Chapter 7
SEVEN
ARIELLA
I relish the nostalgia of walking into Ivory Bow’s office building. I stop at the café on the ground floor for what used to be my daily hibiscus tea, before making my way to the bank of elevators to take me to Ivory Bow’s floor. As I step into the company’s UK space, everything feels different. It takes me a few seconds to realise what it is. The normally busy, loud office, filled with laughter and people hanging around each other’s desks being distracting, is quiet. All I can see are the staff at their desks, with their eyes ahead, focused on their computer screens, immersed in work.
‘Ariella,’ Christopher says, beaming, as he walks towards me. As soon as he breaks the silence with my name, it feels like all the people on the floor lift their heads from their computers and look in my direction at the same time. It makes me shrink back.
‘You haven’t changed,’ he says with a laugh as he leads me to one of the glass meeting rooms. Dominic is already in there waiting. He stands when Christopher opens the door.
‘Aari.’ He gives me a big smile as he pulls the chair opposite him out for me.
‘Dom.’ I can’t help returning it.
‘Hi,’ he says quietly, planting a light kiss on my temple. It feels unnecessarily intimate, especially in front of Christopher.
‘Hi,’ I return, embarrassed.
Christopher takes a seat and quietly observes Dominic and me with a curious look on his face. When we are both finally sitting at the boardroom table, he pauses.
‘Is there anything either of you would like to share about your relationship that we might need to consider before having discussions about the future of Ivory Bow?’ he asks, looking very uncomfortable to be doing so.
‘Nothing of relevance,’ Dominic says with a cheeky grin and a brow twitch that suggests there might be plenty of relevance.
I’m mortified and shake my head quickly, which only makes Dominic chuckle.
‘Okay. As you know, Harrison is out and, consequently, sales have slowed. Clients aren’t dropping us yet but project enquiries coming through have dipped considerably. We’ve removed all the questionable clients and, while the company will be fine, it isn’t the roaring success it once was. We will be able to keep the team on their salaries, but bonuses will be a fraction of what they used to be and I suspect we will start losing people. Clearly, the vibrant energy of the office has disappeared.’
‘Sounds like you need a sales lead,’ Dominic offers.
‘I do.’
‘Can you promote from within?’
‘I could, but I need a specific personality type and no one currently fits the bill. Besides, Harrison had total autonomy in that area, so I’m concerned about promoting someone only for them to jump ship a few weeks later because of their loyalty to him.’
‘Are there any challenges you anticipate if you hire someone from the outside?’
‘Ivory Bow works in a very specific way. That could be the solution to our problem, but I’d need someone loyal with a proven track record, who knows the company inside out, to show them the way the sales side of the business works.’
‘You want Caleb,’ I conclude, when I realise where Christopher is going.
‘I need Caleb,’ Christopher confirms.
‘Caleb? Didn’t he significantly contribute to this current situation?’ Dominic asks.
‘Maybe, but even without the questionable clients he was still, by far, the most successful member of the sales team. I don’t see him replacing Harrison – I’d be jumping over two good people to do that – but he’d be useful when it comes to guiding the person we do bring in to replace Harrison.’
I’m relieved. If Caleb was asked to replace Harrison, he’d have to move back to the UK. Things may not be as they should between us, but I’d be destroyed if he had to leave Singapore.
‘What is Caleb currently focusing on in Singapore? Do you think he could take three months out to help Chris?’ Dominic asks me.
‘He’s currently recruiting for the Singapore sales team, so he’ll need to be around, but I’m sure he’d like to support Christopher in order to make amends for any problems he has caused. You’d have to ask him though.’
‘If you’re happy with that, Dominic, I’ll arrange for him to come in for a chat,’ Christopher confirms.
‘It’s still Aari’s call until the new CEO starts.’ Dominic shrugs. ‘I’m just the money guy.’
‘I’m going to need a little more than a money guy for a thirty-three-per cent stake in the business,’ Christopher stresses. ‘I’ve lost my sounding board, I don’t have a finance department because they all had to go and Ivory Bow has lost its frontman. Cash isn’t the entire solution. You’ve built and acquired businesses; I need your experience and expertise to weather this.’
‘You now own a third of Ivory Bow?’ I ask Dominic, confused.
‘Sort of.’ Dominic looks like he has just been caught doing something extremely naughty. He clears his throat. That bit of news was obviously meant to stay a secret. ‘So, what does the hiring timeline look like?’ he says, changing the subject.
‘I’ve started on a job description; the team has been helpful with that. Once we’ve had a chat with Caleb and he’s had a look through, we’ll go live with it. I’ll set a week aside for the first interviews. I’ll need him here then. Once they go through the interview process and we’ve selected someone, I’ll need Caleb for another week to help with their induction.’
‘Aari?’ Dom asks.
‘That isn’t a huge ask at all. I’m sure he’ll be happy to help.’
‘Great,’ Dominic says as he stands. ‘I have to be in Whitehall in thirty minutes. Is there anything that we can’t discuss on the golf course tomorrow?’ he asks Christopher.
‘No, see you there.’ He stands to shake Dominic’s hand.
‘Okay. And see you at dinner tonight.’ I nod. Dominic walks over and strokes my shoulder affectionately. I let him, but make a note to set some boundaries with him at dinner.
Christopher waits for Dominic to leave before he turns to me. He looks very worried.
‘Ariella, Dominic may have started off as a client and become a friend, but he now owns Ivory Bow Asia in its entirety and is largely responsible for funding Harrison’s buy-out. I’ve never had anyone hand so much money over so easily. I’m not sure what’s going on, but be careful.’
‘Nothing is going on, Christopher. We’re just friends.’
‘I’ve known you for two and a half years longer than he has and we’re still at “Christopher” and “Ariella”. Dominic comes across as someone who is used to getting what he wants. That’s usually fine if the person at the other end of his demands wants the same things too. If they don’t, I suspect that he will make it almost impossible to say no. In your case, it will be especially difficult now that he is your boss. Your relationship is no longer a level playing field, Ariella. Friend or not, the power balance has shifted. He’s now in charge.’
Dominic is already sitting in a private corner booth right at the back of the restaurant when I arrive.
‘Hey.’ He gets up when he sees me, and only takes his seat again when I have taken mine. ‘I don’t come to London often enough. I’ve forgotten how much I love the city. It’s so walkable.’ He’s light and upbeat, like he always is. That’s something I’ve always admired about Dominic. His energy always has a sparkling playfulness to it. It’s not something that comes easily to me, so I welcome it. Usually.
‘Welcome to my home. Sounds like you’ve been busy.’ I may be glad to see him, but I’m not letting him off the hook.
‘I have, but we can talk about that later. I picked this restaurant because I know it’s one of your favourites, so I’m going to need some menu guidance.’ He shakes the menu at me and opens it in front of him.
‘Can we talk about it now?’
‘I knew you weren’t going to let me get away with that,’ he says with a laugh, shutting the menu and putting it to the side, then interlocking his fingers in front of him. ‘There isn’t much to tell. Chris wanted Harrison out. He called and asked me to help. I said yes, mostly because of you. I told him I’d take fifty per cent, he said that he didn’t want to hand over half of the control. So I told him to raise what he could and I’d mop up the rest when he felt he’d done all he could. That’s it.’
‘Dom, you can’t bankroll Ivory Bow “mostly” because of me.’
‘We did our due diligence. It’s a solid business that was about to crumble because a few people got greedy. That’s fixable. But also, yes I can. You love this job. You’re incredible at it. I’m not going to stand by and watch something you love die. I knew that I could do something about it, so I did.’
‘It’s a lot, Dom.’
‘This is my challenge, Aari. What isn’t a lot? Right now, on my list of things that make you happy, Korean zombies and your job are all I’ve got. We’ve spent quite a bit of time together and, aside from those two things, I have no idea what puts a smile on your face.’
‘This dinner is nice,’ I offer.
‘It is, but it’s a cheap shot. Everyone likes to eat something and Lydia arranged it. Even tonight, I’m willing to bet that we’ll sit here and spend a couple of unforgettable hours together, but I still won’t know any more about you than I did before we sat down.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘How do I get in here?’ Dom asks, tapping his forehead.
‘As my boss or as my friend?’
Dominic looks so hurt, I feel terrible.
‘Really? Of course as your friend, Aari.’
‘I don’t know. Can’t we just let things unfold naturally, the way they have done up to this point?’
‘Here’s a question. If we had twenty-four hours together and no commitments, how would you spend it?’
I understand his frustration. I like Dominic, I really do. He has been nothing but kind, supportive and sweet to me, but the energy that continues to develop between us seems to be forcing me into my shell rather than coaxing me out of it. Christopher’s warning hasn’t helped. The harder he tries, the more I want to open up to him, but I just seem incapable of doing so. I go against my natural feelings and force myself to share something meaningful.
‘I might walk around whatever city we’re in to discover something new, and perhaps figure out how to cook something local that we’ve never tried before?’
‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it.’
‘Maybe we can do that one day when we get back? We could skip to Borneo for the day.’ Dominic raises an eyebrow.
‘Can we just clarify?—’
‘It’s not a date. I know. We’re just hanging out as friends, right?’ Dominic smirks.
‘Dom—’
‘I hear you loud and clear. I have my own baggage to deal with too, but I need to check. You’re not holding me at a distance because of what Maximilian said, are you? Because?—’
‘No, of course not. I know who you are, Dom.’ I instinctively reach out and cover his hands with mine. ‘I’m not sure you’re over Mackenzie yet – I saw the way you looked at her. And I’m still in love with Caleb.’
‘But you’re attracted to me.’ It’s not a question and there is no point denying it.
‘I am, which I know makes things awkward, but I really want to work things out with him. I’m still hurt and angry with him, but I want to try.’
‘I think you’re making a mistake. He’s with Honey, Aari, and he’s kinda cheating on her with you.’
‘They are genuinely just friends.’
‘I’ll back off. But I’ll be here if you need me,’ Dominic acquiesces.
‘Thank you for understanding.’
‘Oh, no, I don’t understand at all, but if working things out with Caleb is what you feel you have to do then I won’t interfere. My parents adore you, so they’ll definitely give me a hard time, and MrsThompson will be positively heartbroken. She may have started knitting little booties for our babies with the number seven on them.’ He laughs that laugh that makes me want to join in.
‘I was going to ask – what did you mean when you said Mackenzie had lost the privilege to call you Six?’
‘It’s a weird tradition. As a “Dominic Miller” in my family, from the moment you’re born you’re representing all the Dominics that came before you, all the time. The only time you get to be an individual is when you’re married, and only with your partner. They get the sole privilege to individualise you and call you by your actual name, which just happens to be a number.’
‘So calling you by your number…’
‘Was a massive overstep by Mackenzie, because it’s the same as saying we still belong to each other. Which we certainly do not.’
‘How does your family decide who gets called Dominic?’
‘It’s usually the first male child from the previous Dominic that doesn’t cry when they’re born.’
‘That’s a lot of pressure to carry, Dom. For you and the woman who merely gets the privilege to call you Six.’
‘I like the way you say Six,’ Dominic says, smiling, then continues, ‘It is a lot, especially from a bunch of dead Dominics, but there are perks.’ He laughs softly. ‘Like having the ability to make your friends happy no matter how difficult they make it.’
‘It’s a good thing I’m one of those.’ I smile at him, removing my hand from his.
‘Let’s hope it stays that way, because we’ve found your new CEO. He starts in two weeks.’
‘Is there anything I can do to make things easier for him?’
‘No.’ Dominic snorts at a private joke. ‘Samir relishes a challenge.’
‘We’re certainly that,’ I say as I smile.
‘He has his way of doing things. Expect some chaos.’
‘We can handle chaos.’
‘You continue to intrigue me, Ariella Mason.’ He looks at me with a little smirk, then picks up the menu again and hands it to me. ‘Feed me? Please?’
I take the menu and do as he asks. Dinner is easy and laughter-filled, like all the dinners we have had before. Dominic may have committed to backing off, but I know that his mere presence is going to make my reconciliation with Caleb difficult. Also, the one thing I have observed and that I admire about Dominic, working with him over the last few months, is his tenacity. He seems incapable of backing off anything. It worries me because we’ve had the friendship conversation before, but the last time Dominic showed up expecting me to feed him, it ended with both of us crossing a huge line.
A few weeks ago, Dominic reminded me that I’d promised to make him mac and cheese to say thank you for my birthday party, so after I moved into his community he came over with an empty belly and some champagne as a house-warming present.
‘Hey!’ He happily shook the two bottles of Bollinger at me as I opened the door.
‘Hi. Come on in,’ I said as I gladly let him in.
‘I came armed with my streaming username and password – I’m determined to set your TV up so we can watch something good!’
‘Brilliant! I’ll put the champagne in the fridge.’
‘Let’s pop one right away. I know it’s your favourite.’
‘I have colder bottles in the fridge.’ I relieved him of both bottles to put them away.
‘I feel like celebrating the fact that we are finally hanging out alone in your home. I actually managed to make it over without being interrupted by Lara.’ He laughed loudly, reminding me that it was the first time we’d been alone since the kiss in front of my apartment building.
He followed me to the kitchen, where I handed him a much colder bottle of Bollinger and grabbed a couple of glasses. Dom made a show of popping it loudly, then filled them.
‘Cheers!’ we said in unison and took our sips.
‘Your home is much nicer than mine,’ he quipped, walking through the kitchen. ‘You’d know if you ever actually took up any one of the many invitations I’ve extended. Are we eating out here?’ he asked, pointing at the laid dining table in the garden.
‘I thought it would be nice to sit outside?’
‘Hell no. We’re having a movie night and you’ve made us American classics. Tradition dictates we eat in front of the TV. I’ll move this stuff over while you finish up.’
I watched Dominic pick up the cutlery, crockery and linen, then turned back to the stove. Cooking before he turned up had been fun. It was wonderful to have a stab at Gigi’s recipes tonight. MsPat had gone on the ingredients hunt for me, so I had to improvise when she couldn’t find what I was looking for. It was exciting to come home to make sense of it all. The smoky lardon macaroni cheese was easy. I’d made it plenty of times before with Gigi but never alone. I grilled some salted chicken wings that were to be served with buffalo sauce that MsPat had found, and blackened some shrimp before adding it to the potato salad to make it a little more interesting. The first batch of almost everything was such a disaster that I was worried that the night’s meal was destined for the bin. Thankfully, I ended up with final results that were passable. It wasn’t perfect – and certainly not up to Gigi’s standards – but each dish had a good amount of flavour and no one was going to die of food poisoning.
‘What do you want to watch? I’m looking at a bunch of chick flicks and hoping you’ll go easy on me and pick Bridesmaids ,’ Dominic shouted from the living room.
I laughed to myself as I brought the platter of food in. Dom cleared the coffee table and set places for us there, with cushions on the floor for us to sit.
‘I’m in the mood for something scary…’
‘How do you feel about foreign-language films?’
‘I love them!’
‘ Train to Busan it is!’
I grabbed the ice bucket, poured us both more champagne and set out the rest of the condiments. Dominic hit the lights.
‘You want to see this one in the dark, Aari,’ he suggested, then sat next to me and tapped the play button on the screen.
The next two hours flew by. My eyes were glued to the screen. The film was phenomenal, with absolutely no let-up.
‘You barely touched your food!’ Dominic said with a laugh. The plate beside him had a roughly piled pyramid of chicken wing bones. Most of the mac and cheese was gone, but he had had the decency to leave me with two prawns and a tiny bit of salad.
‘That was amazing! Do you have any more recommendations?’
‘No, THAT was amazing. Do you have any more?’ Dominic pointed to the food on the table. ‘You can cook for me any time. Especially if you continue not to eat so I don’t have to share.’
‘Thanks. What are we watching next?’
‘Nothing, yet. Let’s tidy and take a bathroom break? I need to flip through the movie database in my head for a minute to find you something. What’s for dessert?’ Dominic asked, starting to clear up.
‘Chocolate brownie ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s. I thought you might like a bit of home,’ I explained as I followed him to the kitchen with the rest of the dishes.
‘Yummy. Let’s get two spoons and eat it straight from the tub. First, bathroom.’
I pointed him in the direction of the bathroom and finished clearing up. When he returned, the dishes were in the machine and the macaroni cheese bake dish was soaking.
‘So, it’s not as “everything” as Train to Busan but Parasite ’s fantastic and won a bunch of Oscars?’ he offered.
‘Let’s do it.’ I returned to the living room with the tub of ice cream and two spoons.
‘I’ve never seen you this relaxed. I like it. A lot. You’ve kept this part of you carefully hidden, Ariella.’ He moved the coffee table away and rearranged the cushions closer together so we could share the ice cream tub.
He was right. Parasite was no Train to Busan but I was still gripped by the funny, then devastatingly violent, social satire. By the time it ended, I was emotionally exhausted.
‘Wow,’ was all I could manage.
‘I’m demanding from now on that we have more movie nights.’
‘Done,’ I agreed enthusiastically as I stretched through a yawn.
‘I better head out, it’s one thirty.’
‘It’s a miracle I’m still awake.’ I got up with Dominic to walk him to the door.
‘See you soon?’ he called back as he walked out of the door.
‘For sure. I had a fantastic time tonight, thank you, Dom!’
‘Can we keep this girl please?’ he teased.
‘I’ll try. See you soon.’ I waved him goodbye.
It had been a great night – it was nice to have someone else to just hang out at home with. I’ve been missing that. Just as I put the spoons away, the doorbell went again. I saw Dominic through the peephole and opened the door.
‘What did you forget?’ I chuckled, rolling my eyes. Dom’s lips were suddenly on mine and, before I could make sense of what was going on, I was kissing him back and pulling him inside. Dominic Miller is an intoxicating kisser and, for a moment there, I forgot everything. He slammed my front door shut before pinning me against the adjacent wall with his body.
His kiss was unrelenting, with my lips matching his every motion. I’d felt the tension between us slowly build all night, and knew exactly when his energy shifted during the second film.
‘You were so different tonight,’ he whispered, before re-engaging our kiss. I felt his hands travel up my body and undo my shirt’s top button. Just as he started with the next button down, I gasped and clutched my shirt together. Dominic disengaged immediately to lean his forehead against mine. His eyes may have been closed, but I could feel his frustration in the silence that descended between us. A heavy sigh followed after a little while as he pulled away.
‘I can’t begin to tell you the hatred I have right now for Caleb Black.’
Dominic refused to look at me, so I adjusted my head so that my eyes would meet his. ‘I’m sorry, I really am.’
‘You need more time,’ he whispered, bringing his forehead back to mine. ‘Until you deal with your Caleb problem, you’re going to be stuck, Aari.’
‘He’s not a problem, he’s…’
‘He’s a consideration, you’ve said – but he’s not, or shouldn’t be. He’s a problem. He hurts and embarrasses you. He’s the reason you’re here, in a country you don’t want to be in, and, as much as I hate to say it, dealing with me. You’re letting him hold you captive, Aari. When are you going to decide you’ve had enough?’
‘When I’ve had enough. I’m still in love with him, Dom. It’s complicated with Caleb.’
‘I’m not sure there’s a simple answer when it comes to him.’ Dominic took it too far with that last statement.
I manoeuvred myself out of the space between him and the wall to open the door. Things may be messy, confusing and difficult to wade through at the moment, but I refuse to let Dominic think he can take shots at Caleb and I’ll be okay with it.
‘It’s getting late, Dominic,’ I said curtly, refusing to meet his eyes.
He groaned, walked to my door and looked at me like he felt sorry for me.
‘I don’t know what it is with this guy, but I’m around if you need me.’
It was the last thing he said to me until amnesia roses and an apology note arrived the next day.
Friends really shouldn’t kiss friends without their permission, no matter how enchanting they may have been. I should have kept my hands and thoughts to myself last night. Dom.
I responded with a phone call and, by the time I’d hung up, we’d agreed to keep our friendship as it was.