Fool's Gold - Maxwell Lord, WW84

5 - Business Partners

The next day Audrey still couldn't believe she had gone out for a business dinner with Maxwell Lord, Maxwell Lord of all people! And part of her was still surprised by how good a time she had had.

Because of her judgements of his commercials, she had been quick to judge the man as well, but now she saw she had been completely wrong about him. Sure, maybe he had a big ego and lots of money, but that didn't stop him from being a kind, caring and  generous person, as she had seen displayed last night. She was looking forward to their partnership.

"Wow he's so generous!" cried Barbara the next morning when Audrey told her about Maxwell Lord's donation, echoing Audrey's thoughts. 

"Yes, yes he is."

She and Barbara were still working through their catalogue of new items, identifying and logging everything. The strange citrine stone was still stumping them.

"Hmm, I wonder what someone on the black market would have bought this for, thinking it was all ancient and exciting," Audrey remarked. "Good thing we've got experts like you."

"Oh, thanks, well, just doing my job. By you're right - I'm not sure what someone would have paid for this, I can't even imagine. What do you say we keep going with the other items and come back to this later?"

"Good plan." Their thoughts were that - hopefully - maybe in identifying one of the other items in the collection would give them a better idea of the stone.

Barbara packaged the stone back in its box and set it aside. "Okay-" She picked up her list.  "What's next..." They had already completed much of the collection, and they still had a ton to go through.

"Ah, I was told I would find you here."

Both ladies' heads snapped up at the sudden voice - only to see Maxwell Lord standing there in their workplace again wearing that wide grin of his.  

"Oh, hello again," greeted Barbara with a warm smile.

"How did you get back here?" Audrey asked him.  "Slip past security?"

"I asked for you and they sent me back here."

"We just can't get rid of you," she joked.

He feigned offense. "And especially not now that we're officially partners."

"Well, not quite officially - you still have some paperwork to sign."

"Well, officially in my eyes." He winked. 

"Thank you so much, Mr. Lord, by the way!" Barbara cried. "Audrey told me about your donation - that's amazing! I'm so glad you're here so that we can thank you in person!"

"Oh, hello again." The three turned to see Diana entering the lab and coming over to them. 

"Diana guess what?! So, uh, headline: Mr. Lord took a tour of the entire Smithsonian while considering partnership and guess what he decided to do? Give his entire donation to our department! He's announcing it at the Members Gala next week!"

Diana's eyes widened in surprise. 

"It sounds like it's going to be an amazing party - I hope you have something nice to wear." Maxwell was speaking to all the ladies, but looked at Audrey when he said this.

"Nothing at all," she joked.  Now come to think of it, she would actually have to look into that - there hadn't been a gala in a while, or a fancier event of any kind, and she wasn't sure what she  was going to wear. She had better make sure of that, so she wasn't rushing come the gala.