by Lisa Fenwick
Lance started the meeting, introducing everyone on his team. Sam then introduced her team, feeling a bit outnumbered, as Rossi had twice the number of people attending. In theory, this was just a meeting to ensure the two teams wouldn’t clash; the lawyers had already hammered out the terms of the deal.
They went over a few things, focusing mostly on how they would announce the merger and also how client relationships would be handled with regard to Sam working with Rossi’s agents to sign on female clients. Sam had been given a list of potential clients, of whom only one had been someone Sam had also been trying to bring into Horizon. The two firms agreed that they could each individually still try and recruit the client. Aside from that, everything was set.
“Well, how about we go look at the office space?” Lance asked, standing up.
Sam tried not to grimace. Part of the deal, which was also Mo’s most favorite part, as he had suggested it, was that Rossi would give a floor in the building to Horizon for free. This would save on rent and leasing fees for all of the furniture. Sam had been against it. She loved her office space, loved the layout that she had designed. But arguing with Mo to spend more money was always a losing battle, so she had given in.
The space was just an average-looking office space full of mundane grey cubicles surrounded by offices. Sam had only been to this floor once when she had worked there. At the time, it had housed the accounting department, but now it was empty. She wondered how many people Rossi had laid off over the years since she had left and made a mental note to ask Mo. It was strange seeing the once-thriving floor empty. The light-grey carpeted floors needed to be cleaned, and there were still huge potted plants in various areas, all of which had long since died and were just droopy, sad brown stems.
Sam watched as Holly touched one of the decayed leaves on a plant. It crumbled, falling to the floor in dozens of pieces.
“We will have the cleaning crew fix this up, of course,” said Tom Hunt, the VP of operations for Rossi, as Sam caught Lance giving him a dirty look. If she’d had to guess, she assumed Lance hadn’t been aware that this space looked so bad. He had always been a stickler about appearances. Sam wondered what had happened to the previous ops VP, Brian. They hadn’t gotten along very well, so she wasn’t exactly disappointed that he didn’t still work there.
“It’s fine,” Mo said, sounding excited. Of course he was excited; it was free. Mo loved anything that was free.
“Okay, well, when is the anticipated move-in date?” Tom asked.
“Two weeks, if not sooner,” Mo replied before Sam could say anything.
“What?” Sam blurted out. Two weeks? She had assumed maybe a few months. Two weeks was too soon. Plus, they had a lease they were locked into. They couldn’t just leave. Mo was crazy for thinking they would be able to move in in two weeks!
“I’ve already checked into everything, Samantha. Our existing landlord has allowed us to get out of the lease because the company next to us wants to expand into our space as soon as possible. The caveat was that we had to be gone by Monday.”
Sam glared at Mo. He had done all of this behind her back, and she didn’t appreciate it. She knew that he had done it without telling her because if he had, she would have balked and procrastinated. She sighed heavily. He had been right to go behind her back. The truth was that coming back into this building wasn’t anything that she had wanted to do, even though it was best for her company. She absolutely dreaded it.
“Can we make some adjustments?” Sam asked, walking around the drab space. “Nothing major, but maybe clear the area in front of the elevator out so a reception desk can be placed there? We will have clients here, and I can’t have them assuming this is a part of Rossi. Oh, and signage downstairs in the lobby directory along with the company logo.”
“Of course. I don’t think that will be a problem,” Tom said, looking at Lance for approval. Lance nodded in agreement, and Sam was pretty sure that she saw Tom breathe a sigh of relief.
“Great,” Sam said unenthusiastically.
“This is triple the space that we have now, for free. It’s perfect. I am sure Addi can bring some color to it,” Mo stated, not making eye contact with Sam.
“It’s perfect! So much room for the new agents we need!” Holly said cheerfully as she walked around the space.
Sam wished Holly wouldn’t be so happy. She knew that as the CEO, she should be upbeat, but the truth was that she just wanted to leave. The space had a bad vibe for her. Just being back at the Rossi building, where there had been so much history for her, she didn’t feel like celebrating this merger. She told herself to stop being so petty and living in the past and just accept things as they were. She had made the right decision. Her company could grow now and she didn’t have to worry about it stagnating. Everything was going great. She looked around the space again and started to walk toward the elevator. She needed a drink.
********
“So, what do you think?”
Lance paced in his office as Tom sat at the conference table, fidgeting with a pad of paper.
“It would seem like it’s a done deal, Lance. I think the teams meshed well. I don’t think Samantha was too fond of the office space, though.”
“Well, maybe if it didn’t look like it was from some postapocalyptic movie set, she would have felt better about it,” Lance snapped. He knew he was overreacting, but getting Horizon on board with this agreement was his last chance at saving his company. Over the last few years, they had laid off as many people as they could, cut salaries, and even sold off the custom-made office furniture and replaced it with free items that hadn’t sold at a local auction, specifically red couches and chairs that gave Lance an instant headache every time he saw them. Times were beyond bad. If Sam decided to back out of the deal, then Rossi would no longer exist.
********
“The usual?”
Sam nodded yes to Scooter the bartender as she walked past the bar, with Mo, Holly, and Mike following suit. The group was extremely familiar to the workers at Sullivan’s, the upscale bar/restaurant located in the lobby of their office building. Sam ate most of her meals here, usually late at night and often alone. She had dated Scooter briefly a few years ago, the two of them quickly realizing that they were much better off as friends. He owned the bar and was a great guy; it had just been the wrong timing. They’d remained close friends ever since.
The atmosphere at Sullivan’s always made Sam feel safe. It was like when she wrapped herself up in her mom’s old chenille blanket at home. There was just something familiar about it. She had felt a strange sense of familiarity the first time she had stepped inside it years ago. The warm glow of the amber lights, the deep cherry wood–and–black leather seating, the candles and seasonal garb that were always out. Pumpkins and red and brown decorations in the fall, reds and greens for Christmas…it just always felt homey.
The four of them poured themselves into one of the half-round booths located across from the end of the bar. Sam watched as Mo loosened his bow tie, which was always a sign that he was stressed out.
“Okay, Mo, tell us what your thoughts are,” Holly invited.
Scooter appeared with a tray full of their favorite drinks and handed them out. Each of them eagerly grabbed a glass.
“Well, overall, I think this is a great opportunity for Horizon. There wouldn’t be any change in terms of how our structure is, we would have four times the office space for the same price, and we get to keep our existing clients without sharing any of the commission. Their team seemed fine. I will have no issues working with them.”
Everyone stared at him, waiting for the “but.” Instead, he took a long sip of his drink, his customary ginger ale with a splash of whiskey. Sam waited for him to say something, but after he took his sip, he started to clean his glasses.
“That’s it? There’s no but? There’s no negative from Mr. Negative?” Sam asked. Mo always had pros and cons for everything.
“The negative is…
well…that there is no negative. This seems too good to be true.”
Everyone looked at Sam.
“What?” she asked, stirring her drink, the tiny red straw bumping up against the ice.
“Well, there is a history there,” Michael said, taking a swig of beer from his frosted glass.
Sam glared at him. What did he know about the history she had with Rossi?
“What is that supposed to mean? I worked there. Lance was a jerk. I quit. I started this company. How does that history equate to this deal that’s being offered being so good? I mean, I quit his company, so we didn’t exactly end on good terms.”
Sam craned her neck over so that she could catch Scooter’s eye and held her half-empty glass up, signaling for a refill.
“How did his financials look? I looked them over, and all that I could come up with was that the company isn’t making much of a profit. How many people did he lay off, anyway?” she asked. Sam wasn’t an expert in finance, but she knew her way around a profit-and-loss statement. What she had seen wasn’t impressive.
“You are correct. Laying off was the right decision to make. Otherwise the company would have gone bankrupt. But that was over two years ago. He laid off forty percent of the employees. Since the layoff, they have kept their head above water, but they haven’t grown. It’s kind of perplexing, to be honest. Rossi was the top dog in the industry, and then it all fell apart after you left.”
Sam choked on her vodka tonic as Mo said the last part, causing Holly to hit her on the back.
“Okay, let’s get this straight. I wasn’t even an agent at Rossi. Technically I was a secretary. So my leaving the company had nothing to do with it suddenly going down the drain. Besides, I left to join MarkSun and then Rossi bought them out, so how bad could they have been doing then?”
“From what I could decipher things went downhill when Lance lost the vice president of ops at MarkSun. He basically had no one to run the company there. He had fired the person who had been doing it for years, I guess assuming that you would be taking the position when offered. And from there, things just kind of went downhill. Clients lost faith and left, and agents left because their commissions dwindled.”
Sam felt a pang of guilt creep into her heart, and she hated it. Why did she feel guilty? It wasn’t her fault that Lance’s huge ego had torpedoed his company. Maybe if he had listened to certain people, he wouldn’t have lost so many clients over the last few years.
“Okay, so are we doing this or what?” Holly asked, noticeably irritated as she pushed her drink away. “I have six new potential clients and need to know if I can move ahead with contracts for them. I can’t bring them on unless I can hire new agents. My current agents are overloaded as it is. There’s no more bandwidth. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s frustrating.”
“Samantha just needs to sign off on the final paperwork for it to be completed. You all heard the same thing I did in the meeting. It’s a go from them, and we can move in next week. But if it’s not what you think is best, Sam, then now is the time to speak.”
Sam sighed as all of the faces at the table looked to her for an answer. She didn’t want to do it. She wanted to just stay where they were. Why did they have to grow, anyway? She liked being in her office and the comfort of Sully’s being just a few floors down and the familiarity of it all. It was ironic that she had wanted her own business, and now that it was able to grow, she wanted it all to stop. She was scared. What if she was in over her head? What if this was a big mistake and she lost everything? At the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder what if she didn’t take this risk? Was she going to still be happy down the road when the company hadn’t grown at all?
She straightened up and cleared her throat.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
********
“Sydney Smith? The one who was just on the news for jumping on top of a police car?”
Sam and Holly both said “yes” at the same time, neither of them batting an eye.
“And this is a good fit for us how?” David Nichols, Rossi’s VP of talent management, asked.
“She’s the top volleyball player in the world, for starters,” Holly said matter-of-factly. Sam gave her a quick glance.
The Rossi team had been pushing back about signing on Sydney, but Sam had already spoken to Lance about it, and both had agreed it would be a huge win. Sam had tried to get her to sign on with Horizon, but Sydney had wanted a larger firm representing her. Lance didn’t think his team could pitch her very well, so Holly and Sam were trying to get them on board with it.
“She already has half a dozen companies that want to offer her endorsements, huge ones. As Holly said, she is the top volleyball player in the world, not just females but males also. She also appeals to the younger crowd based on her…uh…larger-than-life style.”
“Larger-than-life style is what concerns us, Sam. It’s not the type of client that we like to sign on.”
Sam already knew that, and she also knew that was why Rossi hadn’t been doing well the last few years. Times had changed, and companies wanted younger talent to endorse. Younger talent meant drama, and the Rossi team wasn’t the best at being babysitters.
“I understand that, but that’s where Holly comes in,” Sam said.
“The overall idea is that I will manage her, not someone from Rossi. She just wants the security of signing on with a larger firm. So, she signs on with you, and I will deal with any issues as well as her endorsements,” Holly explained.
“Well, I don’t know. I mean…” David said.
“Lance has agreed to this. In fact, it’s why Horizon and Rossi are working together. For situations like this. I already have Bordiana on board with an endorsement for Syd. She just needs to sign with you guys, fast, because there’s a show coming up they want her to present in. It’s several million dollars, and both companies stand to make a lot of money from it. It’s a win-win situation,” Sam said.
“If it’s the awards show, then this needs to be resolved today, because her lawyers will need to look over the contract and all that jazz. So, what’s it going to be?” Holly asked. Sam knew that she was tired of going around in circles about this, and she didn’t blame her. There had been several emails already about it, and now this meeting.
“Well, I guess it’s a no brainer,” Bryan said. “But remember, Horizon is dealing with any of her antics. We aren’t babysitting her.”
Sam and Holly both nodded, glancing at each other quickly. They each knew that Sydney would be hard to manage, but how hard could she possibly be?
CHAPTER FIVE
“To new beginnings!”
Sam lifted her champagne glass and raised it into the air along with the others and then took a drink. Rossi’s human resource department had insisted on throwing a little soiree to welcome the group from Horizon, despite Sam’s continuous efforts to avoid it. She had at least gotten them to change the location from Rossi’s building to Sullivan’s. Scooter had closed the entire place down for them. Everyone was happily mingling around except Sam, who had planted herself at the bar. She just wasn’t in a festive mood.
“Shouldn’t you be out there shaking hands or something?” Scooter asked her as he polished the already perfectly clean cherry-wood bar top.
Sam rolled her eyes as she took another sip of champagne. She knew he was right; she should be out socializing with the employees and showing how excited she was to have her company join forces with Rossi. But she just wasn’t feeling very sociable. Her anxiety was mixed with an overall sense of gloom for some reason. She had tried to get into the spirit of things, even dressing in bright colors instead of her usual black clothes. Holly had pointed out to her that maybe she needed to dress more upbeat, whatever that meant. Sam had a turquoise skirt and matching heels and purse that she had bought ages ago and never worn, so she had decided tonight would be a good time. She paired a white blouse with the outfit. But the skirt was digging into her stomach, and all she want
ed to do was unzip it. And the shoes were a bit too big, so she had to walk really slowly in them. Otherwise she would twist an ankle and fall. She just wanted to go home and curl up on her bed and binge-watch The Real Housewives.
“Can I buy you a drink?” a familiar voice asked from beside her.
She turned her head to see Lance as he pulled the empty barstool next to her closer and sat down.
“It’s open bar,” she replied dryly, watching as Scooter raised his eyebrows and skedaddled toward the other end of the bar. He knew that Sam’s tone meant trouble was brewing.
“So…err…your team seems really solid. Especially Mo. He has some great ideas about how we can get higher returns on the investments for both of our clients.”
“Wonderful,” Sam said, partially trying not to sound bored. She knew she shouldn’t be rude toward Lance. Mo and Holly had politely reminded her that it was thanks to Lance that Horizon was able to add new agents and more clients. Sam just had to grin and bear it. “Everyone seems to be getting along well. It’s great to see that this merger has been somewhat seamless,” Sam said, trying to sound upbeat.
“Yes, they’re all having a great time. Addi is really a standout. She’s pretty funny,” Lance said, nodding toward Addi.
Sam looked over to see Addi surrounded by a crowd of people, mostly men. Sam wasn’t surprised, since Addi always turned heads wherever she went. Her unusual hair color was an eye catcher, especially as the sides of her head were shaved. Her caramel-colored skin was always flawless and intensified her eye color, which was a blueish purple. She was unique looking and well-spoken and always had a quick comeback.
“She’s amazing. I’m lucky to have hired her, Sam replied, turning back to face the bar and happy to see that Scooter had already poured her another drink.
“Good employees are hard to find,” Lance said.
