Falling For You

by Nicole Taylor

  “Oh, he did, did he?”

  “I’m right, aren’t I? Leiliana Lamport is the one who spilled the wine on you?”

  “What makes you think that?” he asked.

  “She wasn’t wearing that dress when I saw her earlier this evening. Plus, she came in the room only moments before you did.”

  Gabriel chuckled humorlessly. Dot never missed a trick.

  “How are things going with the company?” he asked as his entrée was set before him. He took up his cutlery and sliced through his steak.

  “Which company?”

  “JJ Inc. How are you managing?”

  “The Operations Manager is doing all the work. I just sign the checks.”

  Gabriel almost choked.

  “Are you serious?”

  She shrugged. “Gabriel, I am swamped right now with my business as you are well aware.”

  Gabriel felt like rolling his eyes, but in the next breath, he reminded himself that Dot Judd’s business as a media personality was quite lucrative. Currently, she was worth millions more than he was if Wikipedia was to be believed.

  “Yes, but this is your legacy, Dot. This is your father’s business. Your parents built that company. You shouldn’t just allow someone else to run it.”

  “Why not? Noah is competent. Dad came to depend on him after you left.”

  “I’ve got a proposition for you,” he said, deciding that now might be a good time to make his play.

  Dot tossed her long black hair over one shoulder, immediately giving him a full view of her bosom. His gaze lingered a moment too long. When he looked back into her eyes, he caught her satisfied smile.

  “I like the sound of that,” she purred.

  “A business proposition.”

  She pouted, reached for her wine glass, and raised it to her lips.

  “Are you listening?” he asked.

  “Do my non-verbal cues suggest I’m not?” she asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

  He felt like swearing. He immediately reminded himself that he was a new creation.

  With patience, he said, “It is a proposal that could provide you with millions to expand your social media business.”

  Dot turned to him eagerly. “What is it?”

  “I want to purchase JJ Inc.”

  Her lips parted in surprise for a moment, then she glanced away and picked up her wine glass once more.

  “I endorse so many products now. Have you seen my app?”

  “Your app?” It was so off point he wondered if she had heard his offer.

  She snatched up her phone and began thumbing through it. She held out the phone to Gabriel and tapped a long red talon on an app that bore her cartoon image. “It’s a role-playing game.”

  “Dot, I just asked you about purchasing JJ Inc.”

  “I heard you. I’m thinking about it. I just wanted to share this with you. What do you think of it?”

  He struggled to focus. If he wanted Dot to listen to him, he had to at least try to take her seriously.

  “What’s the goal?” he asked, feigning interest.

  “The player’s goal is to increase their fame and reputation, starting from the E-list to the A-list by gaining fans. They do this by acting appearances, modeling, going to clubs, and popular events, dating the right people. You know, like me.”

  Gabriel felt as though his blood pressure had just spiked. He was very sorry he had asked about this game. How superficial was this woman, and what did it say about him that he had almost married her?

  “It made one point five million dollars five days after its release,” she declared proudly.

  Gabriel tugged at the collar of his shirt. It felt uncomfortably warm in here all of a sudden. How was it that Dot had been able to make that kind of money off of a stupid game, and he was struggling to find financing for business ventures that could change the world.

  “That’s nice.”

  “Plus, I’m working on a book.”

  “A book? You’re writing a book?”

  “No, silly. It’s a picture book. A collection of my Instagram photos. It will be a coffee table publication. And of course, there’s my reality TV show. The point is, Gabriel, that I’m a businesswoman. I know what I’m doing by putting Noah in charge. I have many oars in the water. I figure I’ll be a business mogul one day.”

  “But you don’t care about electronics.”

  She shrugged. “That doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m willing to offer you a substantial amount for JJ Inc.”

  Dot’s eyes widened, and slowly her lips tipped.

  “When you say a substantial amount…”

  “Way above market value.”

  “Now, you’re talking my language, Gabriel.”

  As Gabriel returned her smile, he struggled to ignore the knot in his stomach. He had just rashly made Dot an offer without doing a proper consideration of what JJ Inc. was worth. Unless he could somehow secure funding soon, JJ Inc. might end up going to someone else.

  Chapter 4

  “I t says here that Gabriel Walsh is going to give the keynote address on Innovation in the Energy Sector tonight.”

  Leiliana looked sharply across the table as the balding fat man with beady eyes spoke. He was holding the program in front of him.

  He chuckled a bit. “I wonder if he’s going to talk about how he and his father conspired for years to cheat the US government out of tens of millions of dollars in taxes. Not to mention their other shady business dealings. Maybe he’s going to talk about how to innovatively commit white-collar crime.”

  A few people joined him in derisive laughter.

  Leiliana felt anger spark in her. She felt compelled to rush to Gabriel’s defense even though she was very annoyed at him for allowing Dot Judd to drape herself all over him.

  She sat up straight in her seat and leveled her gaze at the man. “I, for one, am very eager to hear how he managed to turn around his life and forge a different kind of business.”

  There was silence at the table for a moment. Then the fat man responded with a sneer. “People like that always find a way to rise to the top like the scum they are.”

  She gasped. “That’s rather a harsh statement.”

  “Look, I’m American, okay. You’re not. I know firsthand about how these immigrants come to the US, claiming to want a better life. Instead, they cheat and scheme their way to the top, while law-abiding citizens have to scrape to get by.”

  Clearly, the man figured she was not American based on her British accent. He might be surprised to learn that she had dual citizenship through her mother, Barbara, a former movie star.

  “Immigrants built the United States of America, sir, in case you weren’t aware. You don’t look like a native American, which means your people must have been immigrants too.”

  “Well, my people weren’t thieves and liars, I’ll tell you that,” he shot back, glaring at her as she busied herself with her meal.

  Without looking up, she said, “I wouldn’t know.”

  There were a few snorts of laughter at her statement which seemed to enrage him.

  “Now, see here young lady—”

  “You should remember, though, that Barry Walsh did not build his empire alone. He apparently had many wealthy, powerful US citizens in cahoots with him. For all we know, some of them might even be here tonight. And some of them can probably trace their roots back to the Mayflower. For decades, prominent men and women turned a blind eye to his dealings because it profited them to do so. Until one day, it became too glaring and embarrassing to ignore his business dealings. At which point, his former business partners, so-called friends, and associates bailed. None had the courage to stand up and say, ‘I had a hand in this.’”

  She dabbed her mouth with her napkin and continued staunchly, “Except this Gabriel Walsh, who you seem to view with scorn. He came forward to plead guilty to a crime his father, to this day, denies. He paid the federal government tens of millions of dollars.�
�

  “And so he should, seeing that he was part of the operations with first-hand knowledge of the illegal activities!” the man burst out.

  “Be that as it may, he has paid for the wrongdoing of Barry Walsh and Company. There’s no need to try him again.”

  “He should have gone to prison. That’s where he should be right now. And if it weren’t for his family’s political connections, it’s where he would be.”

  “The legal system had a differing opinion. Everyone deserves a second chance. Isn’t America supposed to be about second chances?” She stared the man down and then met and briefly held the eyes of others around the table. “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

  The fat man was now red altogether. His chest puffed out, but he seemed to have nothing more to say. He looked away from her in disgust.

  A moment later, a voice rang out through the P.A. system. It drew her gaze to the front of the room. The MC was starting off the ceremony. He made a couple of jokes then invited the president of the awards committee to give the welcome remarks.

  Following the remarks, there was polite applause then the MC returned to the stage. He began to read a biography.

  “Our keynote speaker is a natural-born entrepreneur, engineer, and innovator. Before devoting himself to being a CEO, he worked as a senior commodities trader at Barry Walsh and Company. It was at JJ Inc., however, where he put his electrical engineering degree to practical purposes and really began to innovate. His work at JJ Inc. in the area of renewable energy delivery systems launched his reputation as an innovative genius in the sustainable energy business and won him a patent. Oh yeah. Did I mention, he also wrote a book on energy? This also makes him a natural-born nerd. When he needs to take a load off all this tiring work, he punches out blokes for fun. Please join with me in welcoming Gabriel Walsh to the stage.”

  As Gabriel approached the podium to applause, Leiliana couldn’t help devouring him with her eyes. She felt her heart rate increase just watching him. He moved like a panther, at ease, and in control.

  He rested both hands at the sides of the podium and smiled down at the crowd.

  “After an introduction like that, I’m not sure which side of that very schizophrenic self I should reveal to you tonight.”

  There was appreciative laughter.

  “Let me begin by saying how honored I am to have been invited here to share my insight on innovation.” He moved from the podium to the front of the stage, and she noticed he was wearing a lapel mic.

  “By a show of hands, tell me how many of you in this room believe that innovation is important to your growth strategy?”

  Hands went up. Leiliana’s was one. Gabriel looked around and nodded as he counted. “Okay, so I’d say about 90% of this room. What this tells me is that innovation is on the strategic agenda of most large organizations. This makes sense because it’s the leading cause of economic growth over the long term. Now, by a show of hands again, tell me how many of you are satisfied with your innovative performance.”

  He counted quickly. “That’s less than ten percent of you, I would say. This is consistent with the statistics. Did you know that research shows that 95% of all product innovations fail? Yes, and 92% of startups fail. So based on that little exercise, it’s safe to assume that practically everyone in this room recognizes that innovation is important. Still, very few of us are getting it right. Or feel as though we are getting it right.”

  Gabriel smiled as he slowly looked around the room. “Let me assure you that just because you’ve failed doesn’t mean you aren’t an innovator. We all agree that Thomas Edison was an innovator, right?”

  There were nods and “yeses” across the room.

  “Do you know that he failed frequently. He said, ‘the only thing that separates me from other people is that I stick with things a little longer.’ That being said, I’m going to share with you my five success factors for innovation.”

  Leiliana quickly glanced around her table. People were hanging on Gabriel’s every word, even the fat man, though he had his arms folded across his chest and wore a scowl.

  “One. A holistic approach is needed. What do I mean by that? I mean you have to think about everything. Your company culture, your systems, your processes, your people. Everything has to work as a cohesive whole to foster innovation. It can’t be isolated to just one area of the company or one category of people. It has to be cultural. When my brother and I took over Barry Walsh and company, we decided that something as simple as a name change would make a difference. It was signaling that there was something new happening. We would no longer be trading in commodities. Our focus would be sustainable energy projects. We assessed our people. Were they the right fit for this new-look company? Did they have the right skill set for what we wanted to achieve? It meant making some jobs redundant, creating new ones, retraining and retooling people. It also meant that we had to change our processes to allow more flexibility and creativity to flow.”

  Gabriel held up two fingers. “Number two. You need to research consumer needs and supply them. This means that customer engagement is going to have to be a big part of what you do. It’s obvious that increasingly governments and inventors are looking to technology to achieve more affordable and efficient sustainable development. Experts are dreaming up green energy projects that harness the world’s natural resources. When I was at JJ Inc., I did my research and found a way to harness wave technology by coming up with a particular product. Once I tested it, and it worked, I patented it. The product is now widely available.

  “Three, your business strategy and your innovation strategy must align. In other words, your policy regarding innovation must flow seamlessly into and inform your strategic business objectives.”

  As Leiliana listened to Gabriel, it suddenly dawned on her that he was not referring to notes. He was ad-libbing. She marveled at this. She was the type who had to prepare for a speech, days in advance, and then rehearse it a few times before she felt confident presenting it in public.

  “Four, you need to look at your entire portfolio balance instead of looking at innovation as an end itself. We’ve already established that most start-ups will fail. What you are looking for is the one that does so well it outshines the failures of others and balances your overall portfolio. This means that you need to invest in several innovative initiatives so that despite inevitably failing in most, you are still able to find the right few that will more than compensate.”

  Gabriel held up his palm. “Five. Wide collaboration. I can’t stress enough how crucial this is. Often, and I’m guilty of this, CEOs think that they have got all the smarts and ideas under their roof. If you want the best brains, you think, well, I need to hire them, right? Wrong. You need to develop relationships with a wide cross-section of people from the public sector, the NGOs, schools and universities, civil society, the church, everyone. The more collaboration you have, the more likely you will be faced with a whole set of ideas. I’m not saying you will use all of them. That would be mathematically impossible. It does increase the likelihood that you will hit on innovative ideas. So you need organizational structures that allow for collaboration among all groups internally and externally.”

  He held out his hands to the audience.

  “The takeaway here is that you’re not always going to get it right, and you shouldn’t expect to. There is really no way to know for certain how the market will respond to a particular service or product. What is essential, however, is that you give innovation the best chance of happening by creating a company culture and organizational structure that fosters, promotes, and facilitates innovation. Your work must be aligned with your innovation growth strategies, and your people, processes, and systems must support not hinder that work.”

  Gabriel returned to his seat with enthusiastic applause. A few people even stood as he passed them.

  “Arrogant bastard,” the fat man muttered. This time no one at the table agreed with him Leiliana noted wi
th satisfaction.

  Soon after, the awards were being distributed, and Leiliana went up at the appropriate time to present the Lamport Innovation Award.

  As she was returning to her seat, she passed Gabriel’s table. She caught his eye, and he winked at her. A giggle escaped her lips, and she covered her mouth with her hand. What was she doing? Surely not flirting with Gabriel Walsh. Leiliana sobered. It was very likely that after this night, she would never see Gabriel Walsh again. She told herself that was exactly what she wanted.

  ~*~*~*~

  Gabriel fixed his eyes on Leiliana as she returned to her seat. He noticed how she had giggled when he had winked at her, then quickly caught herself. Clearly, she was trying very hard not to give in to the excitement they both felt in each other’s presence. How disappointing. He wanted her to give in to it very much. He wondered what she would think if she knew, for example, that he had taken a photo of her giving out the award.

  In fact, he decided to share it with her.

  He picked up his phone and attached the photo to a message with the words, “You look really amazing in that red dress.”

  He tapped ‘send.’ Then looked up to gauge her reaction. He saw her pick up her phone, and her lips curve as she read the message.

  Then she began typing something on her phone.

  Soon his phone pinged.

  He picked it up.

  Leiliana: “You have great taste. I’ve got a job opening as a stylist if you’re interested.”

  He laughed out loud, then stopped and cleared his throat when Dot raised an eyebrow at him.

  Gabriel: “I just might be interested in that position. Let’s discuss it tonight.”

  She didn’t immediately respond. Gabriel could just imagine the debate raging in her head. She had basically dismissed him earlier, but he wasn’t giving up so easily. One thing he had learned in life was that persistence seldom failed.

  He glanced across the room at her. She had her head bowed over her phone. Then she raised her head and met his gaze. She bit her lip, then lowered her head again.