Before she picked up her phone again, Ann flicked through the emails on her computer, wanting to see if there was any pressing business that she needed to discuss with Eva, but there was nothing that required her attention other than the weekly reports that Coral put together from the departments. So, she read through those quickly and allowed herself a small chuckle at the efficiency of both Coral and Eva in handling the running of the company whilst she had been embroiled in her royal duties.
"Imagine if we had an army of them," Maeve whispered wistfully, "We'd never be hungry, never have to worry about being blindsided by a single thing. They would just handle it and we could just…"
"Maeve, I'm surprised at you." Ann chuckled, "I have zero intention of delegating anything when I'm not as heavily entrenched in trying to sort out the mess that my father left behind."
"You see, that's your biggest problem. You just don't know how to relax. Always working and studying and researching..would it kill you to take a break at some point?" Maeve grumbled sullenly as Ann scoffed.
"I think you'll find we are taking far more time away right now than I've ever done before and…"
"Yes. But you are pregnant. With Pups. Plural. Not singular. Rest is essential." Maeve countered quickly and Ann rolled her eyes in response.
"I'm pregnant…not incapable." Ann snapped, "There's nothing stopping me from actually working and the fact that all of you seem hellbent on making me sit on my arse and do nothing is slightly irritating. I can work when I'm sitting on my arse too you know…there's desks for a reason."
"I just don't understand why you aren't savoring the downtime before the pups arrive. Once they're here it will be chaos. Pure uncontrollable chaos." Maeve pouted sullenly as she flopped down in the corner of Ann's mind.
Ann huffed loudly as she reached for her phone and punched Eva's number in moodily. Surely she would agree with Ann. She felt like she was an absent CEO currently and hated leaving everything to Eva. Especially since she had almost single handedly dealt with the move of a few of the smaller companies under their conglomerate into the upmarket office block that Adam had purchased for her on a whim.
"Hello Eva, how are you?" Ann smiled as her faithful COO answered in a very businesslike manner.
"Oh! Ann!" Eva laughed in surprise, "I'm so sorry, I didn't see it was you calling! How are you doing? Is everything okay?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing honestly, I'm going to go stir crazy if I don't find something to occupy myself with soon."
The sound of Eva's responding chuckle filled her with an odd sense of nostalgia that almost brought tears to her eyes.
"Ann, your highness, or whatever your title is now, you know damn well that you're supposed to be taking it easy. I know you've always liked to be busy but would it kill you to take it easy once in a while?"
"See?" Maeve smirked as Ann swatted at the air in annoyance and ignored her smug comment.
"I have taken it easy, Eva. I'm as at ease as I will ever get and I can't do anything else to move current issues forward so I'm calling you to see if I'm needed for anything. I would like to see how things are at the new offices, and I figured while I was there, I could bully you into finding me something to do."
Eva sighed loudly and Ann could almost see her shaking her head in amusement.
"Fine. You can come down and take a look at some of the old projects that we're deciding on whether or not to archive. Some of the designs were really innovative from the previous workers here and I wondered if we might make use of some of their ideas and perhaps incorporate them into some of our new projects. It would be good to have your keen eyes on them though as well." She relented finally.
"Excellent." Ann grinned, "I'll have Coral arrange a car for tomorrow, I'm sure Adam will either insist on joining us or send a small army of men to keep me safe from whatever boogie man he's imagined is tailing me now."
"You're very blasé for someone who almost died, you know." Eva admonished gently as Ann snorted.
"Yes, well, now that I know it's a possibility I can be more prepared in the future, can't I? Besides, I also want to see if Maeve ever handled any projects regarding Lycans whilst I'm there. Can you have a dig around for me?."
"Lycans? Wow. Talk about pulling something obscure out of the air." Eva laughed, "Sure, I can take a look. You're coming tomorrow then?"
"I hope so. I'll drop you a text in a few hours after I've managed to persuade Adam to let me out of the palace for a little while." she laughed as the door opened and Adam's figure stopped dead in his tracks.
He carefully readjusted his face into a cool, calm and collected mask, as he eyed her shrewdly.
"Why do you need to leave the palace Ann?" He asked, his voice flat and carrying an undercurrent that let her know just how displeased he was with the prospect of her leaving.
"I'll message you later Eva." Ann sighed heavily, "Adam is here."
"Oh dear," Eva chuckled, "Good luck with that!"
"Thanks," Ann grumbled as she hung up, knowing full well that she was either going to have to come up with a way to get him to agree to this quickly, or, she was going to have to go anyway and risk the consequences of his anger when she returned.
"Ooooo! It's been a while since he's 'punished' us," Maeve smirked, her ears perking up in interest, "This could be fun."
"Glad to know you're on board finally," Ann replied in her head snarkily as Maeve sniggered and she plastered a smile on her face as she turned her attention to Adam.
"I think you need to explain exactly what you intend on doing, that you haven't discussed with me first, my love."