Moreno Business [5]

Dave's cell phone vibrated and rang loudly breaking the morning silence. With his half-closed eyes, Dave fumbled the cell phone he had put on the night table beside his bed.

Dave instantly jumped out of his bed. Call from Mr. Edward, his father. It was eight o'clock in the morning.

"Good morning, Daddy. How are you doing this morning?" Said Dave in a sleepy voice. He tried not to yawn at that moment.

"Morning, Dave. Daddy is fine. I hope you are okay there. Hi Dave, how's your mission looking for that girl? Have you met her?" Mr. Edward asked in sense of curiosity.

"I have, Dad. Finally, I've found out where Annisa is and met her face to face. But, I need a little more time to stay here in Indonesia, Dad. Because I'm still thinking of the right way to thank to the girl. I'm afraid if I tell her the truth about my intention to come all the way from Mexico to Indonesia, just to look for her and thank to her, Annisa would be afraid of me and stay away from me for the wrong prejudice," Dave explained his intention to Mr. Edward with great anticipation.

"All right, Dave. If that's what you want, Daddy will give you a little more time. By the way, while you're there, Daddy grants you a task of lobbying one of the biggest hotel chain owners in Bali, to hold business cooperation with our hotel. Can you perform this task, Dave?" challenged Mr. Edward to his son.

"Yes, I can, Dad!" Dave said firmly. "As a successor of the Moreno family, I must be able to take our family business for a better future."

"That's good!" Mr. Edward was delighted to hear his son's ability. "Then, Daddy will ask all the important data and documents about it to be sent to you via Nico."

Knock, knock, knock!

Dave opened the door of his hotel room. He saw Nico carrying a bundle of full documents in both of his hands.

Nico stepped inside and put all the documents on the table. He pulled up a chair and threw his body on it.

"It seems we should start doing the tasks of your dad right now, Dave," Nico said as he read and examined one by one document piled up on the table.

"I'll arrange a meeting schedule with the owner of the hotel chain. Some important information you need to know about him is that Mr. Tjokorda Agung Swastika is the sole owner of Bali Nirwana hotel chain located in all corners of this island of Bali. He also has land, sea, and air transportation fleet business based in Denpasar. It will bring the expansion for Moreno family business if you can successfully lobby him and get a contract of cooperation with him, Dave." Nico explained comprehensively.

"What about his family, Nico? I need to know about the insides and outsides of his family background as well." Dave asked further.

"Mr. Swastika has a beautiful daughter, a master's degree in economics from a leading college in England, and a boy, a graduate of hospitality from a Swiss tourism school, and a beautiful wife. He and his wife are descendants of a native Balinese royalty. What a perfect family partner." Nico said admiringly.

"Besides swimming, his hobby is playing tennis. I'll try to make it possible for you to be at her favorite tennis practice place when he plays there. I'll arrange everything, and if we're lucky, you can play tennis with him, so you have plenty of golden opportunities to take his heart."

"A really good idea, Nico. It's so lucky you're appointed as the Moreno family's right hand." Dave smiled praised his best friend.

Nico paused, frowning his forehead.

"Hmm ... It seems that you also need to approach his son. According to this document, it is mentioned that Mr. Swastika has prepared his son to inherit his business leadership throne in the future."

Nico burst out laughing. Dave instantly glared his eyes at Nico.

"Hey, why are you laughing like that?" Dave asked suspiciously about Nico's behavior.

"Raka, Mr. Swastika's son has a hobby of riding 250 cc motor racing and is a national caliber racer nowadays. I know you don't like motor racing sports. So, I can't expect much that you can follow his extreme hobby, Dave. But, at least, you can think of ways how you can attract Raka through his hobby." Nico said to Dave.

"It doesn't really matter to me, Nico. I consider this a challenge. If necessary I will learn a lot about it. I realize that I couldn't beat him right now, but I wish I can draw a little attention to his hobby. We'll see what the results will be." Dave also revealed his big plans to Nico, his best friend.

It was eleven o'clock in the afternoon, the sun was blazing. Annisa walked to the balcony of her apartment, straightening her achy waist for sitting for hours since the morning, completing an article assignment from the publishing office of the women's magazine she worked for.

She squinted at the dazzling sun lights. Then stretching her hands upward, breathing deeply, exhaling, stretching her entire body, over and over again, until she felt comfortable again.

Her cell phone rang loudly in her apartment room. Annisa rushed into the room, picked up her constantly ringing cell phone. It was from her mother.

"Hello, Mom. Sorry, I haven't had a chance to call. Is Mom doing okay?" Annisa asked her mother.

"Mama is just fine, Annisa. Mama just worried about you. It's been almost a week since you didn't let us know, Nisa." Her mother protested on the other end of the line.

"I'm fine, Mom. Sorry, I have not had time to call Mama and Papa. Lately, a lot of articles I have to write, and it's a very time consuming." Annisa explained.

"Don't get too washed away with your job, Annisa. Keep your health and don't sleep too late. Take a lot of rests." Her mother advised Annisa that morning.

"Mom, you don't have to worry about that. Mama surely knows that Annisa is the expert of taking rests and sleeping, ha ha ha ..." Said Annisa trying to be funny to calm her mother.

"Okay then, Mama believe in you, Annisa. Nisa, you can go home this weekend, can't you? You accompany Mama here. As always, your Papa is busy with his office affairs, and your sister as usual is drown with her own obsession." Her mother requested that Annisa be willing to fulfill her request.

"All right, Mom. Annisa will try to finish all the articles this week. I hope everything works well as planned. So, I can go home faster and stay at home with Mama this weekend." Annisa tried to fulfill her mother's request.

"It is good, then. See you soon this weekend my dear. Love you."

"Love you too, Mom. See you later this weekend at home." Annisa hanged up.

Annisa then sat on her favorite black cushioned work chair, and grabbed her laptop.

After some improvements on the article she was working on, Annisa directly sent her office duties via e-mail.

"I hope that it won't require a lot of improvements." Thought Annisa hopefully.

Annisa walks into Warung Putu, her favorite traditional Balinese restaurant. At the end of the table near the huge colorful Balinese umbrellas, Ella waved her hand with a bright smile.

Annisa came closer to Ella, then pulled up a chair and sat directly opposite to her best friend.

"What about your article assignment, Annisa? Is it over?" Investigated Ella to Annisa.

"Partially finished, Sweet Lady. Some will be done soon. I have to finish it before this Friday because Mama asked me to accompany her at home this weekend." Annisa explained.

"Before any investigation from you, it's better for us to order the food first. I'm very hungry." Asked Annisa to Ella.

"All right, Nisa. Let's order the food first."

Annisa ordered her favorite mixed Balinese rice, while Ella ordered betutu chicken rice which is the best choice menu of Warung Putu on that day.

Those two beautiful girls seemed to enjoy talking and joking each other when two men they already knew entered the same restaurant.

Dave opened his sunglasses and saw Annisa and Ella in disbelief.

"Hi, beautiful ladies. It is fortunately we meet you here." Said Dave to Annisa and Ella.

"Hi, Dave, Nico. Nice to meet you guys again. Let's join us. We just order the food." Annisa greeted Dave and Nico.

Ella and Nico just smiled at each other, then the four of them joined in a table and enjoyed their lunch meal ravenously.

"Hi, Annisa. Have you got any plan this weekend?" Dave asked suddenly.

Annisa who was chewing her food then paused and took a drink. After drinking her favorite sweet iced tea, she answered Dave's question.

"Hmm ... This weekend, I have already had a plan to go home in Ubud to accompany my Mom. Apparently, she missed me. Understandably I'm pretty busy lately. So, Mama asked me to spend the time to accompany her this weekend." Replied Annisa to Dave.

"Oh, I see." Dave said with a slightly disappointed expression.

"I and Nico plan to take you to the countryside this weekend. During our stay here, we just looked at the beach scenes. Whereas we had never been to a rural area before. According to the people and tourism info I heard, the natural scenery in the countryside in Bali is still very harmonious and beautiful, untouched by the urban pollution things." Dave continued his words.

"Well, sorry, Dave. If it should be this weekend, I can't. I promised to Mama. Maybe next time, okay?" Nisa smiled sweetly refusing Dave's invitation.

"It's okay, Nisa. No problem. Next time is fine." Dave tried to hide his disappointment, his brow furrowed at the thought of the step he should take for the next.