The Art Exhibition

Jeremy decided to meet up with John before the Art exhibition began. Since they had to keep their encounters a secret, he had to take a taxi to John's house, they didn't want people to connect them, and as far as they knew, no one knew that they were acquainted with each other.

Jeremy found John sitting in his office as usual, he sat on the brown leather couch and wasted no time in any puny greetings, "So you are coming to the family supper next Sunday evening?", Jeremy asked getting comfortable in his seat and soon John's helper walked in with a tray of two coffees,

John looked at Jeremy lost, he got off his office chair to join him on the couch, "Huh? What are you talking about?", John's eyes widened because it was his first time hearing of any family gathering, Lilly hadn't sent him the invite yet.

"Linda said your mother told her you would come and so she asked me to prepare a gift for you...", he said reaching for the cup in front of him.

John knew nothing about the supper, but since Jeremy was asked to prepare a gift for him, he now had no choice but to avail himself. Normally he avoided these family gatherings, how could he sit with people who didn't see his worth and gave away his only birthright? After everything he's done for them, that was the thanks he got, just thinking about it all made him sigh in frustration, "Fine, I will attend. As a gift, you can get me a handkerchief, I think that should be within your budget".

As far as John knew, or wanted to know, Jeremy was a waiter, it had never occurred to him that he might actually be the owner of the restaurant and Jeremy never saw the need to correct him.

"Alright, a handkerchief it is.", Jeremy said nonchalantly.

Jeremy couldn't get the painting off his mind and the person he asked earlier hadn't responded to his text, he suspected the 9-hour time difference might be the course, after all, South Korea is on the other side of the world. But that didn't stop him from anxiously looking at his phone, so he thought in the meantime, he could get his answers from John, although he doubted John knew anything about art because their talks mostly revolved around Global Tech. 

John looked at Jeremy's distraught face, "So what did you want to talk about? Surely is not just about the supper...", John curiously asked

To confirm his assumptions about John's love of art, Jeremy decided to ask him about the gala dinner, 

"No, I wanted to ask about the King's gala event, the art auction to be specific, what kind of event is it?"

"Oh, I don't know anything about Art, you will have to ask your lovely fiancé, but why the sudden interest?", just as Jeremy suspected, the only thing on John's mind is Global Tech. "Nothing just thought knowing it might help our course", Jeremy replied, however, John wasn't convinced of his response, but decided to not probe, after all, whatever it was, it had nothing to do with Global Tech. He didn't care what Jeremy did with his time as long as it didn't affect their mission.

Seeing that Jeremy was not in the mood to talk about his 'sudden' interest in art, John decided to change the subject, and the great topic would be the family lunch. They never really spoke about the details of the lunch, "Jeremy, how did the family lunch go? I heard you got wasted", John chuckled,

Jeremy's face instantly turned red, that was one experience he would rather forget, besides, all of that could have been avoided if John had just given him the correct information, or so Jeremy believed. In addition, Jeremy had been avoiding talking about the lunch, so much of what happened made him question if John knew his family, and just how bad things were between all of them. He thought about conducting his own investigation, but decided against it, 'Maybe John has stuff he would like to keep to himself just like me and he will tell me when he's ready.', he thought. As long as one fact remained unchanged, 'Linda was the reason for both their downfall, well, on his side is more of the destruction of his family empire', he was going to keep trusting John, maybe until his plan came together.

"Alright...so...", Jeremy started selectively telling John about lunch and what he may have learned and thought would be used for their goal.

Meanwhile, Linda was now wrapping up her office work to freshen up in preparation for the art show later, "Nancy, please make sure the catering company delivered everything as per our request, and we have enough waitresses and waiters, we worked incredibly hard to get Scarlet to use our gallery. Let's make sure everything goes well. A victory for this branch means victory for the New York branch.", she instructed Nancy while clearing up her table. 

"Yes ma'am!", Nancy said obediently doting down everything on her iPad, as Linda continued to give her more instructions, "Also make sure that everyone who will be working tonight is given 2 hours to freshen up at Queen's Palace,".

The thought of her boss booking a room at Queen's Palace, the most prestigious and expensive hotel in the city just so they could change into the clothes that she (as her boss) provided, made Nancy giddy, 'I love my job!' She screamed inside. "We will do a great job ma'am, don't worry", Nancy said failing to hide her excitement,

Just as Nancy was about to walk out, Linda suddenly remembered, "Should my fiance ask about that painting, you should direct him to me. I will handle it"

Nancy was confused by the sudden request, 'Why would her fiance ask about that painting? and why would she want the questions to be directed to her?', Nancy finally figured maybe she wanted to deal with her fiance herself, she blushed at the thought of her strong-willed boss being jealous and possessive, a smile crept on her face causing Linda to chuckle, "I am not paying you to let your thoughts run wild." Nancy instantly snapped out of it and carried herself out of her boss's office.

At 18:00 Jeremy was already waiting for Linda at the gallery entrance, the guests kept coming in, showing their passes to the security guy at the door, courtesy of Kim for arranging the security detail and Jackie for remotely monitoring the CCTV cameras. Jeremy admired all the faces that went in, it looked like there were only guests from high society, and they smelled like money with the most latest designer wear. It was a different crowd from the one he had seen when he came earlier. He couldn't help but wonder if the gala would be something similar to the exhibition, with the same guests. He stood at the door casually checking his time, he wanted to enter for the painting he saw earlier but, he also wanted to wait for Linda, after all, she did say that she was 15 minutes away. Seeing this gorgeous man, in khaki formal pants and a black shirt, looking like some kind of a movie star, the ladies couldn't help but stare at him with smiles all over their faces. One of the onlookers in a red dress suddenly stopped to start a conversation but Jeremy quickly shut her down, "Sorry ma'am but I am waiting for my fiance." It might be a fake fiance but a lot was riding on the union

"Your fiance, what kind of ugly woman is she to leave a handsome delicious thing standing here alone?", the strange lady said while running her finger in Jeremy's arms, causing Jeremy to flinch in discomfort

"The kind that owns the gallery", Linda's voice can be heard behind the woman,

The woman turned around to a gorgeous figure that was in a long side slit gold dress strategically showing her gorgeous long leg, with her hair afro hair neatly tied back in a single ponytail braid.

The woman gasped at this being who was oozing in beauty, her dress complemented her smooth brown skin perfectly, realizing she was out of her league the woman quickly apologized, "Sorry ma'am,", and cowered away with her tail between her legs.

Jeremy was still intensely looking at Linda, every time he saw her, she looked like a different person, and strangely enough, that made him excited and even more curious about her. Seeing Jeremy lost for words, Linda smirked, "Am I really that ugly?"

With his gaze still on her, "No, not even close, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen...", He replied on impulse leaving both him and Linda surprised with both their faces blushing.