Diamond in the Rough

Authors Note:

Thank you to all of you that have given your feedback. It has been greatly appreciated. I just wanted to take a minute to clear some things up. It came to my attention that it might be confusing as to why Gabrielle and Marcus don't recognize each other. In some BDSM chatrooms or Dating sites people will conceal their face to remain anonymous. I have personally done this a time or two. When Marcus is referring to how beautiful Gabrielle is, he is referring to the parts of her body that he can see rather than her overall beauty.

Without Further delay, here is chapter 2 of Diamond in the Rough.

Chapter 2

Walking into my office, Alex waves me over to the conference room.

"Good morning Alex, how are you?" I ask before starting to make my first cup of coffee of the day.

"I'm good Gabrielle, how are you?"

"Pretty good, when are we going to be checking in with everyone?" I ask wanting to make sure that I have enough time to work on the designs that I promised Marcus.

"We are just waiting for everyone else to get here, and then we are going to start. There are bagels in the breakroom if you want to go get one."

"Good morning everyone, let's get started. Cassie how are your projects going?" Alex asked once everyone was settled.

"I am finished the designs for Mosaic, and I am going to be presenting them to the board today. Also, heads up I am going to be starting a project for a friend and hopefully I will be able to bring in more clients after that."

"Good, keep me posted on how the meeting goes with Mosaic, we need to make sure that things go over smoothly. We could potentially gain a lot more clients if things go well."

"Understood. Do you want me to call you with the client?"

"If they want to speak to me go ahead, if not update me when you get back to the office. Gabrielle, how are things going with the prospective client?"

"I met with one of the owners, Marcus, yesterday and he signed with us. There are two portions to the contract, and I am going to be working on both designs today. I have a meeting with the same owner tomorrow to go over the designs for one of the contracts tomorrow."

"How are there two contracts? When they called me initially, they said there was only one project?"

"The nightclub is split up into two sections and when I spoke to Marcus yesterday, he stated that he wanted different designs for each space."

"Fair enough. As usual I want you to update me on how the progress is going with that project. So that all of you know I am going to be meeting with a women's shelter today. They are looking to redesign the shelter and are wanting our second opinion on the designs that they were given by another company."

The meeting went in a similar fashion for another half hour before we were all able to break off and work on our own projects. I decided that since I didn't have any other meetings today that I was going to go home and work on designs there.

"Alex, I'm going to work from home for the rest of the day, and probably tomorrow too before I head to my meeting with Marcus." I tell Alex as I'm walking past her desk.

"Sounds good Gabrielle. One thing before you go, would you be able to swing by the office tomorrow after your meeting? There is something that I want to discuss with you."

"Sure, thing Alex."

The drive home was uneventful. I decided that I was going to call Marcus when I got home to talk to him about the double date that Lizzy and I talked about last night.

Pulling into my driveway, I noticed that my twin brother's truck parked there. When he saw me, he got out of his truck.

"Hi Michael, what are you doing here?" I asked surprised that he made the hour drive to come see me out of the blue.

"Hi sis, John and I are going through somethings, and I was hoping that I would be able to crash with you while we sort some things out." Michael said, looking sheepish at the mention of his boyfriend.

You see the rest of the family disowned him when he came out as being gay, and they also disowned me when they found out that I supported him.

"Michael, for one there is no need to give me that look. You know that I love John. Of course, you can stay with me. I just am going to be busy today and tomorrow with work stuff, so you are going to have to entertain yourself." I said, worried about what was causing my brother to flee his relationship since this wasn't like him.

"Thanks Gabs. I figured you would be busy with work; I am probably just going to spend today unpacking and getting the guest room setup. If it's okay with you I might be living here for a while." He said as we walked into the house. Buddy greeted us when we walked through the front door, excited that I had surprised him by coming home early and bringing Uncle Michael with me.

"I have no issue with that, you are always welcome here. You should know that. What's going on with you and John though?" I asked as I walked into my office to setup of laptop.

"Well, you know how he and I broke up last year for a little while?" At my nod he continued "Well apparently he started a relationship with someone else. When we started talking again, he broke things off with them, but this other person contacted him last week and told him that he had tested positive for HIV. John went to go get tested, and yesterday we found out that he had also tested positive. I went to the clinic this morning to get tested and I'm waiting for the results. Gabs he lied to me when we got back together, he said that he hadn't been with anyone else." Michael said, leaning into my shoulder and sobbing.

"It's going to be okay Michael; I'm assuming you came here because your mad at him and need space?" After he nodded, I thought about what the repercussions would be if Michael did end up testing positive. I knew that there were treatment options, but would they work?

"Gabs, I'm going to head upstairs and start unpacking if you need me." Michael said after a couple of minutes.

To get my mind off the possibility of losing my only family member, I decided that now would be as good of a time as any to call Marcus.

"Hello, Marcus speaking?"

"

Hi Marcus, it's Gabrielle. Do you have a minute to chat?"

"Hi Gabrielle, you caught me at the perfect time I just finished a meeting. Is everything okay? You sound upset."

"I'm fine, just going through some family things. I was wondering if you knew any of the members of your club?"

"Yes, I know all of them, there is a very specific vetting process involved in gaining access to the kink side of the club."

"Well my friend Lizzy and her Dom Adam are members of your club, and I was wondering if you would be willing to have sort of a double date with them? It's just dinner and drinks, Lizzy wants to meet the guy that caught my attention."

"Adam is actually a very good friend of mine; I would definitely be willing to go out for drinks with them. What's going on with your family?"

"Well, that's more of a conversation to have in person. However, basically my brother showed up at my doorstep this morning and is now going to be staying with me for a while."

"I see, well if you wanted tomorrow after our meeting to go over the club designs, would you want to go for lunch?"

"I would love to, but I have to meet with my boss afterwards about something and I don't know how long that is going to take."

"It doesn't matter, I actually have the afternoon off tomorrow. I could come with you if you wanted and wait for you, and then if your free for the rest of the day we could go afterwards."

"That sounds amazing. Speaking of your designs, I must go so I can finish them off. I will talk to you later Mr. Summerville?"

"Okay little girl, I will talk to you later."

After a couple of hours, I was just putting the finishing touches on the designs for the front section of the club when Michael walked into my office.

"How's work going?"

"It's going okay, I just finished off one of the designs that I am going to presenting tomorrow. But you probably aren't interested in talking about my work. What's up Michael?"

"Well I was wondering if I would be able to take the best sister in the whole world out to lunch today." Michael said with a smirk.

"Sure. Do you want to go to our usual spot?"

"Of course, I always love diner food." Michael said with a grin.

Our lunch was spent just catching up while we ate the burger and fries that we ordered.

"So, I overheard you talking to someone named Marcus, who's he?"

"He's no one. Just a mutual friend with Lizzy." I said hoping that he would leave it at just that. I really didn't want to get into explaining how I met him right now.

"Then why were you talking about going on a double date with them? After everything that we have been through together, you know you can talk to me about stuff, right?" Michael asked with a worried look on his face.

"I know I can. There is nothing really to tell though. He's someone that I met online, and Lizzy suggested that we go on a double date, when she found out that he and I were planning on meet up."

Michael just shook his head and gave me a look that told me he didn't believe me but understood that I didn't want to go into any details. The rest of the lunch and the drive home was spent in silence.

The Next day

"Good morning Michael, the coffee in the pot is fresh, and there's eggs in the fridge. I have to run to my meeting; I will be back later." I tell him as he is walks into the kitchen.

"Morning sis, have a good day at work, I am probably going to go to the store to buy some stuff that I didn't bring with me." Michael replies before kissing me on the cheek.

Before running out the door I checked to make sure that I had my phone and wallet. Of course, today of all days I would sleep in passed my alarm. Running to my car, I notice Marcus is calling me.

"Good Morning Marcus, I'm on my way in right now. Sorry I'm running a little behind so I might be a couple of minutes late."

"Good Morning Gabrielle, that's quite alright. I am running a little behind as well. I am about half an hour away from my work so if I get there before you, just tell the security guard that you are there to see me, and that I said it was okay for her to let you in."

"Sounds good. I'm about the same amount of time away. I will see you in a bit." I replied before ending the call.

Climbing into the car- my Shelby Mustang GT500-I punched the address into my Phone's GPS before pulling out of the driveway.

Pulling up to the club, I noticed that Marcus was just getting out of his own car- a Aston Martin V12 Vantage-. Gathering my things, ensuring that I had the designs in my bag, I got out of the car and walked over to the front door where he was chatting with the security guard.

"Good Morning Gabrielle. Alyssa meet Gabrielle. She is going to be the designer for both club spaces." Marcus says as he puts his hand on the small of my back in a protective manner.

"Nice to meet you Gabrielle, I'm the guard that works here during the day. Once you know when your contractors are going to be coming let me know."

"Actually, it's only going to be me working on this project. So once Marcus approves the designs, I will probably be here around 10am every day to work on things."

"Alyssa, Gabrielle and I are going to be in my office going over the designs. When Dante gets here can you get him to come up? I want his input as well." Marcus says before opening the metal door, and then motioning for me to enter first.

"Sure, thing boss."

"So, to your left is the coat check area, and the front desk. That's where patrons can buy day passes if they aren't members or membership cards. Remind me to get you an all access pass before we leave today."

"Not that I don't appreciate it, but why would I need one? I don't even know if I am going to become a member here."

"Well, if things go the way I want them to go between you and I, you are going to be here quite a bit, and for you to get passed the curtain you need to have a pass. I am not going to get you to pay every single time we come here as customers."

"Okay." I say, not quite sure how else I should respond. I am not used to getting things given to me. Nothing was ever easy growing up, and I needed to work hard for everything that I had.

"This and the front desk/ coat check area is going to be the design for the front section. And the room behind the door to your left is going to be the second design. The wall in front of us does have a portable stage against it once a month for performances, so would it be possible to have that wall a solid colour?" Marcus asks while giving me a tour of the open floor plan that the main area is composed of.

"Sure, I can do that. Why don't we take this discussion else where and I can pull the designs out to show you what I came up with?" I suggested wanting to get through this meeting so that we could continue talking and developing a more personal relationship.

"Sure, thing right this way." Marcus says chuckling before leading me up a set of stairs.

"So here are the designs. The wall that we spoke about downstairs has a wallpaper on it in my design, but I can change it, so it is a solid colour using paint instead." I say before pulling out my design for Marcus to review.