Chapter 132: Room Service

"Xavier," she said.

"Selene." Xavier replied.

"You were working while I slept," she said. As she glanced at his MacBook on the desk.

"Yes," he said.

"On what," she said.

He closed the MacBook.

"Something I found today," he said. "While we were walking." He held her gaze. "I found two businesses in Millhaven worth acquiring. I’ve already sent the details to Vincent."

She looked at him.

"You turned our vacation into a business trip," she said.

"I found something worth checking out for," he said. "Which means we’re staying a few more days."

She looked at him for a long moment.

She’s deciding how to feel about this, he thought. The practical part of her that worked for a financial crime firm for two years recognises what he’s describing. The other part of her is on a vacation that just got extended.

"A few more days," she said finally.

"Yes," he said.

She looked at the city outside the window. The river. The lights.

"Millhaven has businesses worth acquiring," she said. More to herself than him.

"Two of them," he said. "That I found in one day."

She was quiet for a moment.

"Does Vincent know?." she asked.

"I called him while you were sleeping," he said.

She turned from the window and looked at him with the expression that sat between composed and the version of her that existed when the professional context was completely absent.

"A few more days," she said again. This time not a question.

"Yes," he said.

She held his gaze.

Then... "Okay," she said. Just that. The word of someone who had made a decision and was done deliberating.

She walked toward the bedroom.

At the door she stopped. Looked back.

"Xavier," she said.

"Selene."

"Order dinner," she said. "I’m going to shower. Something from the hotel kitchen. Something expensive."

He almost smiled.

"Something expensive," he confirmed.

She went in.

Xavier looked at the closed bedroom door for a moment.

She said okay, he thought. Of course she said okay.

Xavier picked up the room service menu while Selene’s shower was running.

The Ashford Grand’s kitchen offered exactly what a hotel at this level should offer. A menu that knew what it was doing and didn’t apologise for the prices. He read through it properly. Not the way he read acquisition documents. Just the natural consideration of someone deciding what the evening deserved.

Something expensive, Selene had said.

He called room service directly rather than using the suite’s tablet system. A human voice answered on the second ring.

He ordered.

Seared wagyu beef tenderloin for two with a truffle jus and seasonal vegetables. A lobster bisque to start. The kind that took time and meant it. A cheese board for after because the menu described it as the chef’s selection and he trusted that. A bottle of something the sommelier recommended when he said the occasion called for it without specifying what the occasion was.

The voice on the other end said forty five minutes.

"Fine," Xavier said. And hung up.

The bill was forwarded to him through mail and he settled it.

[ REBATE SYSTEM ]

Transaction Detected: $680 spent on room service — Ashford Grand

Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x

Total Return: $1,360

[ Net Balance: $19,071,053.00 → $19,071,733.00 ]

[ Millhaven Mission: $1,921,825 / $3,000,000 ]

$19,071,733, he noted. Nearly twenty million.

He sat at the dining table and opened his MacBook. The two Millhaven businesses still open in browser tabs. The logistics company and the printing operation. He’d sent Vincent everything already but he went through it one more time with the particular thoroughness of someone who didn’t move money without being certain. He was just entirely interested in doing business he didn’t know why but somehow the feeling came with money.

Logistics company, he noted. Twelve years operating. Single owner in his sixties. Three vehicles. Two distribution contracts with local clients. He looked at the comparable valuations he’d pulled from the business registry. Asking price when comparable sales were applied was somewhere between $580,000 and $650,000. Undervalued by at least $200,000 relative to the contract revenue and fleet value.

Printing company, he noted. Eight years. Two partners filing inconsistent accounts. Not fraud, just two business owners who weren’t communicating about the finances properly. He looked at the numbers. Actual operational value sitting closer to $520,000. Acquirable at the account price of $380,000. Worth significantly more the moment someone ran it with proper financial oversight.

Both clean, he thought. Both worth moving on.

Tomorrow, he decided. Move on both tomorrow.

The shower stopped.

Xavier closed the MacBook.

Selene came out of the bathroom at 7:43PM.

She was on towels. Two of them, one wrapped around her, one around her hair the way women wrapped towels around hair that communicated they’d been doing this specific thing since before they had opinions about it.

She walked from the bathroom door to the bedroom without looking at Xavier.

He glanced slightly at her and then pretended to look anyway. He could already see her big boobs protruding from the towels and thought to himself ’I didn’t even notice she had a fat ass, maybe it was hidden in the type of clothes she wore’.

How, he thought. How did I spend weeks in professional environments with this woman and not....how.

Her blazers were doing a significant amount of work that I was not accounting for.

She disappeared into the bedroom.

Xavier looked back at his phone.

Focus, he thought.

He checked his balance.

$19,071,733, he noted.

Focus, he thought again.

The doorbell chimed at 8:17PM.

Xavier opened it. Two members of the hotel’s room service team with the particular practiced efficiency of people who had delivered to presidential suites enough times to have the choreography memorised. A trolley. White linen. The kind of setup that turned a hotel room into something that deserved the occasion.

They arranged everything on the dining table. The bisque first, covered. The main course under domes. The cheese board to one side. The wine already open and breathing in the way someone who knew about wine had determined it should breathe.