by Lisse Smith
“I’ve cleared my schedule for the day so that I could spend the time bringing you up to speed on everything,” he told me, and I was surprised to realize that he actually meant he did it himself. Most managers wouldn’t have a clue how to clear their schedule, but I had no doubt that when Lawrence said he did something, he meant exactly that. “I know we agreed on a one-month term,” he continued. “But if we could pretend that it’s a more normal situation, that would make this a lot easier.”
“Fine,” I conceded.
“How much do you know about my company?” he asked, then added. “Do you want a coffee or something?” indicating the bar area with a wave.
“No, thanks,” I declined. “I’m fine. As for what I know about your business, not very much. I know you were a competitor to Cartright and Nagel, but that was only a small section of your interests.”
“You’re right. Engineering Industrial projects isn’t really that big a focus for us,” he told me. “We do our fair share, but then we do that with almost everything. Monterey Enterprises has been in business for nearly twenty years. I started it when I was still at university and it grew from there. I own one hundred percent of the company; we have no board of directors or trustees to interfere with the operations. I have absolute and total control, and that’s the way it will always remain.”
“Not good at sharing, huh?” I smiled at his passion.
“Not one of my strengths.” He appreciated the fun in the situation; I liked that about him. “I won’t go into the full details of every project we have running—there are far too many of them, and honestly, I’d probably forget half of them in any event. We undertake works on small, large, and massive scales. We do a lot of charity constructions, underprivileged housing projects, youth hostels, return-to-work, and general compassion projects. We do high-rise development, both residential and commercial; town planning; resort development and sale; joint ventures; and management. Some we keep, some we sell, some we even buy. The list is extensive. Some are profitable, some not so much, some not at all. But overall, the company returns are better than average.”
“And you manage all this yourself?” I asked in surprise. It seemed a huge endeavor.
“Hardly.” He snorted in amusement. “What I do is pull the whole picture together. My company is divided into numerous different branches, and each of those areas has a management team in place. They are the people I deal with. They bring the details to me, provide me with all the data I need to make an informed decision about projects, and I tell them yes or no. They are the ones who then have to set about making it happen.”
“And you’re the face of the company.”
“Very much so. I am the one people see and associate with Monterey Enterprises. I’m the one who attends all the functions, does the networking, and makes the connections, so that when a major project comes up, I’m who they think about first. You’d be surprised how many projects we get sent directly to us as a result of a casual conversation at a party.”
“Hence, you need someone who won’t embarrass you.”
“Exactly.” He grimaced. “You have no idea how annoyingly dense some women can be.”
“Don’t judge me just yet,” I warned. “I could be one of those women. My heart could go all aflutter when I get in a room full of powerful men.”
“I have my doubts about that.” He assured me evenly.
“What would you normally be doing today?” Maybe if I could get an idea of that, I would know more about my role.
“I’m not actually supposed to be in the country,” he admitted a little sheepishly. “Certain events have necessitated my return, so my schedule is a bit haphazard. People cramming meetings in left, right, and center while I’m here. They’re going to be upset when they find out I’ve canceled today, and then you’re going to get them calling you tomorrow, trying to squeeze back in. Good luck with that.” He grinned in amusement. “I don’t really have what you would call a normal day. I’m never in the office long enough to schedule recurring appointments and create a routine. I pretty much live on my phone and e-mail,” he explained. “When I am in…whatever country it is, I schedule a debrief with my Managing Director, and I work out whatever issues need my attention and take it from there. There is one thing that you will need to know, and that is the MDs meeting. Every second month, wherever I am in the world, each of my managers flies to meet me, and we spend two full days in discussions.”
“How many of them are there?” I asked.
“Sixteen.”
That’s a lot. “OK.”
“It’s your job to organize that meeting—and all my other meetings—and to coordinate our attendance at functions. You don’t have any other responsibilities except for me. The MDs’ own assistants will get them to and from the meeting, but you will obviously need to tell them when and where.”
That was all normal for me. The travel was slightly different, considering he didn’t seem to have a home, but I’d adapt to that fairly quickly.
“Where do you sleep?” I asked. “You don’t have a home, so I assume you just take a hotel everywhere you stay?” He must have serious baggage, and what was that going to mean for me?
“Depends. I don’t own a house that you would call my home. I have many properties all over the world, but they aren’t my home. I have corporate offices here and in the States, and in both of those places, there are private apartments where I stay.” He nodded toward a door off to one side of his desk. “That door leads into my private apartments. It’s usually unlocked. The only other access is through the door on the left, just when you come off the elevator.” I hadn’t noticed it when I came in. “That one you need a security card to get through, which should be coming for you later today.”
“What about your two shadows?”
“Frost and Charlie have rooms adjoining my private apartments. When we’re traveling, I usually stay in hotels, unless we are invited to stay privately with friends, but I usually get rooms big enough for us all to fit comfortably.”
Party of four. “Can I ask why such intense security measures?” It seemed a little over the top.
He hesitated for a moment, clearly uncertain about what to say. “You don’t get to be where I am in life and not make enemies, Lilly,” he said finally. “Security is necessary.” I must have looked a little wary, because he continued, more calmly, “There is nothing for you to fear. Quite the opposite, actually, with those two. You will be safer with me than you have been at any other time in your life.”
Something had me believing his words meant more than what they appeared to, more than referring to my physical safety.
“How long will you be in London?” I moved on, not wanted to dig any deeper into those thoughts.
“Two days. I’ve put off travel as long as I could, but I have to be in Italy on Thursday for a meeting and then to attend a charity event, so we’ll be leaving Wednesday afternoon. All my movements for the next week have been finalized, so all you need to do is familiarize yourself with them and watch. After that, you will be responsible for coordinating them yourself.”
“What sort of assistance do I have?” An important question for me.
“Whatever you need. There is a team of people in the company who look after pretty much anything you want. We have staff to organize travel, accommodation, meeting venues and anything else you need. Flights you don’t need to worry about, because my private jet is always on standby to take us wherever we need to be. All you need to do is make sure that it all comes together into as streamlined and manageable a schedule as possible.” He shrugged apologetically. “It’s not always possible; there are many times when things come up unexpectedly, and you will have to cancel and reorganize important meetings. And then there will be times when it might be possible to substitute for me, although clearly that’s a hard task to manage.” He grinned happily to himself.
Aren’t we the funny one? I crinkled my eyes and gave him my “are you serious” look.
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“I don’t produce a lot of paperwork,” he went on, “so pretty much the only time you will have to write a letter for me is for personal business, and then it’s usually done over e-mail anyway.”
“I’m sure I can handle that,” I replied.
“I know. Don’t think that I went into this arrangement without knowing you could handle it.” His words concerned me a little, with how much they implied he knew about me. It better be all business-related. “I know you still have your apartment here in the city,” he added. “But it would probably be easier for you to integrate into my schedule if you started out by staying here.”
Even knowing in advance that we would be traveling together, therefore sleeping in the same hotels, I was surprised to find myself hesitant when he suggested that I “stay here.” It seemed personal, too personal, and a little affronting, but at the same time I acknowledged the necessity of the arrangement. It would be easier once we started moving around if I had my stuff here, and it would definitely save on travel time.
“OK,” I conceded. “But I’m going to need to go back home tonight to get my things.” Which was a whole other problem. “How long will we be traveling? What sort of baggage should I take?”
“You may as well bring all your clothes, and then once you have a chance to go over the schedule, you can make that decision. However, due to the nature of this role, you will have a few perks. There is a business credit card, unlimited of course, that you can use for whatever expenses we have, but you will also have a personal business credit card that is for you to use for more personal expenditure items.”
“Like?” I asked.
“Like the events that we attend, they are very high-class, and as such, you need to dress the part. It’s not fair to ask you to foot the bill for clothing you wouldn’t normally wear; so all dresses that you buy for corporate events are a business expense, and you will use business funds for their purchase.”
He didn’t phrase it like there was much choice. “Shoes?” I queried with a raised eyebrow.
“Shoes, accessories, and jewelry for business social events are considered business expenses. Not that anyone will ever check,” he added. “The funds are for you to use as you see fit.”
“Is there a budget on that?”
“No. Not as long as you look the part, whatever you buy is fine.”
“Accommodation and travel are all part of the perks?”
“Certainly, as are food and entertainment expenses. Actually, there shouldn’t be anything that you spend money on. It’s all covered fairly generally by me.”
I could probably manage that.
“Do you have any questions so far?” he asked.
“Hundreds.” Obviously. “But I think we might work through them as we go along. Too much information on the first day, and I might run away.”
“We wouldn’t want that.” He rose gracefully from the lounge, his tall body dwarfing me as he towered above me. “Come on.” He held out a hand to help me up. “I may as well show you around.”
I released his hand almost as soon as I was standing; the heat of his touch made my cheeks flush with an unpleasant hotness.
He led me through the door in the back wall of his office and into a short corridor, which quickly opened up into a huge, open-plan lounge and kitchen area. There were a number of different hallways leading out of the room. One of those, I assumed, was the one that led to my office and the elevator, and the others probably led to bedrooms.
“Charlie and Frost have a room each down there,” Lawrence indicated a hallway that disappeared off behind the kitchen. “Once we’re in here, it’s fairly laid back. The boys tend to watch a lot of sports, so I had to stick a TV in each of their rooms—because trust me, you can only put up with so much American football before you want to do some serious damage.”
Great. I hated watching sports.
“I don’t entertain in here. In some of the hotels we will, but these are private apartments, and no one comes in, so you can relax in here.” He moved off slowly around the room. “A cleaning service comes in once a day when we’re in residence, and if you let them know in advance, they will come in and air it out just before we arrive.
“Other than Frost and Charlie’s rooms, there are only two other bedrooms.” He led me down a short hallway that ended in a wall of glass that allowed the sun to shine through bouncing off the white walls and flooding the space with brilliant light.
Near the end stood two wide doors. Both entrances mirrored each other. “Yours.” He indicated with his head the door on the right. “Mine.” He flicked his head back to the left.
Then with a flourish he pulled the huge door on the right open. It moved with more ease than I would have expected. Inside the room was all white, with splashes of light green on the furniture coverings. It was the same minimalistic approach as the rest of the building, the furniture clean and light; overall it really was beautiful.
“It’s lovely,” I assured him.
He shrugged. “Mine’s the same, but blue.” He opened his door and I got a glimpse of a very similar layout, but with royal blue touchings and darker furniture, which gave a much more masculine appearance.
“Have a look around, and meet me back in the office when you’re done. No hurry. Oh, and I tend to leave more of my stuff here than anywhere else. So feel free to make whatever changes you like to make it more comfortable.” Then he disappeared and left me standing, a little stunned, in the doorway of my new room. New part time, temporary room, but still mine.
The bed sat opposite the door and had two large panels of glass that framed it on either side; the rest of the light came from the full bank of windows on the left of the room. The right wall had several openings, but no doors. One clearly led to a bathroom, which was visible through the opening; and after closer inspection I found that the other entrance led to a fairly substantial closet. I could have stored half my house in it. The bathroom and closet stood beside each other, and I was fairly positive that they shared their back wall with the lounge room.
Lawrence’s room, with the door still standing wide open, showed an exact mirror of my own room, but his bathroom and closet formed the back wall of the kitchen. There was a TV and small desk in each room and a few strategically placed arm chairs, not that I could understand why anyone would want a lounge in the bedroom.
Several paintings graced the walls of the room, and I had no doubt that their value far exceeded what was reasonable.
It didn’t take me long to become familiar with the apartment. There wasn’t much to my bedroom, and I certainly wasn’t going into Lawrence’s; so after a quick skim around the lounge and a once-over of the kitchen and its contents—namely the fridge, which contained a strange assortment of items—and a last wistful glance out the big windows, which I couldn’t wait to see at night, I stepped back into Lawrence’s office.
“OK?” he queried from behind his desk.
“It’s beautiful, as you well know,” I told him.
A smile twinkled in his eyes but didn’t quite catch in his face. “I’ve asked Allan Marsh, the MD of my UK division, to come in and meet you in about ten minutes.” He rose and crossed the room as he spoke. “But I’d like to formally introduce you to Charlie and Frost before then.”
He opened the main doors, and the two men in question filed quietly into the room, their size suddenly making the space not quite so large.
“Charles Kennedy, otherwise known as Charlie.” I shook hands with surfer boy, please to have his actual name now.
“Nice to have you along for the ride.” He winked cheekily, and I knew he was going to be fun to be around.
“Demetrius Frost.” His partner stretched out a hand that engulfed my own, giving it a firm, almost painful shake.
“Frost doesn’t talk much,” Lawrence apologized. “You’ll get used to him.”
Super, sounded like he would be extra fun to be around. Must be why we have Charlie along, keep things light and oh
-so-cheerful.
“I don’t step foot outside this office without them, so that means neither do you,” Lawrence explained, and I had a sinking feeling of being trapped. “They are here for a purpose, and it doesn’t help any of us if they aren’t able to do their job properly. They need to know where we are at all times, and I would appreciate if you would make every attempt to ensure that they are able to do their job effectively.”
Another double-edged statement. “Meaning?” I queried.
“Meaning if you try and lose them, we’re going to have words.” Simple as that.
I gave them a good glance and wondered how he thought that I could manage that. “I’m not sure why I have need of security?”
He nodded for Frost and Charlie to leave, with a reminder for them to send Allan in when he arrived. It wasn’t until we were sitting back on the lounges that he explained.
“In order for you to do the job I need you to do, there can’t be any secrets between us,” he explained. “I can’t have you not knowing everything that’s going on, because there are going to be times when you will need to make decisions for me, and I can’t be confident that you will make the right one unless you know everything.”
“Meaning that I’m going to know secrets that you can’t let anyone else get their hands on,” I replied.
“Right.” He looked troubled for a moment. “Please don’t be alarmed. As long as you allow Frost and Charlie to do their job, then there shouldn’t be any danger to you. It’s more a precaution than anything else, a deterrent to those few unsavory people out there who seek to make easy money. If people see you shadowed and protected, then they will move onto a different target. I’d like your word that you won’t attempt to evade their protective measures.”
Well, when he worded it like that, there was very little choice, really. “I will make every attempt to not deliberately interfere with their work,” I offered.
“Not really the answer that I was looking for, Lilly,” Lawrence warned, but it was all he was going to get from me at this stage. I wasn’t sure how much of my freedom I was about to lose, so to offer more than that was just not going to happen.
