt Reynolds, the manager of the hotel, and
Adam Pasqualla who manages The Underground, our nightclub here at
the hotel, join us to go over what needs to be addressed in my
absence. Matt has been with me for five years, Adam for two-and-a-
half. They are both very good at what they do, and I have complete
faith in them to keep the hotel from burning down while I’m away in
Vegas. 

I make my way through the hotel being sure
to have a quick word with every employee before I leave. I have a
wonderful staff, but we all know how employees can behave when the
boss is away. There always seem to be a few that try to take
advantage of this kind of situation. It’s like having a substitute
teacher: people want to fuck around, call in sick, try to leave
early. I don’t tolerate that kind of shit. Never have, never
will.

Matt is already waiting outside for me with
the car ready to take me to the airport, which is less than a
twenty minute drive from the hotel. “Did you remember your cell
phone this time, Donovan?” he jokes. Yes, it’s true. My last trip
to Vegas, we got all the way to the airport when I realized that I
had left it in my office.

“Yes, I’ve got it right here.” I laugh,
shaking my head as I hold up my cell phone in front of him. “Did
you remember to put my suitcase in the trunk, Matt?” He laughs and
shakes his head right back.

Matt has become a very good friend to me
over the years…almost like the brother I never had. He met his
wife, Kacie, on an online dating site two-and-a-half years ago, and
they were married one year later. She is now pregnant, so I have
pretty much lost my drinking buddy. But that’s alright, I’m very
happy for him, and the bar scene is extremely overrated—unless
you’re referring to my bar, of course.

I sit back and relax, enjoying a nice cold
beer during the short flight to Vegas. I’m suddenly reminded of
something that my hairstylist, Lizzy, said to me this morning as I
was getting my hair cut. We were talking about all of our dating
disasters like we usually do. She has been doing my hair for close
to eight years now, and we always have a good laugh as we trade our
horror stories. Over the years, it’s become a sort of contest to
see who has had the worst date in the five weeks in between visits.
Anyways, she said that I clearly have a giant “L” splattered across
my forehead, with all of the bad dates that I’ve been having
recently. She told me to stop taking out every single girl that I
meet on the side of the road. I had to laugh as I thought back to
that conversation, because she couldn’t be more right. I really do
that.

The flight went smoothly, which is always a
plus in my book. I’ve never cared much for flying. But now that I’m
checked in and settled into my hotel, all is good again. There is a
dinner meeting tonight with the investors at one of the better
local restaurants here in Las Vegas, so I decide to take a quick
shower in order to wake up. These meetings usually to turn into
late nights that always seem include one too many drinks. 

I arrive at the restaurant promptly at eight
o’clock and seeing that my party has already been seated, I make my
way through the restaurant to join them. Two hours pass, and it
suddenly dawns on me that the conversation never even made it to
business. Instead, the drinks began to flow immediately, and after
months of this plan in development, we actually turned this into
what I think was a much-needed celebration.

After some prodding, I finally get the
investors to take a moment for some much-needed discussion on the
finalizing of this project. I can hardly believe that my long-time
dream of opening a hotel here in Las Vegas is about to become a
reality. I urge the men to slow down on the drinking, reminding
them that we have the groundbreaking ceremony to attend early
tomorrow morning. They all agree to take it easy, but continue to
drink way too much anyway. What else can I do but join them? This
is a celebration, after all. Fuck it. You only live once. 

Eight a.m. came too quickly. I wake up with
a slight hangover, and seeing how the rest of my party drank last
night, I can only imagine that they are feeling about ten times
worse than I am right now. I place a call to room service, ordering
up a light breakfast before getting into the shower. Thankfully,
this will be a short day, as we only have the groundbreaking
ceremony and the celebratory brunch to attend. Starting tomorrow,
my days will be filled with meeting after meeting with builders,
inspectors and surveyors for the new hotel.

I have about an hour before I need to be at
the site for the ceremony. After a quick shower and a shave, I put
on my favorite dark blue Armani suit with a black silk tie, and I
sit down at the small table in my suite to eat breakfast. This will
give me time to go over the notes that I’ve made for the speech
that I am giving this morning.

Startled by a sudden knock at my door, I
look up from my notes trying to shake off the writing trance that
has consumed me for the past hour. I check my watch, and realizing
the time, I assume that it’s my driver at the door. Taking a final
sip of coffee, I gather up my now-finished speech and walk across
the large suite to open door. The hotel driver tells me that my
limo is waiting, and that we need to leave now in order to arrive
on time.

I rehearse the speech in the limo a couple
of more times as we drive to the site. I’m nervous, anxious and
excited, all at the same time. Today is a very important day, and I
only wish that my parents were here to share it with me. Mom would
have been extremely proud of me, and I know that Dad is…but he just
didn’t have it in him to make the trip. But I won’t let any of that
ruin this day. I’ve worked way too hard for it.

We arrive at the site, and there is a crowd
of around 100 or so people already gathered. I see the Mayor
standing near the podium talking with my investors and an older
gentleman that is holding the shovels that we will be using to
break the ground in the ceremony.

I shake a few hands as I make my way over to
them, greeting the Mayor first with a firm handshake and a nod.
“Mayor, thank you for taking time out of your busy morning to be
here.”

I turn to the investors, shake their hands,
and quickly turn back to the Mayor as she responds: “It’s my
pleasure Mr. Hart. We’re all extremely excited about this
particular property—not to mention the new interest that it‘s going
to bring to the city.”

She turns to address the investors, smiling
graciously. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me, it looks as
though we’re ready to begin.”

Turning her attention back to me, she holds
out her arm directing me towards the podium. “Mr. Hart, please join
me at the podium. Let’s break some ground shall we?” I respectfully
nod, follow, then stand just off to the side of her at the podium
as she begins her opening speech. 

“First, I’d like to welcome you all to the
groundbreaking ceremony of Pisa. We’re all very excited about the
erecting of this new hotel and are certain that it will be a
wonderful addition to the city. I’m honored to have had the
pleasure of getting to know Mr. Hart over the past few months, and
we are thrilled to welcome him, and Pisa, to our fair city. Now,
without further ado, let me introduce you to a man with quite a
vision, Mr. Donovan Hart.” She turns and smiles at me as the crowd
cheers and roars with applause along with her.

I can’t help the
ridiculously wide grin on my face as I hear the applause.
I shake the Mayor’s hand as I take my place at
the podium, completely forgetting to take my speech out of my coat
pocket. I stand silent for just a moment to take in the crowd. All
eyes are on me and the applause continues.

“Thank you. Thank you everyone.” Chuckling,
I hold my hand up in the air in an attempt to silence the crowd.
“That was quite a warm welcome. Thank you, Mayor.” I turn to her
with a nod and a warm smile as the applause finally dies down.

“Thank you all for being here this morning.
This project has consumed the better part of my life for the past
year, and today the dream becomes a reality. My family has been in
the hotel business since I was eight years old, and I always knew
that one day I would follow in the footsteps of my parents and open
a hotel of my own. The idea for Pisa came to me back in 2005 during
one of many family vacations to Northern Italy, where my mother was
born. For some reason, that awkward leaning tower that always
looked like it was about to fall down to me as a child, suddenly
held new meaning for me. Its architectural beauty is unlike
anything else in the world, and I knew then that I had to find a
way to replicate this masterpiece and somehow erect it right here,
in Las Vegas.”

The crowd again roars with cheers and
applause, and again, I hold up my hand to quiet the crowd. “Now, I
would like for Michael Rafferty and Russell Montrose, my business
associates on this project, to join me here at the podium.” I join
the crowd in the next round of applause as they walk up and stand
next to me. “I would like to thank the both of you for believing in
my vision and helping me see it through to its fruition.” Nodding
with a grin, I shake each of their hands while posing for pictures
that are being taken by local press and guests. 

The Mayor approaches the elderly man that
has been standing by with the shovels, two in each hand. She takes
the shovels from him then joins us, congratulating us as she passes
them out. All four of us place the shovels into the dirt, smiling
as we pose for more pictures. I hand my shovel to Mike and return
to the podium to wrap things up.

“I would like to thank you all again for
being here this morning for this momentous occasion. We look
forward to seeing you all in the grand ballroom back at my hotel,
for a celebratory brunch.”

I turn to address the Mayor
one last time. “Mayor, thank you again for everything. I hope that
you’ll join us to celebrate.” After shaking her hand, we all leave
the site to make the short drive to my hotel to begin the
celebration.

Chapter Five

~Zoie~

It was a perfect day. The
ceremony and celebratory brunch were all that I had hoped for and
more. The only thing missing were
my
parents. I would have really loved to be able to share all of this
with them. But if the last seven years since my mother’s death have
taught me anything, it’s to seize the day.

And that’s exactly what I did. I seized it
with one too many glasses of extremely expensive champagne. Now
back at my suite, I change out of my Armani suit and into my swim
trunks, deciding that a few laps in the hotel pool before dinner
with Mike and Russ will wake me up.

The cool water of the pool is exhilarating.
My mind drifts off as I’m doing my laps, and I begin the non-stop
evaluating of my life that I seem to be doing a lot of lately. The
bad dates. The brief relationship I had two years ago with my
former assistant, Danielle, that urged me to never date anyone
that I do business with again. That makes me think of Scarlett and
how I would probably ask her out if she wasn’t now working for
me.