Hidden Heart (4 page)

“
Well, I understand.
However, I just got off the phone with our CEO. He said because you
worked on this project from the beginning, it would be preferable
that you take it to the next step. It’s your baby.”

Tessa untied her hair and
massaged her forehead, then down her neck.

“
And by the way, he says
you are getting a salary increase, you deserve it.” Victor’s face
lit up with a wide smile.

“
I don’t need a damn raise.
I want you to give this project to the Sales Department. They are
experienced and know what needs to be done. You do realize I have
three more proposals I need to finish, why on earth would I start
writing sales contracts?”

***

Tessa’s cozy little
apartment was close to downtown Bucharest, near the historical
Arcul de Triumf, in an old fashioned neighborhood. The two-bedroom
apartment was her pride and joy, a tangible proof of her
accomplishments. She bought it years ago when she received a bonus
after closing another multi-million dollar deal. Her childhood was
a time of poverty, hunger and fear but in spite of the chaos and
corruption governing Romania, after the communistic regime was
gone, Tessa had succeeded in building an enviable life for
herself.

When she got home that
night, Tessa felt exhausted and stiff from the freezing
temperatures. It took her over an hour and a half to get home. She
was still mad at Victor. He finally agreed to let her go to the
conference, but not before she compromised. Instead of being gone
for five days, she’d have to return home after just two. She’d have
to visit her sister Chiara, who lived in Berlin, another
time.

She wanted nothing, but a
hot bubble bath, a glass of red wine and sleep.

Daniel, her high school
sweetheart and long time on-again off-again boyfriend was back in
her life, living in her apartment. They had rekindled a little over
a month ago at a party. Seeing him again after so long made her
nervous, but they talked and he asked her if she would like to have
lunch or dinner sometime. He called her a couple days later and
they went to a movie followed by dinner. They had a great time,
laughed a lot. Things felt like in the good old days. He apologized
for his behavior when he left her a year ago and asked for another
chance.

Tessa missed him for a long
time and wondered how he was doing; from time to time she heard
news about him from common friends. He switched jobs—even kept his
latest job—and tried to get his act together. He seemed genuinely
changed. Tessa decided to give it another try. Things weren’t
always great, but as long as she was okay with Daniel’s spending or
partying, there were no reasons for arguments.

“
I know of a really good
notary,” Daniel said, massaging Tessa’s feet.

She rested on the couch in
the living room, a glass of wine in one hand, watching TV. She felt
more relaxed now after the hot bath.

“
Our company uses her
whenever we have contracts to legalize, and as far as I know her
office is somewhere near the airport,” he continued.

“
Okay, that would take some
pressure off me. If you say she is good, then I don’t have to waste
more time looking for one. It’s hard to find someone you can trust.
Whenever we hire a notary, their fees just kill us. And all they do
is read documents that someone else wrote, see if it complies with
the law and boom! Stamp it and be done with it. I never understood
why they are so expensive. Imagine, we have over five hundred
farmers with whom we need to negotiate prices for their land, write
contracts and notarize each one of them. This notary of yours, I
hope she is not too expensive. She’ll make lots of money just from
this deal.”

“
I’ll get you her phone
number tomorrow.” Daniel finished massaging her feet, stood and
placed a kiss on her forehead. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“
Yeah, that’s a good idea.
I have to wake up at four in the morning to catch my
plane.”

***

Tessa returned home after
another long day of work and began packing for her next business
trip. She had time to stop at her mama’s house for dinner and felt
as if her belly would explode from all the tasty dumplings soup and
cabbage rolls with polenta her mama had cooked. The last piece of
apple strudel was the culprit. She should’ve known better—no more
deserts for a week and double the workout time.

“
Ciao
bella
, I wish you were home, I have
exciting news…call me,” was the only message left on her answering
machine besides a couple of missed calls with no
message.

Tessa smiled at the sound
of Isabella’s voice. Their vacation last summer made her heartbeat
race each time memories of those days crept into her head. Her
steamy, passionate night with Alessandro still haunted her as the
craziest thing she had ever done. She had never felt so relieved
about getting her period after her one-night with Alessandro and
swore never-ever to act so irresponsibly.

Tessa finished packing,
made herself a cup of green tea and then called her
girlfriend.

“
Ciao Isabella, come
va
?”

“
Ciao
bella
, since when do you speak Italian?”
Isabella asked surprised.

“
Don’t get your hopes too
high, I just decided after our vacation to give it a try and learn
a bit. I wish I had time for some classes, but my schedule is
killing me.”

“
Is this because of
Alessandro?”

“
No, no, this is not
because of Alessandro, and stop bringing him up each time we talk,”
Tessa said quickly. “Enough about me, what’s up?”

“
You know, you can deny it
as much as you want, but your voice betrays you.” Isabella paused,
giggled and then continued, “I called to tell you, we finally set a
wedding day for June eighth, this summer at the little chapel where
my parents also married, you know the one we took pictures of last
year where we both loved the paintings? I am so excited! And I want
you to be one of my maids of honor,” gushed Isabella so quickly,
she needed an immediate gulp of air when she finished spilling the
news.

“
This is great, Isabella, I
am so happy for the two of you, congratulations!” Tessa said.
“Although, I feel sorry for poor Antonio—I don’t really think he
knows what he is getting himself into— “

“
Don’t you dare tell him
about my wild times in college. Those times are long gone and I’ve
become a serious woman,” Isabella said and burst in to a bubbly
laughter.

“
I’ll think about something
to blackmail you with,” Tessa teased in return.

“
And
I
will give Alessandro your
number…unless you chan—”

“
No way, you can’t give him
my number!” Tessa said mortified.

“
Come on, Tessa, why are
you so resistant to this? You two are perfect for each other.
Besides, each time we meet he asks about you…”

“
What? You still see him? I
thought he was a tourist there,” Tessa asked with a jittery voice.
Would he tell her friends about her visit to his room? A heavy
feeling settled in her stomach.

“
Si
, he was a tourist here, but whenever we visit Carlo and his
wife, we go out for dinner and Alessandro joins us. He is very
lonely and Carlo really likes him, so they became good friends. As
it turns out they work for the same bank, but different offices.
And speaking of Carlo, he will have twins, can you believe
it?”

***

Weeks passed since Tessa
had won the auction and her company worked nonstop to develop a
plan that would ensure the smooth transition of the agricultural
land from the farmers’ hands to their ownership. She formed a team
with the best people from the Sales Department and the Marketing
Department. She was given full authority to proceed with the
acquisition, held daily meetings and strictly followed the timeline
her superiors gave her. The last transition would be finalized no
later than four months after the auction.

“
I think I found a good
notary,” Tessa entered Victor’s office, walked to a nearby chair
and slumped in it.

“
Are you ever going to
learn to knock? What if I was naked?” Victor barked, looking at her
over the rim of his mug.

Tessa looked at him, tilted
her head to the right, then to the left, tongue in one cheek. “That
would be the day I’d probably die laughing. Why would you be naked
in your office? I know you spend your nights here but hey, change
your clothes at home, would you?” she said and rubbed her palms
together. “Now, going back to
serious
matters; I have drafted the
first contract and presented it to the notary. She said it’s good
and we can start scheduling meetings with the farmers. I also have
it translated for our headquarters to have the lawyers look over
it. As it looks, we are ahead of the game. Did we get the
funds?”

Victor put the coffee down,
took his head in his palms, pressed his temples, and then rubbed
his eyes.

“
Don’t tell me, we don’t
have money,” Tessa said as if she read his thoughts.

He nodded and sunk deeper
in his chair.

“
Why? Did you tell them we
are moving fast and the farmers aren’t going to sign the land over
unless they see the cash?”

“
Trust me, I explained
myself for the past two hours. I just hung up with the
headquarters. I was told, the company is short on cash—they do all
their business through banks, not like us here, where we barely
started using credit and debit cards. They said it would take a
while to find a bank willing to transfer all that money into our
accounts and then proceed with the acquisition. I explained to them
the farmers have no accounts and they want their money in cash so
they can hide it beneath their mattress.

“
Our CEO said that’s
impossible, Romania is not a third world country, why can’t we
accept bank transfers like all the other countries? I told them—we
aren’t like all the other countries. After forty plus years of
Communism and brain washing, what do they expect?” Victor stood and
filled up his cup. It looked as if he needed something to preoccupy
his hands.

At times Tessa wondered if
he had coffee running through his veins, rather than blood. She
couldn’t remember ever seeing him drink water. No wonder he never
slept.

“
What did you just say?”
Tessa forced herself to focus. Her mind wandered about her boss’s
addiction to coffee—a sign of exhaustion. A day off would be
welcome, but she’d talk to Victor about it later.

“
Okay, you’re either
sleeping over there or you’re just trying to annoy me, right?”
Victor’s voice brought her back.

“
Sorry, Victor…You were
saying— “

“
For a deaf old woman, the
church bells don’t ring twice,” Victor said. “I asked where did you
find the notary?”

“
Oh, that. Daniel said
their company uses her a lot. I met with her a couple times and she
seemed professional, knows her stuff. I think we are in good
hands.” Tessa stood, walked to the door, opened it and said, “Well,
I guess it’s just as good. I’ll start next week meeting with the
farmers and negotiate prices.”

“
Why not this
week?”

“
I’d like to take the
remainder of the week off… Mama is done with her chemo and the
results aren’t as we hoped…”

“
Sorry to hear that. Is
there anything I can do? Dina visited her a few weeks ago and said
how weak Ana was due to the treatment…”

“
Yeah, I know. Thanks for
offering, but there is nothing you can do. Just let me take the
days off, I feel the need to spend as much time with her as
possible.”

“
Whatever you need. Maybe
we can arrange to get together and have dinner or something. I’ll
have Dina call you to make arrangements.”

“
Sure, I think Mama would
love that. I’ll see if she is up for a visit. Say hi to Dina for
me. And you should go home; it’s getting late. Good night,
Victor.”

“
Yeah, I should. I’ll see
you in a couple of days. Good night,” Victor said.

***

“
Mama, are you ready? The
cab is here,” Tessa said.

“
I’m almost ready, let me
grab my coat. You go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Tessa went to the cab and
waited for her mama. The play would start in about an hour, but
with the crazy traffic in town, she didn’t want to take the chance
to be late.

She loved going to theater
with Mama; it was a bonding experience for both of them, something
they looked forward to, once a month. They missed last month’s play
due to the chemotherapy. But now with the treatment over, Ana
seemed to feel and do better than before she had been diagnosed
with cancer, six months ago. Tessa hoped the doctors had it all
wrong; the treatment had helped and Mama would beat the tumors
spreading in her fragile body.

Her mama deserved to live.
And enjoy her retirement, watch after grandchildren, see them
grow.