Twenty One: My Good Boss

Nathan was a good friend, and a good employer, not just to her, but to everyone. He made everyone feel like they're in one big team, each person was equally important. Anybody can contribute their ideas to improve the restaurant, the food, the working environment, and he took everyone's opinion into consideration.

He didn't get angry whenever there was a screw up, he knew everyone was learning as they go just like he was. And that it would take years to build something substantial, Nathan wanted to bring the team to grow with him and the company. He learned to tackle everything that the team was lacking, he has this calmness about him in overcoming problems that made everyone felt secure.

Julie was observing about strong leadership from Nathan. Whenever they were short on staff, Nathan never hesitated to go down and dirty in the kitchen or serve food to the customers, always with a smile on his face. He chatted with everyone, his extroverted vibe adds to the warm welcoming feeling of Ardor, a name that felt more and more appropriate for the place as time goes by.

His leadership brought the best in everybody, and the sense of belonging made it easy for them to give their best to improve. Julie worked on getting a permit to install a pathway from the beach straight to Ardor. This had increased a significant amount of visitors. She drafted spreadsheets to help out map the money coming in and out, even though it wasn't part of her job. She helped with contract agreements, tax calculations because they were not big enough to hire an accountant or to have a legal department within the company. Nathan was increasingly dependent on her assistance. They took turns in taking day offs, three weeks in and he already trusted her with almost everything.

She called Kelsey to check in on her, it went to voice mail. She tried again a couple of times, the same thing happened. It was Thursday night but it's not unusual for her to go out clubbing on a weekday. So she called Preston instead.

"Do you know where Kelsey is?"

"Well ... hello to you too, I thought you were looking for me."

"Sorry ... I tried to call her a few times but it went to voicemail, was wondering if you've seen her or spoken to her recently," she was worried.

Preston was strumming his guitar, a lit cigarette was hanging from the corner of his lips, a mist of smoke fogged the view in the camera.

"Do you really wanna know where she is?" he asked.

"I don't know ... do I?" she hesitated.

He took a drag and pulled the cigarette with his fingers, blew out a long trail of thick smoke.

"The last time I saw her was two days ago, we had lunch together ... with Zach."

Julie paused for the rest of that sentence.

"Let's just say, she hasn't come back to your room since then, I knocked on the door to check 'cause her phone was always off when she's with him."

Julie rubbed her face in distress, "Oh that's bad ... I thought she broke it off with him?, we never really talked about it when we spoke on the phone ... I guess because Nathan was usually there."

Preston took a sip from his glass which looked like whiskey on ice. "It sure didn't look like they've broken up ... I've been writing a new song, been playing with it since morning, do you know I got almost one hundred thousand downloads on that song I wrote for you?"

"Really? Wow that's great news, Preston, I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks to you, I'm happy about that too ... that's why I'm writing new ones, requests are coming in for new tracks."

They ended up talking for hours until her battery died, before she knew it, it was close to 3 AM and she was feeling a little hungry. She went out to the kitchen to find something to snack on. Nathan's fridge was always filled with left overs from the restaurant, or delicious food he experimented on. He even made his own ice cream.

She sat on the kitchen island with a bowl of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. She took a piece of Nathan's homemade super gooey brownie and a banana on the side. She was already used to the moonlight eliminating the villa at night that she didn't turned on the lights. She took a spoonful of her mixture and closed her eyes to devour the heavenly taste in her mouth when the lights suddenly turned on.

Nathan was standing at the edge of the corridor where the light switch were, he was in his shorts. Julie was half choking on her ice cream.

"Oh, sorry ... I didn't know you were in here," he casually walked towards the pantry.

"No, it's my fault, really, I should've turned on the lights ... I was hungry, I found your ice cream," she lifted her spoon.

"I couldn't sleep," he said as he poured water into his glass. He leaned on the kitchen counter and gulped the whole glass in one go.

She can see all his tones and abs, good enough to distract her and not intimidating enough to make her uncomfortable. It was the first time she ever saw his nipples, and his shorts were hanging a little low. She looked away, not wanting to be caught staring at his body.

"Have you been in contact with Kelsey?" he asked.

"Not today," she answered without looking at him.

"When was the last time you talked to her?"

She kept eating her ice cream, still not wanting to look at him. "I think it was last week ... we texted sometimes, but only short updates on what we're doing."

"Yeah ... me too ..." then he went silent.

"Is everything okay?" she glanced for a second and turned away again.

"I was hoping you could fill me in on that," his voice soften.

She cleared her throat, not prepared for an answer. He noticed she was slightly awkward, and realized he was practically naked. "Oh ... I think I should put on some clothes."

She acted casually, "Yeah, it's pretty chill tonight."

He went to his bedroom and got out in seconds in a shirt and training pants.

"Are you going straight to bed after this? I'm thinking Irish Coffee is you'd like some?" he took some cups from the cabinet.

"That sounds nice, yes ... please, I'm not sleepy tonight, I was just talking to Preston and kinda lost track of time."

"Preston?" as if the name was unfamiliar to him. "Does he know where Kelsey is?" his eyes looked at her sharply while sipping on a glass of water.

"She's probably out clubbing, turned off her phone something," she couldn't look at him in the eyes.

He lifted his eyebrows, "That makes sense, I wish she'd told me, though  ... I haven't been able to contact her in three days."

She didn't respond.

He handed her the cup, "I'm gonna let you off the hook for this one," he smiled. "Let's sit in the balcony ... sometimes I just sit there 'til sunrise 'cause the view is amazing."

She couldn't recall to have known anyone that drinks coffee at 3 AM other than herself, and she was glad that she did. They ended up drinking three cups of Irish Coffee at the balcony, talked about everything else other than Kelsey. He talked about his family, how close he was with his mother and sister. He looked up to them and consider them to be his strongest support system. She loved hearing stories like that, even a little envious because she didn't have that with her own family.

Ever since her parents re-married, she felt alone. She never really had a serious relationship, the last boyfriend she had was in high school and it ended badly because he cheated on her. Her only support system was herself and Kelsey, until she met Preston. They were a world different from her, but they loved each other. And then Nathan, someone she gradually look up to and admire for everything that he is, and the various things they had in common.

There was silence for a brief moment as they let the beauty of nature sink in. The early sunlight penetrated through the first morning mist, and the sky slowly turning from grey to a soft orange. The chill of dawn faded, as the warmth of the sun made it's way through. A moment to reflect on how wonderful it is to share something like that with someone they feel so comfortable with.