by Lisa Fenwick
********
Lance stared at his phone, hesitating for a minute with his finger hovering over Sam’s number, and then put the phone down. She hadn’t even said goodbye. He felt like a jerk and second-guessed his decision to tell her about Jez. Was she mad at him for telling her? Maybe she thought he was telling her to humiliate her. That couldn’t be further from the truth. He cared a lot about her and didn’t want to see her get hurt. But now he thought maybe that was exactly what he had done.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Wow, where are you going?” Holly asked Sam as she walked down the stairs in the townhouse.
“To the office. Where else would I be going at seven in the morning?” Sam replied.
Sam had decided that instead of curling up in a ball and staying in bed all day, eating ice cream and feeling sorry for herself about Jez, she would dress to the nines and kick some butt at work.
The two of them walked down the brick stairs and started toward the office, a short walk away. It was a cold morning. The steam from the car exhausts rose up in the air and swirled around before disappearing.
“Do you think we will get any calls about the boots?” Holly asked as the two of them weaved through the others on the sidewalk.
“I don’t know. It would be nice, but I’m thinking maybe they just slowly come in?” Sam said, not wanting to sound like doom and gloom. The truth was she had spent most of her time since the show a few days ago thinking about why she wasn’t good enough for Jez instead of how many orders might show up this week.
As they entered the lobby, Scooter flagged Sam over from the doorway of the restaurant, which he was holding open. It didn’t open up for business until eleven, but Scooter was usually there hours early to set things up and clean.
“Are you okay?” he asked Sam.
“Uh, yes. Why?” Sam replied.
“Jez called here looking for you last night. It was late. I was going to call you, but it was so late I didn’t want to wake you up. He said he has been texting and calling but you haven’t replied?”
Sam laughed.
“I always wondered what happens when you block someone. You know, does the call ring as busy, or is it just dead. I guess now I know!”
Scooter just stared at her.
“I thought you liked him?” he asked.
“Yeah, I thought I did too. No big deal. If he calls again, just tell him you gave me the message. I’ll be down later on to explain,” Sam said, turning to go to the elevator.
********
“Thank GOD you’re here. Look at this!” Addi exclaimed as she held up a stack of papers.
“What’s that?” Sam and Holly asked in unison as they stepped off of the elevator.
“Orders! I checked the online store, and these were placed over the weekend. Didn’t you guys even bother to look?”
Sam and Holly looked at each other.
“I was afraid to check,” Holly admitted. “Sorry.”
“I forgot the passwords and didn’t want to bug you to ask,” Sam lied.
Addi rolled her eyes.
“Okay, well, there are about twenty orders here. What now?”
Sam could tell that Addi was irritated, and she didn’t blame her. With everything going on between moving and the show and Jez, Sam had dropped the ball on communication, which wasn’t like her at all.
“I’m sorry I didn’t explain the process. Ronni will take on order fulfillment. She’s working with the manufacturer. Everything is pretty seamless online, so from now on, I will just have her handle it, okay?” Sam asked.
“Works for me,” Addi said as she settled into her chair. “Oh, and this was delivered already.”
She handed a box to Sam. Sam knew that whatever it was, it had to be from Jez, and she wanted to throw it in the trash. The only reason she didn’t was because she didn’t want to explain why to Addi and Holly.
“Thanks,” she said and took the box and walked to her office.
Once inside, she closed her door. Should she open it? What could he possibly send her to make up for being a jerk? She decided to open the package and pulled at the white ribbon that held the box together. She carefully lifted the top off to discover…doughnuts. They were still warm and smelled amazing. She looked for a card and found one tucked inside.
I thought you might need these this morning – Lance
She smiled. He was right.
“We have a problem. A big one,” Mo said as he walked into her office.
“Good morning to you, too,” Sam said, motioning for him to sit down.
“Were you aware that Brandon Turcotte and Shay Sanders were not happy with their contracts and that Rossi hasn’t been paid?”
Sam froze. Brandon and Shay were huge contracts that Sam had helped Rossi land. They were part of the short-lived agreement that Rossi and Horizon had had. Both men had been on the fence about signing to Rossi, but Sam had been able to get them on board. Horizon was going to get a large sum of money for each one, as the sponsors lined up had been extremely lucrative. They were both friends with Jez, who had sworn that they were “good guys who needed better contracts.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of it. What happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but I think you need to ask Lance that question.”
********
“Thanks for the doughnuts,” Sam said as she sat down in a chair across from Lance’s desk.
“You’re welcome,” Lance replied as he grinned. “I figured you might need them after…uh…you know.”
“I appreciate it. So, what’s going on with Brandon and Shay?” she asked. They had exchanged emails the day before just to set up a meeting time and hadn’t talked about the situation.
Lance let out a heavy sigh.
“Sam, I think we both got scammed. Remember during the negotiation process they said that Wentworth wasn’t living up to their expectations? And after they left, you said you felt they might be playing both sides, just to see who was offering the best deal for them? Well, it appears that’s what they were doing. And that Jez may have exaggerated when vouching for their integrity.”
Sam wasn’t exactly surprised. Brandon and Shay were close friends who had become somewhat famous in the NBA. They were young and stupid but had huge potential. Sam knew that Rossi was a better fit for them because they needed a group to manage them, and she just didn’t have the infrastructure at Horizon. Between Lance and Sam, they had plenty of connections with major sports firms like Nike and Under Armour, and they’d both agreed that they could get endorsements for them easily.
“So they’re staying with Wentworth? Let me guess. They are, and Wentworth offered them cash to stay, but there’s still no big endorsement deals or sponsors. So they basically blew what could have been millions more for them for maybe a hundred thousand.”
“As usual, you’re right. Although rumor has it it’s fifty grand, not even one hundred.”
The two of them shook their heads at the same time. Fifty thousand dollars was peanuts for their talent. They would have made millions more in endorsements if they had signed with Rossi.
“So, what now?” Sam asked. This wasn’t Lance’s fault, nor was it hers. They had both taken all the steps they should have to sign those two. They had already signed on and then backed out within the thirty-day period. It was extremely uncommon. In fact, this was the first time it had ever happened at Rossi as far as Sam knew.
Lance leaned over and plucked a pile of papers off of his printer.
“There’s something else. I just got this before you arrived,” he said, pushing the papers toward her.
Sam read the first few lines and dropped the papers back on Lance’s desk.
“Is he serious? He can’t do that.”
“Unfortunately, I think that he can,” Lance said, rubbing his forehead as he closed his eyes. “Sam, I’m not going to lie, losing that anticipated income from Shay and Brandon, along with this crap from Bordiana, is probably going t
o sink Rossi. I just don’t have the money to keep it all going. I’m mentally exhausted.”
Sam sat in the chair, unsure of what to say. Bordiana wanted one hundred thousand dollars for Sydney backing out of the awards show. Sam wasn’t particularly shocked, as things hadn’t exactly gone smoothly when she and Holly had pitched the boots. But she had assumed that they would hold both Rossi and Horizon accountable for Sydney, not just Rossi.
“Well, what about Jez? His contract is up next month, and he’s worth a ton more now.”
“I’m not signing him,” Lance said quietly.
“What? Why?” Sam asked, confused.
“He knows that I told you about his girlfriend. He had a temper tantrum like a child, so I asked him to go elsewhere. He’s starting to backslide anyway – too much partying is affecting his ice time. I don’t see him lasting a full season next year if at all anyway.”
Sam felt horrible. She couldn’t believe that Lance was going to lose millions for helping her.
“I’m sorry. He wasn’t the person I thought he was, either.” Sam had no plans of speaking to Jez ever again.
“So, between all of these things, it’s like the perfect storm for Rossi, the perfect storm of no money coming in the door and Bordiana having a fairly good chance of winning a judgement against us. We don’t really have money for legal fees. We have a few months left before we close down.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Sam blurted. She didn’t even turn to look at him as she said it.
Lance turned around and leaned against the window.
“Sam, I appreciate that. But things have been bad for a while.”
“Well, we can fix them. I can help you get clients. The boots just took off, and Holly can focus on Horizon now instead of managing Plain Janes. So that frees me up to help you. And I will contact Bordiana and remind them that they received several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of orders of that stupid Big Bird dress right after the show, and if they want to go to court to try and say that they need to recoup money from Sydney not showing, good luck.”
“Hold on. Who is Plain Jane?” Lance asked.
“It’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Horizon. It’s the boots. We found people to do some drawings, and the show was a huge success, thanks in part to you bringing in those buyers. There’s buyers from Neiman’s and a dozen other stores that want to carry them. Crazy, right?” Sam asked.
Lance shook his head. “Not crazy when it comes to you. Anything you set your sights on, you make it happen, Sam. You should be really proud of yourself.”
“Thank you. And now I would like to set my sights on helping you. So let’s figure a plan out. And before you say a word, I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Okay. One question though?” Lance asked.
“What?”
“Why are you doing this? I’m not exactly on your list of favorite people last I remembered.”
Sam looked him in the eye.
“Because I feel like it’s the right thing to do.”
EPILOGUE
“This is the last time I am ever doing this, and I mean it!” Addi said defiantly as she walked past Sam with a handful of files.
“Hey, you got promoted, so stop whining!” Sam joked as she swatted at her as she walked by.
“Sam, do you have the Gamby file? I want to look it over before the meeting,” Lance said, grabbing a candy from Ronni’s desk as he did so.
“I just emailed you the latest version of it. By the way, that’s all the chocolate we get for the week, so don’t eat it all.”
Lance dropped the candy back into the bowl with a sheepish grin on his face.
“Some of us have to watch our figures,” Sam joked as she walked toward her office, catching Lance’s eye just as she turned. The two paused for a minute, locking eyes and then turning away.
Sam shut the door of her office and sat down in the oversized white leather desk chair that she had bought herself. Her new office was twice the size of her last one, which was necessary since also ran the manufacturing division of R&R as well, and despite her hatred for meetings, she always had last-minute meetings in her office. Money was pouring in the door and they had plenty in the bank, so she hadn’t worried when she’d splurged on the chair. She walked to the end of her office and looked out the glass wall onto the huge atrium in their building.
When Lance and Sam had decided to join forces again, they had agreed to move into a new office space. Lance had laid off most of his staff anyway, and Sam had worked with him to decide who they would keep. Randee with two Es was not on that list.
They had also agreed on a new name – R&R, Reynolds and Rossi. The office was in the Sea Port district in Boston, a perfect mix of office space and an adjacent manufacturing facility in a warehouse space. It was a rare find, but they had lucked out, and Sam loved it. They could run the talent agency as well as manufacturing footwear. Things had really blown up for them after she and Lance had put their stubborn and childish attitudes aside. Boston Magazine had even named them one of the year’s most powerful couples. Of course, they weren’t really a couple. Not yet, anyway. Sam wasn’t counting that out for the future, but for now, she was perfectly happy with being single and running the company.
There was a knock on her door. She told the person to come in, and Holly came walking through the door with a giant blueprint, making Sam chuckle.
“I have no idea why you insist on those giant drawings. They can easily be scaled down to regular copy size!”
“I like to see the exact size when I’m designing. You know I’m a perfectionist!”
Sam smiled. It was true: Holly was extremely particular about her designs. She had taken on the role of designing new boots but had wanted to still be in charge of the agents on the talent side. So Sam and Lance had agreed that Addi would be promoted for the shoe design side. She helped Ronni and Jessica with the designs and took the ball and ran with it when Holly was busy with her agents. Holly had partial ownership with the shoe division and had been thrilled to be able to keep both jobs.
“So these are all spring styles. Open-toed booties, still flexible in the back. Funky colors. Cobalt blue is going to be a huge hit. It will look so good with a tan! And we have lower heels coming out as well. Like kitten heel type. It’s going to be huge.”
Sam stared at Holly and smiled.
“What?” Holly asked, looking behind her. “Why do you have that goofy grin on your face?”
“I’m just happy it worked out,” Sam said, walking toward the drawings sprawled out on her large conference table.
“That what worked out?”
“My backup plan.”
THE END
ALSO BY LISA FENWICK
Available on Amazon (e-book)
Paperback available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble
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“WHAT’S THE PLAN?” SERIES
This Wasn’t The Plan(Book 1)
CORPORATE CHAOS SERIES (Standalone series)
In Over Her Head
Can’t Stand the Heat
What Goes Around Comes Around
Careful What You Wish For
COZY MYSTERY
In Clear View
This book is a work of fiction. All name, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real names, places, or events is purely coincidental, and should not be construed as being real.
Copyright © 2019 Lisa Fenwick
All rights reserved.
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