Harrison Towers, Memoirs of a Mogul (Glass Towers Trilogy) (17 page)
Read Harrison Towers, Memoirs of a Mogul (Glass Towers Trilogy) Online
Authors: Adler,Holt
Four
Almost nine months later the project is complete and we are about to open the Street of Luxury Homes to the public. We haven’t officially listed the homes yet and Olivia and her crack sales team have sold nearly half the homes during the V.I.P preview days. I am encouraged about that given the economy. The housing market is in such a down turn that I was taking an enormous risk in going forward with upscale homes. It seems there is a market for this price point, if you have the right agents marketing it properly.
I’ve made my final walk through of the other twenty homes, leaving the so-called bungalow and
Tron
house for last. I laugh inside, when did I ever agree to calling it the
Tron
house anyway? I finished walking through the bungalow house and am very pleased how the decorator managed to capture the essence of the bungalow I was trying to recreate. Adelaide’s bungalow. The only thing the home lacks is Adelaide’s heart. That can never be replicated. After four years of grieving, I am free of the lump in my throat that her memory used to cause. I will forever love her. That will never change, I may never find another love like that and I may never open myself to it again. I’m standing in the grand foyer of the home and decide it’s time to leave, I may never return to this house. It’s time to move forward.
The
Tron
house is next door and I do know that Miss Pyne is there finishing up the last touches from what Olivia has told me. I want to see what she came up with. I wonder if she will recognize me?
I walk up the flagstone walkway lined with a stream of water on each side that spills into a sleek fabricated stone catch basin in a sheer descent waterfall. Its sleek, modern, and all me. Once I enter through the large etched glass door, I am immediately impressed with the home’s architecture and décor.
In the soaring entry a large round glass table sits below a modern chandelier with varying lengths of crystal strands with small l.e.d. lights. After taking three steps down I walk through to the open room concept. We chose a white travertine that covers the entire main level that comprises of nearly 3500 square feet. I wander into the kitchen and admire the poured concrete counter, the double ovens and the industrial hood. The decorator took care to bring elements of water in to the room in subtle ways like a vignette on the island for instance, a tall sleek cylindrical pitcher sits with lemons and water filled halfway and matching glasses grouped around it.
On the peninsula eating bar, she has places set with again, glasses that have a wave etched into the side of the glass and so forth. It’s a good thing this house was not officially named the
Tron
house, it doesn’t come across as the stiff and cold state of the art home that it is. Instead, it has a presence of life in here. Something I am unable to put my finger on.
In the adjoining great room a cow print rug has a modern cream-colored leather sofa and two matching club chairs that sit above the floor on chrome feet. The coffee table is charcoal colored tempered glass with a coffee table book titled, “Voyages” and yes, it’s a clear blue ocean with a white sailboat as the picture. I like the subtle but infrequent touches. Above the enormous fireplace a large mirror flanked with smaller geometric shaped mirrors hangs and a large sculpture of a Chinook Salmon in a bronze patina sits in the corner.
I hear noise upstairs and head up to see if its Miss Pyne. As I ascend the travertine stairs, I am practically knocked over by a young woman carrying a lampshade. “Oh my, I’m so sorry!”
I steady her with my outreached hand, “It’s okay, watch yourself though, it’s a long tumble.”
“I know, right?!” She then continues scrambling down the stairs. I guess I am assuming that she is part of the decorating team.
I arrive at the top of the stairs and walk to the master bedroom where it seems the activity is taking place. I stand looking in the double doors and enjoy the view. Miss Pyne seems to be distracted therefore has not noticed me yet. She is clearly trying to put the finishing touches on the master bedroom. I don’t even notice the décor, all I notice is the beautiful flustered creature bustling about my master bedroom. Well, I guess it’s not mine, at least not yet. She is wearing a black snug fitting knee length skirt with a cream soft silky blouse tucked in and a chain belt at her waist and black pumps. She is sexy but sophisticated. Just the kind of woman who turns my crank. Let’s see if she has any brains to go with those looks.
“Ahem.” I clear my throat, she whirls around startled, and apparently dumb struck.
“Huh?” She looks straight into my eyes and my heart stops for a brief second.
I reach my hand out, “My name is Harrison Towers. This is my project. You must be Danielle Pyne?”
As I take her hand, I feel a zap of electricity, like I just made a significant connection.
“Austen,” she stutters.
Now I am confused, “Excuse me?”
She seems to be blushing, “Oh I’m sorry, you caught me off guard. My name is Danielle Austen… I just changed it.”
I decide to play dumb, like I don’t know anything about her, “Oh, are congratulations in order?”
“Um, not really, or um, for what?” She looks confused.
I decide this is fun and play with her a little, “Well if you changed your name recently, you must have gotten married?”
She seems distracted by something, “Oh no, I just changed it back to my maiden name. I divorced a year ago… I started my design firm right after things were official and named it accordingly. I only recently felt that I wanted to re-establish myself as an independent woman, so a little late for my firm name, but not too late for me.”
My God, the woman is sure rambling. I try to disarm her by flashing her one of my award-winning smiles and look her up and down, then lock eyes with her. “Well then, I would say congratulations
are
in order.”
She blushes again. I do believe I am getting to her and good, she really is single. At least not married, and the rest of the possibilities don’t count so she is fair game in my book.
“I wanted to meet you and talk about another project I am interested in having you work on. I like your work here, I am partial to ultra-modern and contemporary finishes, and I think you might be the right person for this project.”
“Well, yes I would be very interested, what sort of project is it?” She is twirling her hair, and I find that very sexy.
“I have a high rise development in the city. Three towers to be exact. I would like to have the three lobbies decorated as well as a penthouse in one of the towers.”
She coolly replies, “I would love to bid on your project. When shall we meet to go over the scope of work?”
Now, I want to meet with you now! I think to myself I want to get close to this woman immediately. I don’t know why but I am smitten and I don’t even know her. “I would like this done within a month’s time, possibly even less. Can you meet me at the end of this week on Friday at the Columbia Tower?” I hand her a card, “10:00?”
She pulls out her smart phone, looks to be scrolling through her calendar and then casually replies, “Why yes, I do happen to have this Friday at ten open.”
She puts the phone back in her pocket and I just stand there smiling down at her with an amused look on my face. “Until then, enjoy the Parade of Luxury Homes, Miss Danielle Austen.”
With that, I turn and exit the room. As I head down the stairs I wonder what scent she was wearing, it was light and fresh almost like cherry blossoms.
I look forward to meeting her at the Towers on Friday. I wonder if she will remember me from the beach last year. I seriously doubt it, the interaction was ever so brief and distracting with that dog.
If this ever led into anything more, I doubt I would tell her how I orchestrated this meeting. Sometimes when life leads you down a path and when you reach the end you have to choose which path to take next, you have to take matters into your own hands and manipulate your own destiny. I think that’s what I may have just done.
But I am getting ahead of myself, the Glass Towers need tending to first.
Five
“Sir, sir?” I feel a hand on my shoulder gently shaking me.
Looking up at a young woman with an apron on, I realize I must have fallen asleep. I look around me and recognize I am in still in the café with my arms folded on the table in front of me. Embarrassed, I look around the room and see it is just me, the server and a couple huddled on a couch together by a bookcase.
“Oh sorry. I must have dozed for a minute. My wife just had a baby and I am a bit fatigued though I have no right to be.” I start to get up, but she motions for me to stay and shakes her head.
“No, you are fine. We are kind of used to people coming here and crashing, I mean we are directly across from the hospital. Anyway, I just heard your phone kind of ringing off the hook…I thought maybe I should wake you in case it’s urgent.”
“Oh thanks!” She turns to walk away as I feel all the blood rush from my face. The last time…well… this is different.
I pick up my phone and see that she is right I have missed several calls. I gather up my notebook with my personal thoughts for the ghostwriter. This ought to be interesting, Memoirs of a Mogul. I am not sure that people really care how I achieved my success and the roads that led me here. But, the writer seems to think I have something to say. Standing up and heading out the door, I drop a five-dollar bill in tips jar and nod at the smiling server. I login to my voice mail and let out a sigh of relief. It’s Danielle; she is excited that she finally got Giles to latch on. She is wondering where I am, she is worried because I have been gone for a couple hours and she can’t reach me.
I hurry back across the street, to rejoin my family. My god, I never thought in a million years I would have this. After Adelaide, I went down a dark spiral. I became a cold, cynical, ruthless womanizer who had no respect for himself and especially not women. Only by Adelaide watching over me and guiding me to Danielle, did I get a second chance at happiness. It was as if she gave her life so I could have this life with Danielle and Giles. A sob catches in my throat at the thought.
Back on the women’s floor, I make my way to the room housing my family. I peer in the door and notice it is dark in there except for one light. I quietly enter the room, noticing the soft sounds of Danielle sleeping. I remove my shoes and slip over to where Giles is sleeping in the bassinet.
I look into his face and once again am in awe of him. It is clear to me in this moment that everything in my life has been nothing more than a chain of events that have led me here, now.
On my way over to attempt to get some rest on the ‘sleeping’ couch something catches my eye, I see a bigger than life teddy bear, holding a helium balloon that says ‘Congratulations’. That was not there before I left the room earlier. I walk over to look at the card. It says:
Congratulations on the birth of your son.
PS. We are still not through.
Damn that woman, will I never be rid of her?
I am tempted to call her and yell through the phone, ‘
get it through your damned head…we are through if I say we are
!!’ But somehow, I know that would only fuel her fire.
She is still locked up in the loony bin and is likely to be there for years to come. If she were to be found mentally eligible for release, she would have to stand trial for all of her atrocities. For that reason, I doubt she will ever get well.
She can’t hurt us anymore and with that, I crumple the card and throw it into the garbage. Curling up on the sofa, I look one last time at my new family before I close my eyes… I finally feel whole and at peace.
Read the story of Danielle and Harrison in the
Glass Towers Trilogy
Available on Amazon
A spin off series of the Glass Towers Trilogy, featuring Danielle’s quirky friend Simone is now available in:
Simone Clarke, Memoirs of a Lonely Girl Abroad…Paris!
New Series Just Released!
‘
It wasn't his heart she was after, she wanted his soul.
’
Book One
Her Power, His Shame-The Breaking
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