Chapter 6

Watched. That was how Remi felt, or more like had been feeling for the past days. When she left her flat, when she was talking to someone on the phone, or when she came back from college or meeting up with Leila. It took her a few days to actually realize what exactly was that feeling, but she finally did when her flatmates began acting weird around her.

She noticed weird looks on her, as if the two girls with whom she shared an apartment were observing her every movement. But their obsession with Remi only became obvious to her when night fell and she dressed up for her nights with Leila. Both of their flatmates would pester her with questions, sometimes they even stalked her on social media to see where she was going with such expensive clothes and so well-dressed which was out of character for the Remi they knew.

The two girls that shared a flat with Remi, Sarah and Monica, were used to seeing the student Remi. She never was one to draw attention or waste much money on clothes. She used to wear simple clothes that made her go unnoticed by most people. So when her two flatmates saw her leaving their apartment at night, regularly, and dressed like that… It was completely normal that they began having many questions. But because Remi was very secretive, or more rather discrete, they couldn’t know where their friend went. That’s why with time, they started to be more curious and thus be less subtle. Like when Leila and Remi were invited to a concert that was only hosted for people with important positions in a wide variety of businesses. From the banking world to the motoring one, and even the entertainment industry.

She had previously gone with Leila to where they used to rent their outfits for their nights. They had decided to go with dark dresses that even though they were simple still gave off the impression of formality. Remi was finishing the last touches of her natural make-up when the door of her bedroom opened slightly, showing the heads of two nosy girls. Remi looked at them from the corner of her eyes and asked them what was the matter while she put on a pair of gold earrings that she stole from her mom when she was sixteen. They were made out of a thin silver chain that even looked like cloth, and that hung straight almost to her shoulders.

“Where are you going?” Sarah asked bluntly.

Remi put down her make-up, totally unfazed by the question while she got up and searched for her purse.

“A concert with a friend” Remi answered dismissing the question.

“What concert?” the two flatmates asked, even more weirded out that Remi went to a concert that required such a dressing code.

“I don’t know yet, she invited me” Remi lied to their faces but with such ease that it was difficult to see through.

Both Sarah and Monica squinted their eyes at her in suspicion. But they didn’t know what else to ask because they knew Remi would just shrug them off, so they had to be intelligent on how to make her spill the truth. But Remi took advantage of her two flatmate’s thoughtful states and left the apartment in the blink of an eye.

That time, the same when Remi’s flatmates and friends began to be notoriously suspicious of her, would be the first time of many others that she would spot Hugo attending at every and all of the gatherings she’d go.

Then there was also that other night in which she didn’t even get home until the next day. Remi was aware of the looks her flatmates gave her, of their continuous stares. So she had decided it’d be better to stay at Leila’s place because that way she wouldn’t need to answer any prying questions and because they wouldn’t need to separate in the middle of the night. However, that didn’t stop Sarah and Monica from worrying about her and collapse Remi’s phone with messages and calls. Although Remi wasn’t sure if it was a true worry or just curiosity that the two girls had for her hidden life.

Remi had kept her phone away, ignoring a message from Sarah asking if she would be home for the night. She was obviously trying to know where she was or where she would stay.

“Look, isn’t that the guy from the Wittmore hotel?” Leila said to Remi, pointing a finger at a man that just got out of a car.

Remi nodded and the two friends approached the building where important people had already got in. This time, the plan of the girls was to stay nearby the entrance and wait until they spotted someone they knew.

“Leila? Remi?” the man with curly blonde hair saw the two girls slightly shivering from the cold while they stood at the side of the entrance “I didn’t expect to see you here. What a nice surprise” he smiled.

“Rob” Remi smiled back “How are you doing?” she asked, sounding interested.

“I’m fine. How are you? Are you attending too?” he asked curiously.

“Kind of” Remi chuckled as Leila shivered more by her side, playing her part of ‘freezing’ in the cold “A friend of us invited us here, but she’s running late” Remi added, hugging herself some more “And we clearly forgot to check the weather forecast” she chuckled awkwardly.

That was obviously a lie. There wasn’t any friend that had invited them, in fact, the man who spilled the existence of that night’s events didn’t even mention taking them with him. And they even checked the weather forecast too, hence why they were wearing thin clothes in the cold.

“This friend,” the blonde man, Rob, said “do you know how long it will take them?”

“I hope not much, or we will have turned to snowwomen for when she arrives” Remi laughed, making Rob chuckle at her stupid and lame joke.

Then, suddenly, Leila grabbed her phone as if a message had just come in. She let go of an annoyed sigh as the white light of her phone’s screen illuminated her face.

“It’s Anna” Leila invented a name on the spot “she’s got a flat tire, and a car hit hers when she tried to drive to a side of the road”

“Oh my god is she alright?” Remi asked in worry for the non-existent woman.

“Yeah yeah, but now they have to call the cops, get a tow truck, and call for a car to take her here….” Leila answered.

“But is she coming?” Rob meddled into the two friends’ conversation.

“Yeah, she just said it’ll take her a couple of hours” Leila answered him, as Remi let go of a sigh.

They stayed in silence for a minute. Both Remi and Leila surrounded by a gloomy aura as they looked around defeated, as if they were trying to assume that they would need to stay in the cold for a while due to their ‘friend’ being late.

“Well, if you want you can come in with me, and when she gets here you can meet with her” Rob suggested, observing how the hairs of both pretty girls were standing because of the cold “We can’t have you freezing in the cold now, can we?” he asked with a smile, making Remi and Leila’s eyes widen in joy.

That was how the two girls got to sneak in the place, and then after two hours they faked receiving another message from their ‘friend’ Anna, and left poor Rob alone.

“Okay, let’s go talk to him” Leila said, trying to contain her excitement.

“To who?” Remi asked dumbfounded.

“Tiano” she said with an obvious tone.

Remi’s eyes widened a bit at the unexpected sound of his name. She knew he was there as well, she had noticed his penetrating stare on her a while ago back, and even crossed gazes with him a couple of times. But what she didn’t expect was for Leila to suggest something like that.

“What? No, I told you we can’t just go and talk to someone like him” she explained.

“Why? He’s been looking at us. You’re throwing away an amazing opportunity for both of us!” Leila said a bit annoyed. She might have not been as sharp as her friend, but she had also noticed Mr. Tiano’s stare on her friend. And even though she was slightly bitter by the fact that his eyes were laid on Remi, she knew that she could still take advantage of it as long as Remi helped her. But to her, it seemed as if Remi just wanted to keep Hugo’s resources for herself.

“He’s looking at us because he knows we shouldn’t be here, Leila” Remi explained, making Leila scowl in annoyance, but also consider what she had just said “C’mon, I think I saw the man that offered you an internship” she tried to make Leila forget about Hugo.

Even though his blue eyes would still lay on her from time to time. He couldn’t help it, especially not after having seen her everywhere he went. She had managed to be in so many places that if he didn’t know any better he would have thought she was actually following him. But besides from his assistant who he had had since he basically stepped into his position as head of the family and thus CEO, nobody else knew of his schedules, so it was practically impossible for Remi to know his whereabouts. In any case, he couldn’t help but be wary of her for the rest of the night, making Remi tense slightly every time she felt being under such an intimidating stare.

Hugo remembered how he had said to her that he was expecting to see how far she could get, and for the moment she had shown him that there were no limits for her. That it didn’t matter the size of the event at hand, she’d still manage to get in. So after having run into her so many times, he ended up dreading to see her wherever he had to go, almost as a way of setting higher expectations for Remi. But even then she still managed to unintentionally meet them, only making Hugo more curious about her.

In any case, Remi and Leila ended up separating for a while like they always did for at least some time during all their nights out. Remi had found two people that were in charge of a small but famous company. A man she already knew from past encounters introduced her to them after the two people greeted him. She didn’t know what their company did though, but she was paying close attention to the conversation they were having so that she could determine whether they could be useful for her, and store any other information about them in her mind for the future. Because information was always precious, and one cannot know when it could be useful.

At some point, like it normally happened, the man who had introduced this woman and man left to attend other business, leaving them with Remi.

“Excuse me, from which company were you again?” the woman asked carefully while the man that accompanied her inspected Remi through his thin glasses.

“Oh, I’m not working anywhere yet. I have a couple of months of college left” Remi said with an innocent smile, slightly lying about the number of months.

“Oh my, and you’re already attending places like this? You must be talented in what you do!” the man sounded excited “What are you aiming for? Are you a musician? Oh well no no, you look more like the artist type of person” he tried to guess.

Remi smiled, trying to hide the awkwardness. Was that supposed to be something good? To look like an artist?

“No” she chuckled lightly “I’m a philology student. I write” she answered.

“Now that you say it you do give off a writer aura” the woman said, again making Remi wonder what did that even mean.

“Well I’m sure you must be a promising writer or else you wouldn’t be here, right?” the man asked still with a smile while he pushed his glasses up with his middle and pointing finger “Have you ever heard of us? Luxavie?” he kept questioning Remi without even letting her answer his first question. Remi shook her head in denial, now actually curious about these two people.

“We are like a talent company you could say” the woman explained “We have an eye for talented people and help them grow in what they excel at. You could be one of them” she said with a smile that conveyed hope and ambition.

“Really?” Remi asked unbelieving of an opportunity as good “But are you related with publishing houses and writers?” she asked, wanting to know more about Luxavie.

“We are related to everything, Remi” the woman smiled gently “We believe that everything is connected, so by focusing on one specific type of talents we would not only be dooming our own business, but also the people who believed in us to make them famous”

Remi blinked a couple of times inspecting the woman in front of her. She had shoulder-length black straight hair, and fair skin that was even paler than Remi’s. Her eyes were small and dark but the pink lipstick she wore made her look less dull.

“I guess that makes sense” Remi smiled half-heartedly “I’m really new to all this you know, so I don’t really know how it’d work” she sounded clueless.

“Oh you don’t have to worry, Remi” the man said “If you signed with us we would manage you, and provide you with help in everything you needed. Remi tried hard not to arch a brow in disbelief, and instead, she chuckled ashamed.

“You haven’t read my works though” she smiled sheepishly, stating her obvious doubt about why was someone trying to get her to work for them without even looking at her written work. But she tried to be subtle because she was actually curious about these two people and their company: Luxavie.

“Well that can be solved, right?” the man smiled.

Remi was about to answer when a girl around her age politely interrupted them.

“I’m sorry to interrupt” she excused herself “Miss Grey, please follow me” she asked.

Remi blinked, confused about the girl’s request. Both her and the people from Luxavie looked at her. She wore a black and white attire that gave away her position as a waitress from the event. And then Remi’s eyes wandered to her back where a tall man wearing a simple black suit and a black earpiece was standing.

“Why?” Remi asked fearing that she had been discovered again and that she would be thrown out of the place. She doubted it was the case, but being called like that and escorted by a bodyguard was obviously something to feel nervous about.

The waitress lowered her gaze again as if she was either intimidated by Remi or afraid that she’d refuse.

“Mr. Tiano requests to see you” she said hesitantly.