Purely Business (Goody and Mysterious)

Joyce was running late for her meeting, or shereally couldnt call it a meeting. A meeting would imply that they both knew they were going to be discussing business. They were supposed to be getting lunch as colleagues and over the course of that lunch she was going to askhim for his assistance in helping her sustaining her company. If it came down to it she would beg him.

Joyce just took over her father's multimillion dollar streaming website, but he had failed to mention the amount of debt that the company was in. She had been on her own without her father's guidance for four months now. So far, she was doing a good job of turning things around and creating some added revenue threw offering deals and a reward program, but it still wasn't enough to keep them out of the red. Soon the fiscal year would be ending and she would not have very good figures to present to the board unless she got some help.

Finally the elevator popped up to the top floor she was only two minutes late. She quickly smoothed her black pencil skirt as she walked over to the secretary's desk. His secretary gave her a nod for her to enter, so she gave to quick rasp on the door before entering. "How have you been," she asked a smile on her face.

Diego was not a businessman. He could freely admit to that. Slightly ironic considering that as a rising producer, his job is to be the facilitator of the movie-making team as well as be in charge of the money flow and making sure the movie was actually made. As such, he had no idea how the heck he got into this mess.

It was a few weeks since he was finally in the film industry when he git an email saying he owned a formally large video rental company. Ever since the dawn of streaming, places have been closing and jobs have been lost. However, through a series of errors, mishaps and probably under-handed deals, all the stock was back in the company and the buildings under their name. As such, Diego inadvertably ought the whole franchsie when he bought some stock.

This has made Diego mroe famous, albeit if only wanting him to sell some of the stores to be used for other sorts of things, but he was having none of that. They kept operating under normal conditions, but with streaming, it was hard to do so. Eventually, Diego ended up meeting Joyce.

Joyce was the CEO of competitor to Netflix and Hulu, Webwatch. Much like the two, it providing streaming services for comptuers, tablets and smart-phones with TV shows and movies and even originals. It had an advantage over the others; it was the only one of the three that was available in Africa and parts of the Middle East.

They agreed to meet up for lunch to talk. Diego didn't know why, though mabe wanting to pitch a show was part of it. However, he didn't care for any of that. For him... he just wanted to make movies or tv shows and have a family. He wanted to have someone to come to, someone to share his life with. To make him feel wanted and worthwhile, to be intimiate with.

He put on a smile when he saw Joyce enter the room. "I've been doing better," he said. He was in one of his lonelier moods, it explained why marriage was on his mind so much.

Joyce was never one to dress up, and anyone who knew her knew that it was true. She had let her assistant dress her this morning, so of course she had dressed her up quite a bit. The pencil skirt she wore shaped her back side pretty well, her top was a silky white wrap blouse that showed just a bit of cleavage, her shoes were annoying heels that she would have never picked out on her own. For once her kinky brown ringlets were down instead of a ponytail.

"That didn't sound so convincing," she smiled coming to take a seat in front of him. She studied his face trying to figure out what was going on behind his eyes. She could see the slight worry in his brows.

This was the first time Joyce had gone out in quite a while, and she wasn't exactly the smoothest with words. She should have sent someone else to make the proposal, but it was too late, she was already here. "I guess it's a good time for me to come visit. You seem just a little bit down," she didn't want to bother him, but she was getting desperate and he was her last hope.

"If you still wanted to go out, I made reservations. If you're not feeling it, we could always order in."

Diego managed to smile back at her. "Sure we can go out," Diego said to her kindly. It has been quite a long while ever since he even went on a date. He figured this would be a nice opportunity. Diego adjusted his glasses; he was a stocky young man with light olive skin. His boyish face was complimented by his brown eyes and topped with dark brown almost black hair. He also dressed up for this occasion with a nice crisp white shirt along with a bow tie, dress pans and black dress shoes.

"Let's get going then," Diego said as he followed her to wherever they needed to go. He saw that she too was worried. He read about the financial struggles that was going with the company, but he didn't think they were anything to worry about. However, looking at the worry on her face, he realized that it was quite the task for her. Being a single female CEO was also pretty intimidating to the current structure so he figured that was part of the stress. She was attractive, he admitted and the few times they did talk, she was quite friendly.

When they arrived at the restaurant, they were at a private table. Because it was a weekday and it was lunch, there were relatively few people so being off in their corner made it easy for them.

"What is it that you wanna talk about, Joyce?" he asked her.

The ride to the restaurant was quick, they made small talk about how they had been and some of the projects they were working on. It was quite weird for Joyce, just because she was working up how to ask him for help. It wasn't something that she asked for often, from anyone. The least she wanted to do was ask it from someone when she didn't know how they would react. So all the worrying was making her nervous, she just tried to hide it from him as much as he could.

Their waiter had barely given them their menus when Diego was asking her what she wanted. Even though some would say Joyce had her company handed to her, she was constantly working hard to improve her company as well as herself. She was usually quite an articulate and laid back woman, but she found herself stuttering trying to get the question. "Well, I ... I wanted to... Well, I wanted to talk to you about-," the waiter interrupted her talk when he brought their drink.

Soon he was off again, and she was left with no choice but to tell the truth. "I need help. I trust that you won't share this with anyone. I didn't know of anyone else that would possibly help me. My company is on the verge of drowning. The only thing that could possibly save us right now is a major lay off, and I can't do that. In exchange for you're help. I'd be willing to negotiate terms for that new show you were starting to cast, higher than what both Netflix and Hulu are offering."

Diego ordered himself some soda water with some lemeon wedges; it felt he was drinking Sprite, but much more healthy. Diego managed to order them so herb bread for an appetizer before she came out and confessed the reason behind this little shendig. She needed his help, but he didn't have anything to offer.

Except the shares of the company. Well, he technically now owned the thing and he was acting CEO. So therfore, it would be a merging of the companies. "You read my blog, didn't you?" Diego said to her with a smile. He recalled the night he celeberated he got for the company; he got drunk and he wrote a long drunken rant on how Blockbuster fucked up when they didn't buy Netflix and how if they bought them, they could rule streaming and home rentals and could've worked with one another. He also drunkenly send it to Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services.

"The opportunity for a show idea is nice..., but that's only the service. When I originally got the thing, my plan was to be basically an entry hold for beginning directors. Like for all the newcomers to get their movies to be seen and treated. Heck, I even contacted Steam for the same with console gamers... never got back to me," he said crossing his arms. "There's alot of obscure, foreign, B-movies or all sorts of forgotten classics that would get along of attention again along with new stuff if in video stores... and on streaming," Diego explained. To him, this seemed like a very good opportunity to help people... however, he also knew he could get screwed and such.

"To be honest, what I want... is a family," he admitted. Maybe telling someone about this would get it off of his chest. "I can barely spend time with my friends and I've been feeling alone. I always wanted to settle down, get married, have kids. Have someone to come home to, to make you feel welcomed and such," Diego said before looking down solemnly. "I'd give for that," he stated.

The merging of their companies would mean a lot for the both of them. Especially with her company heading down hill. It would also create trouble for the streaming services, maybe even for Redbox if they had an appropriate platform thaf could appeal to that audience.

This was virtually fool proof.The thing she didn't get was this talk of family. She didn't know much about Diego besides his rise in the business, but he felt comfortable opening up about it to her. She considered herself an acquaintance to him, maybe he saw her as more.

Joyce came from a larger family than most, she had five brothers, each one of them nothing but a loving thorn in her side. The usually meant well, but even the little brother, she had two, liked to act as if she needed protecting. She even planned on having a family of her own eventually, probably not as large . " I think that everyone eventually wants to settle down. Even those of us who are always working. I just haven't found the right person to settle down with. And until I'm back on track it's unlikely that I will even date. What does all of this-.

Oh. I promise I'm not conceited, but if you're suggesting what I'm thinking, that's crazy. A family? With the ring and the big house?" Her mine was going five hundred miles per hour.

Diego began drinking some of the flavored soda-water. He looked at her; she didn't seem bothered with him talking about he really wanted life. She began questioning why he briught this up before she stopped and gained a more shcked expression. He wondered why she would be before she began talking.

He then realized what she was assuming he was implying. That in exchange for the company merger, they get married. A blush carried onto his face as he stuttered. He wasn't implying that at all. Yes he knew her, but not very well. On the other hand, that was precisely the reason why he was so hesitant on letting others go near "his" company.

"I-I wasn't implying that... but I wouldn't mind," Diego said, the last part quietly. It was the only guarenteed thing that would make him say yes. Diego could afford to not be with WebWatch. However, Joyce couldn't afford to lose him.

"I mean... I'm acting CEO, but I don't want the job and you'd probably do a better job than I would," he said

He hadnt been thinking what she had been thinking. Which was bad. Now she had out the idea in his head, and now he was axtually thinking about it. She was quite scared that he would actually agree to it. She had definitely heard the soft ,"wouldn't mind," and it surprised her. There was nothing abiut her that said 'I'm marriage material' .

Diego was a nice guy. He wasn't an egotistical jerk like most of his peers who approached her for movies and shows. That was besides the point, she had mistook what he was talking about and now he was running with the idea.

Her mind was wrestling what to do or say. "Are you really serious? Because you can't take this back. I feel crazy for doing this, but yes," in a round about way she agreed to marrying him. He said kids though, not that she didn't want them. How would they figure this all out. Joy never pictured herself in a marriage that would need a contract to stipulate everything.

Diego nodded when she asked if he was serious. He hasn't dated in years and he hasn't been able to do what he wanted. Looking at Joyce, he smiled at her. She was beautiful and attractive, she was kind and intelligent and she was a talented business woman. He figured it would work well between them.

His eyes widened when she pretty much excepted his proposall... in both ways. He resisted the urge to embrace her. Not not, he told himself. He did get a big goofy smile. "Then okay. As acting CEO of Blockbuster, I pass my title and rights and so on to you... dear," he said as he lifted his cup to celeberate.

"Thank you," he said, in a quieter but still happy tone.

The man was basically giving her a company. He must have held her in pretty high regard, to give her what she wante, so easily. Joyce figured that he woukd be nice to come home to at the end of the night. Or take with her on trips to meetings, dinner parties. All the things that cane with her job.

Diego ' s smile was contagious. It was so genuine, she was pleased with herself for being the one who out it up there, because they're getting married. Her brain was slowly starting g to process all the emotions she was thinking, and she wondered if his was doing the same.

" I don't know anything about planning an engagement party or planing a wedding. I suspect our biggest task at he moment will be telling our families."

"Yeah. I reckon they'll want to hold a big party. Then again, it could just be a casual affair with our friends and family. Don't worry, you won't have to meet my extended family until later," Diego said with a smile.

He even felt a bit brae enough to hold her hand, which he found to be nice and soft. EVentually, the waiter came back with their appetier and asking for their order. Diego ordered himself a steak burger with herbed fries.

When the waiter left after taking both their orders, Diego gave a piece of the herbed bread to his fiancee. "How do you wanna tell them?"

The thought of a party in their honor made Joyce nervous, again. She wasn't a big fan of parties, but they would have to had one eventually. It wasn't as if they could fly off to Vegas and go thru a drive thru. She laughed to herself thinking of her mother's reaction to that . She would probably disown her. They would eventually figure it all out.

Joy didn't pull her hand away with the waited there, but after she ordered her sandwich she pulled hand away from him. "I'm sorry I'm not very touchy, I promise it's not you, " she couldn't meet his eyes, because she genuinely felt so bad.

"For my parents, we can have them over for dinner. I make dinner. You will have to meet all my brothers at once, they're a hanful."

Diego's smile faltered when she pulled the hand. It did recover a bit when she mentioned it was more due to her nature. She then mentioned being able to have them over for dinner. This did have Diego thinking about living conditions and so on.

"Where are we gonna live? My apartment doesn't have much and I've been meaning to move out. Of course, I don't know where you live, but I don't think it will be big enough for a family," Diego explained to her as he was wondering.

"Maybe we should move in together before we have invite our family over for the talk. We can tell them by phone and such so they could have time to come over for the engagement party," he suggested.

" I have a house. Not big enough for that many kids, but it could be a start. It's not that far of a drive from downtown making it a pretty okay drive to work everyday. We could carpool,"she smiled like a dork, . Their office buildings weren't that far apart.it would be nice to not have to make the drive alone anymore.

If possible, and that was a big if, Joyce wanted to keep their whole engagement and wedding private. She did not want to be one of those people with their wedding coffee everywhere because of who Diego was.even though it was unlikely, she would make An attempt for that to happen.

"I guess we can do everyone at once. I can get away with telling my parents that I'm just having a dinner party. I have no clue what you could say to get your parents here,besides telling them the truth. but at least if we do it on the same night we will both be there to support each other."

"That'd be nice. I'm not a big fan of driving personally," Diego said to her. Her quirkly smile matched his own and he found it attractive. He noticed she seemed a bit occupied; "if you're worried about others knowing us getting married, it can be a quiet affair," Diego said to her with a smile.

"So after this dinner, we shoul probably head to my place so I can fully transfur Blockbuster for you. Then, I can get ready to move in with you," Diego added.

"Once we settled moving in, then we can call and tell our folks so they can start heading over here to meet each other and our other parents. Then they'll plan the engagement party," he summarized. "Yeah, it'll be nice being able to support one another," he said with his own dork smile

"I know this may seem silly, but I was jus thinking how our babies will have really cute smiles,"She laughed at herself. She was already thinking about babies. She lived all her nieces and nephews, but she wasn't sure if she was quite ready to have her own popping out. If everything moved as fast as it was going to, it wouldn't be long.

Joyce was a little shocked that he was ready to give her blockbuster and move in so quickly, but who was she to question his actions. She started planning an acceptable time line in her head. They would probably be married in the next three months or so. That seemed like a long time, but time does a great job of sneaking up on you, when you're busy. Soon, the waiters were bring them their plates and they were able to conversate about normal things new couples talk about, like favorite colors and such.

By the time the waiter was handing her the bill, she was going on about why rainbow or sparkly was never an acceptable choice when someone ask, ' what your favorite color is'. She was quite passionate about such a silly topic. Joyce had the tendency to speak up about anything she felt passionate about.

"They're gonna be so adorable," Diego said as he laughed along and was agreeing with what Joyce said. Soon, when their food arrived, they began talking aout things like all the classic new couple things. Diego was keeping note of everything she was saying so he could make everything as comfortable for her.

They talked about favorite foods, lifestyles, interests in movies, books and even video games. It was a really good memorable experience. Diego was listening to Joyce talking about why rainbow or sparkly was never an acceptable choice when someone ask, ' what your favorite color is'. He enjoyed his burger; it was savory and delicious. In some way, he liked her passion. She wasn't afraid to speaking her mind; he was similar in that aspect and he appreciated she listened to his ranting on comic books.

"The bill's here. How do you think we should pay?" he asked her.

"I'll pay for this one since I invited you to lunch, and technically this isn't a date," she reached for the little black folder to stick her card in it. They would have plenty of things coming up soon that they would have to worry about, including her getting a dress and picking a venue. She was perfectly fine paying for their meal. She definitely didn't want him to feel pressured to do anything.

With the few leftover they had left, neatly boxed up, it was time for them to go. Diego had wanted to pack up some things to take to her home earlier. She was not sure if that was still true, so she asked," If you still to come look at my place, we could go to your apartments and pack a few overnight bags. Not that you have to move in tonight," she quickly added. "Obviously an upcoming weekend would be more suitable of that. But, if you wanted to see what it would like for us to spend more time together, that works too."

"I'd like to stay at your place for tonight It'd be all right," Diego said to her, touched that she would make a suggestion for them to get to each other better like that. "The weekend is coming up and that sounds like a fun way to spend time together," he said to her with a smile.

He was really happy for the invite and paying for lunch. Diego followed her to her car and got in. "All right, here's the address..." Diego said to her. It took about 15 minutes, but they arrived at Diego's place. Diego led her over to his apartment. It was a studio apartment so it was a pretty small but comfy place. Hwever, it did look pretty empty and Diego didn't have much to mvoe in. It was kept pretty neat though.

"What do you think?" Diego asked her, happy he cleaned up a while ago. He even offered her a snack, an ice cream sandwich.

The drive over to his place was pretty close. His apartment wasn't too bad, either. "It's pretty nice for a bachelor pad," she joked accepting the ice cream. What girl was going to turn down an ice cream, ever. It really was a nice little place, sparsely decorated, and in need of a woman's touch, but it was fairly nice. It was clean.

As he packed his bag, Joyce looked around for anything that she would like to add to her place and the list was very short. She would probably let him bring his couch and desk, but that would go into the empty room that would now be his office. He had some really nice framed pictures of himself with family and friends that she would add well. And like a typical male his dishes weren't the greatest either.

Diego smiled at the framed pictures. "I never really have much time to spend with my friends, but it was more than I was able to when I was younger. Nate moved from Britain to the north. Harry and Nate are in Boston while I'm here in California. I'm here because the business demands it, but in all honesty, I always wanted to live in Oregon," Diego said as he picked them up and smiled.

"Sorry about the dishes. Tomorrow is Dish Day," Diego makes a note. "Hey I'm pretty clean and organized," he jested when he saw her expression. Diego gave her the ice cream sandwich before he gave one for himself. "Most of the furtniture isn't mine, it belongs to a neighbor. They've let me use it since they just had a child and needed to make room for the baby," Diego explained.

There was a boxy TV from like the 90s and there was a kitchenette with a microwave. "The TV and microwave are mine along with the blender and food processor," he notes. He looked at it wistfully. "Living alone was okay, but it gets lonely alot," he confesses as he gets a wistful look. He looks like he could use a hug.

"Well, last night was your last night you'll ever spend alone, " she realized how that sounded right away. "What I mean is that things are going to be different. We'll have each other, and eventually a few little ones," she made sure to stretch the eventually. They were both young and trying to find their selves in their career. She was not yet sure if they were ready for any thing big like that. Though their parents as well as Diego would love to hear the idea of children being brought into the relationship.

The contact Diego wanted, Joy was not comfortable with giving, yet. She merely offered a quick sorry before continuing on. " No offense, darling. Thank goodness were not moving into your house. Mine is a five bedroom, one that I turned in nto an office, three bathroom, pretty spacious. I know you're wondering how I got it, but it was a fixer up. It was in terrible condition when I bought. I spent more on renovation then I did buying it. Now it's my dream home about twenty minutes out of the city," it was a few minutes north of his apartment. It was very hard for people to get homes so close to the city, but Joyce always gets her way.

Diego looked at her and have her a smile. Diego tended to smile, but this one was that showed how touched he was. It was shy and small yet it beamed with so much gratefulness. Just the fact he would spend the rest of his life with someone was wonderful and Joyce certainly seemed like a wonderful person.

Diego smiled when she called him darling. His eyebrow raised on why she would get herself quite the spacious domain, especially since she was single. However, she did get what she wanted after all. That's what made her a badass businesswoman after all. "You certainly are a strong woman. I like that," Diego said with a hint of pride. The fact he was marrying her made it pretty awesome. Diego was packing some of his clothing along with his bathing materials and towels and such. He also got his laptop and a few other mobile things into a back pack.

With everything packed, he kept snacking on the ice cream sandwich while giving her a suitcase with all the paperwork for the company. "Here you go, dear," he said with a smile.

It was all happening so fast, Joy definitely didn't expect to keep this much paperwork in his home. She tried not to do too much work at home, so she would just leave it in the car to deal with it tomorrow. Tonight she was focus on getting Diego settled in to her home. She had a room picked out for him, it was right next door to her own. She wasn't exactly ready to be sharing her bed with anyone. Their engagement would give her time to at least get used to living with someone again, it had been quite sometime since she had a roommate or a friend living with her.

"I guess its time for us to head out. I know you'll like my house. Ive really took sometime putting it together. My office is a really big room, and it has more room for another desk. If you wanted to maybe it could be our office, one half for me, the other half yours, it would be our space. In exchange you wouldn't move into my room, yet. Just till we get used to each other," she smiled slightly trying to take away the sting.

Her house was only a few miles away it wouldn't take them long to get there.