After roaring this, my special woman ended the call, and stared at her smartphone for a moment, most likely considering if she should smash it into the wall or not. Ah, so it was one of the two things: negotiations went wrong, or one of her subordinates seriously screwed up. I heard a quiet gasp from beside me.

“As I said before, it’s always very intense with her,” I told Olivia.

The sound of my voice brought Bella back out of her musings over the fate of the poor piece of tech held in her hands. She slowly exhaled and threw the phone on the table, where it safely landed in the pile of paperwork.

“You are finally here. I started to think you decided to skip on me.” Bella’s words contained enough sarcasm to make a lesser man flinch. Fortunately, I was long since used to dealing with her and just smiled back. “And this must be your stray. You haven’t exaggerated. A cute one, indeed.”

“Good evening to you as well, dear,” I gave her my greetings, while Olivia opted for an awkward wave. “If you don’t mind, can we deal with the business part of this meeting first? While not terribly urgent, it could very well be time-sensitive.”

“Sure,” Bella replied, switching to her work mode. After a few moments of rummaging through documents covering her desk, she found the folder. Not going to lie, I was expecting something digital, but analogue worked just fine as well. “Here, this is what you asked for.”

“Thanks,” I voiced my gratitude.

I quickly scanned through the document inside. Date of birth, name, some official public records. Single photo. Bare-bones information wise, but this was enough. My gaze stopped at the picture. So, it was her after all. Huh, this actually explained a lot. And confirmed my conjecture.

“Will that be enough?” asked Bella.

“Yes,” I replied. “I will need your help on Sunday. Clean up your schedule. In addition, we will need someone with decent lock picking skills, and a pair of trustworthy muscle for manual labor. Literally, they will be needed to move furniture and, possibly, break a wall or two. I guess a driver who will double as a lookout wouldn’t hurt as well.”

I caught myself as my tone started to slip into a commanding one. Oops, hard to break the habit that was so ingrained.

“And what will you need me for?” Seems like Bella decided not to make an issue out of this.

“To be my driver and a sight for sore eyes,” I joked. “Jokes aside, I will definitely need your advice, and it’s not something that could be discussed over the phone.”

“Understood,” was her curt answer.

And that’s why I always loved to work with professionals. Now to the second part of the problem. I turned my head to Olivia, who had a weird expression on her face. As if she couldn’t decide if she was even supposed to be here. Understandable.

“Olivia,” I called out to get her attention. “Will you be able to organize a meeting with Su Lin for me?”

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“Um, I think so?” The girl of my current interest didn’t sound very confident. “I mean, Su is usually pretty busy with helping in her family store, but I should be able to if she is free.”

“Hm, Sunday evening would be the most ideal, but, if not possible, can I count on you to create an opportunity for me when I'll pick you after school on Monday?” The sooner I would meet Su, the sooner she would be able to pass over my message to that woman.

“I will try, but as I said, she is usually busy, so no guarantee,” responded Olivia.

“Well, thanks in advance then,” I said, fighting back the urge to sigh.

And with that out of the way, the less complicated part of today’s meeting was finished. For no apparent reason, I felt a burning desire to run away right now, but that would be the least interesting way to continue forward, wouldn’t it?

“I suppose it’s time for actual introductions.” A bit more time for me to think. “This is Bella, Isabella Alvarez. She is a lot of things, including, but not limited to, being one of, or maybe even the most important people in my life.”

“Um, nice to meet you.” Olivia’s tone still held quite a bit of hesitation in it. Can’t really blame the girl.

“And this is Olivia Torres. The holder of my current interest. And I must say, my interest in her grows day by day,” I continued with introductions.

“Charmed.” I could see a glint of appreciation in Bella’s eyes, as well as a hint of her trademark smirk on her lips. Huh, I guess Olivia was up in her strike zone. Can’t blame this one either.

I wanted to laugh. How am I even supposed to put this jumbled mess in my head into the proper words?

“Today was a day full of revelations for myself,” I finally decided to break the silence before it became awkward. “I learned something new about the two of you, while becoming aware of a… new possibility, a different path forward. And all of that threw me for a loop. I am… not quite sure what to make with all of this information. But…”

I took a moment to catch my breath, doubling it as an opportunity to read the reactions from the two of them. Bella had raised her eyebrow, curiosity clear in her expression, while Olivia tensed a bit, her body leaning forward in a wary expectation.

“But I have no idea where to even start.” I wasn’t quite sure what sort of expression was currently on my face. Which mask was currently in charge of it? Was there even one? What a mess. “Yet, I was made aware that I can’t just shirk telling the two of you my apparent position about our… possible arrangement. This, and also that some things should be said clearly.”

Another brief pause to catch my breath and gather my thoughts.

“Which is another can of worms in itself, since I couldn’t be bothered to do so previously.” I sketched the wry smile on my face, reinforcing it with a shrug. Heavens, this was a lot more complicated to do consciously. “Eh, I suppose it’s best to start by saying thank you. I appreciate your willingness to, at the very least, try to reach the compromise on my behalf. I wouldn’t be able to do the same.”

And another pause. Deep breath in, slow exhale out. Why am I stalling?

“This is one of the basic concerns that I have. I could be very territorial with such things, and that isn’t limited to just males, either. Bella should know. I drove away quite the number of her side chicks through the years.” The bitch had enough conscience to at least look guilty. Ha, as if. “And I have my doubts about how exactly I would react to the resulting relationship between the two of you as well.”

Seems like the two of them simply decided on letting me ramble without interruption. That was convenient, even if I wouldn’t really mind one way or another. I fought back another sigh. Since when did I even get this habit? Another attempt to delay the inevitable.

At last, I made up my mind. If nothing else, I owed both Bella and Olivia at least this much. And then I finally started talking.