The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “What?” she said as she rolled her eyes at me. “Did you really want two?”

  “Um, no. I like the idea very much.”

  Anna went back to her phone and was feverishly texting people as we got in and then out of the elevator. I walked slowly in front of her, waiting for her to put the phone away, but she just couldn’t.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, just drama with my friend Summer. Her parents are threatening to cut her off financially.

  “How old is she?”

  “Twenty-three, but she really isn’t ready to try life on her own. She can barely figure out life now, and they are taking care of her. I mean I understand they don’t want her to live off them forever, but cold turkey seems a little rough.”

  “Yeah, we all have to grow up sometime, though.”

  “I’m going to say goodbye, give me just a minute,” Anna said as she continued texting a long text while I grabbed our bags and moved us into the room.

  I lay on the bed for at least twenty minutes while Anna and her friend continued their short goodbye. I was so exhausted, I could hardly keep my eyes open and finally decided just to close them while I waited for Anna to finish her conversation with her friend.

  ***

  “Jason,” I heard Anna whispering as she lay halfway on top of me. “Jason, do you want to take a shower first, or can I?”

  “What? What time is it? Don’t you want to take a shower in the morning?” I asked as I opened my eyes. They seemed heavier than I was prepared for as I looked around the dark room. It took me a minute to reorient myself before I realized that Anna and I were both under the covers, and she had changed into a T-shirt and pajama pants.

  “It’s six o’clock. If you don’t mind, I’m going to hop in the shower first.” Anna said and then kissed me as she climbed over me to get out of bed.

  I grabbed her halfway through her climb and held her on top of me. I’d actually fallen asleep on the first night we had a room together? This was horrible. Terrible. A true travesty.

  “You let me sleep all night?”

  “You were really tired. Go grab us some breakfast and bring it back up. I’ve got some exciting news for you.”

  “You’re going to stay right here and ride me all day long?” I teased.

  She slapped my hand and scoffed as if she didn’t think I was serious. I would have stayed right there and rescheduled every other appointment we had if she’d agreed to my little idea.

  “No, I emailed the remaining companies yesterday, and I don’t think we need to meet with any of them. They heard who was on board already and are faxing over their forms to the office. We can take a look at the offers and see if they have questions, but I think we can be done with this little trip.”

  I grimaced at the idea. I was having a blast with Anna on this trip, and I’d already arranged for Clyde to spend the week with my brother and his family. This was horrible news.

  “You should have woken me up,” I whined as she climbed off me.

  “If you hurry, you can join me in the shower,” Anna teased as she ran into the bathroom.

  In two seconds flat, I was standing in the bathroom with her and stripping off my clothes so I could climb into the shower. She clearly set a boundary that we weren’t going to be having sex in the shower though as she held her hand out and pushed me to the other side of the shower while she washed her hair. Occasionally, she had to use two hands as she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and then the conditioner. I took advantage of those moments and moved in closer. Our wet bodies pressed against one another, and I was dying with desire for her.

  “Kevin texted you last night, and I told him we would be there to meet with him by ten, so you better hurry,” Anna said as she stepped out of the shower and eyed my throbbing member. “That might take a few extra minutes,” she teased and winked at me.

  “You are killing me. I might actually die of blue-ball syndrome you know. That’s a real thing. Look it up. I’m sure guys have died from it.”

  Anna just laughed and then went to the large mirror and started blow-drying her hair. She was literally ignoring me as I whined about not getting to play with her before we took off. I was beside myself for falling asleep and missing my opportunity to have a whole night of lovemaking with her.

  When I finished my shower, Anna was still drying her hair. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her neck in an effort to get her to give in, but she didn’t break. Even as she let out a sweet moan of delight, she didn’t turn around or give into my groping.

  “Get dressed, we have to get going soon,” she said as she pushed me away. “And then go grab us some breakfast. You know it’s going to take me a little bit to get ready.”

  “Uggh, I’m dying.”

  “You won’t die, you big baby.” Anna laughed.

  “You are so beautiful. I’m pretty damn lucky to have gotten to sleep next to you all night. I do have to admit that was probably the best I’ve slept in months. Thank you,” I said as I finally gave in and went to get dressed.

  “You’re welcome. Let me know if you want me to come to your house for a sleeping session sometime,” she yelled at me from the bathroom.

  “Yes, absolutely. Come and sleep over.” I laughed as I peeked in. “All night. With lots of sweating and groaning.”

  “Oh, stop,” Anna said as she laughed at me.

  By eight o’clock, we were both ready and had eaten a little bit of food. We gassed up the car and were on the road home.

  Chapter 18

  Anna

  “Damn, you two are good,” Kevin said as he met us at the front door of the building.

  He gave Jason a hug and then shook my hand. I couldn’t remember seeing Kevin smiling as much as he was. It was like night and day compared to what he had been like the last few months I’d known him.

  “It was all Anna, she kicked ass,” Jason told him.

  “No, I think everyone already had their offers ready, and we just helped them see that they should move forward with the process,” I offered.

  “I disagree,” Jason said without adding anything else.

  “Let’s go upstairs and talk about this. I’ve already got the rest of the faxed offers, and things look amazing. Edward and Marcus are going to flip out when they see the numbers being offered here. This is much better than I imagined it would be.”

  We were almost into the building when my father pulled into the parking lot driving like a maniac. He was angry, really pissed off. He was even angrier than the time I’d been arrested as a fourteen-year-old for staying out past the city curfew time. My heart instantly sank as he slammed his car door and started toward us. I looked at Jason and then Kevin, and they both knew something was wrong as well.

  “Go inside,” Kevin ordered us. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “No, let me,” I said. “I can calm him down.”

  “Shit, how did he find out?” Jason added.

  “You sons of bitches,” my father yelled at the guys. “You really think I wasn’t going to find out you were piecing the company out? How stupid do you think I am?”

  “Dad, it’s not like that,” I told him. “Please come inside, and we can explain what’s going on.”

  “Don’t you talk to me, young lady. You knew this was going on and didn’t even tell me. You picked them over your own father.”

  His words hit me like a brick in the face, and I instantly started to cry. I hadn’t been prepared for him to be this angry with me. Yes, it was the truth—I knew about it and had kept it from him, but only because I wanted to get everything worked out first so we could explain the deal to him. I knew he was going to be angry; I just didn’t understand how bad it was going to hurt.

  “Edward, let’s go inside and talk about this. I think when you calm down and see what we have started to put together here you are going to be really excited,” Kevin said calmly. “Nothing is finalized yet. We made an agreem
ent that you and Marcus would get the final say. That is still the deal. If you hear everything we have going on, and you don’t want to do it, we won’t.”

  “What about Myer’s Engineering? Bryce says he already made a deal.”

  Shit. My father knew Bryce Myers?

  “He made an offer, and we put a thirty-day acceptance on it. We have thirty days before it would be finalized,” Kevin said calmly.

  I looked wide-eyed at Jason through my tears, and he motioned for me to head inside. I certainly wasn’t helping anything by standing there crying. If Kevin and Jason could figure it out without me, then that was for the best. I only wanted what was best for my father. I never wanted to hurt him.

  When I got upstairs, I went straight to Susan’s office next to the conference room. Luckily, she wasn’t in there as I slipped onto the ground near the vent. Sooner or later, they were going to convince my father to come inside, and I wanted to be able to hear what was going on. Sure enough, five minutes later, I heard the doors to the conference room open.

  “Edward, I think you are really going to like this deal,” Jason said calmly.

  “I don’t care what you think,” my father replied. “Can I just talk with Kevin? I’d prefer not to talk with a child molester.”

  “What?” Jason said loudly. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  I’d never heard Jason get really angry, but I could tell by his voice that he didn’t appreciate being called such a vile name. He wasn’t rude to my father, but he certainly wasn’t going to just sit there and let him call him names like that.

  “She’s a child, you sick bastard,” my father yelled.

  Suddenly I started to figure out what was going on. Not only had my father learned about the deal, but somehow, he had figured out that Jason and I had slept together. I couldn’t just sit in the office any longer. I had to stand up to my father about this. I was a grown adult. I made my own choices.

  I pushed the heavy conference room door open and stood there with my hand on my hip as I narrowed my eyes on my father.

  “Maybe you and I need to talk. I’m a grown adult. In fact, I’ve been an adult for two years now, and that was a very inappropriate thing to say to Jason.”

  “I saw you leaving his room, Anna.” My anger had softened my father’s fury only slightly as he continued to fume.

  “Dad, what I do in my private time doesn’t matter. Right now, I really need you to listen to Kevin so he can explain what’s going on here. Listen, Dad. You know you want to retire, and I think you knew the company wasn’t doing well for a really long time. Will you please listen to Kevin, even if you won’t listen to Jason?”

  My father was quiet for a long time before he finally nodded toward Kevin. “Just Kevin,” my father said as he refused to look at Jason.

  Jason stood up and walked out of the room without saying a word. I followed behind him and we went to his office to sit down while Kevin and my dad talked about the deals.

  “I’m sorry he said that to you.”

  “Ha, well that was a shock. And pretty much made me want to punch him.”

  “Yeah, he wasn’t thinking straight. Please don’t be too angry with him.”

  “Well, let’s just worry about the deal for now. Obviously, I can’t control what he thinks of me. But it would be really great if he did like me.”

  “He’s really a great guy. I’ve never seen him like this. It’s probably just the overwhelming emotions about seeing us together and having all this going on with his company. I’m sure Kevin will be able to get through to him so he understands.”

  We sat there silently while Jason played with the papers on his desk, and I scrolled through the endless social updates on my telephone. My stomach turned with anxiety as we kept looking down the hall to see if Kevin and my father were still in there talking. I wanted to go look in, but my father was facing the door and would have seen me the second I got close enough to look inside.

  “Want to go listen at the vent?” I offered as another half hour had passed by.

  “In Susan’s office?”

  “Yeah, at least we will know what’s going on?”

  “No, I’m fine here. You can go if you’d like, though.”

  “No, I’ll stay here with you.”

  A total of two hours went by before Zelda showed up at Jason’s door and told us to go into the meeting. My heart pounded as we walked down the hall and into the conference room. Kevin was smiling and looked at ease, which was a great sign, and my father didn’t look like he was in quite as bad a mood.

  “We called Marcus to come down. He should be here shortly,” Kevin said.

  “Anna, why don’t we step into the hallway for a minute?” my father asked.

  “Yes,” I said without hesitating.

  I’d never had my father be this upset with me, and it was tearing me up inside. Even though I knew he was wrong, I desperately wanted to make up with him. He had to know that I was a grown up, he’d been pushing me to be more independent for years.

  As we walked out of the room and stood in the hallway, we quickly realized that it was no place to hold an intimate conversation. My father pointed to the room next to the conference room, Susan’s office, but I brought him to the other side of the floor where the small meeting room was at.

  “Dad…” I said as we sat down, and I prepared to argue with him.

  “You are in this thing of your own doing, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “Yes, Daddy. I like him, and he likes me. Just like it’s supposed to be. And if it makes you feel any better, I really do care about him a lot.”

  “Nope, it doesn’t make me feel better.” My father chuckled a little, and it was at that moment that I knew we were going to be okay.

  “So why were you at the hotel following us? You didn’t trust me?”

  “Should I have? You lied to me,” he retorted.

  It was true; I’d lied to him on the phone a couple times since I’d found out about the sale. But I didn’t do it maliciously, and I certainly only had his best interest at heart. That was going to be hard to explain that to him, though.

  “Dad, I was upset at first as well. But can you please just listen to them with an open mind?”

  “I listened to Kevin, and I’m still angry. But we will see what Marcus thinks when he gets here. I just don’t understand why they can’t just help us turn the company around and keep it like it is? That’s what I want.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do I want to keep the company like it is?”

  “Yes. I mean I know you don’t want people to lose their jobs, and this new plan will ensure that. Why else does the company need to stay exactly like it is? It’s the twenty-first century, Dad. Sooner or later, we are going to have to adapt.”

  There was a knock at the door, and Zelda peeked her head in. “Marcus is here, just letting you know. No big hurry, take your time,” she said with a huge smile on her face.

  The amount of excitement going on in the office on this day was ten times what it had been on any previous day that I’d worked. It looked like Zelda was really enjoying the bolt of excitement.

  “We will be right there,” I said as she closed the door behind her. “Dad, do you understand what I was saying?”

  “Do you understand what it’s like to trust someone and know they were willing to lie to you for weeks? That’s how I’m feeling right now, honey. I just don’t know why you didn’t come and tell me. Just a little clue would have helped. Something so I knew you were really looking out for our best interest.”

  I rolled my eyes at my father and his guilt trips. I’d worked really damn hard to ensure his best interest had been looked out for. But I knew him well enough to know that I couldn’t be arguing with him if I wanted him to be able to listen to Kevin and Jason as they explained what was going on.

  “We can talk about it more later,” I said. “How about we get you to the conference r
oom so you and Marcus can figure out what you’d like to do?”

  “Fine, but we are going to talk about this later.”

  “Okay, Daddy,” I said and gave him a big hug.

  Right away he squeezed me tight and kissed my cheek. I knew we were going to be just fine. It might take him a little bit to see where I was coming from, but I knew he’d feel better after he heard more about the deal and saw it was a great plan.

  I walked him to the conference room and opened the door so he could go in. I was about to leave when I heard Jason say my name.

  “What?”

  “I asked if you could sit in with us. Since you were the lead on several of the deals, I think it would be appropriate for you to share the information on those.” Jason was holding back a smile as he urged me to come in. I could tell he was making it clear to my father that I had helped a lot on the deals. Of course, my father didn’t like the deals at all right now, so hopefully, when he heard everything, he would be happier with me.

  “I can talk about the Myer’s Engineering one,” I offered.

  For the rest of the afternoon, Jason, Kevin, and I explained the process of selling off the different divisions. I didn’t do much except talk about the companies that I’d met with and some of the specific offerings like how Myer’s offered to pay full benefits and extra vacation.

  Marcus and my father were interested. I could see it in their eyes when I handed them the money offer for the engineering division. It was more than what my father needed to retire, and I knew it. For years he’d wanted to ensure his employees could thrive, and he was finally going to be able to do that. Every company that was interested in purchasing a division was excited to have the opportunity. They weren’t buying the divisions because they wanted to close them; no, these companies were growing and needed to add trained staff. It was the perfect combination, and my father knew it.

  As the four men continued with the meeting, I took a break around five o’clock to use the restroom and get something to eat. It had been a very long day, and we were nearly finished going through the details. The next big step was going to be to see if my father and Marcus would agree that it was the right thing to do.