Flip Side of Love

Chapter 16

"Good morning Amelia, how are you today?" Christopher greeted his secretary, a smile on his face.

"I'm good thank you..." Looking up she prepared to tell whoever had made the journey up that her boss was not in yet. "Mr. Steelborn!?" Amelia exclaimed, not at all expecting such a cheery greeting from her boss. "How are you?" She asked skeptical of his happy mood.

"I'm good, what's my day like?"

Amelia shook her head to get rid of her astonishment, before reciting a simplified version of Christopher's schedule for the day. She continued to stare after him as he disappeared into his office, even going as far as staring at the door for a good ten seconds after he had shut it. Shaking her head once, she decided to get back to work instead of shooting Christopher's good mood in the foot by asking if he was okay.

Christopher completed his morning, with little incident. Visiting the different departments, for their reviews. Everyone he met was pleasantly surprised by the happy mood he was in, fully relaxing when he started joking with them. By the time Christopher was knocking on Austin's office, he had received all the backlog paperwork from all the departments.

"Hey."

"Christopher! What are you doing here?"

"I work here." Christopher replied, confused by the question.

"It's just that... never mind. Did you need something?"

"We've got a meeting."

"No we don't."

"It's a lunch meeting, I scheduled it with Sterling Co. I checked your schedule, so I wouldn't clash with anything. If you update your calendar, it should show up."

"Oh yeah, there it is. Okay, I guess, let's go." Austin said, getting up from his desk. "What's the meeting about?"

"They have a new product and they want to pitch to us. Don't worry, I'm not throwing you under the bus or anything." Christopher teased.

"You good?" Austin asked, once they had entered the elevator.

"Yeah."

---

"Well, what do you think?" Christopher asked, once he had ushered the Sterling Co. representatives out the door.

"Interesting," Austin replied.

"That's one word for it," Nicky chimed in. "Were they just hired yesterday?"

"I'm pretty sure they had no idea what they were talking about."

"All three of them gave us a presentation on completely different things and then called it one product at the end." Austin huffed.

"They were very green weren't they." Nicky continued. "Almost as though they were fresh out of the academy.

"Either they sent incompetent people, or the product is useless." Christopher said, as he sat back down in his chair.

"You know what we needed?" Austin asked.

"What?" Christopher wondered, taking a bite out of the food he had left over.

"Our no-nonsense firecracker." Austin sighed.

"You remember that one meeting, when she told a client she had no time for their nonsense?" Christopher laughed.

"That sobered them up real quick. Every time she came to a meeting it was like we were recording an episode of celebrity apprentice. It took all her willpower not to shout, 'you're fired!'" Austin added, causing the boys to fall into uncontrollable laughter. When the laughter died down they both looked at each other and smiled, whilst shaking their heads, before returning their focus back to their food. Together they ate in silence, as they reminisced about the past, and the joys left behind.

...

"You should see the projections we have for this product. Our finance team sees us making thousands if not millions."

"Do you have a copy of these projections?"

"Not on me, but take my word for it."

"Maybe you can call someone in finance and have them email their calculations over."

"That's not necessary. I'm telling you, we're on the brink of something revolutionary here."

"I'm sorry but I don't have time for your nonsense, so I'm just gonna go."