“Yeah, I can’t.”
“So why do you have so many if you can’t drive them all? Isn’t it a waste?” Jamal asked curiously, and Benne shook his head, enjoying the conversation.
“Not really. I love to look at them. Cars are my favorite toys,” Benne said, and Jamal watched him with interest.
“Can you let me have one?” Jamal asked, and Benne chuckled.
“You are too young to drive,” Benne pointed out.
“My mom isn’t too young. She can drive me,” Jamal said, and Benne laughed softly.
“That makes sense. We could arrange for that,” Benne said as he led Jamal to his private elevator.
Neither of them said a word to each other until they were in Benne’s private elevator and Jamal looked up at him, “So you are like the boss around here, huh?” Jamal asked, and Benne smiled.
“You could say that,” Benne said, and Jamal frowned not understanding his response.
“Are you the boss or not?” Jamal asked, and Benne looked down at him.
“What if I say I am?” He asked, and Jamal shrugged.
“Do you think you could give my mom and aunt Andy a job?” Jamal asked, and Benne raised a brow.
“Don’t your mom have a job?” Benne asked, and Jamal shook his head.
“She doesn’t like her job. She comes back late at night and she is always tired. Sometimes when they think I’m sleeping I hear them talking about how some man touched them rudely. There are no rude men here, right?” Jamal asked, and Benne looked at him, marveling at how thoughtful he was at his age.
“I don’t think so,” Benne said, and Jamal nodded with approval.
“I want her to work during the day when I go to school and stay with me at night,” Jamal explained reasonably.
“That’s fine. I will give them a job. Is that all you want?” Benne asked, and he watched in amusement as Jamal’s eyes lit up with mischief.
“There is one more thing I want,” Jamal said, and Benne chuckled.
“No.”
“How can you say no when you don’t even know what I’m going to say?” Jamal asked with a frown, and Benne laughed.
“Who says I don’t know what you were going to say?” Benne asked, and Jamal looked at him doubtfully.
“What was I going to say?” He asked curiously.
“It was about Celsie, wasn’t it?” Benne asked, and Jamal grinned.
“How did you know?”
“You don’t have to know how I knew. The answer remains the same!” Benne said, and Jamal scowled.
“I won’t get upset or yell at her,” Jamal said with a sigh, and Benne shook his head, amused by Jamal’s personality.
“Yeah, right. Save that promise for your future girlfriend,” Benne muttered as they walked out of the elevator.
“I don’t want a future girlfriend. I want Celsie,” Jamal said stubbornly.
“You can only get one. Celsie or the car?” Benne asked, and Jamal looked up at him with a frown.
“Why can’t I have both?” Jamal asked, and Benne chuckled.
“You’ve got guts, young man. How can you expect me to give you a car and my girlfriend too?” Benne asked, and Jamal narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
“Does Celsie have a car?” Jamal asked, and Benne gave him a nod.
“Yeah.”
“I choose Celsie then. We can both use her car,” Jamal said with a grin, making Benne double over with laughter.
He really liked this kid, Benne thought as he led Jamal into his office.
“Wow! This is awesome!” Jamal exclaimed in awe as he looked around the office, and Benne smiled as he watched him.
“What is that?” Jamal asked, pointing at the 3D architectural design of the resort Benne was working on.
“It’s an architectural design. You can leave the rest of your questions for later. I have to leave for a meeting now. Make sure you don’t touch any documents on my desk. I will ask someone to check on you and get you whatever you need,” Benne said and Jamal distractedly gave him a nod as he headed towards the architectural design.
“Don’t touch that either,” Benne called out to him, and Jamal turned to look at him again.
“You are not joking about giving my mom a job, right?” Jamal asked, and Benne gave him a nod
“I’m not. Got to go now,” Benne assured him before hurrying out of the office and heading to the conference hall where they were meeting for a contract renewal with the security agency in charge of OmniGlobal.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.