2 - ADAM #2
It’s our standard opening exchange. We eat the banquet in silence. Later, in the living room, we sip our liqueurs and Mom opens the conversation—about the engagement, how she and David’s and Olavo’s mothers are so invested.
Our parents are like a triple alliance. They belong to the same social circle, met in college, formed bonds, got married the same year, had kids the same year, sent their offspring to Oxford, live in the same gated community.
Want more? David’s parents, René and Rodrigo Trajano, are so alike it’s almost scary—obviously the son came out a carbon copy.
They have this thing in the family about marrying each other.
They’re cousins. But my friend broke the “curse,” as we say behind closed doors—he was the first to tie the knot, marrying Paula, my cousin.
Okay, there’s more. Now the old folks are planning the second wedding among us and want the third to happen before December too. The detail: we’re in June.
When we graduated, David and Olavo took on CEO positions at our companies in Brazil. Omar Montenegro, Olavo’s father, was the first to step down, then Olivia, the only wife who’d taken a role at AVI. And so on, one after another.
My grandfather started the family business with Amazing View Incorporadora, whose motto is: for over 100 years, revitalizing the world.
It focused on intelligence, viability, land acquisition, product, and sales.
Twenty years later, he founded Amazing View Construtora—focused on the physical execution of projects, technique, and engineering.
Finally, to end the dependence on outsourcing, he created Amazing View FIIs (Real Estate Investment Funds) for fundraising and management of real estate assets.
Today, the conglomerate is called Devereaux Amazing View, specializing in retrofit and the revitalization of old buildings.
Yeah, we offspring made significant changes—for the better, of course.
In short, we have our development company, headed by David, the construction company, led by Olavo, and the investment fund itself, still under the command of Archibald—the last of the old guard, who refuses to give up the reins. Fair enough.
We acquire deteriorated, old, or vacant buildings and revitalize them—we rarely demolish for new construction. Two years ago, I took over as head of Devereaux Amazing View. Everything has to go through me, or rather, everything ends with me.
“Archie, we need to get Adam a new car,” Mom says, savoring her blackberry liqueur. “That little thing he drives only seats two.”
“I’ll set something up with Clovis tomorrow to pick out something more suitable, Eleanor.”
It’s like I’m not even in the room.
“I already said I’m not changing cars.” I use my final tone.
“Right, Adam.” Dad—a tall, robust Black man with deep, inquisitive dark eyes—responds in his “just wait for the gift” tone. I let it go.
Mom goes back to the wedding, the preparations, how she and her friends are so invested.
She muses about whether there’s still time to change her name so it would start with the same letter as Dad’s, like their two couples of friends—it would look beautiful on the invitation.
Dad laughs weakly, only saying there’s no time.
I know what he really means is that it’s tacky.
She announces, beaming, that the event will have nothing but the best, just like David and Paula’s.
Dad says it needs to be much better—always better than the last one, because that’s how you move forward.
So it’s important that everything goes off without a hitch, because the Germans might show up at the official engagement party.
For the record, I proposed months ago at a more intimate dinner for both families. The Germans haven’t confirmed yet.
This wedding is the key to a major merger between Devereaux and Stahlberg Modernisierung.
Germany is a global leader in retrofit—modernization and technological upgrades—for both industrial and real estate sectors, with a heavy focus on energy efficiency, sustainability, and Industry 4.
0. German companies specialize in converting old machines, systems, and buildings to modern standards without total replacement.
However, the Steel Mountain we’ve partnered with is headed by Günther von Stahlberg, a Bavarian patriarch proud of his roots—Catholic, traditional, and rigorous in business.
When he invited us to lunch, it was at a Wirtshaus—a traditional tavern in Munich. They served pork knuckle and beer in one-liter mugs. Olavo had a field day with the beer, but I held back—I knew Stahlberg was testing us in an environment he and his German team controlled.
There’s one way we’re very similar: punctuality.
David was late for one of the online meetings.
Stahlberg said nothing—just hung up. Not a minute later, his secretary called to reschedule.
I’ll admit I’ve done the same thing. So much so that Olavo burst out laughing, pointing at me and doing a terrible imitation: “Lateness is a lack of character, not time.” David apologized to everyone.
One of the crucial requirements for the merger—which will make us Devereaux-Stahlberg International—is that at least a third of the CEOs be married family men.
Germans value order, or “Ordnung,” as he kept repeating when we closed the pre-agreement.
Everything will be signed after the wedding, and he even had the audacity to joke, with a deep laugh, that we could throw in a baby as a bonus.
I was startled at first, but he meant Paula and David getting pregnant.
My father laughed as they shook hands solemnly.
Honestly, I wanted to throw up. I just went along with it because I was outvoted and, well, it really is a hell of a deal—there’s no denying it.
Olavo, party animal that he is, I figured would be hard to convince.
Dead wrong—the guy celebrated. And David revealed that he and my cousin were already planning to expand the family anyway.
I was floored. They’d practically just left the altar.
Now Olavo and I have the noose around our necks.
Nothing against marriage, seriously. I just believe there’s a time for everything.
And I didn’t want this to be anything other than my own decision.
I also get that a traditional family image looks good for business—but times have changed.
Teenagers are launching wildly successful startups.
Are we going back to the Middle Ages, forcing them to get married too? Something tells me no.
Anyway, we’ll be a family multinational more than ever.
Obviously, Mom and her little friends have been over the moon ever since.
And as Olavo said, being able to give the old folks this happiness is an immeasurable honor.
Home again, I relax.
I feel feminine hands traveling across my back, tracing the lines of my chest with tenderness. I smile, breathing in the blonde’s sweet scent as she presses against me from behind.
“Make me moan, SB,” she whispers, her breath warm against my ear.
Candy...
I turn slowly.
I open my eyes. The light hits me full force. Just me in bed, with a raging hard-on.