King's Guard

Chapter Six

"I think the meeting went quite well, they—"

"They're not going to invest," Lorenzo interrupted.

The two men just got done with their meeting that they had spent a long time preparing for. Whereas Kingsley thought the presentation went well, Lorenzo clearly didn't seem to believe so. They were walking out of the building, towards their own office which was just a few blocks away.

"What? Why do you think that?" Kingsley asked.

"They didn't ask us any questions in the end," Lorenzo stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kingsley furrowed his brows, looking confused. "If they were interested in our company then they would've had a million questions. But they weren't, so they didn't even bother with any queries."

"Oh." Kingsley finally understood, "well, maybe they—"

"I don't want to waste my time on hopeless optimism. I'd much rather spend that energy on finding alternatives," Lorenzo said.

"Right," Kingsley replied with a firm nod, "we still have four weeks. I'm going to make a list of potential investors by today."

"We?" Lorenzo asked, and Kingsley nodded again, "you don't have to work overtime for this anymore. It's my title on the line, nobody else's jobs will change."

"Yeah well, I don't want to call some old fart my boss. So I'm doing this for me, not you," Kingsley replied.

Lorenzo chuckled as he glanced to his side, towards Kingsley who was looking ahead as they walked. Kingsley noticed eyes on him, and turned to face Lorenzo. The younger man winked at his boss, a cheeky smile on his face, before turning his head to face ahead again.

Kingsley was telling Lorenzo about his best friend, Roan, who also worked at an investment firm. He didn't want to raise Lorenzo's hopes, but the least Roan could help them up with was set a meeting with his superiors, or tell them about other firms that were currently looking to invest in tech.

Kingsley didn't tell Lorenzo, but he had already spoken to Roan and prepared a list of firms. He wanted to prepare for the worst ever since Lorenzo told him he might have to step down as the CEO. He just needed his approval to send out emails and schedule meetings.

Kingsley couldn't remember the last time he was this passionate about something. He really didn't want Lorenzo to lose his post. He just couldn't let that happen.

The two finally parted ways once they reached their floor. Lorenzo went to his office, whereas Kingsley went to the break room to grab some much needed coffee.

"Hey man, how'd the meeting go?" Miles asked as he entered the room behind Kingsley.

"Fine, I guess, time will tell," Kingsley answered vaguely.

"Fair," Miles awkwardly cleared his throat as he stood next to the dark-haired man.

He seemed nervous, and Kingsley sighed as he turned to face him. The redhead wasn't even meeting his eyes, and it was very amusing how he was the exact opposite of Nina. Nina was fiery, confident and outspoken, and Miles was as shy as they came. But somehow, the two still managed to make a good pair.

"What is it?" Kingsley asked. It was clear that Miles wanted to talk about something.

"Uh, so there's this guy—"

"Are you coming out to me?"

"What? No," Miles turned red as his eyes widened, "I meant that I have this guy friend who's gay, and I think you both would—"

"Nope," Kingsley interrupted Miles again.

"But you didn't even—"

"I don't do dates, and I especially don't require anyone setting me up. So no." Kingsley stated.