“And I’d like to see a little more common sense,” I retorted. “Every other single department in the company complained about Sales. You were the ONLY department to get that distinction, by the way. HR came in a distant second. In fact, 90% of my interviews had something negative to say about Sales – and of those comments, over half of the people specifically referenced you. So, unless you think you can walk on water and raise the dead, maybe – just maybe – you might want to acknowledge that there are some things here that you could listen to and benefit from hearing.”
“I’m not going to listen to some chick whose biggest claim to fame is fucking a rich guy,” he snarled.
“Said the asshole who’s fucking the entire company,” I snapped back. “Or at least their morale.”
He jolted up out of his seat, almost foaming at the mouth. “YOU LITTLE – ”
“BRYCE,” Scott shouted.
Silence.
The entire room looked at the CEO.
“You will sit down and not say another word for the rest of this presentation,” Scott ordered.
“Or what?” Bryce sneered.
Now the Bully was challenging the man in charge of running the company.
In front of the company.
Bad choice on the Bully’s part.
“Or you can have your resignation on my desk by the end of the day,” Scott said in a quiet, deadly voice.
“Let me remind you of something, kid,” Bryce sneered. “Sixty-three million dollars in sales – 10.3% of the entire company’s annual sales – ”
“You know what? Fuck it,” Scott said. “You’re fired.”
Deathly silence.
“I’m what?” Bryce asked in both anger and disbelief.
“Fired. Collect your things and get out within ten minutes, or I’ll have security escort you out of the building.”
The disbelief was fading, and the anger was turning to rage. “You can’t do that!”
Scott shrugged. “Okay, I’ll have security escort you out now,” he said, and clicked a button on the nearest phone unit. “Amanda, could you have security come into the boardroom? I need to have Bryce Smith escorted out.”
“FUCK YOU,” Bryce roared as he slammed his chair back against the wall and stalked towards the door. “You’re going to hear from my lawyer!”
“And you’ll be hearing from all fifty-five of Telenexin’s,” Scott said with a smile.
Bryce looked at him – looked at me – sputtered – and then ripped open the door and slammed it shut behind him with a BOOM.
The silence left behind in his wake was so complete that we could hear him stomping and cursing through the hallways until his voice faded away to nothing.
Scott closed his eyes and sighed in relief, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Nobody was saying anything… so I figured I might as well.
“Judging by my interviews, I would say, conservatively, that fifty percent of your problems just walked out the door.”
The entire room burst into spontaneous laughter and applause.
You wouldn’t believe how well the presentation went from there.
17
Scott walked me out of the building afterwards.
“That was a pretty great presentation,” he said.
“Except for the whole thing with Bryce,” I said apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t intend to prompt any firings.”
“Not your fault. It’s been brewing ever since I got here. I inherited him when I took over the company a few years ago. He’s a major asset, but almost as big a liability.”
“From what everybody said, I’d go with an even bigger liability. He’s toxic to morale.”
“Yeah, I know,” Scott sighed. “I should’ve handled it a lot sooner, but… I have a tendency of focusing on the smaller stuff and procrastinating on the really big items.”
“So I noticed from the interviews,” I teased him.
He looked at me, the slightest bit annoyed, and I wondered if I had overstepped my bounds. But then he broke out into a sheepish smile.
“Well, you’ve certainly given me a huge list to implement.”
I decided to abandon the teasing and just smiled this time. “Good luck.”
We stood facing each other, a little awkward in the ensuing silence.
“Well,” I said, and stuck out my hand for a ‘goodbye’ handshake. “Thank you for the opportunity, I really – ”
“Can I ask you a personal question?” he interrupted.
“Um…”
I slowly dropped my hand.
“…sure… I guess…”
“Would you like to have dinner with me one night?”
My mouth dropped open.
A very attractive, very smart guy – and the CEO of a company, no less – asking me out on a date? A few months ago I would have been out of my mind with joy. And I mean ‘out of mind’ quite literally. I would have had a meltdown: either babbling and making him wonder if he’d just asked out an escapee from an insane asylum, or giving him overly curt answers that made him think I wasn’t interested. And it all would have been from overwhelming nervousness.
But other than the initial surprise, what hit me more than anything was sadness.
Because Scott Shaw was a handsome man, definitely a great personality, probably rich –
…but he wasn’t the one that I wanted.
Over the last two hours, I’d managed not to think about Connor once – a record so far.
But now his absence rushed over me like a wave of pain and longing.
In the brief second before I answered, I thought, Why not? Why NOT give myself a chance to meet someone who won’t keep me at arm’s distance after he says he loves me?
But just as quickly, I knew it wouldn’t be possible. The wound in my heart wasn’t even close to being healed. It wouldn’t be fair to Scott, and, in all likelihood, it would only make me miserable as I thought about where I wanted to be.
“Scott, I’m flattered, but I… I think it’s best if we kept it professional.”
Scott smiled wistfully, then nodded. “Connor’s a tough act to follow.”
That shocked me even more. “I… I don’t…”
“He’s a friend of mine, Lily,” Scott said, then looked to the side and raised his eyebrows. “Well, not that close of a friend, or I wouldn’t have asked you out. But… I guess I’m just trying to say, I get it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t,” I lied. “Like I said, I’m flattered, it’s just… too early.”
He nodded again and smiled. “I hear you.”
Then he stuck out his hand, and we finally got around to the long-delayed handshake.
“Excellent job, Ms. Ross,” he said. “Best $10,000 I ever spent on a consultant.”
My heart leapt. “Thank you.”
“I’ll have Accounting cut the check this afternoon, then we’ll messenger it over.”
I thought about saying, Oh, you don’t have to do that! but stopped myself. “That… would be wonderful.”
“If we need you again, I’ll definitely call.”
“I look forward to it,” I beamed, and then started towards the parking lot elevator.
“Lily – word of advice?” he said.
I turned around.
“Triple your prices,” he said. “You’re undercharging.”
Then he got in the elevator and was gone.
18
Just as Scott promised, the check came by courier service around 5 o’clock.
I about peed myself when the runner had me sign for the envelope – and after he was gone, I almost cried when I opened the envelope and saw the check.
$10,000.
I’d received five times that amount a month ago – but this time it was different.
This time I’d earned it.
Anh came home at 6 o’clock and went into a screaming fit when I showed her the check. I joined in and we jumped around l
ike two little girls at a slumber party.
“I’m taking you out,” I announced gleefully. “And we’re getting a cab so we can get smashed. Where do you want to go?”
“Lily, you don’t have to do that,” Anh protested.
“Yes I do – I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Oh, you would have been fine without me… I really appreciate it, but – ”
“Okay,” I shrugged, doing my best to keep a deadpan expression, “we’ll order something in and drink a $5 bottle of wine.”
“No, no, I was just being modest,” Anh said cheerily as she patted me on the head. “You were supposed to say, ‘Anh, you are the best friend ever, I totally couldn’t have done it without you, and I’m going to spoil you rotten tonight.’ But you stopped a little too early.”
“Anh, you’re the best friend ever. I totally couldn’t have done it without you, and I’m going to spoil you rotten tonight.”
“That’s better,” Anh beamed.
19
Dinner was amazing. We went to a swanky new place in Beverly Hills we’d been reading about for months. Anh didn’t think we could get in, but I pulled Connor’s trick with the maître d’: I pulled out $200 and mentioned that we’d meant to get reservations but forgot, and could they possibly find us a table?
It worked, although $200 in a bunch of twenties is a lot less impressive than two Benjamins.
And it made me feel sad when I thought about our evening together. But I quickly pushed those thoughts to the side.
“Lily, you shouldn’t have done that,” Anh gasped as we followed the maître d’ to our table.
“Hush,” I said. “Tonight I want to indulge and go crazy.”
And we did. $50 entrées, a $200 bottle of wine, and three different desserts that we shared.
I had her howling as I recounted what had happened with Bryce. After that we laughed and hugged and made toasts and talked about the future.
It took me a couple of glasses of wine, but finally I got up the courage to ask her.
“Did you mean what you said about quitting Exerton and coming to work with me?”
“Hell yeah,” she said and hiccupped. Anh was kind of a lightweight when it came to alcohol.
“No, I’m serious.”
“I know. And my answer is hell yeah, I’m serious, too.”
“It’s not going to be stable like your job at Exerton.”
“I know,” she said, and grinned naughtily. “I want to go to the beach in the middle of the day sometimes when there’s nothing to do.”
“That would be awesome.”
“Hell yeah it would,” she hiccupped, and drank a little more wine.
“Um… as far as money…”
“We’ll talk about that when we’re not drunk,” she said.
“Well, I wanted to make you partner,” I said. “Fifty-fifty.”
“HELL YEAH!” she whooped, then covered her mouth daintily and looked around the restaurant in embarrassment. Once she was sure no one was going to throw us out, she said, “Lily, I really, really appreciate that, but you don’t have to do that.”
I cocked my head. “Are you just being polite again?”
“A little,” she said with a mischievous smile. But then she grew somber. “But seriously, that’s… you worked hard for this…”
“I did last week, but otherwise I got it handed to me on a silver platter. Besides, we’ll be splitting the work fifty-fifty, too.”
“Oh, well, in that case, hell yeah – partner!” she said, and clinked my wine glass with hers.
“We should wait until the next job comes in,” I cautioned her. “And that could be a long, long time.”
She shrugged. “I’ll wait to quit till it does.”
As it turned out, she only had to wait until 10AM the next morning.
20
I got the call from a small tech company in San Diego at 9:15AM. The CFO had been a fraternity brother with Scott Shaw and had heard him rave about me for half an hour the previous night – which is why he wanted to book Ross and Associates consulting as soon as possible.
After a brief conversation planning everything out, I said goodbye to the CFO, called Anh at her office, and let her know I’d just booked another job – for $30,000 plus expenses.
She turned in her resignation letter 15 minutes later.
Everything after that was a blur.
I actually booked two more jobs in the next three weeks – all because of Scott Shaw’s recommendations. I called him to thank him the first time, then sent him $500 bottles of scotch for the next two.
I got a little note back: Keep this up, and I’m going to ask you out again.
I didn’t reply, but it made me smile.
Anh had originally given two week’s notice, but the volume of work was so great that she called her boss at home over the weekend, apologized, and told him she would be leaving Exerton effective immediately. Even though he was normally more civil than Herr Klaus, her boss still went on a profanity-laced tirade – whereupon Anh promptly hung up on him.
“That was the best hang-up of my life,” she announced.
“Are you sure you should have done that?” I asked nervously.
“Why shouldn’t I have? He called me a bad word. A couple of bad words.”
“What if you need his recommendation later?”
“For what?” she scoffed. “I’m a partner now.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Lily, we’re going to make this work. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my career – and I am going to make it work.”
“Okay,” I agreed reluctantly. “But maybe you still shouldn’t have hung up on him.”
“I’m a powerful person now,” she said with mock self-importance, “and powerful people hang up on jackholes all the time.”
Fake it till you make it, baby.
Anh was doing it even better than me.
21
Six weeks passed. We spent two weeks in San Diego, then flew to Colorado for another two, then went back to LA for the third gig. $90,000 plus all expenses paid.
I was freaking out. In a good way, of course.
The work was hard – harder than anything I’d ever done in my life. It was grueling… but it was mine. I was the one calling the shots. I was the one saying ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ I was the one people spoke to with respect. I was the one people were calling, asking if I could possibly help them out.
Of course, having Anh with me made it so much easier. Everything that happened, she was with me every step of the way. And with her experience in management and delegation, she saved my bacon a couple of times. Making her partner was the best decision I’d ever made.
Things got so busy we even hired a couple of Anh’s friends to help out. One became the fulltime receptionist, and the other became our Powerpoint/Excel/IT/computer guru.
By the sixth week, we began looking for an office.
Two more jobs came in as referrals.
By the eighth week, we signed the lease for a small space in Santa Monica. It was inside a large office building that housed much bigger companies, but it was a steal for the location, and we had big glass windows looking out over a pretty residential neighborhood full of palm trees.
Throughout all the craziness, I spoke with Sebastian at least once a week and kept him updated on my progress.
“Maybe I should quit here and come to work for you,” he marveled at one point.
I laughed. “I think your current boss might get pretty angry with me.”
“Let him. I’ll have to come in as a partner, of course.”
“Well, aren’t you the hardnosed negotiator.”
“Let’s not forget, you couldn’t have done it without me.”
“True,” I said nervously. I owed a lot to Sebastian – but I was pretty sure working with him on a daily basis would drive me insane. Actually, working alongside him for one day might drive me over the edge. “But we’d h
ave to discuss it.”
“And I could live with Javier instead of us dating bi-coastally – ”
“You saying you’re bi?” I joked.
“COASTAL,” he said loudly. “Of course, I’ll need you to pick up all my relocation expenses… and my hotel stay while I sell my condo in Manhattan… and I’ll need a per diem, of course…”
Nervousness became panic. “Um…”
“Lily… you DO know I’m joking, right?”
“About which part?”
“All of it. You’ve done incredibly well for yourself, and I’m very proud of you, but I’m never leaving Connor.”
“Oh. Haha,” I said weakly – partly because any mention of Connor’s name still had the power to sucker-punch me.
“Connor’s very proud of you, too.”
Mixed emotions rose up in me. Pride and gratitude, mixed with sadness and anger.
The sadness and anger won out.
“Then why doesn’t he ever call?” I asked bitterly.
“There’s some pop psychologist who says that if you break up with someone, it’s like breaking a bone – you need to give it time to heal. For a relationship, it’s about six months.”
I didn’t feel like I would ever heal. So far, only the chaos of my new job had been able to distract me from the pain… and then only during working hours. “So?”
“Every time you see or talk to the person before you’ve healed, it’s like re-breaking the bone. I think he subscribes to that theory.”
“Is he trying to heal… or does he think I need to?” I asked, seriously miffed.
Even if I did need to heal, I didn’t need him being Mr. Patronizing ‘I know what’s best for you’ about it.
Sebastian’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “He’s seriously fucked up, Lily.”
Again, mixed emotions: overwhelming sympathy, and – no, I’m not proud of it – giddy elation. That he missed me enough to be ‘fucked up’ over it.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my own voice dropping to a whisper.
“Well, for one, any time he’s not in business meetings, he’s getting plastered. I’ve never seen him drink heavier than this the entire time I’ve known him.”
All That He Loves (Volume 2 The Billionaires Seduction) Page 21
